Geek of the Year

***
Ten minutes later, I left my corner--- since some random classmates of mine started to throw a football around--- and shuffle up to the quiet person in my English class outside by the pool. His hair is dirty blond, tall for 6’7’’ (I think.), and has more meat on him than me.

Anyways, he looked up once I came up and nodded. I took that as a sign for “I don’t care” and sat on the grass with him. Now, I sigh for the first time since the beginning of the party, which attracts my sitting friend’s attention.

“What?” He asked in a daze.

“Eh, nothing important, sorry,” I quickly told him.

One of his eyebrows rises up at me.

“Okay, maybe it was something,” I slowly brought out.

“Wanna talk about it?” He asked politely. His brown eyes looked bored but I can see tints of amusement.

Do I have a choice? I thought. All of a sudden, my sprinkler of a mouth sprayed all of my worries and events that occurred since the arrangement while the guy listened intensively.

Oddly enough, I feel like a girl when I just did that.

Nonetheless, Axel, his name, gave me the most useful and useless advice ever:

“One: I’m only seventeen and in your English class, so why bother tell me this whinny crap?

Two: You, a smart person, had to neglect that there is still the technique of teasing someone you like, which Ophelia had done for a while and you were and are blind by this the whole time.

Three: A guy, like you, as a damsel in distress? Now that’s hilarious.

Four: Suck it up and be a man.”

No, really, he did say that. However, at least it was an opinion.

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Not really.” He smiled. “And we should reintroduce ourselves while the night is young. The name is Axel, and it’s Swedish.”

I smiled back at him. “The name’s Scott.”

***
Yeah. Axel and I talked like real men, since we chatted about girls and how confusing they can really get, the future, things for me to do outside such as trying to skateboard with Axel, make fun of his name, and so much more.

By the time we stopped talking, the party was almost over which made me happy that I do not have to act goofy around people I do not know a hundred percent though Axel is an exception for the night.

Once Axel and I came back, Ophelia gushed at me and shouted, “Scott!”

Instead of being in shock and try to run away from Ophelia along with shouting some dorky phrases, I just looked back at her with a small smile and responded in my new deep voice that surprised her.

“Wow Scott, Skye told me that had a voice change, but I didn’t know it was that deep,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said, rather relaxed by this.

“Anyways,” she started as she held onto my left hand, “I think I rushed you into this party too fast, so wanna go back to your games or stay here a little longer?”

For a moment, I thought Ophelia’s on crack, but I sighed and quietly said, “Stay.”