Blooming Heart

By K.A. North

"Seventeen year old Natalie Garza thought she never had to stress over the hurdles of a typical adolescent life. She believed focusing on school and friendships was everything she needed to help her stay on the right path. Until Andrew, the boy next door, who since the age of six had been one of her closest friends, changed it all. With some persuasion, she reluctantly succumbs to the forces of nature, and ends up on a detour that not only changes their friendship, but sends her on a new path.
When their venture to be more than friends fails, a new friendship forms between Natalie and Andrews older brother, Jacob, a nineteen year old college bound young man whos carried a weight on his shoulders since the death of their father. As a bond between Natalie and Jacob grows, she is torn between the remains of her friendship with Andrew and the promise of a lasting relationship with Jacob. Somehow Natalie learns to find some kind of balance, despite the minor complexity she faces when she follows her heart. "

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453523278

Book preview

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 1

Natalie lay across her bed, intensely gazing up at the ceiling studying the slight imperfections left behind since the last time it was painted. Seeming to be in a trance, she mused over all those times that she had taken for nothing more than an insignificant gesture of consolation. It all had become a bit weird for her to grasp, that he may have had a motive.

She took a deep breath and sighed, then rolled over onto her stomach, burying her face into her pillow as she firmly held onto it. Please, please, please, don’t get complicated.

Natalie unburied her face and glanced at the clock. It was quickly approaching 9:00 a.m. She could still feel, and practically hear, the throbbing sound of her heart beating rapidly since ending an eight-mile run.

She took another deep breath and began to relive her earlier moments, when she first approached home and spotted Andrew next door in his driveway. Her thoughts were vivid, watching him carefully remove the new attire from his car that he was going to wear for the prom. But he hardly acknowledged her, only briefly throwing a glance her way before heading into his house. But it wasn’t until seconds later, when she had finally made it to her front lawn that really grabbed her attention.

Jacob, Andrew’s older brother, came strolling out of their garage balancing his surfboard above his head, ready to load it into the back of his El Camino. At that moment, Natalie contemplated making a quick retreat into her house before he could notice that she was pacing around trying to catch her breath.

Natalie, not normally being the nervous type, and refusing to accept that anything or anyone could ever have that effect on her, suddenly felt agitated. But lately, she had found that she’s in less control over what she felt anymore. It’s another defeat, one to add to her frustrating inability to deal with a certain other matter—a rather big one to her, concerning losing a longtime friend in a situation that no matter how hard she tried to avoid, somehow spiraled toward something unexpected, that she’d never felt so right about.

As she had anticipated, Jacob noticed her immediately, and when their eyes met, they smiled at each other. Her heart practically skipped a beat.

He hollered over to her, I thought I’d get some surfing in today!

Oh, she replied smugly, but managed to smile back at him somewhat flirtatiously. I would’ve guessed you were going out for a bike ride.

Jacob smirked as he casually strolled back into his garage where he retrieved his bike and wheeled it down the driveway toward the back of his car. He barely strained lifting it up and over onto the bed of his El Camino and then satisfyingly grinned and replied, If I hafta park blocks from the beach, gotta lug my board somehow.

Natalie just stood there with her hands on her hips smirking back at him, and even though the thought of going through all that just to go surfing seemed like a bit of a hassle to her, she replied, Seeing as I just ran nearly ten miles, I have no pity.

He laughed shaking his head back at her. Well, I don’t wanna tire myself out since we’re going out later. There was a brief pause. We’re still on, right? he asked, as if it only just occurred to him. Cut the lame talk you moron, he thought.

Well . . . only if you’re up to it. I mean, what fun would you be if you’re gonna be a tired old wimp? Really . . . She then scoffed, I ran enough to burn fifty thousand calories. I’m not about to use that for an excuse. Natalie said that to him in a somewhat mocking manner, and was a little curious to see what kind of reaction she could get out of him.

Jacob had known Natalie most of her life, and even though they had never been close until recently, he knew her sense of humor pretty well. He leaned against his car, arms folded, smirking at her. He also knew how Natalie felt about going to the prom, which all of her betraying friends were going to, and that there was no way she’d back out of their plans only to sit at home. Feeling overconfident, he responded, Well, there’s always the ‘stag’ bus to the prom tonight, I’m sure.

Natalie calmly responded, Stag bus? She then continued just after the next breath, That’s like . . . something they did in the fifties, isn’t it? But it kinda has a fun sound to it.

Jacob stood by his car smiling and seemed amused. He was ready to go but really wished he could talk with Natalie longer. It had been a while since the last time he was out on what he considers a real date. But even as he came to that realization, he didn’t anticipate a feeling of anxiety about going out with her that night, and as much as he wished to partake in whatever contact they had, he decided it would be best to make a departure before either one could initiate another fruitless chat. He opened his car door and slid into the seat of his car to start it up.

The engine was a little loud. It was useless now for Natalie to say anything else. But she was a little relieved Jacob was taking off because she was beginning to wonder if she could carry on anymore with her usual and effortless witty act. A talent to return quick sarcastic responses had always been a part of Natalie’s competitive nature. The idea of saying something stupid embarrassed her. As for Jacob, she knew he was just trying to make small talk and had a feeling he was even a little nervous about their date. She had to accept the fact that she was too.

Jacob closed the door of his car and shouted out the window, I guess I’ll be seeing you later then!

Natalie smiled and stood still, waiting as Jacob pulled out of his driveway. She gave him one final send-off wave in a saluting motion as he drove off.

Whew! Then she quickly turned and sprinted into her house. She headed straight for the kitchen to grab a banana and then hunted for a bottle of water from somewhere inside the refrigerator before making her way toward the stairs and up to her bedroom. From some other place in the house, her mother somehow heard that she had returned and hollered out reminding Natalie that it was her turn to change out the kitty litter and take out the trash.

Natalie rolled her eyes sighing loudly and answered, Yeah Mom, I haven’t forgotten!

As soon as she entered her room, she walked straight to her closet and stood in front of it for about a minute. Now what in the heck am I going to wear?

Natalie normally didn’t fuss over what to wear out anywhere. Everything in her closet was generally jeans or Dickies, flip-flops or sneakers, and a couple of Ugg boots. Her only dilemma was deciding whether or not to wear a jacket.

Eh . . . whatever, she whispered to her reflection as she began to analyze her flushed, patchy-colored complexion in the mirror. It was the first time in a long time that Natalie’s facial appearance mattered this much to her. She never had problems with her skin and took regular care of it, but now felt a little more self conscious about the sporadic and few freckles that suddenly seemed to beam on her face. I’m turning into a mess, she thought.

Natalie tried never to let little things overwhelm her, like decisions about what to wear, or how to wear her hair, whether or not to apply any fragrance, or if she should accessorize. She never felt the need to impress anyone, not even Andrew, during their brief relationship. She decided it wasn’t going to do her any good to let this business with her skin cause her any grief now.

She started to think a lot more about how the situation she was in unfolded and how the whole idea of going out on a date with Jacob was really starting to set in. Oh my god, how much more complication do you want, Natalie? This is really going to stink up things if you screw it up with another McGinnis. She found herself starting to obsess once again over the debacle involving Andrew, the other McGinnis. She never had the intention of being involved with someone at seventeen. She knew better than to open up the possibility of letting something complicate decisions about her future. God, what have my parents done to me? (These were the kind of ideas that her parents instilled in her at an early age). Natalie never really had to battle with the fact that knowing the importance of focusing on school and making good choices didn’t exclude the idea that there was still no harm in doing some of the things that every other teenager wanted to do.

School was a place where Natalie felt she had little or no distractions. To her, it was like a workplace without the usual politics. She was perfectly content with her social status, which was being somewhat of a loner, and she was pleased with the continual means of how she obtained it. She avoided any chance of popularity and made the effort to be as anti-social as possible. Ever since entering high school, she always felt she was a step further in the level of maturity, based on the fact that she was a whole year older than most of her classmates. During the first few months of kindergarten, Natalie had developed a rare blood illness. So her parents held her back from continuing school due to the probability that she would have to spend months in and out of hospitals, either being treated or observed by doctors and specialists. Natalie’s early childhood illness didn’t hold her back physically though, and somehow had given her an advantage academically. After spending lots of time at the age of five in medical offices, hospital rooms, and treatment centers she had longed so much to spend every moment she could outdoors. Once they, the doctors and specialists, found there was no life-threatening matter on their hands, it all simply came to an end, with the exception of semi-annual and then, eventually, annual visits. All Natalie ever wanted to do after that was run. She wasn’t really hyper; she just always preferred to run instead of walk, at least as a kid, up and down the stairs at home and practically everywhere she went. Her dad finally broke down and bought a treadmill and didn’t feel guilty about never using it for himself. She had since always been a bit on the athletic side, and to boot, had easily maintained above-average grades. She played volleyball, basketball, and was on the track team. Up until then she had been involved in various after-school sports. Other than participating in sports, her other interests were in photography, marine life, and animals. She was the member-at-large on the yearbook staff and dutifully took the time to take pictures at many of the school’s sporting events, including her own. She had one very close friend, Marissa Greene, whom she confided in about everything and knew her better than anyone else. She hardly cared to follow many of the latest trends, to an extreme. Most would think of her as ordinary looking. Boys always liked her though. But she was not ever particularly interested in any. Lately, it would seem that this principle was only under strict enforcement at school, but not limited to what was literally, right next door.

Now there she stood, wavering over the idea that tonight she was going out on a date with the older brother of a guy she ended a relationship with not so long ago and who had previously been one of her closest friends. What made this situation even more intriguing than most was that these brothers had been living next door to her for more than half her life.

So what . . . Natalie mumbled to herself, accepting she had gotten past all of the needless drama, and tried to ignore the reality of what situation she may find herself in next. "We can be friends. Just . . . really good friends." But it took only a brief moment for her to realize that they were already there and being more than friends was something she really wanted. Now she had to contend with the possibility of Jacob’s feelings not being mutual. She didn’t want to feel destroyed. And even though she and Andrew’s affections never really led to anything more than a kiss, her concerns for their lost friendship made her wonder if it would be careless of her to make a move on Jacob. So she quickly made up her mind that going out with him tonight would only be a new venture into a friendship that after all these years just arose between them.

Jacob McGinnis, or Jake as he mostly went by, was nineteen and attended the local community college. He had been cramming in as many credits as possible in order to transfer this fall to the University of Washington, where he hoped to get accepted and planned to major in Sports Medicine. Lately, he had worked extremely hard and tried to stay focused to maintain top grades so that he may qualify for a privately funded scholarship, one that was granted to children of law enforcement officers who had been seriously injured or killed