Beauty and the Geek Boy

Chapter 54-Will

*Geek Boy*

Five days earlier

Nerves. They were all I could feel as I stood in the hallway, my eyes fixed on the closed door. I dragged in a breath, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans.

I felt a squeeze on my shoulder. I looked up at Jed, standing to my right, a gentle smile on his face.

"Don't worry," he said.

I nodded, dragging in another breath. I didn't know how Jed always managed to stay calm. How he always managed to stay strong. Like the sea could swallow all of us, and he would still remain strady, calmly rescuing everyone.

I related more with mom. She wasn't relaxed in the least. She stood to my left, one hand squeezing the life out of her opposing wrist, her eyes wide and fearful.

She'd been shifting slowly over the last two months, becoming different. Who she used to be before was a far off image compared to who she was now. And I knew that she would never be that person again. But she was trying. Trying to be someone new. And that was enough.

We were all trying to fix things.

Which was why we were here.

In five minutes, James and dad would be walking through that door.

I'd been trying to convince myself that it wasn't that big of a deal. I'd talked to dad on the phone over the last few weeks. And it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other recently. We'd been skyping over the last month—all of us, together sometimes. But seeing them in person...

It was an entirely different beast.

The bell rang.

Make that thirty seconds.

My heartbeat plunged into overdrive. Mom's eyes widened. She took a step back. Jed paled.

I blinked, surprised. Maybe he wasn't calm. Maybe he was just as terrified as mom and I were.

Maybe strength was just putting on a brave face, stepping forward even if you were scared.

I walked forward and opened the door.

*

Present

"And then, dad was like, it must be the bandwidth," James said, lowering his voice to imitate dad's rasp, "and we just stared at him, like what?"

Jed laughed. James's eyes lit up, his grin widening.

Dad shook his head. "I told you I didn't get all that tech stuff."

Mom rolled her eyes, smiling, "You never have."

There was a paused as dad smiled back at her. Everyone was quiet.

Then mom broke his gaze, standing. "You two should be heading back to the hotel," she said as she began clearing away takeaway bags. "Your flight's tomorrow."

Dad blinked, then nodded. "Yeah, I guess we should." He started to stand. "Let me help—"

"It's fine," mom said sharply. "You're a guest."

The way dad recoiled was almost audible. The entire room winced. Mom grimaced. She parted her lips to say something, then pressed them shut and continued clearing the table.

Jed stood, patting dad's shoulder. "Don't worry dad, I'll help. We all know you hate chores."

Dad laughed, but the sound was rough. "You caught me."