Free Blurred Truth (The Blurred Series Book 2) by Elle Ellerton Page A

today, it ends.
    My last plan didn’t go that great, since it ended with this little debacle, but my new plan will go better. It has to.
     
    I head over to Natalie’s bedroom door and knock, tentatively. I know she’s in there. She’s probably trying to find a hiding place. There are none; I checked.
    “Nat, can I come in, please? I know you’re in there and I know you’ve been avoiding me… Please ,” I plead, unable to hide how much this is affecting me. My tone isn’t mad; just...sad.
    When she still doesn’t answer, I try again.
    “Natty, come on. Whatever I did, I’m sorry, okay?” I’ll apologize for anything, she just needs to put an end to this...this...not knowing.
    “Come in,” she finally responds with the smallest voice.
    When I enter, she’s moving to sit up on the bed, and she promptly focusses on her lap, fiddling with something that isn’t there; concentrating on anything but my presence.
    “Hey, can I sit?” I ask as I reach the side of the bed.
    She nods, and I promptly take a seat next to her on the mattress.
    “So, is it because I made fun of the books you read?” I ask regretfully, leaning back slightly and supporting myself with both hands.
    She briefly glances at me before saying, “No. I d-don’t know why you think I’ve been avoiding you. I...I’ve just been real busy with work and writing and...stuff.”
    The look on her face tells me she knows just how lame that excuse was.
    “Natty, you’re a horrible liar, and that’s a good thing. What’s not a good thing is you avoiding me and not giving me a chance to make right whatever it is I’ve done wrong. I can’t make it up to you if you don’t tell me the truth.”
    She’s silent for a solid minute, looking like she’s going over everything in her mind. Then she says, “Look, Ryan… Yes, I have been avoiding you, but I’m done now. I can’t tell you my reasons, but I can tell you that it was nothing you did, okay? You don’t need to feel bad or fix anything. This was all in my messed-up head and I’m sorry.”
    She looks contrite and ashamed. The remorseful expression causes a surge of guilt to well-up inside me. Guilt for what? I don’t really know. I just don’t want her to look that way anymore, so I brush my hand up and down her back, in reassurance. Telling her with my touch that I don’t care why she did it, and only that we’re okay from now on.
    “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Natty. Just promise me if I ever do something that makes you want to avoid me, you’ll let me know so I can fix it.”
    “Okay, I promise. And I’m sorry for being weird the past two weeks,” she says with a nervous smile.
    When my hand settles on the small of her back, I feel the heat of her skin seeping into my own, and it causes the blood in my veins to pump a little faster. My breathing to become a little shallower. I need to move before things escalate.
    I stand and briskly move to the doorway, giving her a grin when I turn back and say, “Well, I guess since it wasn’t my fault, that means I don’t have anything to make up for, which means I can just go ahead and unpack the picnic I made. Good talk, Nat.”
    And there, the plan is set in motion.
    She follows me down the hallway and out into the living room, before saying, “You made a picnic? For me?”
    She sounds so surprised, it almost hurts.
    “Yeah. Well, I put a picnic together. Technically, Calli made the contents,” I explain with a wink.
    I’m still not sure if those work on her or not.
    I begin unpacking the backpack on the counter, prompting Natty to interrupt.
    “Wait! Why can’t we still go on the picnic? I don’t have to work today or anything.”
    “Well, now that I don’t have anything to make up for, I figured I’d just put all this stuff in the fridge and go do something that would actually be fun,” I deadpan.
    It was meant to be a joke, but I think there might have been yet another malfunction