Page 22 of Beauty and the Nerd
“I doubt you would have sprained it if you were still wearing the cast though, sometimes I think doctors purposely do things to get you back in there,” Tara said, and Ben slid a hand overtaking Emma’s hurt one into his, his thumb rubbing across the top of it, jumping in to stop her rant.
“She wouldn’t have sprained it period if her ex hadn’t been a jerk this weekend while we were at the mall. He wasn’t happy that Emma broke up with him and didn’t like that we were walking around enjoying our day,” Ben said, and Emma gave him a light smile. “We haven’t told everyone at school we’re dating yet. It’s none of their business what’s between us, whether we’re just friends or more, and we didn’t want to deal with their questions, but it seems that Carter doesn’t want Emma to be happy period.”
“What happened?” Simon asked, seeing the look that crossed their faces.
“Carter grabbed my arm and twisted it. I felt a small pop, and we ended up going back to my house, putting some ice on it to see what it did. My parents came home from their anniversary trip, and it was a little swollen, so we stopped by the hospital for them to x-ray it, make sure Carter hadn’t broken it again. He was driving me home when the car accident happened,” she clarified seeing the women’s brows lift in surprise.
“Was that this past Saturday?” Adam asked, and Ben nodded. “I heard that Carter Donovan got his nose broke at the mall this weekend. Joe said the cops stopped by his house later that night after he came home with his nose taped up.”
“Let’s just say that Carter now knows better than to mess with Emma and leave it at that,” Ben suggested.
“I don’t think we will Ben,” Simon said studying him closely. “Did you get into a fight with him?”
“I don’t like people calling my girlfriend a bitch, okay? He wouldn’t shut up, was calling her nasty things, and he’d already hurt her, so I punched him. A couple of the other guys stepped in after hearing about what led up to the car accident until the security guards got there to escort him out of the mall,” Ben saidkeeping his hold on Emma’s hand as she breathed in deeply at the statement.
“No way,” Adam said looking between them in shock.
“No way, what?” Daphne asked, wanting to know what was going on.
“Let’s just say that Joe heard the cops say they were informed that the accident happened because he’d tried to sexually assault the girl with him,” Adam stated, and Ben shot him a dark look. “Hey, that’s what he said.”
“Is it true?” Daphne asked with a glance at Emma.
“We were at a friend’s place at the lake, I told him I wanted to go home, and he wasn’t happy that I didn’t want to sleep with him. He grabbed me and pulled me over towards him when the accident happened. I hit my head on the steering wheel then flew forward hitting it and my arm against the dash, and I passed out after the paramedics got me out of the truck. When I woke up at the hospital all I wanted was for Ben to be there with me, to stop pretending I liked someone I couldn’t actually begin to stand,” Emma answered leaning her head against his shoulder as he hugged her to his side.
“I wasn’t about to let her go after hearing what happened, so no matter what anyone thinks or says, this is happening. If you don’t like it, then just keep it to yourself,” Ben stated, calming her enough that they could eat without worrying.
Chapter 8
“Wow…ah just…wow,” Ben said as Emma moved out of the room in the dress, her hair up in a braided up-do of some sort that showed off her back. He shook his head knowing it wasn’t possible for someone to look better than she did right now.
“Is that a good wow?” she teased him, and he nodded, moving towards her, stealing a soft kiss before stepping away not about to mess up her dress. He was still wearing his regular clothes, but his slacks and jacket she’d picked out for him were hanging in his locker for after the game to change into. He wasn’t about to miss this dance even if they weren’t going into it together and still weren’t out as dating. The school now knew they were friends and that was as much as they needed to know until they revealed it themselves.
“Right this way Miss Homecoming Queen.” He offered her his arm, and she wrapped hers around it, walking with him until they got closer to the gym. She moved down the last set of stairs alone turning to shoot him a wink as the others spotted her.
Megan gasped, her jaw dropping as she got the others into their places. “Holy crap, girl.”
“I heard you were single again Emma, guess it’s my lucky night, isn’t it?” last year’s Court Warming King, Josh, said looking her up and down with a grin.
“Not a chance,” she said calmly seeing the tiny glares from the girls on the court. She pasted a smile onto her face as they stepped through the door, and she spotted Ben watching from the upper part of the balcony area. It wasn’t hard for her to find him in a crowd, and she knew precisely why—their hearts spoke to each other entirely.
“Filling in for last year’s Court Warming Queen is Wilmont High’s current Homecoming Queen, Emma Watkins, escorted by our reigning King, Josh Davis,” the announcer stated, and she took the shorter walk with him. They presented all of the people on the court with little trinkets before heading over to sit with the court members instead of taking her spot on the sideline with the rest of the cheerleaders. Her wrist was still bugging her, and she couldn’t participate in the stunting until the doctor cleared her, leaving her with very little desire to change into her uniform to simply change back into the dress again after the game.
There was only one game tonight, starting at six which their team won with ease, and she waited with the court to head into the dance that started at seven-thirty, about thirty minutes after it finished. A lot of the students didn’t dress up for it nearly as much as the court did, but plenty of the girls loved wearing glittery dresses and the time between the end of the game and the start of the dance gave them time to change in one of the bathrooms or the girls’ locker room. Emma hadn’t cared if Ben wore his normal clothes for it, but when he’d asked her if he should get a suit, she eagerly helped him pick out some slacks and a couple jackets he could wear with them, along with some other items that didn’t fall off his body that she liked.
A real smile graced her lips as she crowned Michelle as queen and took photos with the group after the requisite dances. Emma actually liked Michelle; she was pretty much the only nominee she could stand.
Once that was all finished, she slipped over to Megan, smiling at the dress she’d chosen. It was longer than the first one she’d shown her, and Emma knew Megan’s dad had told her ‘no way’ on it. Megan gave her a warning look, and she sighed hearing Josh’s voice behind them.
“What do you say to a night of entertainment Emma?” he questioned, and she turned around lifting her chin at him.
“Sorry, I’m really not interested,” she stated, searching for Ben. She spotted him along with Crystal who was making a beeline for him in the sluttiest dress she’d seen on anyone and looked back at Megan with a smile. “We’re still on for later, right?”
“All fully arranged, I’ll let you know when we’re leaving,” Megan said, lifting a brow at her and she nodded in reply to whether or not she was going to smack Crystal down finally.
“See you in a bit then,” Emma stated, slipping through the crowd to reach Ben. She watched Crystal slide a hand onto his chest and moved a bit faster to keep her from getting into his personal space. Emma slid her hand over his shoulder as she moved up behind Ben, a smile on her lips before turning into his body as Crystal glared at her.
“Stay away from him Crystal,” she warned lifting the girl’s hand from his chest.
