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Chapter Eleven

"You can't be serious!" Lukas exclaimed. "Fuck you, ForNarnia007!"

I tried to hold in my laughter as I spectated Lukas's avatar falling to the floor, collapsing to an emotional death against a duo with an Admin. His raging was quite amusing to me, especially since he got mad over a game. I tried to not let him hear my laughter, holding my breath.

"I-It's just a game," I stuttered out, managing a few snickers to escape. "We can win another game tomorrow."

Lukas sighed heavily, as if disappointed in himself, "Alright..."

We logged out of the game and continued our call on Skype. I decided to bring up Dexter, to see his opinion on him and what he could conclude about my thoughts on hanging out with him. I never had friends before, so I figured he had to know what was suspicious and what wasn't, because he probably had friends.

Right?

"Hey," I said.

"Yeah?"

I clutched the wire of my headphones, my lips pursing together. "So. You know how I told you I made a friend?"

"Of course."

I looked up at my ceiling, sighing. "Well, I just got invited to my first outing with him, and I honestly don't know if I should go. Cause, we just barely became friends some time ago, but I don't want to appear ungrateful to him because he literally saved me from one of the worst people on Earth. But then again, he doesn't feel like a friend. He feels more out of reach than what I feel like it should feel."

"That's a lot of feels," Lukas joked. I heard him shift in his seat. "Well. He's a guy. And personally speaking, as a guy myself—"

"Are you sure about that?" I snickered. "You screamed like a girl when you died earlier."

I could practically sense his eyes rolling as he said, "As I was saying, as a guy myself, I feel that him asking you to 'hang out after school' means more of 'I want to get in your pants so give me some sort of consent but not really'." I cringed at his connection, and he sighed, as if agreeing at how revolting it was. "You especially have to consider that you guys became friends like, what?— a day or two ago? And the fact that you feel somewhat uncomfortable with him, it kinda makes sense not to go."

"That's a lot of plausible reasons as to why I shouldn't go," I muttered under my breath.

Now that Lukas has mentioned it, I did feel somewhat awkward around him (and not in a good way). I didn't feel flustered around him, so that ruled out any possibility of having a crush on him. In addition to this, he asked to hang out so soon, just a day or two later before we even knew each other! If he was really my friend, wouldn't he have noticed my discomfort or something? Or is that more of a people being in love kinda thing? Was I overthinking this?

Lukas then interrupted my thoughts by saying, "But I mean, if you want to go, you can. I'm not stopping you from going. It's just.. his actions are just too.. choppy. No go-with-the-flow feel at all. My personal opinion is to let go of him. Gently, of course."

I sighed in exasperation at all the suggestions and points the smart brainiac made. "Agh, I don't know!"

"Don't think too much about it," Lukas said, letting me hear the small smile in his voice. "If you're curious, go. If not, call me, and we can game."

"A-Alright."

~~~

Off of a limb, I told my parents if I could go, and they were alright with me hypothetically hanging out with Dexter. As always, Papa was more protective about the situation, and Mom was surpassingly also suspicious of him too, but the two concluded that they were just getting too old and paranoid for no reason. Out of sheer curiosity (and maybe even stupidity), I told myself I would go. I was at school now, sighing heavily when I found that my handcuffs still weren't repaired yet.

Great.

Now everyone is going to assume some random shit that isn't true.

I held my head up, mentally slapping myself across the face. I had to keep balanced on my feet if I was going to get through the day. Worrying about people other than myself wouldn't help that cause. Sighing once more, I walked toward my locker, unlocking it numbly. Grabbing my books for the next classes that were too far from my locker, I closed the metal door shut. Turning back around, my breath stopped in my throat when I came face-to-face with Ryan Duff. Of all people, it had to be him. Someone kill me. His eyes were glowering down on me as he glared.

"Just because you have your attributes doesn't mean you should forget your place, scum," he spat. I didn't make a move to respond to him, and he pushed me against the lockers. "Answer me."

I nodded slowly, turning my head away from him so I didn't have to look at his unreasonable anger towards me. I just wanted to have a good day today. I just wanted to get through this. Ryan must've noticed my thoughtful expression, because he leaned over, towering over me.

"What's there to think about?" He hissed. "You know what I expect from someone like you. Don't question it."

With a final slam against the lockers, Ryan left, leaving everyone staring in utter horror and shock. I could still feel the tingles on my shoulders from the impact against the metal lockers as I trudged myself to class.

How pitiful.