Page 3 of Beauty and the Nerd
“Can you stay for a couple minutes? I think some of this looks familiar, but maybe if I go through it, something else will come back,” she suggested turning her face so only he would see the look she gave him. He read the huge ‘please’ in it and he wasn’t about to say no to her.
“Sure,” he agreed settling his bag on the floor next to the table to grab a chair from it.
“You want to dohomework?” Carter questioned raising his voice slightly, anger tinting it entirely, and Ben felt Emma withdraw from the guy more than noticing her physical withdrawal from him. Physically she just barely leaned away, her mouth tensing a bit, but her eyes flashed with something he’d never seen before, never wanted to see in them again, and her breathing grew a bit slower making him really need to know what was going on, what happened.
“Why don’t the rest of you head home?” Nicole suggested to the group seeing Emma shifting away from them even though they were all at the foot of the bed. “Visiting hours will be over at seven and I think Emma will need a nap after dinner. Ben, you can stay until then, but the doctors said not to let Emma push herself.”
“Nice and easy, no complex math, got it.” Ben gave her mom a nod, and he listened to Carter’s friends hackling him as they left without even a goodbye amongst them beyond from her friend Megan.
“Damn man, it’s pretty sad when the girl you’re nailing doesn’t even remember you but knows her freaking tutor,” Steve stated, and they heard Nicole hush them as she shut the door behind her.
“Em,” Ben said as she reached over and grabbed the curtain, pushing it down towards the foot of the bed so no one would see her from the door.
“Come here, please.”
She sat up further, and he wasn’t about to deny himself the chance to hold her. He felt her shake slightly as his arms came around her and he held her as tightly as he dared, unsure of all the injuries she sustained. The cast on her wrist and the bruise on her forehead were too much already and if there was anything internal, he didn’t want to begin to make it worse.
“What’s going on, baby?” His question put a light smile on her lips as he gently laid her back against her pillows once she’d calmed down. “I heard from Ms. Bentley that you couldn’t remember anyone but your mom, didn’t remember anything, were having trouble recalling names and faces, but you clearly recall me—us.”
“I just didn’t want to deal with the cops when I woke up.” She turned onto her side to get a little more comfortable, then reached over and held his hand seeing the way his brow lifted. “I don’t want it getting out right now. I don’t care what they think about me remembering you and not them. All I’ve wanted today was you here with me.”
“Em.” He sighed softly reaching over to kiss her forehead where the bruise stood out starkly. “I wanted to come last night when I heard but I knew what people would think.”
“I’m not mad, Ben. I get it and completely understand. I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep pretending that I barely know you. I can’t keep pretending to date Carter,” she addedunable to hide the shudder that ran through her or the break of her voice at the end.
Ben felt the coolness of her arm and pulled the blanket up around her further, before taking her hand back into his. “What happened, baby? Carter said some car came around the curve on the wrong side of the road but that doesn’t explain how he didn’t have time to avoid it or how you got the brunt of the accident when it hit his side on the front of the truck. He doesn’t have a scratch on him but your head, your arm…”
“Carter was mad that I wanted to leave the party early. I was so tired of the crap there and didn’t want to deal with them anymore. I wanted to come home, see if you were free, and spend the rest of the evening with you. So, I told Carter that I had to go. On the drive, he reached over, grabbed me, and pulled me towards him. I didn’t know what the hell was going on until he pushed my face down toward his groin.”
“What?!” Ben nearly shouted, and Emma squeezed his hand tighter, not about to let him go after the creep.
“I pushed at him, fought to make him let me go and that’s when the car came around the curve. Carter had pushed the top of the seatbelt from my body so when it hit, I didn’t have anything to stop me from hitting the dash.”
Ben slid his free hand back beneath her head, lowering his towards her. “You don’t want to tell the cops that, why? He assaulted you.”
“I just don’t want to deal with the backlash that might come from school from it. There’s no way to know how everyone there would react if I pressed charges on him. What he’d do. What his father would do or attempt to get me to back down. Right now, with Carter thinking that I don’t recall what happened, it means that he’s not as likely to try it again. He’ll know that if I do remember that I can tell the police and he’ll be in trouble. He won’t want that coming out since he has two offers to playcollege football still on the table. They’ll likely withdraw them if they hear that he’s been accused of sexual assault.”
“I don’t want you near him. What’s to say he won’t try it again simply because he thinks you don’t remember or because you can’t fight back as well with a broken arm?” Ben questioned wanting to go find him and beat him into the ground, even if he wasn’t as physically built as the asshole.
“Just give me a week or two, then I’ll break up with him, threaten that if he doesn’t leave me alone, I’ll tell the cops what I do remember about the accident,” she said, but he knew either way was dangerous. “I just really want to be with you right now, without everyone asking questions about the accident.”
“I really want to be with you too, Em. You have no idea, how relieved I am to know you’re okay, baby.” He slipped onto the edge of the bed with her, wanting to keep her entirely safe.
He didn’t care what anyone said now. The semester was nearly finished. He wasn’t going to volunteer for the tutor center for the next one. They could come out with their relationship after the new semester started. Hopefully then he could show everyone that Emma was his and he was hers.
“No more worries if I’ll feel differently without my memories?” she teased lifting her hand to steal his glasses. She set them on the bed tray and slipped her hand into his hair, pushing the length back from his face with a smile. “There are no worries about this Ben. I know you’re the best choice for me, the only one in this world I really want to be with.”
“Same, baby,” he said, dropping a kiss onto her unhurt wrist before looking down into her eyes.
He could see perfectly well without his glasses on at close distances, they were more for reading in class. He simply gave in and wore them all the time, so he wouldn’t have to deal with the issue of finding them when he did need them—or risk someone taking them again as was the norm in gym when he’d put themup. A tiny glimmer appeared in her eyes as she pushed her hand through his hair again and lifted her chin in order to kiss her. “What’s that about?”
She smiled as she snuggled deeper into his hold with a soft sigh. “Hmm?”
“The hair thing; you always do that when we’re like this,” he stated, and she grinned further.
“I’ve always thought your haircut was horrible. You’ve no idea how incredibly handsome you are, but with a different haircut all of the girls would be after you. I already have to deal with Crystal wanting you though, so maybe you should keep this style.”
“I don’t want any girl but you Em, just you baby.” He kissed her eyelids as they shut, not wanting her to but he knew she needed sleep. “You’re sleepy though, so get some rest and we’ll tackle your homework tomorrow or the next day.”
