Someone Like Me

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Vincent decided the best way to start winter break would be to go skiing in the mountains. Originally, Vincent planned for the two of us to go alone. However, I insisted that he should go with his friends instead. After all, I'm the reason he stopped hanging out with them often nowadays. We reached a compromise that I would have to go skiing if he brought his friends along.

Although sticking myself alone with four teen boys would seem like a bad idea to some, I didn't mind it. Carson, Luke, and Logan are nice to me. They would occasionally talk to me in class, even with the rumors about me swimming around. However, my reclusive self only got worse when it came to being social. I went from talking to three friends to only having one. Maybe two if you count Wilbur as one.

Even being around Vincent couldn't help myself to be more sociable  or for others to talk to me. Especially not after the incident involving Ally and Bryan. Most of the eleventh grade probably still thinks of me as some secretly promiscuous slut. It's unfair really. Bryan is very promiscuous himself, since he flirts with any girl within a five meter radius of him, but no one would ever call him a slut. That's just another double standard of society.

People can't seem to grasp my friendship with Vincent. Heck, I can't either. Though I hate to admit it, I think about social ladders like anyone else. To be frank, it's a social glitch that Vincent even talks to me. He's the epitome of the perfect high school boy. Nice, good looking, funny, fit, and smart. Whereas I fit the title of "nerd" like its a glove. Actually, even the nerds find me bland. I fell asleep while some kids in my engineering class tried to explain to me about alternate universe theories. To say they were offended is an understatement.

I envy them. People may make fun of them, but at they end of the day, they have each other. They fit in somewhere as least. Me? I fit in nowhere. I have no designated lunch table. Nor do I have someone to excitedly glance at when the teacher says we can pick a partner.

But Vincent makes it better. I know I don't fit in with his crowd, but he makes me forget that. He treats me normally, and people naturally do the same around him. Maybe he doesn't know what people actually say about me. How I'm using him. How I'm fake. Then again, why would they say that in front of him? Of course they wouldn't. They pretend to like me when he's around. It's not Vincent's fault. He has good intentions trying to help me make new friends. But having just Vincent is enough, the equivalent of having a hundred friends.

What if he's no longer your friend?

"Wendy?"

"Huh?" I slip out of my train of thoughts to look at the driver's seat.

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm always hungry," I chuckle.

"I know this really good pizza place," Carson suggests, leaning in from the back seat.

"I'm sick of that pizza place. We always go there!" Luke whines.

"Pasta!" Logan cheers.

"No!" Carson immediately shuts him down.

"How about this one ramen place I know? It's good for cold days."

"Anything but pizza and burgers," Luke agrees.

"Sounds cool," Carson adds.

"That sound good!" Logan says, satisfied with our menu choice.

With everyone in agreement, I point to direct Vincent to the ramen shop. We file inside the modest but bustling brick building. After a ten minute wait, we're seated at a round booth in the back corner. I'm wedged between Carson and Vincent, with Vincent at the very end.

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