Chapter 3: Chapter 3

"I brought you some coffee." I say to Tess as I take off my jacket and hand her the coffee cup and a muffin.

She sits up slowly and I put more pillows behind her back.

"Thanks." she says quietly.

"Are you feeling better?" I ask and she gives me a smile as she nods, even though she flinches as she raises up her chin to drink the coffee.

The fact that Lucas did this to Tess tears at me. All I've ever wanted was for them to understand each other...atleast for me.

Tess would rather die than give Lucas a chance. And Lucas? Well, let's just say the only chance he'd give Tess is in bed with him.

"I shouldnt have let him do that to you." I say as I hand her an aspirin and she holds my hand.

"Lu, stop saying that. You were just as helpless. I'm just glad you finally stood up to him and even better, you broke up with him." she says in an excited tone and I turn to her to see the happiness dance in her eyes.

If breaking up with Lucas was good, then why am I not as happy as she is?

"At least you're getting better." I say to Tess, avoiding the topic about the break up and I peck her on the cheek.

I can feel her eyes on me as I get to my bed.

"You did the right thing Lu." she says and I nod. Not trusting myself to speak.

I did do the right thing, didn't I?

"And I know that--" Tess stops when my phone starts ringing.

I turn it over.

Lucas.

It's the first call since I broke up with him last night. I stare at the phone like in a trance.

I thought he'd never call, and now.....

Now I want to pick.

I turn and Tess has her eyes on me.

"He doesn't deserve you." she says and I nod, using all the strength I can to send it to voicemail and wondering if he would call again.

I bury my face in my hands now, thinking.

What if he is hurt?

What if he misses me?

What if he is unhappy?

Worse... What if he needs help?

"I think you should go out and take a breather." Tess says and I nod. She was right.

Staying in here wouldn't exactly do me any good.

I don't hesitate in taking a shower and change into a sleeveless denim play suit and a pair of sneakers.

"Oh, and Lu?" Tess calls just as I have my hand on the door knob.

I turn to her.

"Be strong." she says, begging me more with her eyes than her words and I nod and leave.

***

I head straight for the restaurants, deciding to do my Saturday routine a bit earlier than usual.

Following the back door of the first restaurant, I walk into the kitchen.

My visits there have made me a reputation and I get a number of greetings.

"Hey! It's Lunar." Chef Pablo greets me and I smile at him.

"You're early today. Any date tonight?" he teases and I shake my head.

"I just have a lot to do. Is it ready?" I ask and he nods.

"Meet Jackson over there. He'll give it to you." he says and points to a guy at the far end.

I was going to ask what happened to the other guy, Jefferson, but I had problems of my own. I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket and I kept trying to pretend it was malfunctioning.

"Hey. Pablo said you've got--" I begin to say to the new guy but stop when I see Nathan.

He seems shocked to see me to. I watch as he slides a foil covered pan into the oven and washes his hands.

He was a cook.

A waiter I could have imagined but a cook? Nathan?

"Yeah, hold on." he says and reaches under a table as he brings out a huge takeaway plastic.

"Here you go." he says and hands it to me. I take it and stare at him just as he is doing to me.

"I didn't know you work here." I say and he shrugs.

"Yeah, well it's a great way to use extra time for extra money." he says and steps a bit closer.

"I heard about...you and Lucas. Are you okay?" he asks slowly, although his eyes don't seem as sad as his words but I nod anyways.

"I'm fine." I say, not wanting to talk about it. I had come outside to distract myself from the buzzing phone in my pocket and talking about it won't help.

Nathan must have read my mind because he takes the bag from my hand and says,

"Let me give you a hand." and we head out of the restaurant.

"Pablo told me about a girl that comes over every Saturday evening to use our excess food for charity runs. I had no idea it was you." he says once we're outside and I attempt a smile.

"Just trying to help out the best I can." I say and Nathan smiles now.

It's funny because I don't think I've ever seen him smile around me.

And now he is smiling at me.

"What you're doing is a really beautiful thing Lunar." he says and it warms me on the inside.

I can't remember the last time I got such a compliment from a guy.

"Thank you." I say with a much sincere smile

We stand in silence now and I stare at my feet, not knowing what else to do. Whenever I spoke with Lucas, I never had the guts to look at his intimidating gaze.

And now I don't even know how to face a normal guy and have a normal conversation.

"Did he hit you?" Nathan asks and I look up in shock at him.

"Who?" I ask even though I know who he is talking about.

"Lucas. Last night, did he hit you?" he asks again, looking directly at me with concern and my mind is flooded with memories of last night, of Tess crashing into the shelf and how he dragged me across my room by my hair.

"No." I lie but my voice betrays me as it comes out in a frightful whimper.

I look up at Nathan who has a worried gaze as he observes me.

"There was just a struggle, but..." my voice breaks now and I have to blink back the tears to prevent myself from crying in front of Nathan.

"I should get going." I say now as I turn to leave.

Before I get to the parking lot, Nathan jogs up to my side.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. It wasn't my place." he says and I want to ask him why he was apologizing.

It didn't matter, I had been thinking about it all morning.

What was it about Lucas that had me twisted up in a nut?

"It's fine, I have to start going anyway." I say and Nathan goes shoving his hand into his pockets in search of something.

"Why don't I give you a ride?"

"No, I--"

"Please." he says and holds eye contact.

"I can't let you go about looking like this, it's the least I could do."

"What, do I look like shit?" I retort, glaring at him now with unexpected anger.

"I didn't say that." he says, taken aback.

"You didn't say it out loud." I reply and Nathan pockets his keys back now, staring at me with disbelief but I don't stop talking.

"Why are you suddenly nice to me Nathan?" I demand.

"We've been attending the same class for over a semester now and you only meet me when you have questions about Lucas. Apart from that you don't even glance my way." I say, letting words rain out of a hidden aggression that I've locked for God knows how long.

"Your Lucas's friend, you saw the way he treated me and you never spoke up. Ever. Suddenly the relationship is over and you want to be the first on the line offering me a napkin! Could you be any more pretentious?"

"Pretentious? It was never in my place to speak up. It was non of my business. It's your relationship. You're the one that chose to be with him. I owed a duty to only one person and that was to Lucas, to be his friend. That's the role I played." he says,  frowning and pointing to himself for emphasis at the last statement.

"So why is it suddenly your place to speak up now? Acting like someone you're not is being pretentious! If you're such good friends with him you shouldn't be on my side! You should be with him now drinking and hitting on girls and letting me find their underwear in his apartment! You should follow him to hit me and drag me across my room with my hair and hit my friend! You should encourage him to cheat on me and lie and yet convince me to forgive him!" I yell now, my vision as blurry as an oil painting because of the tears threatening to spill.

"Don't stand here with me and offer me a ride and apologize like you've known me your whole life! Go and be with Lucas!"

Nathan folds his hands now as he observes me.

"You have a lot of pent up aggression and it's fine if you want to release it on me. You need someone to blame for what you went through. I understand. But that's not me. Lunar, I just want to help you. That's all." he says calmly and I wipe my eyes,  observing him.

"I don't want your help." I say in between sobs.

"No, you need it. You can't walk around in such a state. You could breakdown somewhere. Come on."  he says and reaches for my elbow.

I let him lead me to his car as he unlocks it.

"I'll just take you to the place and back to your dorm, then I'll be out of your hair. Okay?" he says reassuringly as he holds the door open for me.

With uncertainty, I slip into the passenger seat, keeping my gaze fixed on my palms as Nathan goes around and gets in.

My phone buzzes again and I bring it out of my pocket now to look at the screen.

Lucas.

I sigh.

Of course. Who else.

I watch the phone ring and then display over 8 missed calls from Lucas.

Nathan is in the car now and he turns to me.

"Did you know the soil in Mars is red?" he asks as he starts the car and I look up at him.

"Everybody knows that." I say and he shrugs.

"Sure, but not everyone knows about about the sunsets."

"The sunsets?"

"Yeah. They're blue."

***

NATHAN'S P. O. V

It's late afternoon by the time Lunar is done with her charity runs and I pull in front of her dorm by evening.

I watch her gaze finally move from where it was fixated on her palms to look up at the building.

"We're here." she says, as if just realising it.

I nod and turn off the engine as I watch her gather her things.

"Well, thanks for the ride." she says and I nod.

"No problem."

Lunar looks up at me now.

"And I'm sorry for... " she begins but doesn't finish her sentence as her eyes seems to shift to something over my shoulder.

I watch a wave of sadness envelope her face and she immediately opens the door and runs towards her dorm.

Confused, I turn as well.

Lucas is standing there, arms folded and a wicked scowl on his face.

"Feel good? Proud of yourself?" he says to me, anger dripping from his words.

"What are you talking about?" I ask and step out of the car.

"Oh, to hell with all that innocent crap Nate. Don't play dumb with me. I know what you're up to."

I lean against the car and watch him continuously swipe furiously at his nose.

He was on some heavy drugs, that's for sure.

"You sound insanely paranoid."

" I am NOT--" Lucas yells but immediately drops the pitch of his voice at the numerous stares he is getting.

"I am not insane. Don't give me that bull. Lunar is my girl and you stay the fuck away from her." he says as he marches up to my face, probably daring me to challenge him.

"Whatever. I just gave her a free ride Lucas. Calm the fuck down."

"I'm not going to fucking calm down, I know you. We had a deal. So you do your thing and I'll do mine. This isn't the first time she's broken up with me and it certainly won't be the last. I'm going to climb up those stairs to her room and repeat the same line and she'll forgive me as always."

He steps even closer to me now, with a wicked, naughty look.

"And I'll still be the one she fucks,... All night long." Lucas says with a smirk and rage engulfes me.

In a swift move I grab him by the shirt.

"Listen to me, you little bastard!"

"Go ahead Nate. Hit me. Come on.  Hit me! Give me a better reason to go crying at Lunar's door, begging her that I need her. Give her a reason to hate you." he says and I clench my jaw, resisting the urge to smash his head into my windscreen.

How dare he?

How dare he talk about her like that?

Use her like that?

Manipulate her like that?

All she does for him is give and give and he....

He just keeps taking and using her like he's sucking the life out of her.

And I was helpless.

It wasn't my place or my jurisdiction.

He was right.

We had a deal.

"Hit me!" Lucas demands and I let him go.

"I'm not stooping to your mediocrity. And I don't want anything to do with Lunar." I say and get into my car and drive off.

I can hear Lucas shouting behind me.

"Pussy! Wimp! Go ahead and scram!"

From the rearview mirror, I see him turn and head into Lunar's dorm.

And it's all I can do not to rip the rearview mirror out of its stand and toss it out my window.