The Nerd and the Jock (1st bk of Nerd Series)

Chapter 21- Bailey

I pulled up the driveway to the old house and drummed my hands on the steering wheel, nervous. My eyes were peeled on the front door, still painted that ugly green color my father had chosen to piss off my mother. I could tell that the paint was fresh, as if someone had gone over the age-old door with a new coat of paint.

"Who chose that color?" Blake asked, and I pulled my gaze from the door to look at him. His head was cocked, and his green eyes were focused on the door before he looked away from it and at me, the look in his eyes, making me forget how to breathe.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter and cleared my throat before I looked at the door. "My father," I replied. I cleared my throat and licked my lips. "He wanted to get back at my mother because she wanted to paint the living room some bright neon green, and they did it." I shook my head, smiling sadly. "The color of the living room changed like the third day they moved in, but the door was never changed."

"Are you going to change it?" Blake asked, and I shook my head. A smile curved onto his lips, and I could tell that he was amused. "Why not?"

I shrugged a shoulder and offered him a small smile. "Because it was something that my parents had decided on and became a joke in our family."

"But it is ugly, Bay. Wouldn't you have it a normal color?"

"Well, your face is ugly," I retorted. "But you don't see me complaining."

His lips curled up into an amused smile, and he was about to say something when someone interrupted him.

"No, it's not," Mimi said. "And you don't think it is either."

"Oh, ya?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "And who says?"

"We do," Ryan replied. "Now, can you open the car doors so that we can get out? Michael threatened to poop his pants."

I rolled my eyes, placed the car in park, and turned off the car. "Good, then he can go back to wearing diapers if he wants to do that." I opened the car door and stepped out with Blake getting out on the other side, grabbing the manila folder that I left behind.

"See? You haven't admitted against it." Ryan jumped out of the van and stretched. "Thank God. I thought I was going to get a cramp just sitting there."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up," I said, earning a grin. "You aren't as cramped in the car as Trevor is in his."

We looked at the Jeep when it pulled up to see a male dancing and lip-syncing to a song on the radio.

When he noticed us watching him, he started dancing crazier, puffing out his cheeks, bopping his head, and moving his hands across his eyes with the fingers facing us and his first two fingers spread apart.

"He doesn't seem to mind," Ryan said.

"He needs better dance moves," Blake said, walking towards me. He leaned against the car and watched the male dance, amused.

"Oh, ya?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Like you can do better."

Blake pulled his gaze away from him and looked at me. "Yes," he replied. He started to do the same thing that Trevor was doing, and I couldn't help but turn away, laughing. "Oh, like you can do better."

I turned to look at him again to see him with his arms folded on his chest and scowling. An amused smile flickered onto my lips when I saw his lips curl into a smile and walked over to him. "Oh, I can, Handsome," I replied, patting his cheek. "Much better."

"Oh, ya?" He raised an eyebrow. "Then prove it."

I grabbed the manila folder from him and started to walk towards the house, my heart pounding in my chest. "Why prove it when we already know it is true?" I turned towards him and smiled before I winked. "Because we both know that it is."

***

"I hope that you and your boyfriend's kids do not come onto my lawn," someone said from the house next door.

I turned that way and saw an old lady somewhere in her eighties, scowling at me. An amused smile appeared on my lips because she was the old fart that I had helped out when I was younger. However, I didn't comment on her, not knowing how she would react when she discovered that it was just me raising them.

"We won't," Mimi said, walking over to me with her arms full of stuffed animals. "Bay, hurry up and open the door. My arms are getting tired."

"My arms are getting tired," I mocked, rolling my eyes. "Why did you grab so many?" I opened the door to the house and gestured for her to step in.

Mimi walked into the house and dumped the mals stuffed animals in the middle of the way. "Much better," she said, stretching. "I am going to go get more." She started to walk away.

"Uh, no, you aren't, Amelia Rose," I warned, and she stopped. I scowled when she slowly turned to look at me with wide eyes. "You are going to take the animals up to your new room before you get some more."

"But it is too far away, and I don't know which room is mine," Mimi said. She placed the back of her hand to her head and became "faint," with her eyes rolling to the back of her head. "I might just faint." She fell into the pile of her stuffed animals, and I watched her, shaking my head.

"Children," I muttered. I stepped over her and walked into the house before I made my way to the steps. Slowly, I turned my head to the left and right and noticed that the place was just as I had remembered it being when I had lived here all those years ago.

My heart clenched with grief, and my bottom lip quivered while a wave of emotions washed over me. I fell to the ground, not strong enough to stand because I knew that even though the place looked the same, it wasn't.

It was filled with ghosts of memories, of a mystery that still haunted these walls, and a place where I felt like a guest more than someone that had lived here before.

Warm arms wrapped themselves around me, and I let them pull me to their chest before I clutched their arm and cried, letting the emotions of this past couple of weeks out.

I couldn't hold in anymore, and with my arms clutching the person's arm like a lifeline, I just let it out, praying that I would feel better afterward. I prayed that no one would judge me for this sign of weakness, for we all had to feel weak once in a while, and now was just my time.

Mom, Dad. I miss you, and I hope that I have made you proud.