“Okay, enough.” I hold up my hand to silence her. “I have to stop telling you these embarrassing things because you only make me feel worse, not better.”
“I’m sorry, Nat.” April takes a deep breath. “I am here for you. What can I do?”
A school bus drives by and then we cross the road onto school property. It’s Monday morning and I’ve just told her what happened on the beach with Jonah this weekend.
I sigh and try to push out the memory of Jonah’s face when he called me on my nerd comment. “Can you invent a time machine?” I ask her. I try to smile but it doesn’t really work. “Then I could go back in time and never let him hear you call him a nerd.”
“Heyyoucalled him a nerd!” she says, pointing a finger at me.
“Yeah, but you said what I said out loud and he heard it.”
She rolls her eyes. “Semantics!”
I grab my backpack straps and stare at the cracked sidewalk as we make our way to the school. Today is one thing, but tomorrow I have tutoring with Jonah and I just don’t know how I can handle it. I feel so awful.
“So nothing happened after he said that?” April says. “He didn’t like… try to lighten the mood or anything?”
I shake my head. “He was like, ‘You of all people should know that’ and then he ran a hand through his hair and walked off.”
April’s eyes go big. “You should have said something.”
“I know!” My voice is so loud it makes two guys look over at us. I roll my eyes and keep walking. “Trust me, I know,” I tell April. “I feel like shit. I mean, here I am crushing on him and he totally hates me now.”
“So what did you say his ex-girlfriend looks like?” she asks.
“Short, dark hair, olive skin,” I say with a sigh. “Prettier than I’d like to admit. If she were ugly then maybe I wouldn’t care as much.”
“She’s anex,” April says. “You can fix this.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think I can. He hates me now. And it’s for the best because what was I even thinking?” I scrunch up my face and try very hard to believe what I’m saying. Deep down I know the words are true. “I don’t like Jonah. It was just a momentary lapse of judgement.”
“Okay,” April nods sharply as if she’s also going to lie to herself in order to believe what I’ve just said. “See you at lunch?”
“Yep.”
April turns down the hallway with all the freshman lockers and I keep walking toward my first period class. April likes to stop at her locker between every class, but I never use mine. I’m lazy and prefer to lug my backpack around everywhere.
As I near the math hallway, someone calls my name. I turn around and see the guy I’ve truly been crushing on jog up to me. My heart skips a beat.
Caleb is wearing distressed dark wash jeans that hug his muscular thighs in all the right places. His shirt is white and also tight-fitting, showing off the bulging muscles he works hard on in the gym. His physique is bigger and bulkier than Jonah’s, but you can expect that from a jock.
Oh my God, am I still thinking about Jonah?
I smile and try to clear my thoughts as Caleb gives me this smirk that’s so hot it could melt the lockers he leans up against now. “Hey,” he says as his smirk turns into a grin. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Well, you know how much I love the math hallway,” I say, gesturing to our surroundings. “If you need me, I’m usually here.”
He laughs even though my joke wasn’t that funny. “So, Natalie—” He reaches forward and pokes me in the shoulder and I have no idea why my insides turn to goo at just a simple poke. “I was thinking we should hang out this Friday.”
“Yeah,” I say entirely too eagerly, which makes heat rise in my cheeks. I clear my throat. “Yeah, that’s cool. Any reason why?” I have to ask because I can’t be sure what’s going on here. My heart is dying for a date with Caleb Brown, but what if this turns into some stupid misunderstanding and he really wants me to meet up with him for non-romantic reasons?
He shrugs and leans against the lockers in this way that makes him even sexier, if that’s possible. “Just thought we could hang out,” he says, reaching out and letting his fingers slide down my arm. Goosebumps prickle along my skin. “You seem like a cool girl.”
Oh my God oh my God oh my God.
It’s a date.
It’s adate,date. Not a misunderstanding.
