Never Been Nerdy(18)

Sera’s taken, she shouldn’t even be able to walk in on another chick’s dibs like that. It goes against all the rules in the universe. I called him - I shotgunned his body for me only, and besides, what the fuck would MacLaine think of this cozy behaviour?

Shit. I’m being a whiny high school bitch that has nothing better to do with her life. But for some odd reason, I think it’s going to take a while for me to get over Dean, and I don’t know why.

“What’s so funny?” I ask, settling myself next to Dean, crossing my legs so he can have a nice long look at how great they are as my super skinny jeans hardly leave anything to the imagination.

Sera turns to me, smiling, showing off her perfect teeth that didn’t need three years of dental-shaping torture. To this day, I’d like to hug every poor kid who’s ever gotten braces.

“Nothing at all. Sera was telling me some stories from high school,” Dean says, then a look passes between the two of them, and I’m wondering why it sucks so much that I’m not in on the joke.

I keep that mysterious smile of mine on my face, looking deep into Dean’s eyes, wishing I had some secret magical powers that Sera’s always reading about in those books of hers, so I can have him under my will. Hell, I need some sex really badly, and I’ve never met a guy who objected to it either – especially from me.

“What kind of stories?”

Dean drops his eyes from mine, and starts working his brownie out of the brown paper bag the cashier gave him. Guess we’re being un-environmentally friendly. I can roll with that as long as we get to roll each other.

“Just embarrassing shit from way back when-”

“No, Matty, don’t-” Sera says, reaching for Matty, who’s tried to scramble on top of his chair, all the while pointing at Dean.

“Bad word, bad word!” he yells, and several people’s heads swivel to look in our direction. I give them a queenly wave, telling all the mortals without saying anything to get back to their own fucking business – haven’t they seen a kid acting stupid before?

“What? What did I do?” Dean’s eyes are big again, his eyebrows high on his forehead and he has a piece of brownie sticking to the corner of his mouth.

I’d bet that would taste sweet.

His lips have parted, and he swallows hard enough that his Adam’s apple does this intriguing dance in his throat, one where I’ve gone and been mesmerized by the simple movement.

Wow. I need to fuck somebody soon. I’m losing it. Who the hell gets entranced by somebody’s throat?

Sera pets Matty’s head and fishes out a quarter from her pocket. Guess she’s realized if the kid is around me, I’m bound to slip up. I swear way too much, mostly because I enjoy it. I love telling people to fuck off in my head, and I love saying it out loud.

I’ve got a potty mouth, and to some, it sounds like I’m uneducated. I’ve got the college degree in marketing to shut that down real fast. Besides, swearing is good for the soul. Keeping pent up anger inside is bad for you – just watch Anger Management.

“Matty gets a quarter every time we say a bad word. He likes bubble gum from those machines, which are getting more and more impossible to find, by the way. I’ve lost a fortune to this little guy,” she says, ruffling his hair.

“Christ, I thought something sh…schnitzel happened. Oh man, I don’t even know what I just said,” Dean huffs out a little laugh, and I find myself smiling along at the sound. “Jeez, kid, you freaked me out.”

Matty shrugs and holds up his quarter in the air like it’s a gold medal, and he’s the only one on the podium, waiting for thousands and thousands of people to sing the national anthem back to him. This kid – equal parts cute, equal parts arrogant as fuck. I guess we all were, once upon a time.

“What about you, Katie, you lose a small mountain of gold ‘cause of him?” Dean asks me, stuffing some more brownie into his mouth. Never have I wanted to be a piece of chocolate so bad.

I flash him a grin, and ignore Sera nodding at me with too much enthusiasm; she looks like a bobblehead. “I got a jar of quarters stashed at my place whenever he comes over. I’m not good at keeping it clean and G-rated.”

Something flickers over Dean’s green eyes, like the color could have shifted shade a bit, and I know he’s not here with me anymore. He’s gone far back, maybe into some sort of memory that my words triggered. I need him present, I need him here now. How else am I going to give him my number?

“Thought so,” is all he says, and it’s my turn to frown. I look at Sera who’s chewing on her bottom lip and doing everything she possibly can to not look at me.