Tall, Dark, and Nerdy: High School Billionaire #1

by Dallen, Maggie

  He leaned forward and before I knew what was happening his hands were cupping my chin in his hands, holding me close so I couldn’t look away from the fire in those eyes. “Listen to me carefully, Liv, because I need you to know something.”

  I gulped, fighting the urge to cry.

  “You are perfect—”

  “No, I’m not,” I said. I was ready to list all the ways in which I was so not in his league, but he beat me to it.

  “Obviously you’re not perfect-perfect,” he said with a huff of exasperation. “You have all kinds of faults, and I am well aware of each and every one.”

  Well, that was…blunt.

  “In fact, right now you are annoying the crap out of me.”

  I frowned. “Did you have a point?”

  He glared at me. “I might have hidden behind you in the past, I won’t deny that. I may not always be the bravest guy on the planet, and we both know I’ll never be anything close to cool.”

  I had to pinch my lips together to stop myself from sticking up for him. Who wanted cool? Cool was overrated. I’d never wanted cool.

  “But,” he said slowly. “Don’t try and tell me you’re not perfect for me. And never again let me hear you say that you’re ugly, or undeserving, or any other crap you were spouting.”

  My lips quivered, torn between a smile and a sob.

  “You’re talking about my best friend,” he said. “And I won’t hear anything bad said about her.”

  My chest tightened painfully. I nodded and he loosened his grip, removing his hands from my face as he sat back. “And please don’t try and convince me that rejecting me is what’s best for me. You’re entitled to your decision, but I won’t take the blame for it.”

  “Oliver—”

  “I mean it, Liv.” He reached for the door handle and that was when I realized we’d stopped in front of my house. “You can’t break my heart and then tell me it’s my fault. It doesn’t work like that.”

  I went to move past him but my heart felt like it was shattering in my chest. I couldn’t leave things like this. I just couldn’t. I paused with one foot out the door. “Will we be okay?” I swallowed a sob. “Can we still…can we still be friends?”

  His gaze was shuttered but then he nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

  I nodded and started to leave.

  “But…not right away. Okay?” He’d tried to make it gentle but I heard the hurt and anger in his voice.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

  “Liv.”

  I stopped just outside the limo with my hand on the door. “Yeah?”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t be my date to the gala.”

  I felt my heart drop to the ground where it crumbled to dust. My heartache had nothing to do with missing out on the party of the year and everything to do with the bleak emptiness in Oliver’s eyes. “I understand.”

  “I want to take you,” he said. And there was my nice friend, the good guy who didn’t want to hurt my feelings even though I’d crushed his.

  I hated myself. “I understand.”

  He met my gaze evenly. “I want to take you, but I want to take you as my date. I can’t settle for less.”

  Can’t settle. Ha. See how he’d turned that around on me? Taking me as a friend was settling because a date was what he wanted. I would have laughed if I wasn’t about to cry.

  “If you change your mind—” he started.

  I looked down at the ground.

  “If you change your mind, there’ll be a ticket waiting for you.”

  I gave a small shrug because I couldn’t manage words. I shut the door with a click and watched him drive away. It wasn’t until his limo rounded the corner that I gave into the urge to cry.

  And I cried. More like weeping, really, as I stood there in my homecoming dress and realized that despite my best intentions, despite all these years of denying any feelings for my best friend, it had all been for nothing. I was in love with him, and he knew it.

  But that wasn’t the only reason for my tears. The thought that had me curled up in a ball crying myself to sleep a short while later was this: I’d hurt Oliver. I’d done it to save us—our friendship. But in the end I’d gone and hurt my very best friend.

  The saddest part about that? We’d never be the same. Our unshakeable friendship had been shaken to its core. I’d tried to make the decision that would let us remain friends, but I knew without a doubt that he was right about one thing. There was no going backwards.

  We would never be friends again, not the way we were, and maybe never again.

  Chapter Eight

  Oliver

  “What do you mean you uninvited her?” Jamie asked.

  I frowned down at the press packet I was supposed to be studying. The reporter would be here at any moment and while I appreciated Jamie’s offer to keep me company before the big interview, I was starting to regret my decision.

  My attempt to ignore her failed. She nudged my elbow and I looked up, dropping the pretense that I was actually reviewing the list of talking points my PR guy had sent me. He’d offered to come with me but I’d told him I’d do it on my own.

  A week had passed since my failed attempt to woo my best friend, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about what she’d said. It had been her voice in my head when I’d told the PR guy that I’d do this on my own. She’d been right about me hiding behind other people—hiding behind her.

  I’d never been good at dealing with the world at large and for Liv it came so naturally. She never had given herself enough credit for her bravery.

  Bravery in every area except one.

  “Ollie.” Jamie’s tone was so stern that I looked up to see her glaring at me, her arms crossed. “I need you to explain exactly what went down between you and Liv last week and I need you to do it now.”

  “Now?” I glanced at the door to the conference room where the interview was to take place. “Do you really think this is the best time to discuss my love life?”

  What love life? That was what she should have said, but she was too nice to point out my sad single status. Sad single status. Only Liv would have appreciated that alliteration.

  “Oh wow,” Jamie said. “That sigh right there? That was pathetic. We need to sort this out before you go in for the biggest interview of your life.”

  I stared at her for a moment to see if she was serious. She was. Her arms were crossed as she fixed me with a stern stare.

  I glanced at the PR notes once more ready to tell her that I needed to focus on the notes, but that would have been a lie. First because the talking points were so incredibly vague and generic—that’s what happens when a random PR guy crafts responses to personal questions, I’d discovered. Mainly because this past week it had become impossible to focus on anything other than Liv.

  Jamie seemed to get that because she snagged the notes out of my hand and fixed me with a firm glare. “You have been more distracted than usual, and if you go in there like this—all teen angst and stewing over a lost love, you are going to make a terrible first impression on the world at large. They’re going to write about you like you’re some sort of inhuman automaton.”

  I stared at her because her assessment was spot on. Right now I rather felt like an automaton. Liv and I hadn’t talked all week and without her, my life felt like it had lost its heart. I’d lost my soul.

  I rubbed a hand over my face. Perhaps Jamie was right. I clearly was not in a place to be speaking to strangers.

  “Look,” Jamie said. “You clearly need to talk to a friend and since you can’t talk to Liv about this…”

  She shrugged. “I’ll just have to do.”

  I felt a smile tugging at my lips for the first time all week.

  “Come on,” she said as she nudged my arm. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”

  No one could help, but I appreciated her concern. I cleared my throat as I tried to figure out where to begin. In the end, I started at the beginning. The very beginning. “I’v
e been in love with my best friend for as long as I can remember.”

  Her lips pursed but she didn’t speak. And that was how I started the long, tragic story of my one-sided love affair with Liv. When I reached the end, it was hard to maintain eye contact. Jamie looked so sad on my behalf it made the pain feel that much worse.

  “So…” she started haltingly. “So she basically told you that she was in love with you too.”

  I nodded. The thought should have made me happy—it was my dream come true—but what good did it do me if she refused to act on it. Never in all my wildest imaginings had I thought she would love me but still refuse to be with me.

  I’d imagined what it would be like if she didn’t return my feelings. I’d imagined what it would be like if we were together. But this? I had no idea how to convince her to take a chance on me. To take a chance on us.

  I had no idea what to do with it. It wasn’t like I could convince her she was wrong—I’d tried that. But thanks to our long friendship she thought she knew better. She thought she knew what was best for me. Nothing I could say would change that.

  Jamie seemed just as stumped. “Why?” she finally asked.

  “Why what?”

  She turned to face me, her expression thoughtful. “Why is she so certain that you’d be settling?”

  I drew in a deep breath as I shrugged. “Because she chronically devalues herself. Because she has low self-esteem. Because—”

  Jamie cut me off by raising her hand. “Okay, I get it. Liv has some issues with her self-confidence.”

  I glowered at the closed door. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  Jamie sighed. “There’s nothing you can do about her issues.”

  “I know.” I clenched my jaw. That was why I was so frustrated. Her issues were out of my control.

  “But—” Jamie stopped.

  I shifted. “But what?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Let’s not focus on Liv’s issues. She clearly thinks that you’d be settling. Why?”

  An acidy sensation spilled into my gut, a feeling I’d been ignoring this past week. Jamie’s question made me address it head on. I recognized the sensation for what it was.

  Guilt. Shame. Regret.

  I shifted again, a part of me wishing that the door would open and the interviewer from the magazine would cut me off.

  The door stayed shut.

  “I don’t know.”

  She met my gaze evenly.

  I shifted so I was facing her. I liked Jamie—she’d become a friend. And for some reason it seemed important that she understand. “I’ve never done anything to make her think that she was less than perfect.”

  She bit back a smile. “I believe you.”

  “But…” I had to clear my throat before I could continue, and this time I couldn’t quite meet her eyes. “It’s possible that Liv had a point.”

  After another silence, Jamie nudged my arm. “About?”

  I forced myself to make eye contact, something that had never come easily to me with anyone other than Liv. “It’s possible that I’ve sort of…hidden behind her.”

  “Go on.”

  I resisted the urge to point out just how much Jamie sounded like a therapist. “She’s pushy when it comes to me, she always thinks she knows best…but she has a reason to.” I cleared my throat again, heat creeping up my neck as I admitted the truth to the wrong girl. “She was right when she said I’d rather stick with what’s comfortable than try something new. I’ve never been good at communicating and it’s easier for me to let other people do it for me.”

  Jamie’s lips hitched to the side. “Well, everyone has their strengths. We can’t all be good at everything.”

  I let out a short breath. “Yes, but when I look at it from her point of view. I think she believes that the only reason I’d be dating her is because I don’t have the courage to go out into the world on my own.” I looked down at my hands, my chest aching as I thought of the pain and certainty in her eyes every time she pushed me away. For me. There was no doubt in my mind that she was doing it for me. How was it that by rejecting me, she somehow made me love her that much more? Of course, I also wanted to shake her until she came to her senses. The girl was frustratingly loveable even when she drove me nuts.

  “So she thinks that by being in a relationship with you, she’d be holding you back in some way,” Jamie said, speaking slowly. “That it would be selfish on her part to say yes to being your girlfriend because she doesn’t believe that your emotions come from the right place.”

  “She thinks I just want to be with her because she’s safe.” I nearly laughed at the absurdity of it. I’d never risked more or been more hurt than I had when I handed her my heart. I shook my head in frustration as her words came back to me, her absolute certainty that I deserved better than her. As if such a thing could ever exist.

  “And is that what you’d be doing by dating Liv?” Jamie asked. “Would you be settling?”

  My eyes shot up to meet hers. “No. Never.”

  It seemed I didn’t frighten her off with my irrational anger because she met my glare with a smile. “Good answer.” She leaned forward slightly. “Now, I suppose the question is, how are you going to make Liv see that?”

  I stared at her for a moment, hope a fickle, terrifying beast that once again rose up in me. Apparently there was still some part of me that wasn’t out for the count. Maybe I was just a fool or a sucker for punishment, but my mind was already spinning with possibilities.

  With hope.

  I tried to tamp it down, because I now knew that there was something worse than not knowing if Liv returned my feelings. I didn’t want to put myself out there again. I didn’t want to hold out hope. I didn’t want to keep hurting like this.

  But Jamie’s words worked their way into my subconscious and my brain was already turning over possibilities. “No amount of me talking will make a difference.”

  “No,” Jamie agreed. “Likely not. She’s known you a long time. In some ways she probably knows you better than you know yourself.”

  I turned to look at her, but I wasn’t really seeing my new friend. I was thinking of all that Liv knew about me…

  And all that she didn’t know.

  I swallowed convulsively as I thought about a very big secret I’d been keeping from Liv. The Love Quiz. Oh, she knew about the app—everyone in the world knew about the app—but she didn’t know that I’d created it for her. She had no idea that the only reason I’d worked so hard on it was to show her how I felt. To prove to her that what we had was the real deal.

  Jamie handed over the notecards she’d stolen. “If you’re really ready to stand on your own two feet and aren’t looking to Liv for safety reasons, I’d say it’s about time you show her.” Jamie said it matter-of-factly. As if it was really that easy.

  I stared at the notecards in my hands.

  Then again, maybe it was that easy. If I wanted Liv to take a chance, if I expected her to leave the comfort of our friend zone, then maybe I had to show her that I was ready to step outside of my comfort zone too.

  I tore up the notecards before I could think it through.

  Jamie stared at the shreds in my lap in horror. “What are you doing?”

  I refused to acknowledge the fear that was rapidly making it hard to breathe, let alone think. “I’m stepping out from behind other people.”

  Jamie blinked. “Okay.” She sort of drawled the word, like she was waiting for me to explain.

  I didn’t. I wasn’t sure I could explain that Liv had been my mouthpiece to the world, and now some nameless guy I barely knew was being paid money to do just that. It would be so easy to let him…to let her. To keep things status quo and not take charge of my own public persona.

  But Liv was right that I couldn’t hide forever. I wasn’t at Harmon High anymore, and I couldn’t rely on Liv to speak for me or be my only friend. At some point, I had to be brave.

  She was just wrong in ass
uming I’d change my mind about wanting her at my side when I did.

  Jamie was still staring down at the remains of the talking points when I glanced over at her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  My heart was racing. Was I sure? Not really. But if I expected Liv to take a leap of faith, I had to do the same. She might not know what she deserved, but I did. And she deserved it all. She deserved to know exactly what she meant to me, what she’s always meant to me. She deserved to know that she was loved, not as a friend or because she was safe and comfortable, but because she was brilliant in her own right. Because she was beautiful and smart and funny and vivacious. Because she would rather give up her own happiness than risk mine. Because she’d never once let me off the hook or given me the easy way out. Because she pushed me, even when I didn’t want to be pushed. Because she saw my faults and still claimed I was Prince Charming.

  The thought of that comment had me smiling—genuinely smiling—for the first time all week.

  “What is it?” Jamie asked, her own lips curved up, ready to grin as well.

  Before I had a chance to tell her, the door opened and a suprisingly young man entered the room with a swagger that exuded confidence. He walked straight toward me and thrust a hand in my direction.

  I looked at it for a moment, before grasping it and giving it a shake. The interviewer introduced himself to Jamie and I watched them make the sort of easy chit-chat that always proved to be difficult for me.

  I didn’t need to be a master of small talk, I just had to be honest.

  The smiling reporter nodded toward the conference table. “You ready to spill all your secrets?”

  Jamie laughed, he laughed. I…stared at him. As far as jokes went, it wasn’t very funny.

  “Yes,” I said.

  The guy sobered a bit, his eyes widening ever so slightly. “Well then…let’s get started.”