How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 30 - How to Get Dumped the Second Time Around

“Okay…” Chuck mumbled, still staring at me and Sarah like all the others. “So what’s the challenge?” he asked Nate.

“See for yourself.” Nathan waved the small piece of paper before handing it to Chuck.

“Give it back, man!” I rushed to him but I was too late. Sarah didn’t need to hear that anymore. I’d had too much embarrassment for the day.

I cursed under my breath as Chuck read the challenge aloud.

“Bring me something you can’t live without.”

The words etched themselves into my skin. Several pairs of eyes bore into my head. And when Sarah looked at me, there was with a tinge of guilt in her eyes. With pity. Maybe because she knew she couldn’t feel the same way about me anymore.

“Dang,” I chuckled, forcing some humor into my voice while I blankly stared at the fire. The corners of my lips twitched into a casual smile. “Sorry. I messed that up, didn’t I?”

All I got were puzzled looks but I wasn’t gonna let them know how miserable I was. I kept laughing silently to myself, trying to make the whole thing seem like a joke.

“Well, she’s something, alright,” I kept on blurting out, the words hurling themselves out of my mouth. Whenever I feel nervous or distraught, I couldn’t seem to shut it. “But technically, she’s not a thing. So I guess, I lost a point?”

No one seemed willing to say anything except Chuck but a nudge from Reed quickly shut him up.

“Okaaay…” I sighed, still avoiding their glances. I totally ruined the night for them, just when it was just starting to go so well. “I’ll just… I’ll just go uhm… get something in the truck.”

Just that and I jogged away from them, into the darkness, waving at them half-heartedly as I did. I couldn’t bear to see that look on Sarah’s face. I didn’t want her or anyone else to feel sorry for me.

I found the pick-up truck and threw myself into the driver’s seat. I locked myself up before I let my head drop onto the steering wheel. My first thought was to go back to LA first thing tomorrow and never come back. Without a trace. That’d be easier for all of us. For me.

It wasn’t long before I heard three silent knocks on the window.

“Go away,” I said, even though I knew no one would hear.

The knocks came again and this time, a bit louder. I was about to yell when I saw Sarah, pressing a hand on the window, trying to see through the dark tinted glass.

Warily, I clicked the locks and tilted my chin to the front seat. Hurriedly, she ran around the hood and got in the cab. A couple of quiet minutes passed before she stopped staring at her lap and started speaking to me.

“The challenge…” she said, almost a whisper. “D-do you mean it?”

I looked at her, trying to measure her expression. The dark shadowed her eyes but I could see that her lips were quivering from the effort to speak.

A weak smile made its way to my face. “Does it matter?”

“It… matters to me. Yes.” Her voice almost cracked, but she kept her hands fisted on her lap. She was trying not to cry.

I gripped the wheel tighter. “Would it be easier if I said no?”

A tear trickled down her sun burnt cheeks, falling onto the skirt of her light blue sundress. Yet, she nodded softly, still avoiding my gaze. “I-it would be easier… but it kind of h-hurts more.”