The Nerd And The Nincompoop

chapter four

HUZAIFAH

"She declined it, dude!" Jacob almost yelled. I looked at him, with a confused look. Who declined what?

"Nawal declined your friend request!" He said, turning my laptop so that its screen faced me.

She had declined the request and hadn't even replied to my message even after seeing it.

"I think this challenge is going no where..." Jacob quietly said and I glared at him.

"By the end of this semester, Nawal and I would be friends," I stated. I was uncertain about it but I have never even lost a challenge so giving up on one is out of the question.

"Hmm, yeah, that kinda seems impossible," Jacob said and I glared at him yet again. He chuckled before getting up and leaving for university.

It was about 9 in the morning and I didn't have a class till 12 noon so I went to the local diner to get some breakfast.

I walked in and placed my order; scrambled eggs with a slice of toast and my usual coffee. I came here so often that now, I didn't even need to tell them how I like my coffee; they knew, extra strong with no sugar.

My order arrived and I dug in. I was in the middle of my meal when my I caught the sight of Nawal; reading a comic book, with her notebooks and a cup of coffee placed in front of her.

I quickly finished my meal and by the time, she had ordered a plate of pancakes. I called the waitress.

"Anything else?" She asked.

"Yeah, her meal is on me," I told her, subtly pointing out at Nawal.

She gave me a smile.

"Sure thing," she said before walking away.

NAWAL

"The check, please," I said to the waitress and she smiled.

"That's been taken care of," she replied and I frowned.

"The guy sitting over there paid for your meal," she added, obviously noticing my confusion. I looked at the direction she pointed at and found Huzaifah sitting there. What is wrong with him?

I didn't want the waitress to see how annoyed I was so I just thanked her with a smile.

I took out money from my bag and picked up my stuff from the table before walking to his table. He sat there sipping his coffee.

I placed the money in front of him.

"Stay away from me, Haroon," I seriously told him.

"You sound pretty attractive when you angrily call me by my surname," he said with a smirk and I was already fuming with anger.

"Shut up," I replied and he chuckled.

"Why do you hate me?" He asked, looking at me.

"I don't hate you, Huzaifah. I just don't care you exist," I replied.

"You will if you know me," he said.

"I don't want to," I simply replied.

"The cinema is showing the new Captain America film. I see you like reading it," he said, pointing over at the Captain America comic book in my hand. "Mind joining me to watch it?" He asked, totally ignoring the fact that I just said I wasn't interested in knowing him.

I just shook my head in irritation and walked out of the diner.

I went to university and attended my classes. I had three back to back lectures and I got free at about two-thirty. I still had about half an hour before Dad came to pick me up for work.

I decided to go to the library to pass the time.

---

I completed my shift and got out of the store. Dad had some unexpected work come up so I had told him I'd go home by myself.

I decided to walk home since it was quite close to where I work.

The next day at university was kind of boring. Ashley was feeling unwell so she didn't come and Amanda and Miranda had gone to a family member's funeral.

I was sitting in the cafeteria, reading a book when someone sat in front of me. I looked up to see who it was and rolled my eyes.

"How about you go out on that movie date with me?" He asked me; his hands, folded on the cold cafeteria table.

"How about no?" I replied with my eyes still glued on the comic book I was reading. It sounded more like a question but Huzaifah and I, both knew it was a simple reply.

"You might wanna think again... the hottest guy-" he trailed off but I interrupted.

"What part of 'no' did you not understand?" I asked him, now looking at him. His jaw tightened but he quickly smiled which quickly changed into a smirk. Yeah, the same smirk that kinda makes me want to punch his face.

"None of it." He replied. "You see, the word 'no' for a reply has not been programmed into my system." He added.

"Oh! That sounds so sad." I said in my most fake sympathetic tone. He nodded, playing along.

I took out a piece of paper from my notebook that was lying in front of me and wrote a few words on it. When I was done writing, I looked up at him and he had a frown on his face.

"Well, here are eight synonyms of 'no' for your better understanding." I handed the paper to him and got up. I picked up my stuff and walked away.

HUZAIFAH

I looked at the paper.

absolutely not,

certainly not,

of course not,

not at all,

negative,

never,

nope,

nah.

I hope you understand my answer now, Huzaifah.

I crumpled the paper in my fist and although I wanted to throw it away, I couldn't, since she had written my name on it. I could never afford to let anyone know that I just got rejected by a nerd. I threw the ball of paper in my bag and got up.