The Nerd and the Prince

Chapter 5

Last night was all a blur to Zack. He couldn’t recall anything that had happened, and but he surely knew that he was wearing clothes before he fell asleep. Zack looked down at his bare chest. ‘Damn’ He thought to himself, gleaming at his perfectly toned abs. ‘Damn’ was the right word for them. He had started to work on them since the day he was rejected to the Valentine’s Dance during his Middle School years. He looked around him, realizing that he was tucked into his bed. He looked down under the cover just to check whether he was literally naked. ‘Thank God’ He said to himself, feeling relieved that no stranger had seen ‘all’ of him.

Zack got up from his bed and sat down. His head was aching because he was also sure on the fact that last night involved drinking. He checked the clock next to his bed to check the time. It read 5:00. ‘Woah, How long have I been out?’  He grabbed a t-shirt lying on the floor and put it on. His throat felt dry, so he went down stairs to get a glass of water.

He was in utter shock when he saw the living room. It was spotless! The sofa pillows were in their right place. The magazines were set right to their place on the center of the coffee table.

“Whatever happened, was a Miracle!” Zack exclaimed out loud.

He walked into the kitchen. Instantly it all came back to him. Samantha’s party, the cops, the police station, Vanessa, coffee, Johnny English, drinks. VANESSA! Where is she? His eyes landed on the kitchen counter. There was a piece of paper on it. He instantly jerked towards the counter and lunged for the table. He took the paper in his hand and started reading it.

Hi Zack,

I’m sorry I left without saying anything but I really had to go. My parent would go crazy if they found that I wasn’t at home, when they woke up for their late Saturday coffee. I fixed up the house before I left, if you were wondering. You drank a bit too much to Johnny English’s victory, and you got drunk. I put you in bed but you opened your own t-shirt. There’s lasagna in your fridge, your mom had sent a message to tell you. Hope you get over the hangover soon.

                                                                                                                                         Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                         Vanessa

P.S I had a great time. Thanks a lot.

 “Vans I thought it was Keisha who went out last night. Why are you sleeping so much?” Vanessa’s mom said folding the clothes lying on the ground.

“What time is it?” Vanessa asked stretching up he hands in the air.

“It’s 3 in the afternoon.” Vanessa’s mom said putting the clothes inside the closet.

“What?” Vanessa instantly got out of the bed and dived for her phone on the table. Her phone read 3:07. “Mom! Why didn’t you wake me up earlier? Ughhh. You know I have to go do school work at 3:30 every Saturday.” Vanessa ran inside the bathroom which was attached to her soon-to-be room.

“Don’t blame me. It’s your responsibility to wake up to your needs. Haven’t Dad and I taught you to take care of your needs? I feel so disappointed. Keisha’s leaving for college tomorrow and now your blaming stuff at me. When did I become so bad that my daughters started going against me. I’m really upse—“

“Mom, I’m leaving. I’ll be back before dinner.” Vanessa cut her mother off and said. While Vanessa’s mother had been lecturing her, Vanessa had changed from her sleeping clothes into a pair of grey jeans and a black tank top. She had managed to brush her teeth, wash her face, and she even managed to fix her hair into a ponytail.

“Okay. Bye. Do I matter anymore to you guys? No, right.” Vanessa’s mother said softly.

“Where’s Keisha, Mom?” Vanessa asked putting her phone and wallet inside her jeans pockets.

“She’s went out shopping for her first day of college tomorrow.” Vanessa’s mom said picking up the last of the clothes lying on the ground.

“Oh okay.” Vanessa paused thinking about last night. “I’ll leave now. Buh-bye.”

Vanessa kissed her mother on the cheek and left the room.

“Baby, please call me up. I need to explain. Whatever you saw last night between me and that guy was just a misunderstanding. Please, please call me back.”

Zack deleted the 15th message on his phone. Samantha had managed to leave 52 voice mail from the last time they had met. Zack didn’t take the chance to listen the rest of the messages. He instantly deleted all the messages, not wanting to hear Samantha’s voice anymore. He got up from his bed and turned on the stereo to listen to some music. Instantly, his phone started buzzing. He reached for the phone from the top of his bed, and looked at the caller ID. It read, ‘Sammie <3’. His expressions suddenly changed and he silenced the call. ‘Don’t want to hear a word from that bitch.’ Zack said under his breath. He threw his phone on the couch beside his bed and got up. Zack was a player, but he hated when girls would lie. He would sleep around girls, but never did he sleep with two different girls at the same time. And when he was finally dating Samantha he stopped sleeping around. He expected the same from Samantha. Zack’s body burned up thinking about the heinous act Samantha had done last night. He had gone into the house to use the bathroom to come out and find Samantha sucking on some guy’s face in the pool.

He instantly closed his eyes and sighed. He needed some fresh air. Zack changed into blue faded jeans and a white Apocalyptica band t-shirt. He decided to leave his phone home, because he certainly didn’t want to take technological Samantha along with him.  Zack looked at the clock and it read out 6:00. He took his wallet and decided that tonight could be his alone night out, cause his parents were out for the weekend and he was too lazy to make dinner for himself. He locked up the door and started for the park.

“Okay Je Eun, next week we can work on your listening skills.” Vanessa said, as she started walk out of the familiar school doors. Samantha volunteered as the English teacher for transferred students who had trouble in English. Lately, she had been working with Je Eun every Saturday. Je Eun was a Korean transfer student in her first year of high school. Vanessa loved teaching and Je Eun loved learning so they made the perfect pair.

Vanessa started walking for home when her phone buzzed. She took it out of her pockets and saw that her Mom was calling.

“Hello?”

“Vanessa honey, you see today is Keisha’s last day with us, so your Dad and I wanted to take her out for dinner, alone. I hope it’s okay with you?” Her mom spoke out sweetly.

“Uhh. Yeah sure. It’s okay. I’ll just buy dinner for myself.” Vanessa said.

“That’s great honey. Maybe you could call up a friend and have dinner with them. Take care, Bye.”

“Bye.” Vanessa said as her mother hung up.

That was exactly the problem. She had no friends. Vanessa Hannigan, the girl who started out high school as the queen bee was now labelled as the “Nerd” in her senior year. She thought about how life had been before. The party’s, the hangouts, the drinks,  the dresses, make up, pictures, popularity, friends, how all had change just cause she didn’t agree to sleep with her boyfriend? Life sucked, but it would eventually move on. Just like hers did. She didn’t care anymore, though. The teasing, the insults, they were all there but eventually they would stop. Now she would just look at Samantha Ray, and think, ‘If I would have agreed to sleep with Jake, I would have been that.’

But Vanessa was confused, she didn’t know herself whether ‘that’ meant a whore, or someone she was jealous of. She just kept walking thinking about all those times, when Keisha and she would both return late from parties and how her parents would frantically start screaming at them, but eventually would stop cause they both would have dozed off by then.

That was fun, she said to herself, and directed herself to her favourite diner, to get dinner. Alone.