Page 57 of The One I Hate
“She won’t talk to me.”
The three of them look at each other like they’re missing something. Oliver is the first to speak up. “That’s it?”
I shrug. “I mean, that’s the Cliffs Notes. If you want to hear the whole story, which also now has an updated chapter from recently, that’s going to require a lot of beer. And privacy. Wes. Back to your place. I hope you’re stocked up.”
Chapter 14
Simon
She’s here.
She actually came.
She almost ran. But she didn’t.
She came to my party.
The one she doesn’t know I threw for her.
Well, not just for her. My roommates wondered what we were going to do with all the leftover booze from the year before we had to move out of the house. I suggested we have one final bash. A true going away party. They were down and invited the entire campus.
I invited one person. And now she’s here. Sitting on the roof outside my bedroom, away from the craziness of the party, because if I have Charlie here, I’m not about to spend it surrounded by anyone else. Not my friends. Not my sister and her college friends, who randomly showed up today.
No, this night and this moment is for me and Bug.
“It’s beautiful up here,” she says as she takes a sip of the water she asked for.
“It is,” I say back, though I’m not looking at the view of campus. How can I when she’s sitting inches away from me, smelling like flowers and wearing red lipstick that is drivingme fucking insane? She never wears makeup, yet, she is tonight. She was already gorgeous. But now? She’s stunning.
She looks over to me and starts laughing. “What are you staring at, weirdo?”
“You.”
“Well, stop.”
“Nope,” I say, inching a little closer to her. “It’s a free country, and I’m choosing to exercise my freedom by looking at the most beautiful girl in the world.”
She turns toward me, and she’s giving me the “quit being an idiot” look. It’s one I know well from her. And usually I am being an idiot. But not tonight. I’m dead serious. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world to me.
“Simon?”
“Yeah, Bug?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Can’t. It’s your name.”
She lets out a groan. “Why am I here?”
Her question takes me off guard. I was expecting her to ask why I’m calling her beautiful, because she’s asked that before. She usually asks me why I am the way that I am. And that is usually answered with another smartass remark.
But I wasn’t ready for this.
Now I need to quickly decide how to say what I need to. Because how do you say “well, I made my roommates have an entire party so I had an excuse to see you one more time before I left for the summer because I need you to know that I’m crazy about you, and you think I’m joking when I ask you out, but I’m not. You’re really pretty, and I want to kiss you and cuddle you and, if you’d let me, touch your butt. And boobs. I’d like that. But not because I’m a horn ball who just wants to get laid. Because you’re so pretty and smart and funny and you fascinate me. But you don’t think I’m serious, and I don’t knowhow to make you know I’m serious without coming across as stalker or a creep,” without sounding creepy?
How do I trim that down? Or make it sound normal? How do I not sound like a potential serial killer?
I don’t know. I know I need to try, though. Summer is about to begin, and I don’t want to leave without telling her how I feel.
