Nathaniel Likes the Weird Girl

4. Hopes

We all watched in silence as Stephanie walked away. Oskar's hand dropped to his side and Jay erupted into laughter.

"God damn!" he shouted, drawing the attention of other students. "That must've hurt! You got double-rejected! All within five minutes!"

It was hard to ignore his loud outburst, but I still kept my eyes on Sami, who had turned to watch Stephanie walk away. Her small hands were balled into fists, and I made an unconscious step towards her. But as soon as I moved, she started off across the gym after Stephanie.

"Shut up," Oskar grumbled, shoving Jay away.

"Nah, that was hilarious! And on top of that, it looks like you owe me one hundred big ones."

I shuffled my way over to the two boys, but still watched Sami.

"No way, that's some bull! You said that I would owe you fifty if I didn't ask her, and then it was fifty more if she said no!" Oskar's voice took on a pouty tone.

Across the room, Sami approached Stephanie where she was sitting in the bleachers with her friends. Sami tried to say something to them, but the girls only glanced her way before turning their backs and barring her from the conversation.

"Fine, fine, I guess that's what I said," Jay gave in. "We'll just call it even, then, huh? The look of humiliation on your face when she said no to you was payment enough."

Oskar began hurling a torrent of curse words at Jay, who only found this more amusing. Meanwhile, Sami stood staring at Stephanie, looking lost. Go talk to her, that voice in my head told me. Help her. But, yet again, I stayed where I was.

"Nathaniel, man, did you see that?" Jay grabbed my shoulder, shaking me.

"Yeah, kind of," I shrugged, turning back to my friends.

"Dude, I can't wait to tell everyone that Oskar got rejected by Stephanie and Sami Bauer on the same night," he shook his head, his eyes bright with laughter. "Hilarious."

So Stephanie had been right. Sami Bauer's attendance truly was entertaining, at least to Jay. I looked back across the gym, but Sami was nowhere to be seen. I thought about going to look for her, but then a couple other guys that Jay knew walked up, and he was already recounting the embarrassing tale to them, wanting me to get in on it. More drinks were passed around, and I decided to partake, hoping a buzz would help take the edge off of the guilt I was feeling. Jay only got drunker and louder, and soon I'd had about enough. Nothing about that fundraiser was fun for me.

I didn't even bother saying bye to Jay or anyone else, I just wanted to go home. No one seemed to notice when I just turned around and walked out of the gym doors, though. As I stepped into the chilly night air, I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, watching the smoke-like vapor leave my mouth and twist and curl under the yellow entrance lights. A few students stood around the entrance, some of them huddled together on the wide gym steps, but otherwise the campus outside was deserted. I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets and started off down the steps, only stopping when I spotted a small figure sitting alone at the bottom.

I couldn't stop myself from glancing around to make sure the coast was clear--no one I knew was watching me. No one I knew would know if I was out here talking to her...

"Sami?" I approached her slowly. She was hunched over, swaying slowly back and forth, and I realized that she was humming softly when I got closer.

She looked up at me, her glasses askew, and squinted.

"Who's there?" she asked before taking a gulp from a water bottle.

"Nathaniel," I said, feeling silly. "Nathaniel Sykes."