The Summer I Became a Nerd - By Leah Rae Miller Page 0,67
eyes out. “Yeah. So sweet. And they’re cutest, weirdest names I’ve ever heard.” My voice cracks on the last word. 4 ever only lasted for one LARP game and a bowling date.
I can’t help it. The tears come.
Terra grabs my hand. “Whoa, what’s wrong?”
It’s really hard to catch my breath, fight back tears, and talk at the same time. “I… That was… I’m so stupid, Terra.”
She waves for me to follow her into the aquarium. “Come on, girl. Let’s sit down and have a talk.”
#24
The sun is shining today, and I mean really shining, like burn-your-eyelashes-off shining. This is going to be one of those summer days where no one steps away from the air conditioner unless it’s a life or death situation. I hope everyone will take this into consideration later when I run around searching for people to help me in my quest. But first, I have to start with step one of the “Make Logan Not Hate Me” plan.
I sit down on my bed and flip through the phone book until I find The Phoenix.
“Thanks for calling The Phoenix, what can I do for you?” Logan’s smooth voice makes my breath hitch in my throat.
I have to control the urge to ramble on with apologies and confessions. I put on my fake guy voice. “Could I speak to Martha Scott, please?”
“She’s not in today. Can I take a message?” he says.
“No, I’ll just try another day.” I hang up. I picture him put the phone down and hunch back over the comic he’s reading, just like he was the first day I walked into the shop. Except, this time there’s an evil, dark fairy sitting next to him, talking smack about a certain cheerleader.
“Whatcha doing?” Mom asks from my bedroom door, bringing me back to Earth.
“Nothing. Actually, I was thinking of going over to Logan’s, if that’s okay.”
“Could you define ‘grounded’ for me because I do not think it means what you think it means.” She waves around a clean pair of my socks to emphasize her point.
“But, Mom, I have to fix this. I’m not going to have fun, believe me. You said, ‘It’s all about how you treat people,’ right? Well, I have a plan to at least apologize to Logan, but you have to let me out of the house.”
She looks at me for a minute. I can almost feel her mom-brain-tentacles digging through my thoughts, looking for a lie, but she’s not going to find one because one isn’t there.
Finally, she comes over to me and puts her hands on my shoulders. She squeezes. Hard. “All right, but you go there and nowhere else, understand?”
“Um, I might need to stop at a couple of other places, too.”
She hits me square on top of the head with the socks and sighs.
…
Vera’s face drops when she sees me at the door. She crosses her arms. “Logan’s not here.”
“Is your Mom?” I ask.
Martha comes around the corner and into the front entrance way of their house. “Vera, what have I told you about answering the door.” She stops when she sees me, and I wonder if she’s going to tell me to stay the hell away from her son. Did he tell her what happened? Did Eric actually follow through on his promise to “fix things” and come by to apologize?
A huge smile lights up her face, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Hi, Maddie. Vera, go watch your show.”
Reluctantly, Vera goes into the living room, making sure to cast a scornful glance at me behind her mother’s back.
Martha holds the door open for me. “Come on in.”
I follow her into the kitchen. She sits at the dining table and shoves her husband’s paperwork to the end of it. I sit down across from her. Now to begin the groveling.
“I just want to say I’m so sorry about what happened to Logan. I so did not intend for—”
She holds up a staying hand. “It’s all right, hon. You didn’t hit Logan. Besides, Eric apologized and explained the whole thing. These kinds of things happen with men.”
“So, you know about the Eric debacle?”
She nods.
“And so does Logan?”
She nods, again.
“But he still thinks I’m ashamed of him.”
“You’re right. That’s exactly what he thinks.”
I close my eyes and bite my lip.
“But that’s not what’s going on now, is it?” When I open my eyes, she’s smiling that familiar smile. My heart leaps into my throat.
“No, no, absolutely not. I mean, at first I was worried about my friends