Reasons To Love A Nerd Like Me (Sample)

Chapter 5 - Noticing Vincent

Needless to say, over dinner I gave my Mum a heavily edited version of the day's events, which omitted the part about being hung up on a coat hook for the entire afternoon. I could tell that Olive was dying to spill the beans about what had really happened, but she managed to resist. Like I told her, I didn't want anybody knowing about what was going on with me and Taylor, especially not my Mum.

The last few years had been so hard on her. After my Dad died, it was almost like I had lost her too. There were times where she wouldn't even get out of bed because she just couldn't face the day. My lovely, funny, spirited Mum became someone I didn't even recognise anymore. I was only fourteen and it was a lot to handle. I was so used to her being the strong one.

These days she was finally getting back to her old self. It was so good to see her laughing and smiling again, just like the way she always used to. I wasn't going to let anyone take that away from us.

Especially not Taylor Raven.

After dinner, Olive went straight home whilst I decided to get an early night. I was so relieved that the day was finally over at last. I fell straight into a deep sleep, but my dreams were a strange and cluttered mess of everything that had happened during the day. Coat hooks and fallen books and clompy boots.

The next few days at college went by without incident. There were no more run-ins with Taylor Raven or the rest of his crew (besides a few dirty looks from Patricia in the corridor, which were obviously aimed at Olive and me). I wasn't sure if Taylor was biding his time for the next big attack or whether he'd finally had his fill of torturing me. Either way I was happy for a bit of calm in my college life, even if it was only temporary.

The one thing of note that did occur during the rest of my week was that I suddenly started to notice Vincent Hunter and his sidekick Alexis. Everywhere.

I guess I must have passed them by many times before in my day to day life, but before the "collision incident" I hadn't taken much notice of them. Now they seemed to be down every hallway, lingering outside every classroom and lounging around in every part of the field outside. Once I started noticing them, I found myself looking out for them all the time. I felt like I was turning into some kind of stalker. They became like a fascination for me. Particularly Vincent...

Whenever I saw him playing guitar under the tree where he always sat, he looked so serene. A world away from the angry young man who violently attacked a classmate during detention. I wondered if maybe he wasn't as bad as his reputation made out. I knew what it was like to be judged all the time and it wasn't a good feeling. Was Vincent being wrongly judged by the people around him for one stupid, out of character mistake he made years ago?

Then again, the more I noticed him, the more I noticed the dark streak running through him. The way he would barge angrily through large groups of his peers. Bitter arguments with teachers outside of classroom doors, and a general heaviness in his eyes that hinted at a history stained with darkness. Those eyes were a warning sign to the rest of the world and the majority of students stayed well out of his way.

Alexis was the only person who Vincent seemed to tolerate in any kind of close proximity, but when I saw her chasing after him chattering I wondered if even she was able to completely break through to his shell. Some of the time it looked like he was locked in a world beyond the physical and her words were nothing but empty smoke trails drifting behind him.

It was hard to believe that Vincent had actually been waving at me from the tree that day after I'd bumped into him. I wondered if maybe I'd been mistaken, because it seemed so unlike the guy I was now witnessing. Not to mention that if he recognised me, he wasn't showing it anymore. Whilst I was looking out for him, he had certainly given up any kind of interaction with me. A few times he breezed right past me, eyes locked straight ahead without so much as a glint of acknowledgement thrown towards me. Alexis also blanked me on the occasions when our paths crossed.