How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 18 - How to Be a Nerd

“Get lost, Nate,” I groaned, rolling on my bed and burying my face on the pillows. “Leave me alone.”

I decided to make a last stand but I wasn’t at all hopeful. I didn’t have the heart or the will to see Sarah. Just thinking of her being with Matt last night, I felt betrayed. I knew I’d no claim on her whatsoever to feel that way. But it was killing me. She was killing me. Love was for chumps. I should’ve known better than to think a girl like her was all I needed. Girls were made to stir in a touch of chaos into the world of uncomplicated males. Just look at my so-called mother. Made my Dad’s life a living hell.

This just added in to the long list of cliché downfalls of great men caused by none other than females. Lois. Mary Jane. Helen of Troy. Cleopatra. They were the bane of men’s existence. Always managed to get themselves kidnapped or used as a bait by their heroes’ archenemies. Or became brutal traitors. Cheaters. Two-timers.

And Sarah was one of them. I thought she was different. But she was different. What was I thinking? If only she knew about us, she won’t choose Matt over me. She still loved me. She just hadn’t realized it yet. And my job was to remind her just that.

But how? What was the point? What was my motivation? She kept ditching me anyway.

“Do you have any idea why I broke up with Elle?” Nathan finally interrupted my internal monologue. He parked himself in front of my grand piano and started playing a rickety version of Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor.

I scooted up from bed and stared at him. He kept silent about this matter for years. Why’d he choose now to break it to me?

With a humorless chuckle, Nathan stopped playing and turned to me. “Elle thought I was in love with Sarah,” he said without moving a muscle.

For the first time in my life, it seemed like I ran out of words. When I composed myself, I said, “A-are you?”

He just shrugged and rubbed his chin. “Well, she is the first person who seemed to understand me. She doesn’t think I’m atrocious and she can at least stand my presence. For one, we agree on things more than the two of you do. And she just lives across the street. So near to my clutches.”

“Get straight to the point, Nate! Are you?!” I pressed on furiously. Frantically, I got up from bed and went straight for him and snatched the collar of his shirt. “Are you?!”

Nathan looked more surprised than intimidated. That was when he started laughing hysterically. Grunting heatedly, I shoved him against the wall, gritting my teeth until I tasted blood.

“I’m not… sure myself,” he replied through the chuckles and the choking. “Took me… two… years to think. Still, I got nothing.”

He looked crazier than his normal-crazy self. I wanted to break his stupid face into a pulp. Instead, I let him go. He dropped on the floor where he kept laughing like a mad man. All I could do was fume. My eyes searched the room for something to throw at him.

“But maybe I’ll wake up one day and realize the answer to your question,” Nathan said as I was turning away. “And if you don’t make a move now… maybe I’ll take her away from you.”

He made it sound like a joke but it scared the hell out of me. My brother. My rival. What kind of messed up reality show was this? I wanted to bang my head on the wall to wake up from this nightmare. But I restrained myself, threw a shirt on and stepped silently out of my room. Maybe he was joking. Or on drugs. I should’ve killed him when I got the chance. He was doing it to spite me. Like before.

He took my identity. My job. My Dad. My best friend Elle. Music. My life. And now, he wanted to take the last thing that mattered to me. Sarah’s love. Won’t he ever be satisfied?