Nerd Loves Boy (Boy Meets Nerd #3)

Chapter 26

"Audry, Audry, Audry, Audry," Trish says running up behind me to catch up to me. I turn to look at her and keep walking towards the vending machines since I was feeling a little snackish after class ended.

"Where's the fire?" I ask Trish when she falls into step with me on the sidewalk.

"Can I ask you for a super important, mega favor?" she replies already giving me her puppy dog eyes.

"For the last time," I start. "I'm not having a High School Musical marathon with you. I have studying to do, remember?"

"No, not that but we'll come back to it," she says waving it off. "I need you to run down to the mall a few miles away and find a costume for me."

"Why don't you do it?" I ask. "You're the one with the car."

"I can't. I have to help make more props today since a few people are out sick again," she replies annoyed. "Anyway, there's a costume shop outside the mall and the only thing I need you to do is try on a few of the ugliest costumes you can find, send me some pictures and I'll let you know when you've found the perfect one. Easy, right?"

"Except I don't have a car," I point out.

"You can borrow mine," she says nudging me. "Please? I need the costume for tomorrow and I don't have time to do it myself. Help me out here?"

"Yeah, sure," I reply. "My next class was canceled today anyway."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she says slurring it all into one word. "I'll see you later, alright? Take pictures! Try on a million costumes if you have to and I'll pay you back tomorrow after rehearsals. Thanks, Audry!" She rushes away towards the library but then a thought occurs to me.

"Wait, Trish," I call. "What about your car keys? Or do you expect me to walk there?"

"Oh, yeah," she says turning to face me as she walks backward towards the library. "Jace is waiting for you in the parking lot! Thanks again!"

"Wait, what?" I ask confused. Why was Jace waiting for me in the parking lot? "Trish . . ." I say suspecting her of having done something she probably shouldn't have.

"Can't hear you. Bye!" she replies rushing inside the library and I'm left standing there putting the pieces together.  If Trish planned something that she thought was oh so clever she was very mistaken. I could probably just not show up in the parking lot to get her back for trying to be sneaky but then I'd feel bad if Jace actually was waiting for me to show up and I left him waiting there. I groan a little before walking towards the parking lot, accepting my fate for the time being. At least we wouldn't be out for too long, or at least that's what I was expecting. How long did it actually take to try on ugly costumes? Besides, I agreed to help her out and the cost was being alone with Jace for an hour then I guess it wasn't too bad of a situation. I just hoped I controlled myself enough while in his company. Now that I knew exactly how I felt about him, I had been forcing myself to be as normal as possible around him and it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Especially since he practically spent every free second with Kelsea nowadays. Or at least that's what it seemed like. Maybe this was something I should be looking forward to instead of feeling nervous about. I needed to stop thinking about it. Thinking always seemed to complicate things more than it helped me. Why, brain, why?

When I finally get to the parking lot, I almost stop dead in my tracks when I see Jace leaning back against his car door with a book in his hand. I stare at him for a moment and my heart beats harder and faster and I feel a flutter in my stomach just watching him as his eyes move across the page, devouring whatever story fills his head. I kind of hate him for being able to make me feel so differently about him than I wanted to. How did he go from being my best friend again to being the one person to always make me feel all fuzzy inside like in high school? Why was it so hard to let that time go? It's been almost two years since our last kiss. How I knew that, I had no idea but shouldn't that be enough for my head to snap out of whatever I was in? It made no sense.