Like every morning I saw Nick at his locker. I practically collapsed when I saw him. He was wearing a pair of Abercrombie and Fitch jeans, and North Carolina Tar Heels shirt and a baby blue Tar Heels hat. It didn’t get any better than that!
Instead of going to catch up with his friends like he usually did, he walked over to my locker. "Hey," I smiled, going along with my book packing.
"Howdy," he said back.
"Lookin’ for Erin?"
"No. Um, I was wondering, you wanna go with me and Erin to Go Kart City on Friday?"
Stunned, I closed my locker door slowly and faced him. "I um, have to work Friday."
"What time do you get off?"
"9:00."
"Well, I was planning to go at 10:00 anyway."
"You sure you’re friends will approve? I know the things they say... you know, about me."
"They just say that stuff because you don’t have big tits."
"Hey! I happen to like my boobs!"
He laughed. "Don’t let those guys get to you. They’re just trying to get laid."
"And you’re not?"
"I did NOT cheat on Roxanne!" he said sternly.
"Okay, chill out," I sighed.
"Sorry. So you wanna go?"
I thought about it for a second before I replied. "Yeah, sure."
"Awesome. So where do you work?"
"Just For Feet. What about you?"
"I only work during the summer, I’m a lifeguard at Mayfair."
"Oh, okay. Have you seen Erin this morning?"
"Not, not yet anyway," he replied.
Before I could get in anything else the bell rung.
"I’ll tell her you’re looking for her if I see her."
"Thanks," I smiled, heading to homeroom. I could barely walk straight. I wasn’t the type of girl who the "popular" guys talked to, much less asked to go somewhere.
At lunch, I still didn’t see Erin, so I figured she was sick and stayed home. Lanie had a club meeting for one of the clubs she was in, so I ended up sitting alone.
"Guess Erin didn’t show up?" Nick said putting his lunch trey on the other side of the table across from me.
"Uh…I think she’s sick or something. She didn’t sound so good on the phone last night."
"Yeah. Mind if I sit here?"
"No, not at all. Go ahead."
"So…" he sighed.
"So…"
"You always this quiet?" he asked.
"Me!? Quiet?"
"Yeah."
"Nuh- uh. I’m just shy."
"That’s what Erin said."
I smiled. I was due for a mess up, so I said as little as I could get away with where I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.
"So, does Just For feet have any good deals? I really need some new shoes for basketball."
"Yeah, we’ve got some pretty good deals. That’s where I get all my shoes. We’re not as expensive as Champs and Russell’s, not to mention I could probably get you some kind of discount."
"Well, I should check that place out. You working tonight?"
"Till nine."
"I’ll come rack your brain tonight."
"Alright…cool. You play on the basketball team?"
"Yeah, we start practice next week."
"CARTER! What the hell did I tell you about talking to these...these THINGS?" his friend yelled, hovering over me.
I looked at Nick. "I uh, um, have to go." Before he could say anything I was up and out of there.
"Man, what’s your problem?" Nick asked.
"Her!" he answered. "You’re makin’ not only yourself, but me, look bad by talking to that piece of shit."
"What the hell are you talking about? You don’t even much less know her. You just think she’s got some kind of disease because she’s not like you. I don’t know what your problem is, but you need to get your head out of your ass and wake up and realize you’re the piece of shit here, not her. Besides, I just so happened to like her and I’m not gonna quit talking to her because you want me to."
Geoff sighed. "Whatever man, you’ve got problems."
"Nah, you’re the one with problems," Nick shot back, getting up and walking away.
I watched the whole thing from the cafeteria lobby. When I saw him get up I grabbed my book bag and headed to the bench farthest away as I could get. I have no clue how me managed to find me so quick, but he did. I was busy doing my Algebra homework when he walked up.
He sighed. "Sorry about all that. He’s such a prick sometimes."
"Oh," I mumbled. "It’s okay."
"Don’t take anything he says to heart."
"Listen," I said, still working on my homework. "I don’t want to get in the way of your social life. I’m not worth the trouble."
"Don’t say that, its’ not true."
I stopped when he said that. I didn’t know what it meant, so I just shook it off and continued with my homework.
"Whatcha doin’?" he asked.
"Homework."
"Algebra?"
I nodded. I could feel my book slipping from underneath my hand, but I didn’t have an extra hand to catch it, so it hit the ground in front of Nick. I bent down to get it, but he got there first. My eyes met his. "I gatta go," I said, grabbing my books and running off.
"Stephanie, there’s someone here who needs to speak with you!" my manager called back to me.
I shoved the box into the place where it belonged and climbed down the ladder. I sighed and looked around myself. I still had a ton of boxes to put up. When I got to the front desk I looked up to see Nick on the other side of the store scratching his head and looking at shoes. "Um, hi," I said quietly, standing beside him. "I didn’t think you would come."
He smiled. "Well, I’m here."
I tried to smile back, but it was no use. We sat there in silence for a minute until he broke the silence.
"So, um, you got any decent looking shoes that wont cost me a fortune?"
I led him over to the basketball section and showed him some of my favorites. "I know these are kind of old, but these are my favorite."
He picked up the pair that I pointed to. They were the Nike’s with the changeable straps.
I looked at my watch. 8:45.
"I’ll get these!" he said suddenly.
"I looked up at him. "What size?"
"Eleven and a half."
"Alright, I’ll be back." About five minutes later I found what I was looking for. When I came back out, he tried them on and took them up to the cashier to pay for them.
"You get off at nine, night?"
"Uh huh."
He glanced down at his watch. "I need to talk to you. Do you think we could talk after you get off?"
"Um," I answered, freaking out. "Uh, yeah."
"Alright, I’ll be in the Green Durango, it’s right by your car."
I nodded. What’d I do? Why did he need to talk to me? I had ten minutes left of work, so I did as much re-stocking as I possibly could. At 9:00 my manager called me out of the back and told me he’d sign me out for the night, I was free to go. I totally forgot where I parked, so I looked around for a second. The Mitsubishi was directly under the street light, and the Durango was right beside it. I took a couple of seconds to get myself together, and then I walked out to the cars. He didn’t notice me walk up, so I knocked on the window. He turned the radio down, and he got out.
"I just wanted to apologize for Geoff today. He’s like that to everyone. I hope he didn’t scare you or anything.."
"No, not really. Just don’t let me get in the way of your social life. Besides, the loser thing…I get it a lot. I just don’t want to get in the way."
He sighed. "You’re NOT in the way!"
Not knowing what to say, I just stared down at my feet.
"I just wanted to say I’m sorry."
I nodded. "Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. I gatta go, my parents are kinda strict on school nights."
"Alright, I’ll see you at school tomorrow."
With that, I got in the car and went home.