22 Letters✓

Chapter 2: What To Do..

"Derek, you stupid fuck." Cecelia punched his arm slightly while he yelped.

"Hey! What's your problem?" He whined, rubbing his arm.

"Why the hell would you force Leon to tell Nathan he likes him? Are you stupid?" Cece exclaimed.

"Hey, it was his decision to agree to the bet." Derek closed his locker and faced us again. "Not my fault that Leon thinks he's so tough."

"I only agreed because Nathan looked interested in the bet!" I whined. "It's not my fault that he looked so intrigued by it."

"See? You got into this on your own." He shrugged. "Besides, how are you gonna do it anyways?"

"Tell Nathan I like him? I have no idea." I looked at Nathan across from us.

He was talking to another girl, with the girl completely engrossed in their conversation while Nate looked uncomfortable.

"Shouldn't have agreed," Derek muttered.

"You shouldn't have given him such a bet. You know how shy Leon is." Cece pushed me slightly. "You're literally putting this guy in check."

"Stop with the chess jokes, it's seriously getting on my nerves," Derek scoffed. "Besides, Leon was acting tough for nothing, I had to pipe him down."

"First of all, I wasn't acting tough for nothing, I just wanted to show off to Nathan how confident I am." I smiled.

"So, in short, you just showed Nathan how bad of a liar you are?" Cece quipped.

I frowned. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to agree to a bet. That means finding confidence that I scarcely have, to man up and tell Nathan how I feel.

The shit Derek puts me into.

"I can give you a headstart, Leo." Derek smiled. "Julia left Nate, go talk to him."

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm your damn friend, and I personally don't want to see you run naked everywhere." Derek shuddered. "Go talk to him, Cece and I will wait here for you."

I nodded and gave Derek my books. Building up the confidence, I walked towards Nathan's locker.

He didn't notice me as he was putting books in his locker. I waited for at least 20 seconds before clearing my throat. He looked up and instantly beamed. Closing the locker, his full attention was on me now.

"Hey, man." He gave me a man hug, and I took a second to inhale his scent.

This man was literal heaven. He smelt like a thousand flowers in the garden of Eden.

Okay, my exaggeration.

"How are you? I've been meaning to tell you that you're actually really brave for taking a bet like that. I could never tell my crush how I feel." Nate complimented me.

"Thanks, Nate..." I trailed off as his ha d gently brushed mine. "I was wondering if I could get some advice on something?" I had to be subtle about this.

There's no way I could win the bet without actually getting information from the crush themselves. He probably doesn't know it's him, so it's easier this way.

"Yeah?"

"How would you get your crush to notice them? I mean, you're one of the best seniors out here and you can get any girl you possibly want, but I can't," I explained. "How would you tell them?"

"First of all, you're a good looking guy, you can get anyone you want too. And second of all, I'm really cheesy." He rubbed the back of his head. "I do like someone confident, but at the same time I would do something totally unpredictable. Like, le-"

The bell rang, startling Nathan before he could finish what he was saying. In an instant, he looked at me apologetically, "I'm sorry, I have to go for physics now. Good seeing you, James."

He left without even telling me what he was about to say.

Was he going to say leverage over the situation? Leaflets? Lemonade?

I waved off Derek and Cece as they went off to their class while I went off to the library. I had some time to ponder over what Nathan was going to say.

As I sat in my usual place in the library, I took out my notepad. I began to scribble down possible ideas of telling Nathan how I like him.

Frustrated, I threw the paper with useless ideas away into the dustbin, and sat there staring at the page. Suddenly, an idea came to mind.

"What if..." A brilliant idea popped into my mind, and I began to write in my notepad.