How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 29 - How to Know When to Quit

If tonight ever makes a difference
The way that I feel, the way that I’ll remember it
I’ll take this down until the glass remains
Swallow the words that I was meant to say

---Vegas Nights, The Cab

“You won’t get a score just by sitting in the bleachers, dude,” Chuck gave me a nudge. “You have to go out in the field and play some ball.”

Chuck and his football rhetorics. Tch. “Look who’s talking?” I muttered bitterly. “If it wasn’t for me, Becky won’t have talked to you in a gazillion years.”

It was sort of an accident that Becky talked to him just because I said that the umbrellas were Chuck’s idea. But he’d gotta admit that I gave him the head start. He’d been wanting to talk to the girl for like forever. He just couldn’t come up with the guts to do so.

Chuck rolled his eyes and grinned. “Psshyeah. You’re Superman. You can do everything. Carry the world on your shoulders. Shoot lasers from your eyes.”

I grunted heavily. It was near noon. The sun was blazing and the beach was full of babes in bikinis and guys trying to pick them up. Reed and the others were having a dip. Only Sarah and Becky were left turning the barbecue. I adjusted my glasses and kept looking at them from my seat.

Lame.

All I could do was watch Sarah from a constant five-yard distance. Otherwise, she’d scramble away from me as fast as she could like I had some contagious skin disease. Being unwanted wasn’t something new to me.

Even my mother picked Nathan over me, didn’t she? And Arthur… he almost got rid of me when I was a kid. I never really took it out on Dad before because he’d been such a good dad to me, but still… I kept wondering what was wrong with me.

So I worked harder than every other kid I’d known. In the long run, I learned to stand out, not knowing when to quit. I got the recognition I’d so very much wanted. People actually wanted me. Loved me. Even though I knew none of it was real. But Sarah was different. She saw me for who I am. Accepted me despite my messed up life.

Of course, there was this option of running after her. She wasn’t really good at running. Literally. And then I’d never stop following her until she’d ran out of choices but to talk to me. Stalker-ish. But maybe, it’d work. The only problem was how to begin. Suddenly, I couldn’t think straight. Chasing girls isn’t really my thing.

That Doom’s Day feeling was rumbling in the pit of my stomach again. But I stood up, my mind blank. All I got was eighteen years worth of grit and hopefully, lots of luck.

“Watch carefully, Ferguson,” I muttered through my teeth. “I’ll show you how to do it.”

With heavy steps, I headed to Sarah and Becky. I could barely hear anything besides my breathing. I took in Sarah in her oversized white shirt, imagining how she’d look like in the blue two-piece swimsuit which was a bit obvious underneath. Her long dark brown hair was up in a loose bun with a number two pencil keeping it in place. A few wavy locks fell on her neck as she so intently flipped the steak.

She dropped one to the ground and pouted at it for three seconds. She was clumsy that way. Before Becky could see her fault, she quickly kicked sand over the piece of meat and forced a wry smile.

The corners of my lips twitched up. It was childish, what she did. But kind of cute. I stopped my thoughts from wandering too far and tried to focus.

You can do this, Leon. Or else, consider your life doomed.

I was just a few more steps away from Sarah when Chuck yelled, “Look out!” pointing up at something.

Annoyed, I looked at him and was about to yell back when something white and gluey dropped on my shoulder. When I trained my eyes up, a seagull cackled as it flapped away. Laughing at me, I guessed.