Chasing Shadows | ✓

Chapter Ten

"HEY!"

I turned around at the small squeak that sounded behind me. only to see Natalia rocking back and forth on her heels with a smile playing on her lips.

"What's got you all happy on a Monday morning?" I grumbled.

"Not much," she confessed, "But I feel like today's going to be a good day."

I rolled my eyes at her almost sickeningly upbeat tone, "Do you just read fairy-tales all day?"

"No actually," she raised a brow at me, "I read intellectual books -"

I snorted, coughing under my breath.

"Excuse me?" she blinked, "Is there something you'd like to say?"

"No no," I waved her off with a flick of my wrist, "Keep going. You were saying something about fairy-tale books you read. . . ?"

Natalia huffed, "Fine be like that. You know what? I'm not even going to tell you anymore."

"I didn't want to hear it anyway," I countered. While that wasn't the exact truth, I wasn't going to tell her how I found some of her stories interesting to listen to.

"Would it kill you to be nice for once?" she asked with a deep-rooted frown.

"Probably," I shrugged, "I think you should know by now that being nice isn't exactly my forté."

"Well it will be," she said with a sharp nod of her head, "I'll make sure of it."

It was only then I noticed her drawn and tired complexion. Dark bags lined her under-eyes, which she tried to cover up with makeup but they still shone through. Even though her hair was thrown up into a messy ponytail, it still looked like it hadn't been washed in days. She dragged her feet on the floor like she carrying the weight of the world on top of her shoulders.

She wasn't good at hiding her emotions, and the pain was evident in the down-curve of her lip and the crease of her brow.  But she had this way of looking at you, that when she blinked, her eyelashes would flutter like the wings of a butterfly, almost hypnotizing you

"You look tired," I commented casually as we walked side-by-side, "Didn't get a lot of sleep last night?"

She glanced up at with an expression I couldn't decipher, "Something like that," she shrugged offhandedly, "I guess I have a pretty loud household so it's hard to sleep sometimes."

"You have siblings?" I asked with raised brows, "I don't know why I thought you were an only child."

She gnawed on her bottom lip, like she was contemplating telling me. A strange feeling settled inside of me, making my stomach swirl, but not in the way that I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Yeah," she confessed after a moment of silence, "I have ten."

I jerked my head to look at her, "Ten?" I spluttered, unsure if I had heard her right, "Are you sure?"

"I think I would know how many siblings I have," she rolled her eyes at my disbelieving expression, "But yes, I'm sure."

"Jesus, that's a lot," I muttered under my breath, "Are they all younger?"

"Most of them," she nodded. "But one is the same age as me."

I winced, "That must be hard for your parents. Having one kid is hard enough."

"You get used to it," Natalia shrugged, "Sure, the noise and arguments can be unbearable sometimes but they're all sweethearts."

"All children are devils," I pointed out, "Don't even try to tell me otherwise."