How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 13 - The Knight in Shining Armor... minus the Shining Armor

If I don't say this now, I will surely break

As I'm leaving the one I want to take

Forget the urgency but hurry up and wait

My heart started to separate            --Look After You, The Fray

Chapter 13 – The Knight in Shining Armor… minus the Shining Armor

 

While waiting inside the gym, I heard Chuck and Reed far up the corridors. And as expected, they were annoying again like the other twenty-three hours of the day. Cliché. Never failed to disappoint.

“Run to the gym now, sweetie,” Chuck pleaded to Sarah. “Please? We’d hear from Nate if we screw this up.”

“What for, Chuck? And why are you wearing those clothes?” Sarah asked shakily.

Cursing, I headed to the double doors and peered into the hallway. The Ferguson brothers, dressed as Gerald and Moira were pushing Sarah toward the gym, with no success. Sarah was still giggling uncontrollably and I could tell she was doing her best to force it back. Who could blame her?

Chuck was the bomb!

“Because I’m not Chuck.” He rolled his eyes and adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses. “I’m Moira,” he croaked in his ‘girly’ voice.

Without a warning, Reed doubled over and started laughing like mad again. When he recovered from the spaz, he took Sarah’s shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. “Nerdy, please do the lady a favor so we could get this over with,” he blurted out in between the sniggers.

She came back with a stubborn “Not until you tell me what’s in there,” folding her arms across her chest.

“You’re crazy future ex-husband,” he sneered, seeing Sarah’s confusion.

Sighing at the same time, the brothers swapped impish looks before nodding at each other. Sibling telepathy. I couldn’t get the hang of it. They looped their hands under the crook of Sarah’s arm. While she was screaming and thrashing in protest, they started dragging her along the hallway, her sneakers skidding on the floor. What part of ‘be subtle and careful’ did they not get?

After a while, Sarah stopped resisting, almost looking bored and annoyed as the other two practically lugged her to the gym. Before setting her down, Reed gave her a simple instruction. “If anyone asks, we hounded you like hell to the gym. Are we clear?” Then wryly, he began pushing her into the gym like he was trying to shoo a puppy away.

The big double doors swung shut. Metal chains clinked from outside. A lockdown. Seriously? That wasn’t part of the plan!

“W-what’s going on?” Sarah asked with a troubled expression, slowly backing away from me.

“Sarah. Please calm down, okay. I don’t mean any harm.” Carefully, I tried to approach her, raising both my hands. “I just want to talk.”

With probing, questioning eyes, she whispered in a thin, papery voice, “W-who are you, really?”

For a while, I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t know how to answer her question without making everything complicated for her. Should I tell her, “Well, I’m your long lost boyfriend,” or maybe “I’m your forgotten special someone,” on my knees while I beg for her to take me back? It’d be the easiest way for me but the toughest for her. No. She’d be more confused and miserable than ever. Between the two of us, I’d rather take all the blows than see her suffer more.