The Nerd in the Corner

Chapter 6: This Is Why You Have No Friends

"Your name's Eliza, right?"

"Lucas," I paused and looked him in the eye. He reciprocated the eye contact. "I didn't sign up to be a babysitter."

The boy laughed, "Eliza, you can't get friends if you keep pushing everyone away."

"I don't need friends." A reply that automatically came out of me without even thinking about the possible answers I should give.

"If you can't get friends, you can't get married either. That's how socialization works," he says as a matter-of-fact.

"Jokes on you, I'm AroAce."

Lucas looked surprised and stopped for a moment before questioning, "What's that?"

"Someone who neither feels any romantic or sexual attraction," I briefly explained, still dusting the books without wasting a breath.

"Is it because you're in love with anime characters?"

The strange question terminated my ongoing process of ridding his bookshelves of dust. It left me flabbergasted. How did he arrive at such a verdict? Over the short time we've spent together, there were no memories within me discussing anything related to that in his presence. So, naturally, I was confused. "How did you know that?"

His reply was a rather bland one. "Took the wild guess, hit the jackpot." He stuck his thumb to the air, proud that the conclusion of his so-called 'deduction' had borne fruit. A smile accompanied his happiness.

Using the power of my lower limbs, I straightened myself up and proceeded to deal with the next nest of papers filled with words. A strange feeling surged within my body; something that couldn't be identified at the moment. Was it the growing irritation? Probably, I could already sense that he was getting on my nerves.

Before silence could successfully disperse itself into the room like mist, Lucas took a deep sigh. One that was completely unnecessary, and he made sure it reached my ears.

"Come on, I nailed it. Gotta give me credit for that!" the boy cheerfully declared.

I rolled my eyes and sarcastically remarked, "Yes, Sir Lucas. You are very smart. Now, shut up."

"Geez, what's with the Sir?" Nothing really passes this brat. He makes sure that there's always something to talk about.

Due to the growing frustration, my voice came out way louder than I intended, "Lucas, let me do my job, okay?" Annoyance raked through the words. It was neither a request nor a plea. It was something far more than that. "OKAY?"

"Alright, I'm sorry."

For a strange reason that destiny had, this boy started treating me like an acquaintance ever since the arcade event. He would start random conversations about absolutely anything, a despicable trait that never fails to make introverts frown. Sadly, this was a natural characteristic for the people on the other side of the spectrum. One time, he even went so far as to say that the sun was very pretty. I replied he could burn his eyes staring at it if he was so mesmerized.

It's been a few weeks ever since then, and the attempts are showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, they're increasing.

So when he found out that discussing Mathematics, especially Trigonometry, would kinda bring him to the neutral zone, the brat gladly made full use of the opportunity.

"Math's very hard, you know! How did you get good at it?" Lucas complained as he stretched his hands out after a long day, supplemented by the supposed sounds of the completed activity.

"It wouldn't be that much difficult if you actually tried to understand the lesson instead of complaining 95% of the time. I could buy more books if I had a coin for every time you whined like a baby." Scowling, my gaze directly landed on his recent test result.