Nerds Are Lovable

6: Nerds Are Sleepers

A week passes and I've finally understood how this phone works. All the secrets within it and the weird pings and dings it makes. It all makes sense.

No, I'm not an eighty year old woman, shut up.

"I still can't believe he bought you an iPhone."

"Me neither, it's so," I look at the phone, "Fancy."

"Have you spoken to him since?"

I hadn't seen or spoke to Jayden Monroe since the night he bought me my new phone. I hadn't much thought about him or his pink cheeks since that night.

I'd grabbed more beers and hid myself in my room after he'd left my house. I wouldn't let him see, but I knew his mom was talking shit about me. She'd heard some rumor about me, decided it was true, and now had me all figured out. Everyone is the same, everyone is a gossip and a judge. I'd drank 8 beers by the time my dad came home, 3am. He would be disappointed if he walked in and saw the scattered cans. But I'm Haley Jones, I don't care. I don't care about what people think about me. That they assume who I am with such certainty. I don't care. Except, I care a whole damn lot.

I look at Emma, taking a bite of my ham sandwich, I speak with my mouth full, "No, I got the phone."

She nods, looking to me, "Don't talk with your mouth full."

I swallow and open my mouth for her, "All clear."

She rolls her eyes at me but laughs anyway, "So no more Jayden Monroe."

"No, I don't have friends, remember?"

"Then what am I?"

I smile at her and give her a side hug to show my appreciation for her. Emma knows I'd do anything for her, even die for her depending on the situation. She's been there since before my mom died and stayed with me through it. Emma is the type of person that somehow knows a lot about everyone but no one really knows about her. Just like she knew that Jayden tutored math, she knows weird facts about everybody at this school. It's been great blackmail.

"I love you, Emma, leave me alone."

"But then you'd forget about me," She pouts.

The bell rings, indicating the end of lunch and the beginning of the second half of the school day. I groan at the sound of the bell that is not saving me at all but instead making me return to hell.

"Do you have a math test coming up?" Emma asks me as we get up.

Very discrete, Emma.

"I know what you're doing."

"I'm just asking if you have a math test," Emma tells me.

I raise my eyebrows at her, fully knowing she's trying to talk about Jayden Monroe again. Maybe even get me to show up to his tutoring sessions and talk to him again. But I'm done with him, forever. Jayden Monroe was a one time thing. How would that look for my reputation?

I'm a bad girl. I need to not care.

"I do have a test," I tell her honestly, "And I'm planning to fail it."

That weekend, my dad pulls me aside for a serious conversation. He's not the type to do so, but I know when he gets worried he likes to spell it out to me. We've had a very open relationship since it's only the two of us now. We've truly on got each other, we're the two the know how the other feels. Losing a mother and a loving wife, it takes a toll on a family, but our relationship grew from it. It's one of the main things that kept me going.

"Haley, you're about to apply for colleges, I feel," He sighs, "I know, that the grades you have aren't going to help you."

I stare at him, a little wide-eyed, "What are you saying?"