The Cheerleader And The Nerd

Chapter 23

‘’No, no, no, no, no!’’ I kept chanting to myself as I frantically looked around Jayden’s truck. I was still working out how to park the damn car! Parallel parking plus this rusty truck equals near impossible for me. I awkwardly shifted gears into parking mode and finally parked it in their driveway. ‘’Finally!’’ I yelled out.

‘’This is the third time this week, you’ve had trouble parking the car,’’ Zach pointed out from the back seat. I scowled at him as I shut the car off and took out the keys, slipping them in my jeans pocket.

The weather had gotten pretty chilly around here and the weather reports indicated it would probably only last for a month or so before the heat came back for the summer. I pulled the ends of my shirt into my fists as a cool breeze blew. It wasn’t that cold, but a light sweater or full sleeved shirts were required.

I opened his door – since the door’s had child lock on them – and carried Zach and Zoe’s school bags; one on each shoulder. ‘’Oh well, I’m sorry but I’ve never driven a car like this. The only cars I’ve ever driven are automatic systemic.’’

They didn’t even bother hearing my whole sentence before they were rushing to the door, leaving me in the dust. I chuckled, joining them at my own slow pace before picking out the keys from my pocket again and unlocking the door.

They rushed into the house, petting Max a little – who barked and wagged his tail – and then ran to the living room, turning on a movie. I found out over the course of last week that their all time favorite movie was ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘The Lion King’. Couldn’t blame them, since those movies were plain awesome.

Yes, it’d been a week since Kyle and his friends had attacked Jayden in school. I was constantly at Jayden’s house, helping out with whatever I could, whenever I could. The only times I wasn’t there, was at nights to sleep and when I was at school. Other than that, I was always at Jayden’s.

In a way, it was like we were a married couple… a proper married couple.

‘’Love, is that you?’’ Jayden asked from the kitchen. Just hearing his voice brought a smile to my face. His endearment for me didn’t go unnoticed either.

His injuries were getting much better. The nurse had advised he take at least a week off of school, but when his mom had asked a doctor at the hospital he’d suggested he should probably take it easy for another week or two. Hence, why I was bringing over his homework for him and basically just at his beck and call.

Of course I didn’t mind it either.

As long as I got to be near him, I didn’t mind anything.

‘’Were you expecting someone else? Should I feel threatened?’’ I giggled, following his voice and finding him seated at the little table in the centre of the kitchen. He had his back to the door as he too chuckled, his head bent down towards a book he was reading. He was a total nerd, in that sense. In the whole one week span that I’d seen him – most of the day like I said – he was always with a book.  He hadn’t notice me yet, so I pushed myself off the doorway and leaned down, wrapping my arms around his neck, and pecking his cheek.

I leaned my head on his shoulder.

‘’Never,’’ he said, it almost sounding like a promise. Good, I liked the sound of that. We both just stared ahead in a comfortable silence. A few minutes later though, I straightened up and pulled my scarf off, wrapping it around his neck lightly as I clapped my hands once.

‘’Time to start on lunch.’’ I proclaimed as I opened the first shelf to the right and pulled out one of the various cookbooks Alex owned.

Yes, you heard right. I was about to cook lunch. Key word; cook.