In a Perfect World by Kate Carlson (whitelam books TXT) 📖

"Em!!! Get up we're gonna be late for school!" I heard a voice close to my ear say. "God dammit do I need to throw water on you again?"
I roll over and off the bed standing up right. "Nope!" I say to my best friend Nathan Raine. "Nate, you would never do that to me after what I did back to you would you?"
"Of course I would you dork."
"Whatever! I gotta get ready!"
I quickly grab a towel and head to the bathroom to take a shower. After I get out, I wrap my towel around myself and hurriedly blow dry my hair. I run into my room almost running into Nathan when heading toward my closet.
"Watch out girl!" Nate joked.
"Oh shove it Nate." I retorted.
I quickly grab underwear, a navy blue knee-length dress and head back to the bathroom to change and apply a small amount of makeup.
"Good lord Emily, we're not going to a movie premiere! Get your ass out here NOW!"
"Shut up Nate!" I say as I rush through my room to grab my white ballet flat shoes and book bag. "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go!"
We run down the stairs and out my front door to Nate's car. As we drove off, I snuck a look at Nate and sucked in a breath. He looked gorgeous with bright green eyes, light brown hair that was kept short, but not too short and neat, and a lean, muscled, hot body that had every girl at school drooling over him. Compared to me, he looked like a god. I was just your average girl, skinny but not too skinny, straight brown hair, brown eyes and no tan. I looked so plain when standing next to my best friend.
I shook my head and turned look out the window. I can't be having feelings for my best friend now! It's not right.
"Emmers, you alright?" I hear Nate ask me.
"Yeah Nate, I'm fine." I say as I turn to smile at him. He smiles back as he reaches over and gives my knee a squeeze giving me a slight heart attack.
"Good, because for a second I thought I'd lost you into space!"
"Haha, you're so funny." I reply sticking my tongue out at him.
We pull into the school parking lot and get out of the car. I grab my shoulder bag from the car floor and head for the school entrance. As usual, I hear a few girls flirting with Nathan, but I don't hear him flirt back. As I'm about to turn around, I feel arms around my waist and a whisper in my ear.
"Keep walking Em. I need a clean getaway!" Nate pleads.
"As you wish kind sir." I reply sarcastically as my heart starts racing. We walk like that for a few minutes until we reach my classroom. I turn around in his arms and look into his eyes. "I have to go to class now Nathan." I whisper as I give him a hug. He returns my hug and I feel him kiss the top of my head.
"See you later, boo." Nate withdraws his arms from around me and I suddenly feel cold. I take a deep breath and walk into class and sit down. Today is going to be one long day

, I think.
After school, I walk out to the football field where Nathan is having football practice. I make my way to the bleachers and sit down to do homework and wait for practice to get over. Nate is my ride everywhere I go, so I always wait for him at his practice and do homework. But instead of doing homework, I look up and can't help but watch Nate doing his warm-ups and start a game of scrimmage. His muscles flexing and rippling gave me the shivers even though it was a very warm day. He caught me watching and threw me his perfect smile. I waved and smiled back at him as I got out my homework to work on.
A half an hour later, I looked up to see Nate jogging towards me with his duffel bag of football gear on his shoulder.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
"Yup! I am. Let's go!" I said as I grabbed my homework and bookbag and hopped down the bleachers. We walked to his car in silence which made me feel like I had to fill it.
"So... How was football practice?"
"Oh you know, the usual... just training to become stronger and faster."
"Oooohhhh "stronger" and "faster" huh?" I say poking him in the arm.
"Don't even test me Em."
"Test you? Who me? Ha!" I say as I poke him again. I laugh but stop as I see the look on his face. "Oh shit..." I start running toward the car as fast as I can but strong arms catch me, pick me up and pin me to the ground.
"You feel so brave now?" Nate says as he straddles me holding me in place with his knees so I couldn't escape.
"Yep. I do. You don't scare me, you can't I've known you for too long."
"Uh huh..." He leans in closer to me and my breathing speeds up. We're almost touching noses and then starts tickling my sides making me laugh until I can't breathe.
"Okay okay!!! UNCLE! I give up! You are pretty damn strong for being able to keep in place while you tickle me! Nobody can!"
"See? How hard was it to admit that?"
"Shut up and help me up Nathan Raine."
"Whatever you say Emily Rose." Nate said as he helped me up and walked away. I picked up my bookbag from where I dropped it and followed him toward the car. As I caught up to him he swung his arm around my shoulder and planted a kiss ontop of my head.
"You know I love you right?" He asked.
"Yes I do. I love you too." I said back.
We got into the car and headed back to the house that I shared with my brother Shawn. Nate stopped the car in front of the house, and I got out.
"You gonna come in?" I asked him.
"Nah. I gotta get home for a little bit. I'll text you later okay Em?"
"Okay!" I said feeling a little sad that he couldn't.
I opened the door and was accosted by my miniature pinscher Scooter. I gave him a treat and headed up to my room. I dropped my bag on the floor and flopped on my bed. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. I couldn't be having these feelings toward my best friend. I couldn't jeopardize our friendship, it meant so much to me. I heard the front door slam and Shawn yell my name.
"I'm upstairs!" I yelled back. I heard him stomp up the stairs and open my door to my room.
"Hey Em. What's wrong?" he asked after seeing my glum face.
"It's nothing." I said back. He raised his eyebrows at me and his expression said otherwise. "Okay... maybe it's not nothing. But I'm not sure I want to talk about it right now."
"Okay, whenever you're ready I'm here for you lil sister." he said as he ruffled my hair. I smiled at him and nodded my thanks as he walked out of my room. I rolled back over and buried my face in my pillow and groaned. It was getting out of hand and I had to do something about this but I didn't know what.
A couple hours later I woke up to a text from Nate saying he'd be over in ten minutes. I looked at the clock, it said 8:30pm. I replied back saying okay and got out of my bed to look in my my mirror. I looked like I had been asleep for hours;which I had been. I quickly changed into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and pulled my hair back into a ponytail. I ran down the stairs just in time to reach the door as Nate walked up the drive. I opened the door for him as he walked in and gave me a hug. I looked up at him and he looked a little unhappy.
"Nate, what's wrong? You look unhappy." I asked walking in front of him to stop his advance. I stopped and planted my hands on my hips staring up at him.
"It's nothing Em..." He said giving a small smile.
"I know you well enough to know it's not nothing Nathan Raine. Something is bothering you and I'm not gonna leave you alone until you tell me what's wrong!" I argued.
"It's nothing really. It's just all the fighting that's going on at home between my parents. I can't stand it anymore. It's getting too much to handle."
"I'm sorry Nate. That's no fun. I hope everything gets better..." I say. "Why do you have your duffel bag with you?"
"I can't stay at home right now, I was hoping I could crash here for the night."
"Of course you can!" I say as I walk into the kitchen. "Do you want anything? You hungry or thirsty?"
"Okay thanks. No, I'm fine. I'm just tired."
"Okay, how bout we watch a movie? I'm pretty much ready for bed anyways."
"That sounds like a very good idea, thanks for letting me crash here Em." He says giving me a hug. I returned his hug and we went up stairs to my room. I got out our favorite movie we liked to watch together and put it in. We both sat on my bed and began to watch the beginning credits.

The next morning, I woke up with my head on Nate's bare chest and one of my legs tangled with his. I felt my face getting hot and I didn't know what to do. We have slept in the same bed before, but that was before I had this huge crush on him. I slowly extricated myself from his loose embrace and was just rolling over to get out of bed when I felt his arms grab me and pull me back to his chest. I turned my head and my eyes met his.

He smiled at me and I smiled back."Morning beautiful" he said.

"Good morning Nate. Are you gonna let me go? I gotta pee." I replied.

"Nope.""Ugh. What am I going to DO with you!" I teased back. He just smiled and poked me in my side making me laugh. "Shit Nate! You're gonna make me wet the bed!"

I jumped out of bed, grabbed a pair of clothes and head to the bathroom to change. I put up my hair and added a little bit of makeup and walked out the bathroom to see Nathan stark naked.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry Nate!" I say as he turns around and sees me staring.

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