How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 26 - How to Catch Bad Luck

Megan squirmed. I stepped in front of her, nodding at the guards to stop. They were scaring her. The last thing I wanted was her running off again. It’d be a lot easier if Moira was here.

“Easy now, guys,” I said to the security men. “Where’s Moira?”

The red-haired guy with the goatee answered. “She went out to call the mental—I mean some people.” He eyed on Megan. “We’ll take care of her.”

Megan began crying really hard again. And this time, she kept shaking her head so I volunteered to stay with her. The guards kept insisting though that she’s their responsibility and that I should head back to the conference, yada yada yada. I refused. And that was when they started to drag Megan away. All the while, she kept crying and screaming, “Let me go! Let me go!” and I couldn’t bear to look at her anymore. It was painful to watch.

They barely reached the back exit when Megan had successfully head butted the guy holding her. The other three guys were too startled they didn’t even have the chance to grab her before she bolted into the conference hall then to the main hallway. I ran after her. So did the guards.

As I reached the stage, Chuck was in the middle of telling the audience all about football and making poses for a great pass. I made a run for the door, dragging Chuck with me. The commotion got the crowd restless. For the meantime, it’d be up to Reed and Ricky to entertain them. Quickly, Megan got into one of the elevators. The guards took the other one.

“What the hell, man!” Chuck complained. “I was showing the crowd my moves.”

“Megan’s here,” I said and he immediately knew that it was an emergency.

“Ugh. I’m starting to hate this Megan.”

I shoved him in front of me. We raced for the elevator. Just our luck, the door shut before we got there. I looked around. The elevator light stopped at the fourteenth floor—the top floor. We were at the ninth. We had to get there and fast.

As my eyes landed on the stairs, Chuck gave me a look and groaned, “Not the stairs, please. Oh, not the stairs!” like I was asking him to climb Mt. Everest while doing a hopscotch.

“Stairs or I’ll take back your drum set?”

“I love stairs!” he ran up the first flight. “I’ve been meaning to do more cardio anyway.”

We were already on the eleventh floor when I remembered the phone in my pocket. I took it out and pressed it on my ear. My brother was still waiting.

“Nate, you there?” I panted. “Megan’s escaped. What’s the brilliant plan?”

“What?” Nate shouted at me. “Why’d you let her? I already did as much as lead her to you and call the blasted security while you’re on it, Leon. How bloody stupid could you be? Must I always do everything?”

“I had her! But then your security came and scared her off!” I was yelling at him too. “Now who’s stupid?” After answering me a grunt, I hang up on him.

I knew listening to him was a bad idea.

Chuck and I were both huffing as we reached the fourteenth floor. The hallways were bare and unlit. The rows of ten or so rooms served either as offices for the staff or spaces used in workshops for hopefuls who wanted to try their luck in Hollywood.

Moira mentioned a couple of times that Megan started here. Not five hours passed and she was let off. The shortest record for any talent scouted for Sonnet. Must be hard for her.

I saw last of the guards shuffle to the emergency stairs leading to the rooftop. Chuck rolled his eyes when I started to follow them.

“Now what do we do?” I asked him, breathing heavily while climbing the stairs, which I hated since it was the kind of stairs where you can see what’s underneath. And now I was being reminded that we were about hundreds of feet off the ground. I could literally see it.