The Badass Nerd

Valorant and Caramel

Carter's picture above. I am a huge ass fan of Ian Somerhalder♥️.

...................

"So what's up with you and Taylor?" Mia asked during our lunch break. We found our usual spot right between music club and sports club.

"Uh nothing new. Same old same old. He is taking part in some Valorant gaming tournament though." I said popping a French fry in my mouth. Taylor and I have been together for almost three years and he is the sweetest guy I have ever met. He went off to some college for Data Science and Artificial intelligence. He is extremely smart and a year senior to me. We met because he was the president of the literary club and I was quite interested in writing short stories then and he helped me. We came quite close and one day he asked me out. A month later we came into the relationship and we have been together since.

"You are not?" Ashley asked me. I shook my head and shrugged.
"Gaming is just a hobby for me. I have only ever played counter strike and it's just for fun." They all nodded and exchanged knowing glances. I groaned.
"Okay what? You guys are thinking something and I don't like to be excluded." I said and squinted my eyes at them suspiciously.
"It's about Taylor." Emma blurted and they all stared at her in annoyance.
"What? We are her friends we have to tell her sometime." She said in defence.
"Tell me what? Is this about him not being an ideal mate again?" I groaned.
"Look we are your friends Liv and we know he is an amazing guy. He has always cared for you and he treats you like a lady. He is the Prince Charming but we are just not sure if he is your prince charming." Mia explained. I took a sip of my drink nodding at whatever she said. I love everything about Taylor. He is cute and his love is safe and comforting but there are times when that just feels boring. I feel guilty just thinking about it and everytime they bring this subject up, I just bury these thoughts deep in my head.

"So what's new with you Ashley?" I asked after a moment. They knew I was trying to change the topic. Ashley sighed and went on with my topic anyway.

"I have been digging about this new guy, Carter and apparently he wasn't a bad boy from the beginning. Like he was a very sweet guy in his school but something happened after which he just stopped caring about anything at all. He started drinking and treating girl like trash." She said with dreamy eyes.

"Why are you so attracted to him then? The guy sounds like a Douché." Sofia said and we all nodded in agreement.

"It's called character development, duh. He is this bad boy who will fall in love with me and I will change him to be a better man." She said in a storyteller tone.

"You watch way too many sappy romantic films buddy." Emma said while patting Ashley's back and we all laughed.

"Shh he is here!" Ashley squealed in happiness while facing towards the entrance of cafeteria. We all looked around to see the new guys, the guys who smiled at me when I took care of Mark, Carter Grayson. This was the first time I properly looked at him. He was wearing a casual black t-shirt and navy blue jeans. His hair was set properly and a few strands hid his beautiful emerald eyes. My fingers twitched with an urge to tuck those strands behind his ear. I wanted to roll my eyes and get back to eating my burger but I just couldn't take my eyes off him. He looked perfect? Not the right world. Magnificent? He is not Angelina Jolie. Handsome? Too simple for him. Hot? Obviously but again simple.

I heard him clear his throat and I looked at him in confusion. I then looked at my friends who were waiting for me to reply. I saw him again and I found the right word to describe him, "Beautiful" I said out loud and he grinned at me.

"So I have been told." He said. I kept looking at him for a while but then I smirked.
"They are not wrong." I said and inflated his king sized ego.
"So, now that you are done checking me out, can I sit with you guys?" He asked with a smirk.
"If I am done checking you out, shouldn't I let someone else sit with me?" I fired back. He had an amused expression on his face.
"I can't be so easily checked out babe." He said and I smirked.
"Five minute talk and I am babe now?" I asked. He came close to me, his lips right beside my ear.
"Give me ten minutes and you will be pulling my shirt off." He whispered and pulled away smirking. I felt a chill down my spine when his breath made contact with my ears. I wanted to think it as nothing but I will just be lying to myself. But I will damned if let him know that. I hate expressing my emotions and I keep them within me locked. I don't like people knowing who I really am cause truthfully speaking, I don't trust anyone. Expect for my four friends and my mom, no one knows what I actually am. I won't let him get away with this, I thought.

He was still pretty close to me. I took a fist full of his collar and pulled him so that my lips were close to his ears.
"I want to do that since the moment you stepped in this cafeteria. You wouldn't wanna know how much I have progressed in my head by now." I said and pushed him away. He gaped at me and his friend, Noah I think, literally had to pull him away to another table. It's gonna take him some time to let what I said settle in.

My friends looked at me in awe and proud and I smiled at them.

"You can have him. I like his friend Noah better." Ashley said.
"Not that I am going to approach him but thanks Ash." I said and she smirked at me exchanging knowing glances with the other three.
"We will see." She said and they all went back to eating as if the topic was over. I want to know what they are thinking but I am just craving my burger right now. When we are done, we all took our trays to dispose and went outside the cafeteria. When I was just going out of the room, I turned around to look at Carter. He was looking at me with an expressionless face. I winked at him and turned around with a genuine smile on my face. He is cute.

We all went to our classes. I had mathematics and I didn't share that with any of my friends so I sat there on the third bench and took my notebook out to solve some questions. I am a nerd remember? I opened trigonometry and started off with some off topic questions. They are a little difficult to solve but they are not in the syllabus so our teacher doesn't brother discussing or solving those questions. I was stuck at a problem and I kept scratching my forehead in concentration.

"You have to change tan to cosec and sec and eliminate sin in the second equation." I heard a very familiar voice. I looked up to see Carter staring at me, an amused expression on his face. I took his advice and it did help. Honestly that was the shortest path. I looked up and he wasn't there anymore. He cleared his throat and I saw him sitting beside me smirking.

"Thanks babe. That actually worked." I said and winked at him.
"I am babe now?" He said raising his eyebrow.
"If you don't wanna be, that's fine." I said raising my hands as surrender. Before he could reply anything, Mr. Parker arrived in his usual grumpy stature. The class went by normally but my mind stayed focused on the guy sitting next to me. Somehow, I was more interested in him than the subject. I kept glancing at his direction and every time he caught my eye, he smiled and went back to his work.

When the classes were over, I quickly took off on my bike to my bakery. Did I mention I half own a bakery? There was this shop I used to buy cookies and chocolates from. The old man who owned it always gave me an extra of whatever I bought. He is a very sweet guy but he couldn't manage this store. Last year, I got the news that the shop is on the verge of closing forever. I begged my mom to do something about it so she bought half of the store from that old man. We told him that he doesn't need to work there and we will send him his share every month. All we wanted was to know how he made those delicious recipes. He was very happy with the deal and he readily signed the papers. My mom gave me the ownership of the bakery and I go there every day after school to make delicious food. I often experiment with stuff and the successful ones are quite popular. I stay and cook till 9 and then take off to my home.

When I went in, I quickly cleaned everything and switched the closed sign on the door to open. I put my headphone on and Adore You by Harry Styles came up. I decided to make chocolate and caramel shots that I discovered a week ago. My mom is the one who tastes everything before I put them on the menu and she was very impressed by this. I went to get the chocolate bars from the counter when I saw Carter enter the shop. I smiled at him but it quickly faded away when I saw his arm wrapped around Becca's waist.

..................

Hope you like it. Keep voting and commenting♥️✨