His Nerd - Book cover

His Nerd

Sir Ellious

Chapter 2

Ava

I managed to survive that delightful Monday, if you were wondering, and now I sit in the canteen of our school. It’s finally Friday, which means everyone is excited for the weekend. Teenagers are shouting at one another and laughing as they meet up with friends; meanwhile, I sit, groaning, at my table.

It’s “my” table because Lily and I are the only ones who ever sit here. Sad, I know, but no kid wants to be seen socializing with me because it would just lower their social status and could put a target on their back, unless of course they were trying to use me.

I look over at Lily, who has her gaze on the popular table. To be more precise, she is looking at Declan Reed. She’s had a crush on him ever since he asked her for the answers to a quiz in science.

It’s kind of sweet, and yet I don’t want to see her get hurt. I know what Declan is like, and I don’t want him messing with my best friend, even if he did change. I would rip his head from his shoulders if he ever hurt her.

I sigh as I look behind me and watch the popular table too. Declan is chatting to the twins, most likely about a party they are throwing.

The twins are the jokers and the party-throwers of the school. Just like Fred and George Weasley, they have fiery red hair and the ability to make anyone laugh, even teachers, no matter the situation they are in. Though they’re not identical, they’re both 5’10”, look a lot alike, and are called James and Justin, if you can imagine. People always mix them up.

I used to have a few classes with the twins, but sadly I have been mostly on the receiving end of their pranks: perching a bucket on top of a door so that it fell on my head, putting glue on my chair so that I couldn’t get up, putting gum in my hair, and my personal favorite, locking me in the cleaning cupboard. The twins aren’t gym bros like the rest, thank God, but this means most of the time it was someone else picking me up and throwing me in for them.

At least there I could get my work done in peace and quiet. The teachers never did anything to stop the pranks, so eventually I gave up telling people and just learned to deal with the situations I was put in.

When they aren’t pranking me, the twins are really sweet. They never seem to care for girls the way the other boys do, so I secretly suspect they might be gay, but I would never tell them that to their faces.

While the twins whisper to Declan at the popular table, Liam talks to a girl, who in my opinion is really pretty. He looks rather nervous, but the girl is blushing and giggling at his words, which seems to boost his confidence.

It’s actually refreshing seeing one of the guys trying hard to impress a girl rather than trying to get into her pants, which is what usually happens at lunch.

Then there’s Hunter. He’s got a girl on his lap, and they are snogging each other’s faces off. His hands are tangled into her bleached blonde hair, and he pulls her closer, as if they aren’t close enough already.

Can you say “gross”?

The girl on Hunter’s lap is wearing hardly any clothes, and the little material that is there is too small for her. You can basically see everything.

I feel my appetite leave me, but as I turn back to my food, the mental image of Hunter snogging some random girl is etched into my mind, forever giving me a nightmare. Do they know this is a canteen where people eat and not some strip club or whatever?

I look up at Lily, who is now texting away on her phone with a far off look on her face and a hint of sadness. I sigh and rest my head on my arms, wishing school was over.

I still have two more lessons to go, but luckily one of them is a free period, which means that I can get ahead on my work. Thankfully I already asked my teachers what they will be covering next week.

I feel a chair being moved next to me. Like most nerds, I am very antisocial; if I can avoid human contact, I will. But when I lift my head off my arms and stare at the boy sitting next to me, he has a big smile on his face, like he doesn’t realize that my proximity could lower his social status. That he could be beat up for sitting here.

Then I recognize him as the guy who crashed into me on Monday and called me gorgeous.

I feel a slight burn in my cheeks and fan my ponytail over my face to hide. I do my best to ignore his presence.

“Hi.” His voice is soft and inviting and totally free from concern about the danger he is in.

The stranger is talking to me—what do I do? If I leave, he’ll think I’m weird. Okay, just say “hello.” I got this.

I can feel my heart rate speed up, my blood hammering in my ears, my mind growing lightheaded. I feel like I might faint.

“Hello.” My voice comes out higher than normal, and my embarrassment only deepens.

When the boy smiles at me, I can see his dimples. He’s cute, but the smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You’re Ava, right?”

I nod, gulping down the extra saliva that has accumulated in my mouth and praying to whoever is listening that he didn’t hear or notice. How did he know my name?

“Well, Ava, would you meet me in the library in five minutes?”

Again, I nod and watch as he walks toward the library’s double doors and then disappears through them. Why did I even agree to meet a random stranger?

I look for Lily, ready for some advice, but she has left me. She must have left when the guy showed up. Traitor.

Guess I better start making my way to the library; he probably wants me to do his homework, or maybe he wants to use me to make himself feel better about how horrid his life is. That’s the usual rundown of things: do their homework, pretend it never happened, and get ghosted in the halls or beaten to a pulp.

Sighing, I leave the canteen and walk toward the library. It’s so quiet that I can hear my footsteps echoing, and it’s starting to make me nervous.

Still, it’s nice not being caught up in the hordes of people trying to get to their classes on time. For someone of my height, it’s hard to move in such a crowd; I get shoved and swept away.

Of course, my height doesn’t really matter. Half the time, I think people do see me but push me around anyway, just because they can. I never do or saying anything back because it would only make matters worse.

Walking into the library, I’m disconcerted by how quiet it is. Normally people are in here trying to get their work done and secretly eat their lunch, since they are too scared to go to the canteen. I would know because I sometimes hide out in here too; no popular person wants to be caught dead in the library.

But there isn’t anyone in sight as I sweep my gaze around the vast room. Anyone except the guy who asked me to be here, anyway.

He’s lurking in the shadows, where a load of books on the shelves blocks the light. An eerie glow covers him, and as I walk over, I nervously fumble with my hands. He smirks at me, and it makes me feel uneasy, like he’s a cat and I’m a mouse.

“You look beautiful.” His voice is low and soft, making my whole body tingle.

I feel my cheeks heat up slightly, and I’m thankful that it’s dark in here so he can’t see the effect he has on me. I don’t understand why I even care.

He grabs me by the hand and pulls me closer to him, trapping me between the bookcase and his body. I can feel the heat coming off him and his breath fanning my face, like sweet, little, minty kisses.

When I see him glance down at my lips, my breath hitches in my throat, and my heart is like a caged animal, ready to jump out my chest. OMG! What do I do? This can’t be happening; I don’t even know the guy, let alone know if I want to kiss him.

My mind goes blank, and I am frozen as he closes the gap between us. There’s an inch between our lips. I can smell his minty breath more intently, hitting me like a wave from the sea.

As I watch his eyes flutter closed, my mind suddenly reboots, and I panic. I don’t know if I’m ready for this. I don’t even know the guy; he can’t take my first kiss.

Then he pulls away and starts to laugh.

I’m so confused.

When the guy looks at me, he no longer looks sweet; he looks like a monster. His eyes are sharp and cold, and his smile has been replaced with a sinister grin. There is no warmth in his face, only hard lines and hatred plastered onto his features.

He pulls back and looks around as if expecting people to come out and congratulate him on the amazing prank that he just pulled.

“Did you really think I was going to kiss you? Look at you—you’re not pretty at all. You look like a cow’s arse. I bet you’ve never even been kissed by a guy, have you? You’re nothing but a nerd, and that’s all you’ll ever be!”

I can feel tears bubbling in my eyes. He tricked me just so he could hurt me. The only time I ever met the guy was when he knocked into me in the hallway—twice. Why would he do this?

I hear voices join his laughter and see a whole bunch of people walk out of the shadows with cameras and phones directed at me. At the front is Jessica, the girl Lily and I both hate with a passion.

Jessica puts her phone in my face and smirks at me. The pain that I feel from being tricked in such an intimate way is breaking me apart; I can feel tears streaming down my face as everyone points and laughs, and the embarrassment is just too much, so I run. I always run.

I run from the library as fast as my little legs can carry me, knowing that their faces will haunt my dreams. I will hear their laughter ricochet around my head like a bullet, like a taunt from the devil himself.

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