The Nerd and Ms. Perfect

Chapter 2 - All For You

I wake up to my phone's annoyingly loud alarm and look at the time, 6:05am. I sigh and stand up looking around for something to wear to school today. I grab a flannel and some jeans and walk to the bathroom to take a shower. "What was that about last night?" my mom says behind me almost giving me a heart attack.

I grab my chest and close my eyes, "Danielle fought with her boyfriend again." I say opening the door.

"Oh Mr. Matthew to the rescue again, huh?" she tilts her head. 

"Yup." I reply as I shut the door.

After my shower I dry my hair, shuffle down the stairs and grab my backpack. "Going to school, love you!" I yell.

"Love you too!" I hear as I shut the door.

I hop in my truck and drive to school. Senior year and I only have a couple classes a day, what a breeze. When I arrive I park just in time to see Danielle laughing alongside Jackson like nothing ever happened. I roll my eyes and walk across the parking lot to the double doors. I open one door and seem to hit something, I open it and see that I hit Jackson and Danielle while they were kissing and Danielle and I make eye contact, "Sorry." I say.

As I walk by Jackson shoves my backpack and quickly spurts, "Watch it, Nerd."

I ignore him and continue, but I am really not sure how this whole, "Nerd." thing caught on. I'm not a nerd, but because I don't have a six pack and muscles the size of softballs I'm called a nerd. I play video games like most other people my age, but I'm no nerd, my grades are average, and I don't even wear glasses.

Other than that fiasco my school day goes on like normal and I am the happiest person in the world to finally go home and make my way to the parking lot. Fortunately I am not the only one who gets out early and I get to my truck when I hear, "Hey stranger" coming from my left. 

I smile and put my key in the door, "Hey" I reply.

I guess I didn't mention that I sometimes give Danielle a ride home if she wants to hangout or doesn't have one. And that's probably the best part of my day. As she opens the door and hops in her smile makes my heart flutter.

"Where you wanna go?" I ask.

"Wanna go to your house and play some games? I got nowhere to be." she smiles.

"Yeah, sure." I reply as the engine turns over.

We barely get out of the parking space before she starts, "Look... um, thanks for last night, sorry to just get you to pick me up out of the blue like that."

"It's no problem Dani, I knew something was wrong, just worried me a little bit when you just texted me, 'help' and nothing else."

"Yeah..." she chucked, "sorry about that. Anyway, turn on some 311!"

As soon as I start playing Amber by 311 she does this wavy groove to the music and it's the cutest thing I have ever seen. She also sings along with an angelic like voice that completely encapsulates me making me smile uncontrollably. One thing that Danielle and I have in common the most is our taste in music. We will listen to just about anything with guitar in it.

When we get to my house we run up to my room and turn on my computer. Okay, the only thing that I might be a nerd about is the fact that I play games on the computer, not on a console. Danielle really enjoys this game called "Rocket League" so we usually play split screen or take turns; though, I don't normally like playing against her because her skill in uncanny, seriously makes no sense.

I look over and notice that she is getting a lot more messages than usual, "Everything okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, Jackson keeps texting me about going to this party later." she looks up at me.

I know what she's getting at.

"No." I say.

She puts on a sad puppy face and tilts her head.

Oh god, not the puppy face. 

I tilt my head and sigh and she exaggerates even more.

I can't take it...

I gave in, "Fine, I'll go, but only for a little bit. They probably won't even let me in."

"Yay!" she yelps.

She gets really exited, "Okay, let's go to my house, I need to pick an outfit before Jackson picks me up."

After we got to her house I helped her pick a dress. We decided on a very light colored pink cami top with spaghetti straps and some jean shorts. Her curly platinum blonde hair seemed to float above her shoulders like clouds.  I could barely contain my composer as she kept putting on such nice clothes. She kept telling me to stop blushing, because it was embarrassing her, but I  couldn't stop myself. I returned home and decided I needed an outfit as well, but I couldn't decide so I just kept what I had on.

When Dani texted me and said that she was almost there I went out the back of my house and started making my way through Narnia as the house the party was at was on the other side of those woods. As soon as I made it out of the woods it was quite obvious which house it was. There were cars lined down the street and one house in particular was lit up like it was on fire and people were entering and exiting at what seem like a constant rate. I hear a car coming from the right and immediately recognize that it's Jackson car. Extremely expensive ✓, extremely tacky ✓, bought by his rich parents ✓.

This party is going to be a little awkward considering I won't actually be able to talk to the person who invited me. I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and pull it out.

Danielle: Looking good!

Me: Thanks, I'm not so sure about this now, there's so many people.

Danielle: Come on Matt, man up, have some fun, just stay for a little bit.

I sigh and drop the phone back in my pocket, "Here goes nothing" I whisper.

I look both ways and cross the road following the sidewalk to the party to see Jackson and Danielle walking to the front door while holding hands. She leans back and waves to me without Jackson noticing, I nod and smile. I slowly follow behind and step into the party and look around for at least one person I can talk to. I look around and see no one I know, not a soul. I decide to give up and I turn around to see Jackson hovering behind me with a big smile on his face. "Hey, Pal!" he says as he puts his arm around my neck and starts to guide me to the backyard.

"Woah, what are you doing Jackson?" I nervously chuckle.

"Oh, don't worry pal..." we make it to the backyard.

"... we're just going for a swim." he says pushing me over the ledge of the pool.

No, please.

It all happens in slow motion as I feel my skin touch the cold water and feel my body sink into a shivering hell. I feel the water enveloping my body and I can feel my emotions shatter as I begin to hear a pulsing noise. I rise to the top and hear the laughter surrounding me as I look around.

I'm the only one in the pool.

I look over and see the look on Danielle's face, I can see her sadness and guilt. I immediately swim to the edge and pull myself up, waiting no time to run out a side gate towards the woods. My mind is empty and I feel my heart beating faster than I ever have. I feel my cold skin clashing with my fiery core, filling my mind with nothing else. 

God damn it, Jackson.