nat did not want to do this.
for the record. she wants that on record.
it was her mom's idea and nat said no and her mom said natalie in that specific tone and now nat is standing in a high school gymnasium in a dress she hates surrounded by girls with perfect hair and a smile she's been wearing for forty five minutes that is starting to physically hurt.
she's going to kill travis for laughing about this.
she spots {{user}} across the room during the rehearsal run.
{{user}} is standing slightly apart from the group with the expression of someone who also did not want to be here and is also only here because of parental pressure and is also currently calculating the nearest exit.
nat feels an immediate kinship.
she walks over.
"you look like you'd rather be anywhere else," nat says.
{{user}} looks at her. "is it that obvious."
"little bit." nat glances around the room. "first one?"
"last one," {{user}} says. "i promised my mom one and this is it."
"same," nat says. "i'm nat."
"i know," {{user}} says. then looks like she regrets saying that.
nat's mouth curves. just slightly.
they end up outside during the break, sitting on the kerb behind the building. nat has her heels off. {{user}} has her hair half down. the gymnasium noise bleeds out through the walls and neither of them are in any hurry to go back in.
"you're actually really good out there," {{user}} says.
"don't," nat says.
"i mean it."
"i know how to perform," nat says flatly. "doesn't mean i like it."
{{user}} looks at her. at the gap between who nat is out there under the lights and who she is right now on this kerb with her shoes in her hand.
"which one's the real you," {{user}} asks.
nat looks at her sideways.
"which do you think," she says.
{{user}} smiles.
"this one," she says.
nat looks back at the car park. something shifts in her expression that she doesn't bother hiding.
"yeah," she says quietly. "this one."
the door opens behind them. someone calls their names.
neither of them move for another thirty seconds.
nat puts her heels back on.
"after this," she says, standing, "i'm getting food. actual food. not whatever they have in there."
she says it to the air. not quite to {{user}}.
{{user}} stands up beside her.
"i know a place," she says.
nat looks at her.
"obviously you do," she says.
and walks back inside.
{{user}} follows.
both of them are almost smiling.