Popular Nerd

Chapter Thirty Six// Sounds Lovely

Stop staring! I mentally slap myself.

"Here," Nathan grunts as he tosses the oranges into Bailey's arms. She stacks them up in the trolley as my eyes wonder from her and up to her brother who, in spite of knowing me, still decides to imagine I am a ghost.

"Um, nice seeing you Paige," Bailey scratches the side of her neck with a twitch of her nose.

"Yeah, hope to see you again soon."

Then with the push of my trolley, I shift my gaze away from the two siblings and transport the fruit back to my mom. She is currently observing the toilet rolls, presumably calculating the most efficient pack to buy for money's worth.

"Thanks dear," I hand her back the trolley so she can put in the six pack of toilet rolls as well as some cheap brand kitchen roll that is never good enough to earn itself its own advert on TV. "Oh I forgot the margarine!" My mom exclaims with a tiresome throw of her hand to her forehead. "It's all the way back on isle one," she complains with an effortfully long sigh.

"I'll get it if you want," I say, offering to run back and get it. I don't understand why grown ups stress about these sorts of things.

"Thanks love."

I locate the isle I need and jog over in its direction, dodging around fellow shoppers as I go. "Butter... Butter... Marge!" I silently celebrate as I spot the last remaining tub of low fat margarine on the shelf- the only brand my mom would dare consume.

"Hey, that's mine," I hear a voice cry out as I tug on the tub, wondering why it doesn't fall into my grasp. Suddenly a pair of eyes dart my way from the opposite side, their eyes connecting with mine through the gap between the lower and upper shelf.

"Nathan, I saw it first. My hand's practically holding it," I whine, persistently grabbing it back as he tugs on it harder. He still doesn't utter a word, his mouth sealed as we fight for the tub of low fat margarine. If this wasn't pathetic, I would have enjoyed it. Unexpectedly, Nathan releases his hands and I fall, tumbling back onto my bum, the tub lying face down beside me.

"Are you ok?" He exclaims, heavy footsteps race around the corner. Next thing I know I was being lift up by the support of two strong arms. When my eyes reopen, I gasp inside to see Nathan staring into my eyes with a flat smile of concern. "Are you ok?" He repeats, a deep husk to his voice.

"Y-yeah," I cough, breaking the nerves flooding around my bloodstream. Just the mere glimpse of his eyes on mine makes me go weak with butterflies. "I'm good."

I step back and look down to see margarine splattered all over the floor. Nathan takes my hand. "Run," he whispers, leading us away from the isle as a shop assistant notices the mess we have left on the floor. We swerve around the closest corner before anyone can stop us.

"That was close," I laugh.

"Yeah, my mom would have killed me if she saw that," Nathan chuckles. Our eyes connect as I turn my face towards his. The light reflects his brown orbs perfectly, making them glisten like a thousand fire flies on a dark misty night. His eyes wonder down my arm and to my hand. A slight smirk evolves across his lips as he studies our interlocked fingers.

"I better go find my mum," I cough loudly, turning away from Nathan with a harsh blush filtering to my cheeks.

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Bye..." He releases my hand.

Approaching my mom, I notice her talking to another women. The lady has her back towards me, making it difficult to identify who she is. Every step I make closer towards them, I can just about uncover the words to their sentence. When Bailey's name arose from the mumbles about cheerleading, I knew I recognised the middle aged women with dark curly hair.