Carver Pike - Scalp

Robbie was clearly happy to see her. He wore the big dumb grin all guys wore when they were close to a pretty girl.

He doesn’t grin like that when he’s near you.

Of course, he didn’t. He didn’t like her. He was consumed by the hot blonde now seated next to him.

“I’m Bianca,” the girl said.

Of course, you are.

Nitsy, who was nice to everyone she met, waved a polite hello to the girl. Inside, she was kicking and screaming. Why? She wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like she was crushing on Robbie or anything. Maybe she simply felt Bianca was too perfect, and it reminded Nitsy of all her own imperfections. That had to be it.

She’d barely touched her salad when she found herself standing up from the table and saying, “I have to go. I need to take care of a few things.”

Typical to Robbie’s carefree nature, he didn’t question it but nodded and said, “Okay, it was great talking to you, Nitsy. Hope your team does well in the competition.”

“Yours too,” she replied.

Nitsy took her tray to the garbage collection area and angrily separated her leftover food, her utensils, her plate, and her cup into the correct bins. She didn’t realize until she was finished that Phyllis was standing next to her, bug-eyed, clearly concerned about the dramatic manner in which she was disposing of her lunch.

“What?” she asked the girl, unable to control her negative attitude. She was suddenly in a pissy mood and she wasn’t sure why.

“What has you all riled up?” Phyllis asked.

“Riled up? I’m not.”

“Really, ‘cause you were softball pitching your garbage into the bin.”

Nitsy laughed.

“We could go egg people’s houses,” Phyllis continued, “or rob a store if you still need to let off some steam.”

“Stop it,” Nitsy said. “I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

Robbie didn’t know what to think. It seemed like Nitsy was flirting with him a little bit. Not so much in the words she spoke, but definitely in the sidelong glances she gave him and the way her lips kept creeping up into smiles at the oddest of times. He’d been with enough girls to know when one liked him, and he was getting the feeling Nitsy might actually be into him.

What a breath of fresh air.

It was cliché, he knew, but he felt like he could breathe easier when Nitsy was around. Unlike so many other girls, she talked to him like a human being, like an equal, and he kind of dug that. So many girls his age treated him like a superstar when he hadn’t really done anything to deserve it.

And she knows your secret now.

It wasn’t that he was embarrassed about being diabetic, but he didn’t want to be treated differently. His parents had given him a note to pass to the coach, but Robbie tossed it into the garbage can.

This was his junior year. This was when college recruits would be out looking for the best of the best. If it was known he had health conditions, they might try to stop him. That happened to his buddy Matt. Matt had asthma, and he tried to play anyway, but the coaches treated him like he was different. He ended up sitting the bench more often than he played, even though he was one of the best on the team.

Robbie couldn’t handle being a Matt. He was a starter. He was great at every sport he played. Some kids could tell you everything about the universe, some were mathematical geniuses, some could dance across a stage or sing every note needed in chorus, and some, like Robbie, were natural athletes.

Nitsy seemed to understand, and it was yet another reason to like her.

But can you seriously see yourself dating her?

Yes, he could. Would he catch some shit for it? Obviously. People would ask why he’d chosen to date a nerd. That would have bothered him when he was a freshman or a sophomore. Something changed in him right before his junior year. It was around the time he found out he needed to control his sugars. He didn’t care all that much what others thought. He only wanted to play sports and be a kid for a little longer. He wanted to run until his chest hurt, play video games until his fingers throbbed, and maybe even fall in love. Real love. Not the sexual lust he’d had with his last two girlfriends.

Nitsy could be a real girlfriend. She even thought Robbie had leadership potential. He could never do it. Speaking in front of people made him nervous. He could stand in a locker room and get his team excited before a game, but he could never stand on stage and do it with a crowd of spectators gaping at him.

He sincerely wanted to ask Nitsy out. Not to date here at the conference, but to maybe go grab a burger and see a movie when they got home. It was that smile of hers. He loved it. Her dimples were adorable.

“Mind if I sit with y’all?”

Bianca’s voice caught him off guard. He’d met the beautiful blonde by the buses when they were first ordered to line up before entering Stonewall Forge. They’d bumped right into each other in that crowd of teenagers. She was gorgeous. Smooth skin, silky blonde hair, and luscious red lips.

She’s the type you always go for.

Then he saw the way Nitsy was staring at him. Without saying a single word, he’d pissed her off. When she got up and left with her tray, he felt like he should say something that would make her stay, but he also didn’t want to make his slight infatuation with her too obvious.

He wasn’t leading Bianca on. In fact, he’d only met the girl yesterday. They were only friends.

A friend you would hook up with in a second if given the chance.

No, a friend too much like the girls he’d hooked up with in the past, so making the same mistake again would be stupid. This was true, but it didn’t stop him from moving his hand when he felt Bianca’s brush his on top of the table. If she had interlaced her fingers through his, he still wouldn’t have pulled his hand away.

Why?

Because Bianca was hot, and Nitsy was out of reach. Why not pursue something much more likely to happen? All he needed was to spend his time trying to win the affections of one of the most unapproachable girls at school, only to have her go back and tell everyone on campus how he’d tried to date her on this trip.

You know that’s not like her.

It was like most girls.

She’s not most girls.

His internal voice was bugging the shit out of him. He didn’t realize he’d been ignoring Bianca until he noticed she was waiting for an answer to a question she’d asked him. So, Robbie did what he always did at a moment like this. He tilted his head slightly to the side, grinned, and said, “I don’t know,” followed by a slight chuckle.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Bianca said, slapping his hand. She rolled her eyes and added, “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Don’t play shy.”

To this, he added one more head tilt, one more grin, and one more chuckle. Then he stood and helped her with her tray.

Nitsy led Phyllis back toward the conference center. The campus was huge, easily large enough to have once been a college. The history of the campus was never explained to them, but Nitsy could imagine this once being a university at some point. The name of it, Stonewall Forge, meant there must have been Civil War history around here. Stonewall Jackson was an important general and Confederate leader. There were probably places all over West Virginia named after him.

“I wonder if anyone died here,” she said as they walked the long corridor that led back to the conference room.