by RH Tucker
“First of all, what the hell is cosplay? And secondly, what do you mean she knows about all this? Has she been here?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “I dressed up as Iron Man. She was at the convention and saw me. Then we had to team up for that sociology class experiment, and she wanted to see my room. So, I brought her up here.”
“Yeah, you did.” Carter smiles.
“Dude, no.” I stop him. “Well, okay, we made out a little on my bed, but–”
“You made out with her?” Lucas asks.
“Was it hot?” Carter asks as he looks at Lucas. “I bet it was hot.”
“You’re missing the point.”
“Matt, you haven’t made a point yet.”
“My point,” I squeeze my eyes shut, “is that yes, I like her. And yes, she likes me. I think. And I even asked her to prom.”
“And?”
“And she said she’d only go with me if I dressed up as Spike from Cowboy Bebop.”
Carter and Lucas both look at each other, and if I weren’t so worked up about revealing all of this to them, I’d probably laugh at the dumbfounded expression on their faces.
“Who—”
“A character from an anime. That suit that’s right there.” I point to the third mannequin.
“Oh. And why—”
“Because she’s modifying a costume as a different character from the same show to make her prom dress out of. Spike dresses in a suit anyways, so it fits.”
“Okay.” Lucas nods as if everything sounds completely reasonable.
Carter does the same thing. “So, you’re dressing as some Spike dude. All right.”
“What? No!”
They look at each other again with more confusion.
“Why not? Carter asks.
I stare back at both of them, as they wait for my answer. If I’m completely honest, they seem to be taking everything even better than I imagined. I didn’t really think they’d make fun of me, but I did expect at least a little teasing. But they seem completely normal. As if finding out how much of a nerd I am means nothing. And maybe it did mean nothing to them since they’re my friends. But how would the rest of the school react?
I lean my head back, staring up at the ceiling. “You guys are my friends. So, I’m glad you’re cool with all this. But, I’m a nerd who’s pretended to be some cool kid for the last four years. Everything everyone knows about me is just the part I want them to see. Don’t get me wrong, I like what I do. I like being in ASB, even if I did it to get my dad off my case. I like playing football and basketball, and being one of the cool kids. But this?” I wave around the room. “This is who I really am.”
“Matt, it’s not that big of a deal,” Carter says.
“Not to you. But to everyone else? We’re almost done with school. I just want to finish it without making waves.”
“Matt,” Lucas speaks up. “So what if you’re into nerdy stuff. We’ve all got our things.”
“Luc’s right,” Carter agrees.
“Look, I don’t want to sound like an egomaniac or anything—”
“Oh, now he doesn’t want to sound stuck up.” Carter laughs, elbowing Lucas.
“But seriously. I’m student body president. I’ve pretended to be Joe Cool for so long, that I’m fine with keeping up the charade until school’s over. What would people say if I all of a sudden started showing how much of a geek I really am. I mean, I drive a freaking Lexus to school, you guys.”
“So, that’s why you’re not going to go out with a girl you like? Because of what people will think?”
“Carter,” I counter. “You loved all those rumors that were spread about you.”
“Yeah, until I didn’t. Matt, I wanted people thinking those things. You don’t want people to know what’s really true.”
“Sounds like the same thing to me.”
“I kind of agree with Carter,” Lucas says, giving me an apologetic smirk.
“It doesn’t matter because I would go out with her. I told her that. But she won’t unless I’m comfortable with being who I really am. But that’s stupid because I am comfortable being who I am in school.”
“Are you more comfortable with who you are at school or who you are with her?” Carter asks. I silently stare at him, but I know the answer. And I’m sure he does too now. “Well, take it from me. There’s a difference in being comfortable with what people know about you and accepting yourself for who you are.”
I appreciate the words, even if I let out a scoff. “Thank you, Mr. Guidance Counselor.”
“So …” Lucas clears his throat after we stand in silence for a minute. “We eating burgers and playing games, or what?”
“Yeah.” I let out a laugh. “I could use a little mindless video games right now.”
Chapter 27
Izzy
I’m not sure if Matt is going to be wearing the Star Wars shirt when I get to school. He said he was, but our conversation ended how a lot of our conversations seem to end lately. They start out great and end horribly. If anyone asked me after the prom court meeting yesterday if he and I were going out, I honestly wouldn’t know what to tell them. He was flirting with me so much that Yvette’s scowl was locked on me for the entire meeting. But after I brought up the prom situation again, that’s where we went off the rails and not in a good way.
I don’t know why I’m being so stubborn about the prom challenge, as Cindy and Veronica are calling it. He obviously likes me, and he doesn’t have an issue with me being a nerd. And try as I might, I can’t act like I don’t like him. I’m sure he sees my knees wobbling when he leans in close, and I’m not very discreet about staring at his lips. Those kissable lips that I can still remember. Still feel. How is that possible, when I haven’t kissed him in weeks?
Even more than his flirty smiles, I still remember the one I found on him at PopCon. It was brief, as shock and horror took over his face as soon as he saw me, but seconds before that he had a carefree smile. A true smile. I want to see that smile on him. He can make my insides melt, and believe me, he has, but nothing gets me more than seeing him being who he really is.
As I sit at my desk in sociology, he opens the door, and there’s the Star Wars shirt. The Empire Strikes Back logo stretches across his chest.
“You wore it.”
“It’s twin day,” he replies monotonically.
Okay, so he’s still a little upset. Throughout class, I toss him side looks, smirks, and even turn around and whisper something to him. All of which earns me barely a nod. After all my talk of keeping distance between us, now that it seems like it’d be easy enough to have that distance, I don’t want it.
At lunch, we meet up with the others as Greg is going over the rules for our event, which is a three-legged race.
“Do you think it’d be easy for a three-legged person to go poop?” I ask Matt, looking up at him, as Greg continues on. Matt casts a glance to me, before focusing back on Greg. “I mean, how would they squat? Do they have to prop up their third leg or something?”
I chuckle. Not so much at the joke but the comment in general, hoping Matt’s attitude will have eased. It hasn’t.
“Are you gonna be mad at me forever?” I blurt out as Greg makes his way down through the couples, tying their legs together.
“I’m not mad at you,” he answers but doesn’t look at me.
“Really? Because it sure seems like you’re mad.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“Upset?”
“No.”
“Annoyed?” He looks at me, raising an eyebrow. “Perturbed? Exasperated? Vexed? Irked?” He shakes his head, and I can see him fighting off a smile, but I still get a smirk. “Finally.”
“I’m not annoyed or perturbed, or any of those things. I just …” He looks away.
“What?”
He takes a moment, staring at me. “I just don’t want to argue anymore.”
“Oh.”
“All right.” Greg steps between
us. “Middle legs forward.”
For the three-legged race, each prom court couple has to run around the courtyard, and the team that wins gets ten extra votes for prom king and prom queen. Second place gets five extra votes, but third place through fifth doesn’t get any. These all add up for the final vote count, to see who’ll be named prom king and queen.
Greg takes a megaphone to explain the rules to all the students watching and the point system to everyone. While he’s going over everything, I elbow Matt in the side.
Pushing aside his last comments, Matt looks over at me and smiles. “Let’s do this, Nerd Girl. You’d look great in a crown.”
“Even if we win, which we won’t because I’m totally uncoordinated and would trip over myself in this race even if I wasn’t tied to a person, you really think ten votes will knock out Yvette. She’s plastered her face on posters all over the school.”
“You’ve got a following though. People are digging you.” He grins in a way that tells me he’s one of those people. “You did come in second in the voting, after all.”
“What?”
He puts a finger to his lips. “You didn’t hear that from me. We’re not supposed to tell anyone the actual vote numbers.”
A sense of pride radiates from me. I took the joke vote and ran with it. I’m not ashamed of being it, and I guess other people got behind that. Before I can relish anymore from coming in second, Greg blows a whistle, and everyone starts cheering around us.
“Let’s go.” Matt wraps his arm around me, and we start down the course that’s set up.
It isn’t very long, so each team has to make three laps. When I said I’m not very coordinated, I meant it. I don’t wear glasses or a pocket protector, but when it comes to anything athletic, I am the quintessential nerd cliché. I can talk about comics and movies all day long. My brain is full of useless pop-culture quotes and ridiculous, arbitrary facts about superheroes. But when it comes to anything sports related, I’m about as useful as a pile of rocks.
Matt tries to motion me around a cone, but somehow my leg that’s tied to his comes down on top of his foot, and I lose my balance. He still has his arm around me, so I cling to him, hoping to steady myself. He holds me up for a moment, but my momentum keeps my other leg moving. It steps out in front, and my leg that’s tied to him tries to move, while his tries to stay still and upright. The opposite ways our legs are moving sends us both down.
Falling to the grass, Matt follows right behind me and would’ve smashed me flat if he didn’t put his arms up. Laying on top of me, his arms holding himself up over my shoulders, he looks down at me with a grin. “Or, we could do this too.”
“Very funny.”
“Come on.” He rolls to a knee, our ankles still attached, but the rope loosened up from the fall. Offering me his hand, I take it and get back to my feet. Behind us, Oscar and Yvette are coming up.
“We’re about to get lapped.”
“It’s fine,” Matt brushes it off.
“Hey, you’ve actually have a chance at being prom king.”
“I don’t care about that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it’s just prom king. It doesn’t mean anything.”
We’re still moving slow, and Yvette and Oscar pass us. Jen and Franco are starting to come up behind and about to pass us too when Matt looks behind. “You know, as much as I don’t care about being prom king, I don’t like to lose either.”
“Okay, okay.”
This time I wrap my arm around him, hoping to keep myself from losing balance again. It doesn’t work. We make it to the finish line, about to start the second lap, when we turn the first corner where I tripped, and I do it again.
Matt tries catching me with both arms, but my feet are already out of balance. Instead of falling forward though, the momentum from him trying to stop me sends me backward, and I fall on top of him.
“Okay.” He laughs. “I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose.”
“I’m not.” I purse my lips.
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t mind.”
I roll my eyes at him, but a grin floats over my lips. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m just highly uncoordinated.”
“Or, you’re a master seduction artist.”
“What?” The word comes out three octaves higher than normal, and I feel my cheeks burning. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Says the girl still on top of me.”
“Matt, it’s a race!” I hear someone yell and look up to see his friend, Carter, laughing while standing next to a girl. “Not a make-out session.”
Scrambling to get off Matt, I get to my knees but can’t figure out how to get to my feet with our ankles still attached.
“Here, give me your hand,” Matt says, sitting next to me.
He’s trying to give me a hand to stand up, but my ankle is still tied to his. I somehow twist around and fall back down on top of him. Only, he’s sitting down, so now I’m straddling him.
He smiles and wags his eyebrows at me. “Yeah, I like this too.”
“Shut up.” My face burns.
“Get it!” Cindy yells, laughing, as Veronica follows suit.
“This is so embarrassing.”
“Wow,” Natalie snickers, looking down at us. “I guess I got the more coordinated nerd.”
Sam shoots her an annoyed look while they stroll by.
“Come on,” Matt puts his hands on my legs, and as embarrassed as I am I still have to swallow the bundle of excitement within.
Don’t ask me how but somehow, he gets us both on our knees and then takes my hand. “Okay, on three. One, two, three.” He takes a step, and I follow along, both of us finally getting to our feet, as Sarah and Bret are now about to pass us.
“Well, now what?” I look at Matt.
“We’ll just take it one step at a time.” He smiles, and I pretend he’s talking about us and not the race.
Walking around the course, he keeps his hand locked with mine. The cord holding our ankles together is loose enough that I’m not losing my balance now. I can probably stay upright for the rest of the race without holding his hand, but I don’t let go. Besides the tingles it sends up my arm and down my spine, it feels natural. As if our hands fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, interlocking perfectly.
“Okay!” Greg yells, blowing a whistle. “And the first-place winners, with ten extra points. Yvette and Oscar!” Everyone watching claps and cheers. “And second place goes to Franco and Jen!”
More clapping and cheering rings out as Matt bends over and starts to untie the rope around our ankles. I’m hit with a new sensation, as Matt puts one hand just below my knee, on the inside of my leg, as he unties our ankles. I catch my breath and look down at him. He looks up at me with a smirk. As he stands up, his hand slowly rides up to just above my knee, before he pulls it back.
I take a deep breath, steadying myself. “You know, you’re not the only one who can do that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He flashes a coy smile.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You think you affect me that much?”
“Mmm.” He puts a finger to his chin, looking up at the sky in mock consideration. “I know I do.”
“I could do the same to you.”
“You might have to prove it.”
He gives me a challenging smile, and now I really want to prove to him I can get him just as flustered as he gets me. “I could do it and wouldn’t even have to touch you.”
“Is that right?”
I pull out my phone and scroll through my pictures. Last Halloween, Cindy, Veronica, and I all dressed up as X-Men characters for a costume party. Cindy went as Phoenix Jean Grey; Veronica dressed as a sexy Jubilee character. While I love both of those characters, I had my heart set on a badass female character named X-23. Basically, she’s a young, female clone of Wolverine.
Scrolling, I finally find some pictures of us at the party and one in part
icular. I wore black skinny jeans with a black sports bra. I taped up my wrists and forearms with black tape and had aluminum claws I could hold on to, so when I closed my fists, it looked like they were coming out of my knuckles. I thought it was the perfect meeting point between sexy and cool. Of course, I put on a jacket before leaving the house, so my dad wouldn’t see me wearing a sports bra. While at the party we goofed around with more pictures. I finally find the one I want to send him. It’s of me staring at the camera, as I lick one of the claws.
“Hey, Matt,” Veronica says as she and Cindy walk over.
“Oh, it’s Matt now, is it?” He teases her.
I look over to see her blushing in embarrassment before I hit send.
“Well, looks like you’re all talk, Nerd Girl.” Matt smirks just as his phone chimes.
I stand there, waiting for his reaction. He pulls out his phone and flashes me a puzzled look, seeing that the text is from me. His thumb swipes his screen, and I know the instant he sees the picture. His mouth drops, his shoulders stiffen, and his breath falters.
I lean in close enough that I could kiss his chin. “Without even touching you.”
I take a look back at Matt as we leave the courtyard. His confident smile is gone. His eyes stay locked on the screen for a moment longer, then they look up and find me. Now it’s my turn to flash a confident grin at him, watching him over my shoulder. He stares at me, licking his bottom lip, staring at me like he needs me.
As I walk away, I can’t fight it anymore. I can tell myself I sent the picture to prove a point, and it’s partially true. But I’m falling for the guy. And watching him stare at me with that ravenous stare, only makes me fall faster.
Chapter 28
Matt
My mouth goes dry as my eyes stick to my cell phone. Izzy and her friends turn a corner, so I don’t see her anymore, but that picture is enough to send a shockwave through my system. Even if I wasn’t a secret nerd and had no idea who X-23 is, the image of her licking that fake blade would be enough alone to send me into high gear. No, not just me, any guy. She’s wearing a small little black tank top, or maybe it’s a sports bra. Whatever it is, it reveals that soft, tan skin underneath. With the top and the tight black jeans, she’s posed in a way that it gives her an incredible hourglass figure. The first thing I do is save the picture and then place it as my background. The app icons cover it, but it’s too good to just be kept saved away in a pictures folder.
