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Chapter 6
Matt
Speechless doesn’t begin to describe how I feel, standing there staring at Izzy Jacobs. Dumbstruck, maybe? Here I am, three thousand miles away from home, not a care in the world about having fun at a comic convention because no one I know should be here. In New York. But there she is, staring back at me with the same shocked eyes. Only her lips are turned up in a grin. A surprised smile while my jaw just hangs open, nearly scraping the floor I’m standing on.
The crowd is still cheering all around us as Isaac skips over to me, jumping around in total excited.
“This is amazing!” he yells out gleefully.
“Come on.” I grab his hand and hurry to the end of the stage.
“What are we doing? Matty, where are we going? You still need to get the cup.”
“The what?”
“The cup, Matty. You need the cup.”
I look down at him as he looks behind us. I turn around to see Izzy walking over to us, holding a golden championship cup, almost like a mini Stanley Cup championship trophy in hockey.
Izzy makes eye contact with me and waves. I feel like running away. I’m hot from the suit, but I know that’s not why I’m pouring sweat.
“You weren’t going to leave without your trophy, were you?” Izzy says, a playful tone in her words.
“No way!” Isaac cheers on. “Oh, look at that. That’s awesome!”
“And who’s this?” She looks down at Isaac. I just stand there, my mouth still open, unable to form words.
“I’m Isaac,” he says proudly. “Matty, I can’t believe you won!” He looks back up at me.
“Yeah, Matty,” Izzy smiles and turns her head to the side. “You won.”
She sticks her hand out to hand me the small trophy. My arm moves slowly, inch by inch, as I extended my hand to hers.
“Congratulations.” She smiles, and it sounds genuine. “The costume is amazing.”
“Thanks.” I’m finally able to form words. Well, a word, as I take the trophy.
She looks like she wants to say more, but she doesn’t. I know I have to say something though. If this gets out at school, I’ll never live it down. I’ve hidden it from everyone for so long, and now it was all going to come out.
“Hey,” I say before she turns around.
“Yeah?”
“Please,” I grit my teeth, thinking how stupid I’m going to sound.
I know I shouldn’t worry about what people think, but I do. I’m senior class president. Three-year varsity football player. I know I have a rep at school, a rep I actually like. And since I do have it, I’m determined to keep it until we graduate.
“Izzy, please don’t tell anyone about this.”
She furrows her brow as her amber eyes peer into mine. “What?”
“Please, don’t say anything.”
“Matt, it’s not that big of a—”
“Yes. It is.” I cut her off, swallowing the ball of fear in my throat.
She studies my face again as if I’m a math equation and she’s trying to figure out the solution. But there’s only one solution. Silence. And I can’t make that happen, only she can. She must have filmed stuff during the convention for her channel. I didn’t see her filming me after I took my helmet off, but that doesn’t matter. She could just tell everyone in her next update. I’m imagining it now. ‘Hey, Woodbridge High, guess who our resident closet nerd is? He’s a major fanboy who everyone thinks is Mr. Popular, but is really just a big geek. It’s Matt Hillard!’ I know at least few people at school that watched her videos, and that’s all it’d take for my name to get spread around.
