Nice Guys Finish Last

Chapter 6

Mrs. Simmons stared at us, looking like she was trying to comprehend the situation. 

"So it's just you two, right?" 

"Yup!" chirped Maria. 

"And you're alone?" 

"Totally." 

"You two aren't...dating...are you?" she asked suspiciously. Obviously she'd had some uncomfortable situations involving unsupervised teens before. We were in a high school, after all. Maria shook her head as I gazed awkwardly off into the distance, fidgeting with my shirt. Mrs. Simmons looked somewhat reassured. 

"Well... you'd still better be sure to find yourself some supervision. Or some other kids." she said uneasily. 

"His friend Rohan is gonna be back in a sec, Mrs. S!" said Maria, smiling. 

"Rohan?" she asked, looking dubious. I guess she knew about his reputation too. 

"And Jay! Jay's going to be here too," Maria added quickly. 

"Oh!" said Mrs. Simmons, looking relieved. "Okay then. Good luck to both of you with the prom!" Maria smiled and waved at her at her and we waited for her to leave. There was a rather awkward silence as Mrs. Simmons just stood at the doorway, not leaving. 

"What's she doing, Tyler?" Maria whispered to me. 

"Um...I'm not sure, really. Um, maybe... uh...I actually don't know," I stammered. I was kind of startled by the fact that she was asking me something. Was that a sign she thought I was smart? That was good, I guess. But maybe she thought I was a nerd....

"I wonder if she has Alzheimers or something..." Maria muses. 

"She's a little young yet, don't you think?" I respond. Mrs. Simmons, who, even though she's an adult, can apparently sense awkward silences, cuts off our conversation.  

"I'm...I'm just going to...stay here for a little bit....just until Jay comes back."

"Oh, I'll take care of that," Maria said breezily, sticking her head through the door. "Rohan! Stop trying to hit on Jay and get back in here." Jay looked thankfully over at Maria, and Rohan walked back in the room somewhat sheepishly. And just like that, we went back to planning for prom, and I didn't have to worry about Jay being caught in awkward situations with Rohan, at least for the time being. All because of Maria. And that confidence of hers. I don't know how she did it. Whenever I tried to talk to anyone or do anything, all I could do was succeed in making it really awkward. I guess, in a way, it's not Maria's confidence that I admired - it's the reason she had it. It's almost like she was physically incapable of screwing up.

I suddenly realized that I looked like an idiot, just standing next to the plastic table, daydreaming about Maria. Everyone else was pitching in in some way. I looked over to see Maria looking over different color schemes. I'd have loved to help her with that, but I'm semi color-blind. So that might not have worked out. Instead, I opted to find Rohan, who had apparently decided to join our commitee. I looked over to the other side of the room, and saw that all he was doing was staring at the tile floor. I almost wished that Sayu were back here. She's more of an authority figure than I am, and she would've had him helping out in less than a second. I sigh and walk over to Rohan. 

"Hey, man," he muttered, keeping his focus on the floor. 

"Hey." Rohan didn't respond. "Hey, are you okay?" Rohan sighed and turned around.

"Do you ever feel like, no matter how hard you try, that one girl will just never like you?" There was a rather awkward silence. We both knew that I'd never had even one girl ask me out. "Oh. Yeah. That's right. So... um... you never got a chance to tell me what you wanted to say when Jay was over at my house. "  I grinned at Rohan. He may put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but at least he knows when he does. 

"Yeah. I'm actually really excited about this. You know how I was telling you about how I like Maria Gonzalez, and you said that I'd never get her to like me, and Jay was like, 'No, she's really nice and she'd like you,' and then-"

Rohan interrupted me. "Dude. I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is 'the point of this conversation'. Get to know each other, okay?" 

"Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I have this plan." 

"For what?" 

"A plan to get Maria Gonzalalez to finally pay attention to me," I said, smiling. 

"Whoa. Dude. I thought we'd already gone over this. Maria Gonzalez is way out of your league. Why don't you try to get together with Irene?" he asked, pointing to a redheaded girl who had just walked in. "She's nice. And Irish. You into girls with accents?" I jabbed his arm. 

"I won't date someone just because they have an accent. That's stupid. Just shut up and listen to my plan, okay?"  

"Fine." 

"Okay, so you know how people always get together in books in the same way?"

"What?"

"You know - they've got to work on a project together, or one of them drops their books, and the other person picks them up for them. Or their eyes meet across a crowded room or something." 

"Oh, I see what you mean now. The clichés." 

"Uh huh. Well, I was thinking, if they can make two people get together in the books, why shouldn't that be able to happen in real life?" Rohan looked confused.

 "Um, because they're books, man," says Rohan, hitting the back of my head. 

"Yes...but aren't lots of books based off of real life?" I say, rubbing my head. 

"Yeah. The lives of beautiful, popular, perfect people! You'd have more of a shot if you maybe got some clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch. And maybe if you worked out sometimes, I wouldn't  be able to make a circle with my hand around your upper arm," he said, demonstrating this feat with his free hand, and consequently embarrassing me in front of Jay, who had just walked up from the dance floor. 

"Hey guys. Need any help with...um...whatever you're doing?" she asked.

"Um...I think we're good. Not that I don't want you to help! You're great. With helping. And stuff. Actually, here, we could actually use some help! With...um.... um....deciding what kind of punch we should get! If you want to, that is. I'm not forcing you to talk about punch with me or anything. But if you want to, that's fine. Just...do what you want, I guess?" Rohan rolled his eyes at me as she smiled. 

"Jeez. I am now completely unsure what to do," she said, laughing. "I'll just go help Maria with the color scheme, I think. Bye, guys!"  There was a long pause. 

"I think I will help you with your plan, Tyler," Rohan finally said. I grinned at him.

"But only because you desperately need to hang around some more chicks."  

That's it for that chapter! Next week Mihael will be writing. :) Hope you enjoyed it!

-Sahela