Page 17 of Beauty and the Nerd
“You’re on your own man,” David said waving him off as he looked back at them, and Ben saw a hint of anger on his face making him step a bit further in front of Emma.
“What do you mean what really happened with the accident Emma?” David added as Carter cursed at all of them while Emma rested a hand on Ben’s arm, reassuring herself that he was there in one piece with her.
“Let’s just say that I’d never ride alone in a car with him again after what happened.”
“What does that mean?” David questioned, and Megan spoke up from the other side of the fountain.
“It means that Carter didn’t like the word no and tried to force her to give him a big oral happy in the car,” she stated, and David caught Carter as he lunged for them.
“Oh, hell no,” David said stepping between them. “You seriously tried that shit? Ben’s right, come near Emma again and you won’t be walking. You’re done, Carter. You’re on your own now that the season’s over, so take a damn walk.”
“Like hell I am,” Carter said, and Steve caught his arm as a security guard arrived to check on the group.
“We told you before, we ain’t putting up with that shit man. You don’t do shit like that, especially not to people we know,” Steve returned. “Guess we know why she remembered her tutor and not you, don’t we?”
“You’re sticking up for that loser?” Carter yelled at them. “What the hell does he have huh? Nothing because he’s a loser.”
“Well, that loser certainly did a number on your face,” Steve said, and Emma smiled as the security guard started to walk Carter towards the exit.
“He’s not a loser Carter, not even close. What he is, is on his way out of here to an amazing first-rate university, that you’ll never begin to get near.” Emma thought about saying more but she wasn’t about to waste their coming out with this moment. Carter didn’t deserve an explanation of what they really were. “You wish you had half of his brains because maybe then you’d actually have a chance at a future that doesn’t include the lines ‘would you like fries with that’ or ‘do you need an oil change’ near them.”
“Oh, this is rich. You’re seriously sticking up for that loser? What’s wrong Emma can’t handle arealman?” Carter shouted before the guards shoved him away from the group, and she shook her head looking back at Ben with a smile.
“Thanks Ben,” she said before glancing over at the other two, “you all too.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t know what happened with the accident before now,” David said shaking his head seeing the guards handing Carter off to a police officer just outside the exit. He studied Ben a bit further, shaking his head again. “You knew though, didn’t you?”
“I knew, Emma told me the day after the accident,” Ben said, and she saw the surprise amongst the rest of the group at his slip.
“I thought you didn’t remember anything about it,” Jane stated, and she let out a sigh.
“I just didn’t want to deal with that,” Emma said, motioning towards the exit and Carter. “I was immensely relieved when Ben showed up at the hospital because it meant I could get Carter out of there without my mom finding out what really happened. Because if she did, so would my dad, which would mean him coming home from his trip early, even if it meant quitting in order to get here, to kill Carter.”
“Yeah, your dad would have done it too,” David said. “He scared the hell out of me when we were dating. I’d hate to see what he’d have done to Carter.”
“A lot worse than this.” She rubbed her wrist after a pain shot through it when she rolled it slightly.
“Come on let’s get you home to put some ice on that.” Ben took the bag back from her adding, “You don’t need to carry around the two pounds of jellybeans with it.”
“Wait, now hold up a second,” Steve said, stalling them from leaving. “So, what exactly is this? I get you not wanting to be near Carter but that doesn’t explain you being here with nerd…”
“Cool it with the nerd stuff,” she warned him with a dark look, not about to put up with it over and over from them. She was so tired of hearing that shit. “Ben’s my friend, a better one than the rest of the group has been since the accident. If you don’t like that, it’s your problem, not mine. If I want to hangout with him, goof off with him, or come to the mall instead of staying out in the cold hiking with him, it’smybusiness. I don’t have to clear my friends with you, now do I?”
Let them say crap about her. Since the accident she didn’t care any longer. She wanted to live her life the way she wanted—with Ben. The only reason she hadn’t come out with them before now was to keep the questions about the tutor center from being raised and having it possibly affect Ben’s college applications. It shouldn’t matter now, but no one else needed to know when they first started this except her and Ben.
“Just asking since we’ve barely seen you lately. It’s been all, ‘no I’ve got to study’ or ‘I’m tired’ or ‘Ben’s giving me a ride home to study’ and we’re just wondering what’s behind it,” Steve said, and a couple of the others nodded giving her long looks.
“Part of it was I didn’t want to be anywhere that I knew Carter would be, especially right after the accident. Not to mention that the doctor told me to take it easy, only go from home to school and back because of the concussion. Said an accidental hit to the head was dangerous after suffering one, could exacerbate the concussion symptoms and it’s not like you all have ever been that careful when ‘playing’ around and shit. You all have broken six glass doors, resulting in five major cuts requiring a ton of stitches, broken eight more side mirrors, broken three bystanders’ legs after tackling each other, and you think I was going to risk that?
“The rest was that I have been studying a lot more this year in order to maintain A’s in my AP classes so I can get into a certain college I really like. I spent a month there this past summer at an invitation-only program and spoke with the admission counselor there who gave me a few things to work on to make my application stand out more.” Emma glanced at Ben to see his reaction to that news. He didn’t seem too surprised, more hopeful than that, and she let out a little breath of relief whilekeeping her choice of going for early admittance to herself still. If she managed to be accepted, they’d be in the same town and that made her want it even more.
“Hold up, you got A’s in your AP classes?” Jane said in shock.
“She got A’s in every single one of her classes last semester,” Ben stated, giving her a proud smile, “even with missing a week because of the accident.”
“That’s why you were hanging out with him all semester? Damn, I thought you were just that stupid with school shit,” Jane stated, laughing and Emma’s jaw tightened in irritation.
“Emma’s smarter asleep than you’ll ever hope to be awake, Jane,” Ben retorted, not about to let anyone run her down. “I knew that the second she walked into the dorm this summer at NYU with a group of others from the seminar. One quick read of her story and lit analysis she submitted to get into the program, and I knew she’d let all of you pull her down to your level. I was more than willing to work with her, help her with whatever she needed to help her see that. It didn’t take me long to learn that Emma didn’t really need help studying so much as that she needed help with her time management skills thanks to everything else on her plate, but that’s vastly different than having to reiterate the entire lesson like with a lot of the others that showed up to the tutor center. I wasn’t about to let you all destroy her chances because you won’t find them waiting on you.”
