The Nerd and The Geek

Chapter 3

~Pepper~

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; that’s what the doctor said Pepper had, it was long for ASL or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Basically, Pepper had been condemned to death and she was standing on Jack Hendrix’s door step with library books on Greek mythology in her back-pack.

“Hey” Jack said when he opened the door “You’re late” he paused “Are you okay, you don’t look very good”

“That’s on the list of things to never tell a girl.” Especially when she’s dying Pepper added in her head.

“Sorry” Pepper was surprised. He had never apologized for anything that she could remember. “Do you want to start?” He asked

“Sure, um… what did we talk about yesterday?” Pepper asked.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” that’s when she broke.

“I’m dying Jack.” Dropping something like that on Jack wasn’t something she imaged herself doing in a million years. Pepper’s eyes welled up with tears and she lay down on Jacks shoulder.

“I don’t know what to say Pep’” he replied

“I told you to never call me Pep’ first of all” She complained “And second, I don’t know what to say ether, I don’t know what to do” Pepper found Jacks arms around her. Normally she would have yelled at him and hit him with a pillow.

“Sense we’re being open and vulnerable can I tell you something?” Whatever he had to tell her couldn’t be more important than her telling her about her impending death.

“What is it Jack, have you killed someone in the past 24 hours” His laugh was strained, like it wasn’t quite a laugh.

“No, I-“he took a deep breath “I read a few books on Hercules and I decided that the Greeks aren’t that bad” Pepper laughed, she couldn’t help it. She had just told Jack her life was ending and he responded with “the Greeks aren’t that bad” If she thought about it anymore she would have been angry.

“I really hate you sometimes” She continued “No I think I hate you most of the time.”

“Okay, as long as you aren’t dead yet” Pepper started sobbing harder. “Shh its okay” if Jack was trying to comfort her it wasn’t working.

“I- I should be home with my parents, I don’t even know why I’m here.” Pepper sat up and wiped her eyes. Her mascara had already dripped down her face so she wasn’t too worried.

“I’m coming with you” He said, surprising the both of them “I couldn’t leave you alone, of course you could stay. We have cherry coke and Netflix” Pepper was even more surprised than before. The last time Jack had said something like that, the coke had been shaken so that exploded all over her.

“I only drink cherry coke.” She said casually

“I remember, you use to through-up when you drank anything else that was carbonated.” Pepper smiled. She never thought he would remember something so small about her.

“Do you remember the fourth of July when we met?” he asked, of course she didn’t. They had only been 4 at the time, she just assumed he’d always been there.

“We were 4 years old, of course I don’t.” Jack only laughed

“The 4th of July, 2003” he smiled “I had a chocolate ice-cream cone and you were playing tag or something. You tripped over something and fell onto me and you got ice-cream in your hair.” Something about his story did seem familiar to Pepper.

“I had chocolate ice-cream in my hair for a week” Jack smiled and nodded

“And I was angry with the girl who took my ice-cream for a week.” Pepper started remembering

“I remember going to the library with you every Monday.” Pepper said. Jack had turned Netflix on and he was scrolling through his recently watched. “You watch Last Resort?” Jack didn’t reply. Pepper could tell he had heard her.

“What do you want to watch?” He asked

“They have the new avenger’s movie on…” Jack found it and played it.

Two hours later Pepper was back home. Jack had offered to walk her but she had told him she would be okay. Her parents weren’t okay on the other hand.

“Pepper, we need you here with us.” Her mother had said

“We want you to be with us as long as possible.” Her Father said, and Pepper started crying again.

“Because I could die, right? You care that I have friends now that I’m dying” Peppers mother put her hand around “You never cared how I spent my time before”

“You aren’t going to die, not for a very long time.” Peppers dad said stroking her hair.

Pepper ran up to her room, she had to be alone. Jack had acted weird, now her parents said she wasn’t going to die even though they had no control over her life. Jack- He was going to tell her something important, something besides his newly found admiration of the Romans. 

She didn’t understand what it was with boys and texting her back, Jack had given her his number if she ever needed someone to talk to and right now, and Jack was a last resort. Her phone alarm went off five minutes later, it was from Jack.

“Hey what’s up?”

“I can’t talk to anyone else, my parents talk like I’ve been sent to the gallows and I don’t have anyone else I can talk to about this… what’s up with you?”

“Not that much, HAHA HE THINKS YOUR PRETTY BABE” Pepper dropped her phone and waited for an explanation. It came. “Sorry, I’ve got a friend over and he stole my phone”

“You think I’m pretty?” she asked, it was a trick question of course. If he responded with yes, she would have that to hang over his head. If he said no she would complain about telling him her secret illness and him thinking she was ugly, and if he didn’t respond she would take it as a yes.

“Pepper, I’ve liked you for a while and I didn’t know how to tell you. I’m sorry, I was going to tell you today but then you told me about your sickness and it scared me. Sorry” It was a yes, but somehow Pepper couldn’t stand to hang something like that over his head, if he ever did anything to her maybe but not now. Now she had to come up with something to say in response. She couldn’t say she liked him, because she didn’t.

“I wasn’t expecting you to say that. Are you sure you’re willing to love a dying girl?”

He responded with one word “Yes” and with that Pepper couldn’t breathe. She didn’t understand what he could possibly like about her. She was a sociopath who liked fictional characters more than real people so she responded with the only thing.

“Why do you like me?”

“You’re funny, smart, we have a lot of the same interests, and you’re beautiful.” Pepper had forgotten how to think clearly.

“What kind of common interests?”

“Last Resort, I’ve seen all of Doctor Who and Sherlock” The list went on and on things Pepper thought she was alone in liking.

“I don’t believe you, its way to good to be true” It was a challenge to see how well he knew her shows so what he said next was completely unexpected.

“Then I’ll have to prove it to you! Be at my house tomorrow after school.”

Pepper, for one of the first times in her live, was speechless. “Okay, I’ll see you then” was the most she could get out.