The Summer I Became a Nerd - By Leah Rae Miller Page 0,58
he looks past me. At Logan.
“Eric, can you give me a minute?”
“All right, babe. I’m hungry though.”
“Wait.” Logan steps closer to me. “I thought you two were over. What’s he doing here?”
“Dude, back up. I’m here ‘cause she’s my girlfriend, and we were going to have lunch.” He grabs my arm, not hard or anything, he’s just trying to lead me to the restaurant. “Come on, Maddie.”
“Wait, what?” Girlfriend? But the voice mail…the breakup that happened days ago. Today was just supposed to tie up all the loose ends, but maybe he thinks we’re going to get back together? I try to pry myself from his grasp, but Eric won’t let go. The look he gives me is totally confused.
“Let go of her!” Logan moves forward. He puts both hands flat against Eric’s chest and pushes. Eric releases me and stumbles back a bit. His face goes from shocked to angry in about two seconds. Before I know what’s happening, he rears back, then slams his fist into Logan’s face. It sounds horrible; a wet, fleshy, smack that echoes off the brick and cement surrounding us.
Logan falls back against the wall, but he doesn’t go down. He bends over, a hand against the left side of his face.
That’s when I realize I’m just standing there with my mouth hanging open. I step between them with my hands raised toward Eric. He holds his fist out in front of him like he’s not sure what it just did.
“Stop!” I yell, and Eric’s gaze darts from Logan to me. I turn to Logan and put a hand on his back. I bend over to look into his face. At least there isn’t any blood. “Are you okay?”
He jerks away from my touch and stares at me through one eye, his other still covered by his hand. His mouth is pinched into a thin line. I reach up to touch his face, but he jerks away again and starts backing toward the shop door.
“Logan, please?” I whisper.
“You’ve been with him this whole time, haven’t you?”
The question is a knife in my gut. I stutter out some words that don’t make any sense. “I… He… It’s just that…”
“You lied to me. Why? You could have just told me—“
“I didn’t lie. I’ve left voice mails.” I turn to Eric and pray he backs me up. “Why didn’t you call me back?”
Eric blinks. “You broke up with me?”
I can only stare at him, shock temporarily shutting down my ability to speak. Or think. I turn back to Logan to plead my case, but he just shakes his head, accusation and hurt written all over his face. Then he opens the door and disappears inside.
“What the hell, Maddie?” Eric asks.
All I can do is bury my face in my hands.
“Maddie?” he asks again.
I close my eyes, fighting back the tears that want to fall.
As I walk away, Eric just stands there in front of The Phoenix, dumbstruck. I’m almost to my car when he catches up to me.
“Maddie, wait, we need to talk.”
He’s right. Maybe I can just rip this off quick like a Band-Aid. “I—”
“No, let me go first.” He shoves his hands in his pockets and takes a deep breath. “I met this girl in Florida. You know I’ve always wanted to go to college there”—I never knew he wanted to go to college there which makes me an even worse girlfriend—“and she’s going to go there too. I guess I should have told you when I realized… You know… But, I wanted to tell you in person, not over the phone. That’s why I thought we could have lunch today.”
“You were going to break up with me at lunch?”
“Yeah.”
“You did realize I’d left you messages, right?”
“Yeah.”
I tame my frustration by letting out a slow breath and counting to five in my head. “And why didn’t you listen to them?”
“I don’t know. I guess I felt bad, like I was cheating on you. And everything was happening so fast.”
“Well, in those messages, I broke up with you.”
He lets out a big guffaw. “Really? Man, that’s crazy. It’s weird, right? It’s like that thing, what’s it called?”
I sigh. “Irony?”
“Yeah. That.”
I stare at him, and he stares at me for a long time. His face looks the complete opposite of how I feel, all sun-kissed and glowy. Then, I laugh. And laugh.
“Maddie?” he asks in a concerned tone. He should be concerned, I’m on the edge of having myself committed.