Nerd Loves Boy (Boy Meets Nerd #3)

Chapter 18

"Nervous?" Trish asks as I braid my hair for the hundredth time since it just isn't working with me today of all days.

"Why would I be nervous?" I ask. Finally, I give up and just decide to throw my hair in a ponytail and curl the ends a little bit so at least it looks like I tried.

"Um, I don't know, you're going on a date." Trish takes the curling iron from me when she sees how frustrated I am with my hair and she takes over by curling my ponytail for me while I try relaxing a little bit.

"Well, of course, I'm a little nervous," I shrug. "I haven't seen Austin for a couple of days, other than classes of course but he's always rushing off somewhere and whenever I do talk to him it's always on the phone."

"Hey, college life isn't supposed to be convenient," she replies and I can't fathom how much truth is in that statement. "It's just supposed to help you figure things out and teach you life isn't all fun and games. Plus, I have been kidnapping you for rehearsals this week so blame a little on me." I've been writing like crazy for the production and already had six out of the ten songs written, all of which had sheet music ready for them to rehearse and I was currently writing the seventh song which I hoped to have done sometime this week to start on another one this weekend. Since I was writing faster than Trish had expected, the production was starting to speed up the rehearsal process now that I was ahead of them just to make sure they were on schedule since they no longer had to worry about whether I was going to be able to deliver on my part. It's a little difficult to rehearse songs that don't yet exist and I'd been having fun watching everyone work on the production, watching the scenes come alive and even witnessed one of the songs I wrote come to life on stage and I had to force myself to not get all emotional about seeing it. I couldn't believe how amazing the song sounded and wondered what the heck Griffin was doing when he was writing up the sheet music for the songs. He had to be a magician of some sort, that I was certain of.

Because of all the work being done though and me being kidnapped by Trish to watch the rehearsals and of course going home for Thanksgiving break, Austin and I hadn't seen much of each other so when he asked if I would go out with him as a little birthday celebration, I pretty jumped at saying yes. I was excited to be going out tonight for my birthday but also a little nervous since it was just going to be us. Not that I was feeling weird about being alone with him, he was taking me to dinner and then a movie, but I was worried about how I could possibly embarrass myself into the next eternity. Which is why I was obsessing over having the perfect outfit and hair for tonight but there were only so many things that could actually go right in my life after all. I ultimately decided to wear my best pair of skinny jeans, a pair of ankle boots I stole from Cameron when I was home last, a pretty pink blouse Trish actually gave me for my birthday earlier this morning and paired it with a grey cardigan and my leather jacket since I got cold easily and shook like a Chihuahua whenever I was freezing. Trish helped me do my makeup and once she finished curling my hair, she suggested a necklace she pulled out from her collection and before I knew it, I was ready to go. Now if I could only just relax a bit and stop being so nervous about tonight.

We come out of the bathroom once our beauty shop time is over and I sit down on the edge of my bed, checking my nail polish to make sure it isn't chipped, tapping my feet along to a make-believe beat, play with the ends of my hair, anything to help distract me from the fact that Austin will be here in a few minutes.

"Audry, would you please stop bouncing your knee up and down?" Trish says turning on the boombox. "You're making me anxious."

"Sorry," I reply watching her as she plugs her iPod into the speakers and scrolls through her playlists. "I always get nervous on date nights."