Nat woke to the steady sound of a person typing. He slowly opening his eyes trying to remember where he was. Then it dawned on him. He was at his new apartment and the person typing was Keira. He assumed Derek was sleeping.

Sitting up slowly, he looked over to the time the microwave projected. Eight fifteen. He stretched his limbs lazily like a cat, letting out a huge yawn.

“Oh, Nat, you’re awake.” Keira commented without taking her eyes away from the screen.

“Yeah, I’m up.”

“There’s some leftover pizza on the stove that I ate about a half hour ago. You can have some if you want. And if you want to go back to sleep you can sleep in your room.”

“Yeah, I just was watching TV and got tired so I decided to sleep right here.”

More like you just passed out right there.

Shut up.

Nat decided to take Keira up on her offer. But first he had to attend to his headache. He went into his room and pulled out his Extra Strength Tylenol he always carried around. Easily swallowing two, he went back into the kitchen to have some pepperoni and mushroom pizza.

“So, Nat, tell me about yourself.” Keira asked Nat about thirty minutes later when the typing stopped and now that she was seated beside him on the couch. Nat tore his gaze away from the television, shoving another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me. I just figured that since we’re gonna be roommates that we should get to know each other and be friends.”

Nat nodded and switched off the TV. “Well I was born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I have an older sister, Holly; she goes to college in Pennsylvania. My mom was basically a stay-at-home mom and my dad is a family doctor.” Keira noticed the somewhat hostile tone at the end of his sentence.

“What about you?”

“Well,” she began hesitantly, “My dad’s a minister and my mom is a nurse. But I started living with my Aunt Sheryl when I was seventeen until I received a full scholarship to UCLA. Then I moved out here and here I am today.”

“Why did you move out of your parents’ house?”

“They kinda…well…they kicked me out.” She stared down at her shoes.

“What?! Why?” A shocked Nat asked.

“They didn’t exactly approve of my pregnancy.”

“Oh,” he responded, deciding not to continue with that topic.

“So what brings you out here?”

“I decided college life wasn’t for me and on a spur of the moment decision I decided on a road trip.” Yeah, a very long road trip.

“Oh, what do you plan to do now that you’re here?”

He shrugged. “I suppose I’ll get a job and start contributing to the rent. I don’t really have much plans for my future. I just take it one day at a time.” Nat could tell she objected to this lifestyle, but he pegged her for the kind of girl who needed to be organized about everything. He did notice that everything in the cupboards were alphabetized, after all.

“You don’t have any structure, do you?”

“Not really.”

“How do you deal with that?”

He shrugged again. “I just do.”

“Oh. I need structure in my life.”

“So you’ve never done anything spontaneous?”

“Not really.”

Nat nodded and thought for a moment. He looked around the room for some sort of inspiration. Then he looked down at his bowl of popcorn. Sure it was not anything big, but it was spontaneous and he was sure they would both have fun. He smiled deviously.

“What’s with the evil smile?” Keira asked, a smile tugging at her own lips.

He shook his head simply and as quickly as he could he dumped the entire popcorn bowl on top of her head. Not being able to contain his laughter anymore, he burst out and found himself soon out of breath.

“That’s not funny, Nat! Look at this mess! Now I’m gonna have to vacuum it all up and everything.” She let out a frustrated groan.

“Lighten up, Keira,” he said in between laughs.

“Stop laughing! It’s not funny!” She shouted, although she could feel her anger fading away. What they said about laughter was true. It was infectious. Soon she felt herself chuckling quietly and then the dam had broken loose and she was laughing just as uncontrollably as Nat was.

“You are so immature,” Keira told Nat after they had regained their composure about ten minutes later.

He grinned. “Thanks. You aren’t as mature as you seem, either.”

She shrugged. “With Derek around, I don’t have much time to be immature. Or to even laugh much. Actually, now that I think about it, that was probably the first time I have laughed in a long while.”

“Yeah, me too.” Nat agreed. He looked up at Keira to find her face pensive. He was sure his own mirrored hers.

“Well I should clean this up,” she started to get up when Nat grabbed her arm. Once she stopped, he immediately let go.

“Don’t worry about it. Just go to bed because you look tired. I’ll clean up.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. Now get to bed. I’m sure you have to work and go to school tomorrow.”

“Yeah, unfortunately I do. Well, good night, Nat.”

“Night.”

She got up and walked away from him. “Nat?”

He turned to look at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks.” She said simply and turned the corner, the sound of a shutting door following.

“You’re welcome.” He said under his breath.

Inside her room, Keira commenced to change into her nightwear. She looked over to Derek sleeping in his own bed. He looked so angelic. She brought her hand to graze his cheek, lovingly.

“Sweet dreams, sweetie,” she whispered, kissing his cheek.

Then her thoughts turned back to Nat. Her instincts were telling her that Nat was a good person and a nice guy. He already had one thing in his favor. He could make her laugh. And no one other than Derek could really make her laugh. And not even Derek could make her laugh like that.

Also, Keira’s instincts were never wrong. But there was one more thing that her instincts were telling her. And that was that Nat was hiding something from her.

~*~

Author’s Note: Wow! I actually updated! I am so sorry for the long wait (3 months exactly) and it is not even that long. I have had extreme block ever since I finished Daughter of Isis and recently I haven’t been online. And now I started working, so my time is less. So I am glad to finally get this out, although I am pretty sure I have lost a few readers if not all of you. For those of you who are sticking with this story, I thank you. Your reviews mean a lot to me. Thank you so much. ~Ashlita