You Stole My Heart

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Date Night.

"Hey Sarah." Shane says breathless "You look..." He stops, trying to find a word to describe me.

"Okay? Good?" I say

Shane looks at me confused, "You're nowhere near okay." Sane stops and I don't know what to say. I'm hoping like crazy I was right about him not being a jerk or an ass.

"You're gorgeous." Okay never mind. Sarah, you're going to give yourself an anxiety attack if you're going to over think everything tonight. Just calm down.

All I can do is stare at him and smile. This date so far is amazing and I haven't even left my doorstep. That doesn't mean guys only need to compliment me to get in my good books.

"Thanks." I smile.

"So do you wanna get going?"

"Yeah sure." We walk to his car in a comfortable silence. He opens the passenger door for me and gets in. As we drive, I ask him where we're going and he answers saying he still can't tell me.

"I want you to be completely surprised." He looks at me and smiles. I don't know what it is but I feel comfortable around him.

"Okay then. I trust you. So tell me, other than getting really bulked up and going do boarding school, what's been going on?"

He tells me about his family and the friends he's made. About his high school, and how a girl was the reason he changed from being so small and scrawny.

"We met when I visited my parents the first holiday at the boarding school. We went the Bahama's and then I was still the same nerdy guy. I then met Erica. She was kind and didn't make me feel like a loser. Since we were staying in the same hotel, we spent a lot of time together..." He stops and deeply exhales. Something tells me Erica broke his heart in some way.

"...then two days before we left there was a teen party and the plan was I would meet her there. When I got there she was with another guy. I asked her what was going on and said I thought we were together. She then laughed in my face, called me a scrawny, nerdy, geeky freak who would never get a girl..."

"...her date then poured his drink all over me, which resulted in everyone laughing at me. As much as I tried to block what she said, I couldn't. I mean even a person who actually knew me, though I was a loser. So... I hit a low. What I did, I don't think you'll want to hear. Let's just say, I had a psychologist come in and try and help me. Once I hit rock bottom, I decided to change who I was. Long story short, I joined the football team. The coach saw I had potential so he trained me and here I am."

Wow, that's deep. I put my hand on his, clutching the stick shift. His knuckles are white and I can see it still hurts him. Having so many people taunt you for being yourself is rough. It's like taking Sabrina and filling the whole of SouthValley with them. It's unimaginable.

"Just because you were a nerd didn't make you a loser; and I'm sorry you had to go through that. It does sound horrible. I'm here for you." I say gently.

"I'm okay and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all of this to you."

"It's really fine. I understand."

We sit in another comfortable silence, my hand still on his. When I fully realize where it is, I quickly move it away.

"Anyway... So tell me about you." He says in a more pleasant manner.

I talk about school, still not telling him the name. It's actually weird how he doesn't ask. I tell him about Carley, Blake, The plastics. Not Zac though. I wouldn't know how to describe him.