To Lie and To Love

Chapter Seven

When I told Tasha and Yvonne about what had happened the next day, they both took it in completely differently and in quite opposite manners.

“Oh my God, Nova”, Yvonne exclaimed with a very serious expression on her face. “He definitely thinks you’re some stalker now”

Tasha only burst out laughing hard, slapping me repeatedly on the back till I pulled her hand away from my stinging flesh.

“Sheesh! Talk about a nasty mix of bad luck and coincidence,” she said, wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. “I mean if you believe in stuff like fairy tale gibberish you could call it ... what? Maybe fate or something, I don’t know. But Levi? Levi West? Now that is one fairy tale that doesn’t promise a happy ending. It’s not gonna happen”

I gave her a sideways glance. ” What do you mean by ‘not gonna happen?’

“I mean”, she answered with a yawn and slight wave of her hand. “If you’re having any thoughts of hooking up with him or something, just forget it babe.”

“Hook up? What are you even saying, Tasha?”

“Now there, Tasha, that’s not really nice”, Yvonne rushed to my defence.

“Oh, come on, you two. We’re not kids anymore.”, she replied, handing me my book from which she was creating a duplicate of my assignment.

“I mean, seriously, girl? You cannot be thinking that just because you happened to bump into LEVI WEST and now, he finally notices you so it’s going to magically create some sort of spark or something between the two of you, right??”

“Of course not!”, I replied almost immediately; partly in shock and bewilderment.

“Nice!”, Tasha gave me a tap on the shoulder. “At least we are on the same page now.”

“Why would I even think of something like that? This is Levi West we are talking about here. The ‘Levi West?’, I said.

“Exactly”, Tasha nodded. “Just wanted to be sure you didn’t get yourself mixed up in any funny business.”

“What funny business?!”

“Nova doesn’t even like Levi, Tasha. He’s just some dumb jock who happens to be popular.”

“And good looking.”, Tasha said. “Which is why every girl in this school happens to like Levi because he is the man of our dreams.”

“Not me- “, Yvonne begun but was cut off by Tasha.

“Even you liked him a time ago, Yvonne”, Tasha added.

“Well from the start of course, just like everybody did but it wore off just like everyone else’s.”

“Mmm. Though Nova herself hasn’t said anything, has she?”, Tasha pointed out.

“Wait, Nova”, Yvonne turned to me. “You don’t like him, right?”

There was a slight pause as they both looked at me; patiently awaiting my response.

“Uhh… no! … I mean yes! Of course, I don’t like him. What… what makes you even think that?”

The question caught me off guard for a moment as I hadn’t been really following the conversation. I managed to hide a small swallow which got Tasha giving me a look but thankfully choosing not to comment. Nothing gets past that girl, sheesh.

“So, you see, Tasha…”, Yvonne continued in my defence, talking about how all the athletes were jerks and how she couldn’t believe she had once crushed on one of them.

On our way to the cafeteria during lunch break, Tasha pulled me back at the door of the classroom and whispered into my ear, “You do know that he has a girlfriend, right? Just be careful around guys like him. Infact, that entire soccer team is filled with obnoxious jerks so its best if you stayed clear away from them. I mean, you can fantasize all you want but in reality, its not really roses and blushes.”

“Hey, you guys coming or what?”, Yvonne waved from a few meters away.

Tasha gave me a questioning look and I nodded. “It was just some weird coincidences, Tasha. A nerd like me doesn’t involve herself in stuff like that.” I told her.

“Good”, she replied with a smile and dragged me along.

All throughout lunch and the rest of the day, my thoughts were in a jumbled mess.

I didn’t “collide” into Levi this time. He just sort of vanished into thin air like he never existed. Like he had accidentally strayed away from his world of popularity and good-looking athletes and hot cheer leaders to my dull boring life. Well he was gone now. Just like the times before our first encounter. Was it really fate? I mean in those stories and movies, stuff like this usually marks the beginning of a ‘spark’ between the girl and the boy, right?

And a jock like him could definitely not be seen with someone like me. I mean he was probably the head of the circle of popular guys who happened to be wealthy and had nice pretty girlfriends who wore short skirts and fancy boots to school. They went for parties and stuff like that; something I have never even done before.

Back to Tasha’s warning. Or better put, ‘advice’. What she said was true and straight to the point but with the way she put it, I can’t help but think that she was kind of jealous or something. But who would want to be found in the embarrassing situation three times over and probably thought of as a stalker? Tasha was definitely not that kind of person. She used to be in the cheerleading squad, captain to be exact. But something happened (she never answers our questions about it) forcing her to quit. Maybe she knows stuff I don’t know. Which would mean that I should probably be listening to her.

Or maybe she once liked him too, I mean she said so herself. And maybe she still does.

Or maybe I was just overthinking the whole thing.