Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (2 page)

“Um, no,” he said. “I want to sit by Megan.”

Brock grinned again, but he didn’t say anything. He
just pushed himself up to his feet, flexing those well-defined biceps as he
pressed against the table, and came over to sit next to me. Poor guy, he must
be really good friends with Jake. I could see how the other girls looked at him
as they passed our table, and then at me like I was the interloper. I’m sure
he’d rather be out flirting with a cheerleader…or six, rather than sitting here
with me.

 
Jake began
passing out the tacos then, and when I said that I would pass he said, “Oh come
on Moll’s you can eat at least one, can’t you?”

I imagined myself saying, “Why yes Jake, I can eat at
least one and only feel slightly nauseated. Two for full blown stomach pain and
three please for a night of worshipping the porcelain God that lives in my
bathroom.”

But instead, I smiled sweetly and picking the one that
looked the least offensive to my stomach lining I said, “Okay, one is fine,
thanks.” As I picked at the taco, I noticed that Brock was watching me. He had
that amused look on his face again and when I looked up at him as if to say,
“What?” he grinned and said, “Not a fan of the taco?”

I looked at my plate. The poor taco laying on it
looked as if it had been left torn and bloody in the aftermath of a terrible
accident. I smiled and simply said, “
It’s
fine. I’m
just on kind of a strict diet and tacos aren’t generally included in the menu.”

He looked me over then, and I have to say that
although it made me a little uncomfortable, it also gave me a bit of a cheap
thrill. Again I was tempted to say, “What?”, but before I did he said, “Well,
it seems to be working for you.”

Smooth guy this Brock. He’s probably been operating
women like heavy machinery since he was still in diapers. Lucky for me, I don’t
fall for that sort of thing. Never mind that my stomach was doing somersaults,
which I could rationally blame on the tacos. I simply replied, “Thank you.” Now
who’s smooth?

“Jake, will you get us something to drink?” Megan
asked him. Jake sighed as he was about to bite into his second taco, but like
the dutiful and whipped boyfriend he was, he put it down and said, “Sure
Meggs
. Come with me Brock?” Brock still looked amused.
Maybe he was wearing vibrating underwear or something that kept him so tickled.
I’d ask him, but I think it may be too soon in our “not a relationship”.

“So?” Megan said, as soon as they were gone.

“So what?” I asked. I knew what she was talking about,
but hey, a girl has to have a little fun.

“What do you think of Brock?” she asked me. I glanced
over at him near the drink booth. I acted like I hadn’t really thought about it
up to this point. Megan hates it when I do that, so it’s fun.

“He seems…nice,” I told her finally.

“Nice?” she said, obviously unhappy with my choice of
adjectives. “I introduce you to the hottest guy on campus and all you can say
is that he seems nice?”

I rolled my eyes. “Megan, what would you like me to
say? He’s my soulmate?”

Megan stuck out her bottom lip. I hated when she did
that and she knew it. That was, I’m sure why it was so fun for her. “You’re
making fun of me now,” she said.

“Oh, stop it,” I told her. “I am not.”

 
Maybe I was…but
just a little. “I have just told you so many times that I’m not looking for a
boyfriend. I don’t understand why you are so intent on setting me up.”

“He’s a great guy Molly. All of the girls on campus
want him.”

“Then who am I to deny them?” I asked her with a grin.

“You’re hopeless, do you know that?” she asked.

“I know. Here they come. Please don’t push, okay?”

 
“Okay,” she
said, but sounded reluctant. I’d have to keep my eye on this one.

The guys came back with our drinks, and after more
awkward small talk and Jake scarfing down three more tacos he suddenly said, “Wow,
Megan look at the time, we have to go.”

Megan, to her credit as my friend, pretended she
didn’t know what he was talking about and said, “Go where?”

Jake, proving once more why I think we should call him
“Jake
McStuffins
” said, “You know, we have
that…thing.” I guess coming up with an actual place they had to be would have
taken too much brain power for him. Megan looked like she didn’t know what to
say, so to save her from being caught between her friend and her…soulmate, I
said, “
It’s
okay. I have a physics test tomorrow that
I need to study for.” “Hot-guy Brock” was now giving me a look that I couldn’t
interpret. This one wasn’t amused, but I couldn’t decide what it was exactly.
Finally he said, “You take physics?” Ah…one who can adequately state the
obvious.
He was no doubt a keeper.

“Yes,” I said with another sweet smile as I stood up.
“And I really do need to study. It was nice meeting you…” He was standing up
too.
Please don’t offer to walk with
me…Please don’t offer to walk with me…

“How about I walk with you?” Of course, he offered to
walk with me. “You live with Megan in the freshman dorm, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, “but it’s really not necessary to walk
with me. I’ll be fine.”
Much more so than
I will be if you tag along and I have to come up with fifteen more minutes of
stilted conversation.

“I don’t mind at all,” he said with a smile. He looked
amused again. Maybe he was a masochist?

“Wait!” It was Jake
McStuffins
.
I wondered if he had thought of a fake place they were going for their thing.
It was worse, however. “Megan and I forgot to ask you guys about the football
game.”

“Football?” The hot guy and I both said in unison.
Then we looked at each other and…you guessed it…he looked amused.

“Yeah, I have four tickets for Saturday’s game. It’s a
big rival game. It’ll be great,” he said.

“I don’t think so, Jake.” I declined politely. I might
have added that I’d rather have my toenails pulled out with a pair of rusty
pliers if he hadn’t been my friend.

“Yeah, me neither,” Brock said.

“Oh, come on guys!” It was Megan now, always on Jake’s
side. I remember in second grade when we became “blood sisters” and promised to
never let a man come between us. She had obviously forgotten that small detail.
“It’ll be fun. You don’t have to like football. It can just be a fun night out
with friends.”

Not wanting to continue the argument and make them
late for their “thing”, I said that I would think about it. Brock did as well,
and then we were on our way down the awkward brick road towards the dorms. We
hadn’t gone five steps before I suddenly spit out, “So, you’re a music major?”
And I wondered why I amused him so. I guess he wasn’t the only expert at
stating the obvious.

Amused, of course, he said, “Yeah, how about you?”

“No, I’m not a music major. They’d never have me,” I
told him. It was an attempt at humor, but I think the arrow fell just short. I
quickly tried to return the conversation towards serious to deflect from my
poor attempt at humor and said, “I’m a liberal arts major…for now. I’m not sure
what I want to be when I grow up,” I said the last with a smile, so he could be
sure it was humor. Then, going from bad comedy to sounding like Sheldon from
The Big Bang Theory,
I said, “As long as
it’s something in science.”

“Wow, smart girl.”

He didn’t have the amused look now. He actually
looked…impressed? “The hospital here does some great research. This university
is a good choice for someone interested in science I would think.”

“That’s what I’ve heard.”

I had more than heard it; it’s why I was here. Not so
much the science of it all, but the hospital and the research. I had undergone
multiple treatments for the cancer that insisted on invading my kidneys. I was
at the point now of accepting experimental treatments, and the university
hospital here was world renowned for the strides they had made in cancer
research.

We were almost to the dorm when out of nowhere a
female voice said, “Hi Brock!” The voice was way too loud and too high pitched.
It made me jump actually. Brock turned, and he not only lost his painted-on
amused expression, but gained a sick one. Then he did something crazy. He
grabbed my hand and held it. I was too shocked to react as he pulled me forward
and called out to the girl over his shoulder.

“Hey Tammy! Sorry, we have to run.”

When the Tammy chick was out of sight, he dropped my
hand. I must have had a question mark on my face because he quickly said, “I’m
so sorry. I just really don’t like her. She’s kind of a stalker.”

“Oh,” I said. “I thought maybe we had a “thing” to get
to.” He started laughing then and said, “Our friends are glaringly obvious,
aren’t they?”

“You think?” I said with a smile.

We were in front of the dorms then, and he said, “So,
do you think you’ll end up going to that football game?”

I laughed and said, “What, and encourage them?” He
laughed then too, and in spite of myself, I liked the sound of it.

“It was nice to meet you Molly.”

“You too, Brock.”

As I went inside I turned back around and he was still
there, watching me. I could take that one of two ways: either he was a creeper,
or he had seen my inner beauty shining through. I was in a good mood, so I went
with the last.

CHAPTER
TWO

BROCK

When she turned around and caught me watching her, I
had to wonder if she thought maybe I was a pervert. I really wasn’t looking at
her butt, although I did glance at it earlier and she had a really nice one.
But there was so much more to this girl, and most of it I just couldn’t put my finger
on.

I had strongly objected when Jake and Megan had
broached the subject of setting me up with Megan’s friend Molly. I’m not
looking for a girlfriend right now. I’ve been there and done that at least ten
too many times in my life. I’m not sure if it’s me, or the kind of girls I
attract, but long lasting love had yet to find me the way it seems to have
found Jake and Megan. The girls I’ve met here at school so far have seemed…shallow…empty
somehow, until tonight.

Molly and I didn’t have much conversation, but from
what we did have I was able to deduce that she’s smart and funny and she just
seemed so genuine. She wasn’t trying to impress me at all…which was obvious a
few times by the things that she said; also she’s gorgeous. I got the feeling
that she doesn’t know it. It makes me wonder why there weren’t guys following
her around in high school telling her so. She wasn’t plastic pretty like some
of the other girls I’ve dated, but I like that. She’s got plenty of nice curves
to look at, unlike the stick figures of the other girls, and I like the way her
brown hair frames her face. She’s got this sexy little sprinkle of freckles
across her tiny little nose…and those eyes. Sometimes today when she looked at
me, I felt like she could see inside. I hope that’s not the case. There’s a lot
of stuff in there that needs cleaning out before I have any company.

I fell asleep that night thinking about her…and I woke
up the next morning thinking more of the same. I may have even dreamt something
about her in between. Was I going to give Jake the satisfaction of knowing that
though? I think not.

“Hey dude!” he said as he came out into the kitchen to
pour himself a gigantic bowl of sugar disguised as cereal. He even bought the
ones with the colored marshmallows in it. Disgraceful.

“Hey,” I said as I mixed various fruits with juice in
the blender. I was adding a tablespoon of Echinacea as he said, “How do you
drink that stuff? It even smells bad.” This from a guy who eats his breakfast
out of a box with fake vampire on the front.

“I have cancer, I can’t taste anything.”

“Oh dude…Man…I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

I smiled then, and he knew I was yanking his chain.
Jake’s the only one here at school who knows my history. I was diagnosed with a
brain tumor at the age of fourteen. Since then, I’ve had multiple surgeries,
chemo, radiation…blah, blah, blah! But now I was taking a new course of drugs
that were still in the experimental stages. I only have to take them five days
a month and they seem to be keeping the tumor from growing…so far. I have
problems with them on the fourth or fifth day of taking them every month, but I
try to time them so that happens on a weekend, and then I just camped out in my
room with a bucket. Jake’s cool and doesn’t invite anyone over during that time…even
Megan. He tells her that I’m working on my music and can’t be disturbed.

“That was low man,” Jake said when it hit him that I
was kidding. It was…kind of.

“You insulted my breakfast first,” I told him.

“True story,” he said. The best part about Jake is
that he never lets anything bother him for more than a few seconds at a time.
He was honestly the easiest-going person I had ever met. He parked his butt on
the couch and turned on the TV. “So what did you think of Molly?”