The Hot Nerd (editing)

ya, "talk"

“Oh, that’s perfectly understandable, honey. Now, come on in and you just sit here and I will make you some-” I heard some shuffling and then some cabinet doors opening and closing. “Well, never mind then. How ‘bout some reheated pizza?”

I heard what could only be his musical laugh. “That’ll be fine, Mrs. Hera.” His laughing stopped and his voice dropped.

I crept out of my room and slowly down the stairs so I could hear them better. I started hearing the whisper when I was at the foot of the stairs. I quickly ran across a doorway (the swinging door was shut) and pressed myself on the wall on the opposite side. I could just make out some of the words.

“Creak. . . Stairs. . . Shoes. . . Home. . .” My mom whispered something I could pretty easily decipher. They know I’m here.

I might as well just go in there then, I thought and started opening the door.

The door suddenly swung open and Arin bumped right into me. We fell onto the floor in one big jumbled mess of limbs. Once we stopped moving, I realized, our noses were touching. We were quite literally a breath away.

“Nice glasses,” Arin said breathily.

“Well, doesn’t someone look comfy?” My mom asked, walking out of the kitchen with her arms crossed.

We scrambled again, standing up this time.

“Now,” Mom started. “Why don’t you two go into the family room and talk it out?”

“But Mrs. Hera-”

“But Mom-”

“I don’t wanna hear any buts from you butts. Go on down and talk.” She pointed to the door.

There was no point in arguing. Besides, this was why I was looking for him, right? I wanted to talk. Now it sounds like I’m trying to convince myself. I led Arin through the swinging door, through the kitchen, and through a doorway filled with hanging beads. I didn’t bother to turn the lights on and walked straight to the sectional on the other side of the room. He followed right behind me.

He looked annoyed as he sat down on the other side.

“Listen, let me explain-”

“No, I heard you talk while you were on top of that- that old man. There’s no need to explain anything now.”

I got up and stood directly in front of him so that way he had to look at me. I pointed my finger at him, just to make my point. “Listen. One: The “old man”, ya. He’s only 24,  his name is Walter-”

Arin stood up and got right back in my face. “He’s too old to be going out with a girl in high school!”

“Why do you care anyway, Arin?” I yelled right back at him.

He got flustered. “Well, I-I- Look, just because we aren’t  the best of friends doesn’t mean I don’t care about your well being?”

I glared at him. “Ya, you really cared about my “well being” when you let me fall asleep on a porch.”

That made him pause. “What? I never let you- woah, hey! Don’t cry!”

“Y-you didn’t come! You said you would, but you didn’t!” I yelled at him some more between sobs and hiccups. “I waited for hours on my front porch! And you never came!”

Arin looked at me, not knowing what to do. “Here, why don’t you sit down?” he moved some of the over stuffed pillows to make room for me.

“I don’t want to sit down! I want you to tell me why you didn’t come!”

“Okay, I’m completely lost here. When didn’t I come to what?”

I took a deep breath. Slowly, I looked up at him. I felt completely vulnerable in my glasses right now, which was the opposite from usual. They were my windows right now, not my walls. My eyes were wide and innocent looking, I’m sure. I knew he could sense all of this too right now.

“Our first date.”

I looked at him, letting the information sink in. Watching his eyes grow wider with surprise as it did.

“Oh my god, Laicee.” This time he didn’t offer me a seat, he pulled me down next to him. He looked straight into my eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you still cared about that.”

I looked at him right back, for once, without looking away and blushing. My gaze held his strong and unwaveringly. “I may be a geek but I’m still a girl, stupid.”

“Listen,” Arin said, brushing a lone tear off of my cheek. “I am stupid. Well, I was stupid. At first, I asked you out as a bet. Don’t say anything, let me finish!”

I snapped my mouth shut.

“I knew you liked me. It was kind of obvious. My friends always made fun of it, too. One day, Fileen and Chloe thought it would be funny if I asked you out. They dared me to. I didn’t want to seem weak, so, even thought I knew it was wrong, I asked you out.  I was really going to come and pick you up, I promise. But there was this party that everyone wanted me to go to, and I knew that they wouldn’t understand why I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. In there minds, if someone isn’t a connection, they aren’t worth it.

“That whole night I was thinking about how horrible you must have felt. It made me think more about you- your feelings, nd eventually you personality, your looks, your interests, your actions. Your everything. And I realized I liked you too. That’s why I pulled you into the custodial supply closet the next day. That was pretty sleazy of me, though. I realized that after I moved on my thoughts. I came to your house that night to apologize. I was so nervous that I climbed that tree and just sat in it, watching you- don’t you dare say anything, I’m very aware of how creepy that is. Well, you know how that night turned out. Then you just. . . disapeared. No one knew where you went, and I’m pretty sure Arizona and I were the only ones who cared. So, here I am now, talking to the girl who used to be Laicee.”

I could have said a million different things. You liked me? Do you still like me? How is Arizona? Did you really care that Laicee was gone? But I brought to focus what had really gotten to me.

“I still am Laicee.”

Aron grabbed a lock of my hair. “Really, Blondie. Laicee would have never died her hair. She aslo loved her glasses, she never would have worn contacts. And the Laicee I knew would never have gotten together with someone that was six years older than her”

“You didn’t know her,” I stood up again. Man, did this boy agravate me. “I hated my glasses! I couldn’t wait until I was eighteen so I could get my contacts! I’ve always wanted to dye my hair, too!” So maybe that one was a lie. I’m mad, sue me. “And no, I would and still will ‘get together’ with Walter. He’s nice, considerate, a gentleman. He puts me before he puts himself, and we’ve only known each other for about two months! That’s something you could probably never do.”

Aron was standing up by now, too. We stared each other down for a while, until he abruptly turned away from me. He starting walking away.

“If you want to come to your senses on any of this, you can figure out a way to talk to me.”

I chased after him, a half-step behind. “And when you want to stop being a pretentious dick, you know how to pull me into supply closets and climb through my window!” I ran after him, up the stairs and into the front living room.

Arin opened the door then turned to look at me. “Bye sweetheart.” He blew me a kiss and walked away, hopefully (at the moment), out of my life.

I let out a loud, disgruntled groan/yell/scream, and stormed back upstairs. There was only one thing that would take my mind off of everything.

Sleep.