the nerd and the heartbreaker

racheal - observe, love, repeat

I shouldered through a crowd of loud-voiced students until I saw my friends turn sharply around a corner. Bio, required of all rising freshmen that year, was notorious for generating classes that split tight-knit social circles apart. I had been sitting next to my exe the whole hour, and I felt absolutely sick.

Jack came to me from behind. "Heyo, baby, what's up?"

I felt an unnerving twinge on my right shoulder and knew he was trying to put his hand there. Instinctively, I whipped around, grabbed him by the collar, and shoved his face into the nearest locker, before turning to check for curious teachers nearby.

It wasn't the best order for avoiding detention while giving your exe a well-deserved blow to the face, but it had to do, for now.

Jack gave me a half-smirk with his shiny white teeth and an elbow on my shoulder. "Hey, there, princess," he said, "can't be all that whiny today with your good man here."

"We broke up two weeks ago," I breathed. "Get over yourself."

Jack gave me his best-effort wink before turning away to join his teammates, who were slapping him high-fives as if he'd just crushed the Dallas Cowboys on their best day.

Get. Over. Yourself.

I was more than willing to make my way through the crowd again and rip the smug expression off his face, but there was another weighty factor my brain hadn't touched on yet.

Her.

Monica was impossible to miss. She was wearing her oversized, loose-sleeved tannish-brown hoodie and light gray sweats — add that to her rose quartz-colored glasses, and she looked like your everyday chic girl.

I knew my exe was still watching me like a hawk, so I stared at the beauty in front of me. I couldn't help it, with all honesty, as much as I pretended to be in control of my own eyes. I hated the feeling of not being able to look away, as though a secret deity was manipulating my body. But I wanted to look at her, and nobody could stop-

Screw that. I wanted to talk with her and know her and be next to her every single day of my life, unless she threw my heart on the ground, like Jack.

However, I had more faith in Monica than in him.

"Racheal, are you coming?"

Karla's voice broke my silence, and I turned around to see her carrying a stack of her Algebra 1 materials, her pencil case on top.

"Remind me, is my cigar packet in there?" I asked.

Karla rolled her eyes, unzipping her pencil case slightly. "Yeah. You gave them to me this morning and said to 'keep them for the class' or you'd die."

"That was a hyperbole," I chuckled. "C'mon, is the rest of the gang in class?"

"Harley got the extra paper. She thought you needed it. Also, how do you know what a hyperbole is? You had a C- in your English class, didn't you?"

"Karla," I interjected, strutting through the wooden doorway, "it's Monica."

"Yeah, I know," Karla laughed. "I have a girlfriend too."

As though on a sudden signal, Maria tipped back on her chair. "Yeah, speaking of girlfriends, baby, don't forget to mention that her future one's right there."

Harley rolled her eyes. "Phoenix ahead."

I gave Harley a playful shove as I walked to the seat next to her. "Can you make a paper airplane with that spawned binder paper?" I joked.

"Hate to break it to you, but I died up the stairs with those. You really don't know how to do anything," Kat remarked, twirling her finger around her girlfriend's hair, a few parts of which were dyed a brilliant red hue last summer.

Maria half-chuckled, half-snorted playfully. "Weren't we supposed to make paper airplanes a few weeks ago? Remind me how you survived that."

"The one for the physics demo?" Karla said between two yawns, neither of which were suppressed quite well enough. I noticed the usual dark circles beneath her eyes and assumed that she had unconsciously pulled an all-nighter. Again.

Harley nodded. "I'm not stupid or anything, but Monica was carrying all three of us. I remember that her mother came to visit me and Racheal one day..."

As our gang was immersed in another one of their teasing conversations about my future love life, I stared at the girl in front of me.

I was at her hair more than anything else, but everything about her — her self-conscious gait, her oversized glasses and clothes, the way her cheeks flushed and gave way to her dimples when she was embarrassed, the way her laugh was the best sound in my life, that priceless smile when she said my name — caught my eye.

All of a sudden, I heard a commotion by her side. An unfriendly voice sounded, and I turned to see Maya, her wavy blonde hair and sky-colored blue eyes deceptively beautiful. I knew better than to trust her with anything... or anyone.

I knew it was against my type of moral code to eavesdrop, but I knew I would be breaking all my rules for Monica either way.