NISHA
"Yikes," Nisha said.
Her eyebrows were permanently attached to the top of her forehead. There was a list of people Nisha never wanted to switch lives with. Number one being Mindy Williams who was meant to give a presentation on the Mechanical Properties of Solids, but instead accidentally revealed to the world her Wattpad profile, where she wrote self-insert BTS fanfiction.
Number two had been Tony Fletcher who decided to eat the hottest chip in the world, ended up in the bathroom for the entire next period, and then, he landed in the hospital.
And yet, whoever that over-dressed kid was suddenly jumped to the top of that list. Or maybe it was worse to be the people in the other car still gobsmacked. That angry curly headed guy just shouted, "doing drugs" and "sex with Ned" to a car full of horrified people that had to be his parents.
She couldn't wrap her mind around it.
If Nisha said anything close to that to her parents, they'd somehow go back in time and make it so she was never conceived.
"Maybe we'll let them go this time," Addison said what Nisha was thinking. Clenching her jaw, Addison attempted to disappear inside the leather of her seat. Her usually pinkish cheeks spread across her face and down her neck.
"Yeah," Nisha agreed. "I don't think we can even reach them."
Unbuckling, Nisha opened the sunroof and climbed up to scout the traffic situation. "This is miserable. Oh—" Nisha jumped watching the parent's car slam on their reverse, back through two empty spots, and escape through the other side to follow them. "Wow. They must hate Ned more than we do."
"Wasn't there someone else with them?" Addison asked.
"I don't remember," Nisha said and dropped back into her seat and buckled again. She browsed Spotify, until she found something slightly romance, but not overt enough that wouldn't clue Addison into the fact Nisha was seducing her.
Convulsing, Nisha shuddered and rubbed her hands together.
Addison glanced at her. "Are you cold?"
"There's something about this time of year. The cold just sticks to me." Nisha smiled and reached for Addison's right hand with her polished nails, long fingers, and silver claddagh ring keeping her heart wide open. She curled their fingers together, bringing her over to Nisha's side and rubbed their hands altogether. "But I guess you don't know what I'm talking about."
A car behind them honked, reminding them where they were and that everyone had the common mission to escape. Addison sighed in relief as they edged closer to the end of the parking lot where someone with mercy in their heart motioned her to go. Just as quickly as she pressed on the gas, Addison hit her breaks suddenly and Addison ripped out of Nisha's hands so she could hold her arm out and cover Nisha like a second seatbelt.
Nisha sucked in a breath, the air was stuck inside her chest. She turned to Addison, her face hot and her heart thrilled, jumping up and down and giving her heart burn. Addison eyed her and finally noticed what he'd done and her skin was burning red. Redder than whining. Sweeter than cherries. there was no way she'd ever remove the stain.
"Sorry," she said, removing her hand.
Nisha smiled. "It's okay. Thank you."
Addison smiled shyly when her eyes caught something in the window, the reason she stopped the car. She asked, "Isn't that the girl who was with those adults?"
A young girl with wild brown curls wearing a cute velvet dress walked just past their car and stopped. She twisted her head back and forth.
Addison rolled down her window. "Hey, uh were those your parents? The one yelling at Ned and his boyfriend?"
The girl whipped around with a look so fierce, the whole car jumped. She narrowed her eyes like they did something bad. "Sam isn't his boyfriend. They're just friends."
"Sure," Addison said. "Whatever. Were they yours?"
"Maybe. Why? Who wants to know?"
Obviously, they weren't going to fight this stranger. Nisha leaned over, purposely pressing against Addison's chest. She laid her hand on her thigh too, making a huge show of herself. She heard Addsion swallow nervously.
Everything she did, Nisha wanted to make Addison's heartbeat faster.
"They left," Nisha said. "Took off that way."
The girl's eyes widened and she whipped back around. Nisha could see the fury inside her building like a balloon threatening to pop. Curling her fists, squaring her shoulders, the girl finally stomped her foot and released a roar of fury. "You've got to be kidding me?! Dammit!"
"Uh, sorry about them. Uh, do you want a ride?" Addison offered.
The girl snapped back, like a wild dog being handed a treat for the first time. Her eyes looked like they had never experienced trust. "What? No. Fuck off. I don't even know you."
With that, she stomped away into the sea of red lights and obnoxiously bright headlights. The car behind Addison honked and they couldn't even chase after her.
Addison checked the time. "It's getting late," she said and turned into traffic finally. Moved to get stuck again. "Sorry this is taking so long."
"I'm yours," Nisha said with a playful pause, watching the flush return. She lived in that anticipation, that playful lull, a game of keep away with no real winner, but Nisha still felt like one. Grinning, Nisha finished that thought, "for the rest of the night."
"Oh, yeah right. Okay cool. Uh, thank you, um,' Addison short-circuited as Nisha turned the music back up.
Lowering her head, she rested on top of Addison's shoulder. "Its just fun being with you."
Addison didn't respond and all of Nisha's confidence knotted and she worried she had finally come off too strong. Did it happen? Did she finally sound so desperate, she grossed Addison out? It was embarrassing how much she liked Addison. Then, hesitantly, Addison rested her hand on Nisha's head to stroke her hair and press her cheek against. Nisha closed her eyes and smiled to keep from screaming.
It was the first time in her entire high school career that she felt lucky without The Gregor being near.
#
NED
With shaky hands, Ned tried to get more super glue on the gnome and less all over his fingertips. The moment the cold and glue met, it harden against his skin in hard uncomfortable chunks. He was shaking too much to do a better job. Ned's heart had never beat so fast in his life and strong before, bruising his ribcage black and blue.
No thoughts.
Head emptied of everything, but Sam shouting, "DOING DRUGS AND HAVING SEX WITH NED!"
A thought like that had come up before, but it hadn't been on Ned's mind tonight. This night started so innocent with Ned just wanting to get his feelings off his sleeve and into Sam's lap. He was only going to ask for a kiss. If he was lucky, he wanted to try for a bit of hand holding.
Sex with Ned.
Sex with Ned.
Sex with me.
"Ned," Sam said and his voice hit Ned like a baseball bat with Ned nearly falling right out of the golf cart.
"Huh? What? I'm not thinking about anything."
Sam's jaw tightened. He readjusted his grip on the steering wheel, so deeply uncomfortable. "We're not really going to go do drugs and have sex. I don't even know where to get drugs. Not that I'd actually want to or anything."
"I know—" Ned's voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I know."
They sat in silence. Not sure how to continue this conversation because Ned didn't what he was supposed to say. His face burned more and a strange thing happened without his permission, where he teared up and he tried fighting against it so he didn't look stupider than usual. That was what it was. He knew Sam was just mad. He wanted to hurt his parents... and it sucked that that the best way from Sam to hurt them was to weaponize Ned and riddle them with the sound of his name, blasting harsher than bullets.
"I was just..." Sam sighed. He didn't have a good excuse. "I don't know."
"I know. I understand."
Ned's hands stopped working. He swallowed, trying to push the misery down. "Is it always going to be like this?" He asked, really wondering if they started dating despite their parents, would they have to keep fighting, struggling, and clawing their way through their family to reach each other with bloody hands and guilty consciousness.
What kind of love could be nurtured soaked in hate? Ned knew it was possible. They'd just have to be two strong people.
Ned almost thought at least they had their friends, but Ned ruined that.
Ned picked at the excess glue from his fingers and held The Gregor in place. A piece had chipped in the front of his little gnome pants, a bright white spec in the middle of shiny blue.
"Even if it stays like this," Sam said in a way in which he cared very much, "I don't care. I'm done caring about what they think."
Ned wished he could let this lawn gnome's leg go so he could take Sam's hand. They didn't deserve this.
"But you don't have to worry about it," Sam said. "Because you can just not say anything again and hide behind me."
Ned straightened. "Are you mad?"
"No."
"Then... what? What is it, then?"
"You just... I don't understand why you never fight back."
He said never like Ned did it all the time. Like he was an ostrich that stuck his head in the dirt every time his mother appeared. It hurt because it was true.
Sam turned into a neighborhood so big it required its own street names. Ned looked off at the houses as they passed, admiring all the lights. One house managed to get a miniature sleigh and fake reindeer onto their roof.
"How's The Gregor?" Sam asked. Leave it to Sam to crawl out of a fight. Ned's family trained him to not let things go. To talk and talk about a problem until they ran out of breath. Sam's family dropped uncomfortable subjects faster than a hot potato.
Sam once admitted to his parents that he almost drowned in their grandmother's pool because a kid jumped on top of him and that was why he didn't like swimming the deep end in pools. Lena had asked what they said. Sam explained, "Oh, we don't ever talk about it, but like what are they gonna do about it?"
It was an interesting question.
"He's mad at me," Ned pouted, looking at his reflection in the gnome's sunglasses.
Sam cracked a smile. "He's a lawn gomer. He doesn't have feelings."
Gawking, Ned quickly covered Gregor's ears. "How dare you. He's sitting right here."
Sam just smiled and checked for any upcoming cars before turning. Ned shook his head. "If you keep trash talking, he's going to pop one of our tires."
"No way. If we fail, he fails. He needs us to figure this shit out."
Ned nodded, glancing at the gnome. "You're not going to cause us any irreparable damage, right?"
"If you are, can you do it to Ned and not me? I wasn't the one who kidnapped you."
"The getaway driver is just as guilty." Ned bumped their shoulders, staying closer than he realized and when their eyes met so close, Ned's skin fizzled like the top of a freshly opened can of soda.
Sam shook his head, biting down that smile now. He hated how much he liked it and Ned just loved it that much more.
They stopped before Ned knew it and his stomach twisted. "Are we here? Already?" Ned wasn't ready. He hadn't mentally prepared to see Mathew Geller. He had only seen this guy from afar, usually closer to Sam than Ned's stomach could take.
He saw this guy mostly in pictures from Sam's feed... but that was three years ago. Who was Mathew Geller at 17? He was probably nice. Probably good. And if he was tall like Ned, Ned would have to throw in the towel because that was literally the only thing that separated Ned from other guys. By several inches in fact.
He leaned over, looking past Sam at the two-story palace of Mathew Geller's house. It reminded Ned of Hallmark movie houses that were too nice to be owned by the lower middle-class families the cast claims to be from. It was crisp white, white as snow and the grass was well trimmed. The cars on the pavement were shiny.
"Let's go," Sam insisted and got out of the golf cart, sliding the keys into his pocket.
"Right, yeah, let's do it." Ned straightened, quickly stuffing the Gregor into his backpack and fumbled out onto the pavement with his wiggly legs and followed close behind Sam. Without thinking, he reached down and swiped Sam's hand, giving it a little squeeze. Sam glanced behind his shoulder and offered Ned a little smile. He squeezed Ned's hand back.
Hello! This update is brought to you by horrific Writer's Block. I wrote this chapter and then, deleted it. Twice. I even wrote past this chapter and had to delete it all. I think around 4k?? It's been rough my dudes.
My fellow writers (or anyone) out there, have you ever wanted to get so much done you're almost overwhelmed by it and you end up getting nothing done. It's been a struggle these past couple weeks. But I'm just gonna try to have fun again. What's the point if we're not having fun!
Don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think! We got a little more flirting between the cheerleaders, poor Maggie getting left behind again, and we have some tough questions posed by Ned. Some real worries! But we have no time to spiral, we gotta meet Matthew Geller!