Page 18 of Beauty and the Nerd
“Excuse me? Who do you think you’re talking to nerd…” Jane stopped as Emma stepped between them with a dark look at the girl.
“Watch it, talk bad about him and you talk bad about me,” Emma warned her. “If you want to be a bitch then go do it behind my back like normal. I’m done pretending to be someone I’m not. Dealing with the shit after the accident made me see just how little I honestly care about what anyone elsethinks about me, and I won’t go back to pretending that I do. If you can’t deal with it, then take it somewhere else. Cause like I said, Idon’tcare anymore. Go ahead and run your mouth as much as you want, just don’t think I won’t stand up for myself if you do it to my face.”
“Hold up, you were at NYU at a seminar this summer when you claimed you were going to your grandparents?” Steve questioned as Jane flipped her hair over her shoulder pouting at them when none of the others backed her up.
“Yeah, and I ran into Ben there and got to know the real him. We became friends and I asked him to help me out after school started because I didn’t want to skate by any longer. I wanted someone to challenge me to see what I can actually accomplish, have someone intelligently argue back with me over the lit homework, and that was Ben. We’ve been friends since then and if you don’t like it, Ireallydon’t care. We’re going to head out so feel free to say whatever you want. It won’t bother me one little bit.” Emma slid her hand into his to walk them through the crowd and Ben had the hardest time not kissing her right then, right there for the way she stood up for him. Didn’t let what they thought about them being friends deter her any.
Emma smiled the whole way to her house and didn’t argue when he got an ice pack for her wrist before he snuggled in with her on the couch. He just wanted to spend time with her and enjoy what they were.
“So, what’s the idea for school on Monday?” he asked, loving the fact that she didn’t just out them to everyone at the mall even more now. Yeah, he’d certainly thought about kissing her, but it hadn’t felt entirely right, just like they were showing off, trying to prove something or get a reaction out of them and that wasn’t what he wanted people to think about them.
She met his gaze with a grin. “Upset I didn’t tell Carter we’re dating?”
“No, I actually really enjoyed getting the better of him without revealing that bit. I don’t want you just to show him up Em, you know that, right?” He lifted a brow at her wanting to make sure she knew that wasn’t even close to what today was about, he’d go after anyone that tried to hurt her, regardless of whether he’d come out the better or worse in the situation. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing when someone was attacking her, physically or verbally.
“I know this is far more than just about Carter. After all, we were doing this before I agreed to go to Homecoming with him.”
Emma sighed happily as she lifted her chin to kiss him. His lips teased hers until she thought she’d die from wanting a full kiss from him and she let out a soft sigh of joy when he finally did kiss her properly.
“What’s that baby?” he asked lifting his lips from it, chuckling as she pulled him back down to her.
“Now I know exactly why Crystal doesn’t want to let you go.” She let her hand play with his hair as he smiled dropping little kisses along her jaw and neck.
“It was never like this with her Em, it was just sex. A quick get in and get done sort of thing.” He laughed as his words put color into her cheeks. “You’re so damn cute when you blush, do you know that?”
“No, you’re the only one that can make me really blush though. The others could say the dirtiest and crudest things, and it didn’t bother me in the least, but you say one thing like that, and I can’t help it.”
“Well, no matter what happens with us this weekend, next week, next month, next year…” He stopped when he caught her gaze fully as she lifted her knee to rest against his thigh, bringing their bodies closer together, pulling a light groan from his lips as she smiled.
“What was that?”
“No matter what happens, anytime with us, I never want you to lose that blush, I think I’d miss it entirely.”
Ben kissed her again, his hand slipping up her side under the sweatshirt to feel her skin with his. He left it on her lower ribcage, just holding her as he kissed her fully, showing her that he wasn’t going to rush anything despite his body’s reaction.
“Would you like to tell me exactly when you started kissing my daughter like that Ben?” They heard her dad question a while later, and bolted up from the spot on the couch, color flaming into Emma’s cheeks finding her parents in the doorway.
“Dad, I didn’t think you all were coming back until tomorrow afternoon.” She tried to get her breathing under control as Ben sat back against the couch letting her up from it.
“I told you we were coming back on the seventh Emma, today’s the seventh,” Jack stated, turning his attention over to Ben. “Would you like to tell me what you think you’re doing with my daughter before I toss you out of here?” he added when she covered her face with the long sleeve of her top.
“I’m with Emma because I love her with everything I am, Mr. Watkins,” Ben said, and Emma turned her face to see him, her heart fluttering wildly at his confession of it to her parents. “I fell in love with her this summer at NYU when I got to know the real Emma and have continued to fall further every day since then. We both knew the others at school wouldn’t exactly approve of us together even as friends, so we kept things to ourselves, but when Emma was hurt in the car accident, I couldn’t pretend not to care any longer.”
“I see, and you feel the same?” her dad asked as her mom slid her hand onto his arm trying to ease his worries over Ben’s statement.
“Yes Dad, all I wanted the moment I woke up after the accident was Ben to be there with me,” she stated, and her mom’s brow rose in surprise.
“How is that? You barely recognized me after the accident,” her mom said as her dad’s gaze slid down to the ice pack on the floor.
He bent down to pick it up and caught her hand, seeing the slight swelling of her wrist. “What happened to your wrist?”
“We went to the mall earlier and Carter was there being a jerk. He grabbed it and I think he sprained it or something. Ben brought me home and made me ice it,” she admitted as he checked it over further.
“What did you mean about wanting Ben with you after the accident Emma?” her mom asked, seeing the shake of her husband’s head as he looked at her wrist.
Emma sighed as Ben rubbed her shoulder giving her a look that said to tell them. “I just didn’t want it all to come out.”
“What ‘all’ are you talking about? Your depth of friendship with Ben, the feelings you had for him?” her mom questioned.
