Free #Nerd (Hashtag #1) by Cambria Hebert Page A

way of trying to level the playing field. But it didn’t matter. This was a game I knew how to play and I was going to win no matter how long he gave me.
    Coach put us through the ringer at practice tonight, and I was dog tired. My muscles were shredded, and I really wanted to slip into an ice bath and let the frigid cold work out some of the worst.
    But I couldn’t.
    I had to be at the library. On top of it, I was late. Rimmel said she wouldn’t wait if I ever showed up late. Part of me was glad because I wanted to go home. Dark clouds crowded the sky and the air smelled like rain as I walked into the library.
    Where the hell was the rain an hour ago when we were killing ourselves on the field?
    I loved football, it was my life, but sometimes even I wanted a break.
    As soon as I stepped through the glass doors, I looked toward the back where Rimmel always sat. She chose back there because she thought people wouldn’t see us; she thought we would blend into the books and stuffy atmosphere.
    It never worked and it was always fun watching her get flustered when people would stop by the table to shoot the shit. I don’t know why it bothered her so much. No one ever talked to her. It wasn’t like she was forced to have a conversation.
    She looked up and frowned at me as I made my way toward the table. I grinned because she was still here. Her hair was wild as always. We’d been meeting for tutoring almost two weeks now, and I still had yet to see her full face. Her glasses were perched on her nose and she looked small sitting in the wooden chair with an oversized shirt concealing her upper half.
    “You’re late,” she said when I sat down.
    I leaned across the table and spoke into her ear. “You waited.”
    She ducked her head and I pulled away. I loved getting a reaction out of her. It was so damn easy. She reached out and slid a tall Styrofoam cup with a plastic lid toward me. “I got you a coffee.”
    There was an identical cup still sitting in front of her.
    I groaned a little and reached for it. “How’d you know I needed this?”
    She gave me a sidelong glance as I sipped at the sweet brew. “I didn’t. But I thought it would be rude to bring one for me and not you.”
    “Well, thanks. Practice today was a bitch.”
    She swung her full gaze at me. It wasn’t the first time I noticed how wide her eyes were beneath her glasses. They were brown, but there was a ring of hazel around her irises. Some days the center looked more green and some days it was gold. Today they were deep green, like a freshly mowed football field.
    “You’re welcome.”
    I set aside the coffee and pulled out my laptop and powered it on. I might not feel like being here, but my grades were better and Coach wasn’t breathing down my neck every day about teetering on the edge of being suspended from the team.
    “I have this assignment due in science. It’s a one-page paper on hypothesis vs. theory. Would you mind taking a look at what I have so far?”
    The document flashed onto the screen and I tilted it toward her. Rimmel pushed up her glasses and leaned in to read. Her hair fell forward and brushed my arm, but I didn’t bother to move away.
    She smelled good.
    A combination of vanilla and apple. Usually she stuck to her side of the table like glue. This was the first time she’d leaned over into my personal space. I lounged back in the chair and kicked out my foot and sipped the coffee while she read.
    She seemed intent on the computer, so I took a minute to study her without her knowing. Her skin was pale and smooth. Her eyes were framed with thick, dark lashes and her full lips were a pale shade of pink. The urge to reach out and push back some of her hair so I could study the rest of her came over me, and my hand flexed around the cup.
    She must have felt the shift in the air because her body tensed. She glanced at me and her eyes widened when she realized just how close she was.
    I didn’t bother moving. I smiled lazily.