How to Date a Nerd

by Cassie Mae

  “Ah!” he exclaims, waving it by his face. “This book is wicked awesome.”

  I laugh, punching him in the shoulder. “Good, at least you’ll be entertained.”

  As he flips open the pages, I suddenly have the urge to kiss him again. To knock the book out of his hands and replace them with me.

  I hold the breath in my cheeks and try to calm down. Get a freakin’ hold of yourself, Zoe!

  Tucking his jacket around my body, I skip to the bathroom as quickly as I can. I know I have no right to think it, but I kind of hope he checked my ass out as I left.

  I give myself another pep talk as I scrub off all the sweat from my dream. Zak seems like he’s in a good mood, and so far I haven’t managed to screw anything up. But the real test will be out there. In front of people. Possibly running into kids from school, or their parents or siblings.

  My stomach twists, like it’s wringing itself out, trying to get rid of all the excess emotions in my body. Leaving only nerves.

  These kind of nerves I can handle. The ones right before you go out with a guy you really want to go out with. Better these nerves than those stupid ones about being spotted doing something embarrassing.

  Zoe! It’s not embarrassing! Stop thinking like that!

  The water shuts off with a squeal. The steam that fills the room makes it hard to see as I fling the curtain open and reach for the towel rack.

  But my hand only grabs air.

  You’ve got to be kidding me!

  And of course, the only way to get to a towel is through my room. If this was any other guy, coming out naked would be fine, expected even. But Zak doesn’t want that girl. He wants the real me. And the real me wishes I was invisible right now.

  Panic mingles in with my nerves as I search for an alternative. My eyes land on the toilet paper, which won’t work and makes me shake my head laughing. Don’t be ridiculous, Zoe. There’s nothing under the sink. I consider taking the shower curtain down, but then the bath mat catches my attention.

  That should work.

  Wrapping it around my body, rubber side out, the cushy side clings to my wet skin and I send praises that I washed the dang thing the other day.

  I look ridiculous, but at least I’m not walking out stark naked.

  “Uh, Zak?” I say through the door

  “Mmm?” His tone tells me he’s totally absorbed in the book. Good.

  “Can you not look? I forgot to grab my clothes.”

  I hear him laugh. “I’ve seen you in less than a towel, but yeah. I won’t look if you don’t want.”

  “Well, I forgot a towel too.”

  I’d pay to see his face. The silence makes me wonder what he’s thinking, and I open the door a crack to get a glance of it.

  He’s not there. He’s disappeared. Like he’s some sort of superhero, like The Flash, which would be awesome.

  “Zak?”

  “I-I’m in the hall. Just let me know when you’re dressed.”

  I drop the bath mat on the floor, relieved I don’t have to come out in it. Though funny, it would be mortifying.

  The towels I haven’t folded yet are at the bottom of my hamper, so I have to dig around to get one, drying off on the other clean clothes in the process. When I finally find two, I wrap one on top of my head and quickly pat down the rest of my body with the other.

  I toss the towel on the bed, grabbing a bra and panties. My hands shake so bad I can’t put my underwear on without falling on my face. I plummet to the floor with a loud thud.

  “Are you okay in there?” Zak asks, laughing.

  “Yeah! I’ll be done in a minute, sorry.”

  Why can’t I find anything to wear? All the short and slutty crap doesn’t seem to fit the situation, and all the dorky shirts are a little too much for me right now. Why do I not own anything in between?

  I settle on a pair of jeans and a low cut yellow top, wearing a cami underneath it, though I normally wouldn’t have. But Zak isn’t impressed by cleavage or how much skin I show.

  I braid my hair quickly, and skip makeup, being all too aware he’s waiting for me.

  Taking a deep breath, I open the door and Zak falls back in between my legs. I burst out laughing.

  “Sorry,” I say through my giggles.

  He rubs his head, chuckling along with me. “Ow.”

  “Get up.” I kick him. “I’m starving.”

  His whole face brightens with my enthusiasm to get going. Maybe this will be easier than I thought.

  “Okay,” he says, hopping to his feet. “Where do you want to go?”

  My voice gets stuck in my throat as I try to think of places we’d be less likely to run into people. Damn it, Zoe! Stop with the insecure bullshit.

  Maybe this won’t be easy.

  He saves me from answering, gauging my eyes. “How about we wing it?”

  I nod and imitate a chipmunk storing nuts for the winter. He smiles and squeezes my cheeks together, then lets his fingers trace down my neck, my shoulder, my arm, landing in my hand.

  “Okay, let’s go.” I tuck into his arm and shout to myself. Do not mess this up!

  Chapter 20

  Let the battle of the Zoes begin!

  I start the car all by myself. Like a big girl. But I kind of wish he would’ve helped.

  “What is this?” he says, making a face at the radio.

  “Jason Derulo,” I sing as Jason sings it. Zak laughs and promptly turns off the music.

  “Not a fan?”

  “Ugh, no.”

  I raise an eyebrow, but I’m sure it doesn’t look as awesome as when he does it, and he stumbles over his words.

  “I mean, you have a good voice. I-I just meant mainstream totally sucks. N-not to bash on your taste in music, but… what is so funny?”

  My hand claps over my mouth, stifling all my giggles. “I’m sorry,” I say, bringing my hand down. “It’s like you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole, when I didn’t feel offended in the first place.”

  He pokes my side, tickling me. “Get the car to the street, silly girl.”

  I love it when he calls me that. Mental note: be dorky. “Will you help me?”

  “I thought you did pretty well without it last time.”

  I know I’m pushing my luck, but I don’t care. So far I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m going to take advantage of it. Grabbing his hand with my left, I force it on top of my right hand on the shifter.

  “Please?” I say as I tuck his fingers in between mine. His face flushes and I see his Adam’s apple move up and down as he gulps. I can’t help the strings tugging my lips, and he smirks at my goofy grin.

  “All right,” he says in defeat. “But you will have to learn to do it all by yourself.”

  I roll my eyes, and he moves my hand into reverse.

  Instead of being nervous, Zak actually has a calming effect on me. I don’t stall the car once. Score!

  “Wow, have you been practicing?” he asks after I get going on a hill without plowing into the person behind me.

  I roll my eyes and pretend like his compliment totally didn’t just make my freaking day. “Hey, do you mind if we stop somewhere?”

  “Whatever you want. You’re driving.”

  Stopping the air that wants to fill my cheeks, I pull into the Walgreens parking lot and shut the car off.

  His eyebrow shoots up, but he doesn’t say anything. Just fumbles around with his seatbelt before bolting around the car to open my door for me.

  Cute.

  Now let’s not screw this up.

  I so want to hold his hand, so I keep it nonchalantly at my side waiting for him to “accidentally” bump into me.

  No such luck.

  “What are we here for?” he asks, shrugging his hands into his pockets, his lightsaber keychain lighting up as he hits it.

  I tug him by the overshirt to the oral hygiene section. Running my finger through all the different selections, I finally land on a toothbrush and wave it by my face.
“Is green still your favorite color?”

  He chuckles. “You’re buying me a toothbrush?”

  “I thought you needed a new one. You know, ’cause I got yours all nasty.”

  That darn sexy smile creeps on his lips. The one I don’t ever deserve and yet he still gives me. “I’m surprised you even remembered using it. I thought you were too wasted to remember anything from last night.”

  I shove the toothbrush against his chest and nearly pass out because I touched him.

  “Well, going into the wrong house and walking in on you in the shower has been burned into my brain.” Holy crap! Did I really just say that? I know I’m flaming red now. How do I take it back without making it worse?

  He raises his eyebrows, his eyes totally laughing at me. I wish my legs didn’t feel like Jell-O, because I kind of want to get out of here.

  So much for trying to be nice. This was such a bad idea. Mentally smacking myself in the forehead.

  “I guess that would traumatize you.” Now his face has reddened.

  “I didn’t see anything,” I say quickly. Could this conversation get any more uncomfortable? “I was just saying because, you know, I was drunk and you were—”

  “Naked.” He’s laughing now.

  Yes. The conversation could get more uncomfortable.

  “How would you feel if you walked in on me naked?” What is wrong with my mouth today?

  “Hmm…” He rubs his chin and attempts pervert eyes. It looks so funny I can’t help but burst out laughing.

  “Shut up!” I smack his shoulder and he steps back. As if I could really rock him off his feet with that weak hit.

  “Well, thanks,” he says, handing the toothbrush back, “and yeah, green is still my favorite color.”

  “Good.” I walk past him, covering my heated face. I can’t believe I talked about his naked ass. Totally not what I had in mind for this… whatever this is.

  “So, where did you want to eat?” I ask when we get back in the car and reverse out of the parking lot.

  “You’re driving.”

  Is that going to be his cop-out for making any decisions today?

  “Well, do you want to go in somewhere? Or just grab something to eat in the car?”

  “Up to you.”

  Argh. I feel like this is one of those scenes with the bomb wires. And if I cut the wrong one, that’ll be it for my chances with dream nerdboy.

  I know I should prove to him I’m okay with us being seen together—which I’m still not one-hundred percent sure I am okay with, and that sucks—but I really want to be alone with him. Great. Just lovely! Here I go with the battle of the Zoes.

  “You okay?” he asks.

  I nod. “Just hungry. Trying to decide what I want.”

  “Be honest,” he says, putting his hand on mine and shifting into third.

  Forcing back laughter at my transparency, I blow out my cheeks as I consider granting his request.

  “Zo,” he prods.

  “I don’t want to tell you.” That’s honest.

  “Why not?” He shifts as we come to a stoplight, fully smiling now.

  “Because you might get mad.”

  As soon as the words leave my mouth, his smile disappears. “You don’t want to be seen with me.”

  “No, no!” I blurt. Gosh, I don’t want him to think that even if it’s a tiny bit true. And I hate myself for admitting to that, but my freaky dream keeps coming back and haunting me. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t mind going someplace public like I promised, but it’s just…” There goes my voice evaporating like it always does when I get scared.

  “The light’s green.”

  I let off the clutch, jerking a little, but not stalling. “Sorry.”

  “What were you saying?”

  The engine revs really loud and he moves his hand from mine to my leg and pushes it down on the clutch. Then he quickly shifts with his other hand. The car quiets as the rpm’s drop.

  “Wow, you’re good.” I smile trying not to drool over how hot that was.

  “Pay attention, Zo.” He chuckles and I get my courage back.

  “I want to be alone with you.”

  He’s still leaning toward me, his eyes flick up to my face, and I totally want to meet his gaze, but I don’t want to crash the car.

  “Why?”

  “Because.”

  A small puff of air hits my neck as he huffs. “Because why?”

  “I’m not trying to avoid people. It’s just, I-I…” I let out a defeated sigh when I can’t explain without telling him exactly what I want, which is a chance for Geek Zoe to be herself without worrying over everything else. He totally helps me do that, when we’re…

  “You just want to spend some time alone?”

  Exactly. “Yes.”

  He pauses and my face gets hot.

  “Uh, yeah. That sounds okay.”

  My stomach does a little ribbon dance as he agrees. “Okay, then you choose the food.”

  His wide smile distracts my gaze for a second, and I have to snap it back to the road.

  “Panda.”

  Chapter 21

  Always bring a compact when you go out to eat.

  “Mmm.” Damn those uncontrollable moans, but the mandarin chicken from Panda is made by gods.

  Zak leans back against the windshield of my car, rubbing his flat stomach and gazing at the surrounding trees. “I think I might explode.”

  Even after stuffing himself silly, he’s so damn sexy. I smile and move the chicken into my cheek so I can talk. “Well, if you didn’t eat so fast, you probably wouldn’t have eaten so much. Did you even save me any chow mein?”

  He pinches his fingers leaving a tiny bit of space between them. I laugh and continue chewing my food, letting the cool mountain air brush over my face. It’s lucky we live so close to spots like this, where we can escape the city and park on the side of the road, listening to the rapid water kissing rocks in the stream—smelling the pine and maple trees, and tasting the fruit filled air.

  Totally like Lord of the Rings. Which is perfect for us.

  After I finish my chicken and the two bites of chow mein he left me, I grab the bag with the fortune cookies in it. Hey!

  “Did you eat yours already, cheater? You know it doesn’t come true until everyone has finished eating.”

  “No.” He leans up on his elbows. “Did they only give us one?”

  “Looks like it.” I pull it out and hand it to him. “You can have it.”

  Smiling, he takes it from my hand, which surprises me. I expected us to argue over the stupid thing.

  “This is perfect. Now it can be like a wishbone.” He bites off the wrapper and sticks one side of the cookie out to me.

  “Cheesy,” I tease in a sing-song voice, but I take the other side and pull. It splits down the middle and the paper lodges in his half.

  “That’s what you get for making fun of me.” Zak winks, sticking his piece of cookie in his mouth and pulling out the fortune.

  I play with my own half, fingering the edges. We used to do this. All. The. Time. Split our cookies open and add silly crap on the end, always something to do with Harry Potter. Gosh, how could I have given up something so awesome? I totally ruined our friendship.

  “Geez, I didn’t know you’d be so torn up about it.” He chuckles as he sticks the paper in between his fingers and holds it out to me.

  Guess I’m transparent today.

  “I don’t want the stupid fortune.” I shove his hand away, smirking. “I was just thinking.”

  “About?”

  “You.” Ugh. Here comes the word vomit.

  “What about me?” He slides closer, pulling me down next to him on the windshield. His hands shake a little on my arm. “That I’m so incredibly sexy eating my cookie?” He sticks his tongue out so he can show me his “see food.”

  “You caught me,” I say, shoving him. We laugh, our bodies moving in tune with each other. That totally gives me t
he good kind of chills.

  When our amusement subsides, he wraps his arm around me. “Really, Zo. What were you thinking about?”

  “What a crap friend I’ve been.”

  I think I’ve pulled him up short. He doesn’t speak, but it looks like he wants to. I drop my eyes, knowing he can’t say anything reassuring without lying to me.

  Clearing my throat of all the gook that suddenly appears there I say, “I’m sorry. I know you don’t believe me, but I am sorry for hurting you.”

  He coughs and I glance at him from under my eyelashes. His head’s turned the other way.

  “I’m starting to,” he says.

  “Starting to what?”

  He looks at me. “Believe you.”

  I think I may pass out. His face moves closer and my heart pumps in my head. He reaches his other arm across my body, and tucks the fortune in my hand.

  “You can have it,” he says softly, pressing his forehead against mine. “Friends like to share.” He smiles and it sends a torrent of electric shocks through my chest.

  “We’re friends again?”

  “Baby steps.”

  It’s like I don’t have control over my body because kissing him is definitely not ”baby steps” and that’s exactly what I try to do. Apparently I have no self control.

  My lips barely brush his before he pulls back, taking his sexy scent with him.

  “Sorry,” I mumble, slapping my forehead. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  He laughs and tucks me into his side. “It’s not that, Zo.”

  “Then what?”

  He pulls out a napkin and hands it to me. My heart falls from my head to my butt as he holds in his laughter.

  “Are you kidding? I’ve had crap on my face this whole time and you haven’t said anything?”

  He rolls over, barking out his amusement as I scrub my lips, my cheeks, even my eyebrows. I chuck my napkin at him and push him so hard he almost falls off the hood of my car.

  “Whoa crap!”

  I nudge him farther, giggling nonstop as I try to push him off. He puts his hands up in defense, but I clasp onto them, moving my legs on either side of his hips and pinning him down. We’re both laughing so hard, tears stream down my face, and he can’t seem to breathe.