| Nathan |

-TWO WEEKS LATER-

I spent a good deal of time avoiding thinking about her or anything around me that reminded me of her. The problem was, she seemed to be permanently burned into my mind, I found myself getting lost in thought. Thoughts about her, sometimes innocent and sometimes not.

But my mind was made up. I had to often remind myself that I didn't do relationships, that I never wanted to be anything but alone, and that above all else, she didn't fit my world at all, she was nothing I ever looked for. She met none of my standards. Sure, she was a beautiful girl, but she was far too innocent. She was oddly easy to talk to and yet...I wouldn't want her to change because the way she was now, how unique she had been to me, was what made her so...special. A kind-of rarity.

If she became one of the many shallow, pretty woman that were ever present around me, hiding their empty souls behind fake smiles and boob jobs, I really wouldn't want anything to do with her.

She was just too good... too breakable.

I worked more than I ever had in a very long time, which was saying something. I probably got a total of 5 hours of sleep every night. I couldn't sleep without dreaming about her, and they weren't good dreams.

Granted they weren't 'bad' per say, but they involved doing things to her body that ruined her innocence. I would wake, hot, confused and feeling oddly panicked. Dreaming like that made me feel weird about seeing her in person. So, the solution? Stop sleeping so much.

I put a lot of effort into simply keeping busy, even if the work I was doing didn't need to be submitted or finished until weeks later. My one, now ever present, and larger problem was that I found myself drinking more coffee than usual some days, my eyes felt slightly heavier and my upper back and shoulders were incredibly stiff.

I ignored it, making sure to eat right and exercise, but part of me wondered if she had been right about sleep and if I needed more of it.

It was Friday evening and I was shutting stuff down on my computer, sending files to my home computer to work later and packing up for the weekend. I would probably come in tomorrow morning, even if it was Saturday, but most likely not until later in the evening.

There was a knock at the door, and whoever it was didn't wait for my response before storming in. It was Jackson.

"We've got a problem." he declares, a smirk hidden behind his irate expression. Whatever this was, it was going to be good.

"What?" I ask, feeling confused and already exhausted by what was sure to be another stupid notion of his.

"Mom called." he says and I felt my heart drop. Oh damn.

After the many years I had spent living with them after the whole adoption process, I had come to learn very important things about bother my adopted mother and father.

Of course, they treated me as their own, and never spoke of me as if I was anything but. However, my mother was a woman with a strong will and a tendency for meddling in my life, my brother's life and my little sisters, who still lived at home. She was a good person, she always had good intentions but she often messed a lot of things up for others without meaning to.

My father was a very intense man, if you didn't know him well he was very full-on and extremely hard to please. He had worked years as a high-power attorney and gained some fame for his skill. But he was only so good at it because he was good at being unfeeling and a complete asshole when he needed to be. Compared to him in an office environment, I might as well be a saint.

He of course couldn't be prouder of me for all my success and my mother while also proud, was waiting for me to find my soul mate, which was never going to happen. I haven't ever planned on marriage or kids, both seem like too much to handle. That didn't stop her from constantly pestering me to this day about settling down or at least having a girlfriend. This was another area in which she had liked to meddle in a lot, not just in my life either, in my siblings lives too and even if it came from a place of love, it annoyed us.

At one point, my mother's meddling became so... problematic that my father finally put his foot down and made the choice to distract her with event planning and running the HOA committee in their South Hampton neighborhood. But he had inadvertently created, yet another problem. Ever since then, she has not only decided she had a knack for party planning but also for family gathering planning.

Regardless of all of this, when my mother calls, you know she's got something up her sleeve.

"How does this concern me?" I snap, he knew phone calls from her rarely concerned me since I got out of it most times.

"Because, she requested all of us, the whole family, to vacation in Florida for one week starting the 21st." he tells me.

I look at my May calendar.

"That's five weeks from now, I can't do it that week." I say.

"Well you have to, family is important." says Jackson.

"Just because their important doesn't mean I'm coming down to Florida." I shout at him. "I've got work too okay, I've got things on my mind, I've-I met..." I stop short. Sitting down and letting out a short breath. I lean my elbows on the desk and run a hand over my face.

"You met someone?" asks Jackson, finishing for me and watching my actions carefully. He cracked a grin, looking pleased. He wanted me to have someone, like he did, because he was so 'happy.'

"No." I bark and his eyes widen. "You know that will never happen."

"Then what is it?" he asks.

"Do you remember Mr. Marino's daughter? Racheal Marino?" I ask and he nods.

"Do you remember her friend, Isabella Smith?" I ask and he thinks, trying to recall the night he saw her from across the party.

"The pretty brunette girl?" he asks and I nod. He cracks another grin.

"She's the one who Eric went on about right?" he asks, referring to their conversation which I had tuned out of.

"Yeah." I say shortly, running a hand over my face and shutting my eyes a moment. Did I want to tell Jackson about her?

"Well, you've got to tell me now." he mutters, raising an eyebrow at me. I shoot him a glare.

"She took me to the zoo and to see this movie. It was actually alright... and I really want to stay away from her, but I can't get her out of my head." I tell him, ranting a bit. I slam my palm on my desk and stand angrily.

"I just wish I would get over whatever this is because I waste some much of my time thinking, just thinking about her. I know I don't like her but...it's not important, not in the slightest. She is so blunt, and yet nice and then she doesn't listen to me and she is very opinionated and so high energy sometimes, but then shy and quiet the next second." I pause, breathing. "She's... fucking unpredictable!" I shout.

Jackson is chuckling and shaking his head at me. That only served to piss me off more.

"You know what brother?" he says, continuing to look amused.

"She sounds perfect for you."

"Get out!" I roar at him and he leaves. How could he suggest that? He knows I will never want any sort of relationship. It was simple.

But if it was so simple, why was I so bothered by it?