Page 5 of Beauty and the Nerd
“Cool it Crystal. One—she has a head injury from a car accident, and her doctor won’t release her to come back to school until they know it isn’t going to cause her any issues, hence sending the work home to her. And two—Emma is far from being a cheer-head. She’s actuallyincrediblysmart. She just likes having someone to talk through the answers with, not a whole lot different from you, is it?” He shot the parting comment to her before turning to stop into Mrs. Johnson’s room.
“Ben…Emma’s work I take it?” she said, stopping her lecture as she spotted him with the large stack of papers. He’d stop at her locker for her textbooks she didn’t have at home on his way out, then head over to her place so he could hopefully get a few minutes alone to hold her again.
“Yeah, I just wanted to let you know I was going to take it over to her. She texted me to say she was home and had a few questions left on the items from yesterday. With missing the lectures, she hoped I could help her with them tonight.” Her friend Jane’s brows rose in shock at his words, and he was glad. He wanted them to know Emma askedhimto come over, even if they just thought it was to do homework.
“Alright, I’ll make sure to mark it for the tutor center. Have a good weekend,” she added, and he nodded knowing quite well that he would if Emma’s mom kept the others away from the house and he didn’t have to worry about them being there when he wanted to be.
The front door opened when he got out of the car and Emma slid into the doorway, her arm in a sling with the light aqua color of her cast peeking out from it. He moved up the steps and had to force himself not to reach out for her, not kiss her as he wanted to, seeing the smile on her lips.
“Hey, you feeling up to this?” he asked, seeing her mom in the hall beyond them.
“Anything to get me away from the TV. I swear there’s two hundred some channels and nothing on during the days,” she said making him laugh lightly. “We’re going to be in my room Mom.”
“Take it easy Emma, don’t overdo it. The doctor let you out since you’ve remembered some more so don’t stress yourself and go backwards,” Nicole warned moving over to kiss her cheek. “Ben, would you like to stay for dinner?”
“If it’s not too much and Emma doesn’t get too tired before then, sure,” he said not about to pass up extra time with her, not a chance.
Chapter 2
“Mmm, come here,” Emma said giving Ben a soft kiss as the day ended.
“You should head out first, so no one realizes that we’ve been in here together for the last thirty minutes.” Ben pressed a kiss to the top of her head. He wanted to walk out of the room with her and not look back, especially after this past week.
She’d let everyone think that she woke Monday morning recalling everything but the time surrounding the accident, which her doctor had no issue with considering her concussion.
He wasn’t thrilled with it, since it meant Carter was still in the clear for what he did to her, but it’d allowed her parents to relax their vigilance over her.
He’d spent most of Saturday evening at her place. Her parents were going out for a business dinner, her dad grumbling about it after not being able to get home while Emma was in the hospital and not wanting to leave her alone at the house for it. Ben was glad the man seemed relieved when he arrived, Emma having told them she’d be fine, and he was going to stop by to help her with more homework.
Then he’d stopped in on Sunday afternoon to help her finish the homework. Not that they’d told the others it was alreadyfinished. It gave them every night this week to spend time together while everyone else assumed they were still working on it. Slowly, so it wouldn’t cause Emma more headaches. She was still suffering from sporadic ones thanks to the concussion, and her doctor only released her to come back to school with the understanding that she was only to go to and from classes, then home, stopping if she felt a headache coming, and to immediately come back in if she grew dizzy or her vision began to blur as it had that first night.
“You’re coming over tonight, right?” she asked as she got up, wanting to go home with him rather than wait an hour or two for the others to finally get around to taking her home. Finals were next week, and she’d only been back at school for two days, leaving her a little behind.
“Just try and keep me away, Em,” he stated, kissing her hand before she left.
She grabbed a few things from her locker as the group came to meet her, and she let out a sigh rolling Carter’s hand off her shoulder as he attempted to pull her into his hold. “Carter, stop.”
She shook her head at the look he gave her, done with him and his attitude. “I’m tired, okay? I just want to go home.”
“Go home? Come on Emma, we’re heading out to the lake,” he said, and she knew precisely what was likely to happen there and wanted none of it.
“I can’t. I’m already behind in class thanks to the accident and I can’t afford to go out to the lake and watch you get drunk.”
She moved away from him and the others to head out to the parking lot. There had to be someone else who could take her home. She wasn’t allowed to drive yet, not after the concussion and with her broken arm. Relief hit as she spotted Ben heading down the other set of steps and she moved quickly to reach him.
“Emma!” Carter shouted, his eyes narrowing when he saw her heading after Ben.
Ben stalled, hearing Carter yell Emma’s name. He spotted her moving towards him and turned to reach her, giving her a light smile, asking, “Hey, is everything okay?”
“Can you drive me home? They want to go the lake and I’mnotgoing back there,” she said, her face slightly pale, and he nodded in complete understanding.
He guided her towards his car with a gentle hand to her back. “Sure, come on, baby.”
“Emma!” Carter shouted again, but she slipped into the front seat of Ben’s car ignoring him.
Ben moved around to his side, stopping only when he felt Carter grab his arm. “What?”
“Stay the hell away from my girlfriend, loser,” Carter said, and Ben pulled his arm out of his grasp, still wanting to slug him for what he’d done to Emma.
