You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

41

"I-I ... We ..." My mouth opened and closed like a goldfish, but the word fanfiction refused to leave my mouth that was rapidly becoming dry.

Why did he care so much? Was he one of those people who looked down at those who wrote fanfiction as cringy losers?

I had a friend back in eighth grade at this very school who I thought was really cool. I hung out with her group of friends, who were equally popular in the grade. I had been really getting into writing fanfiction for a few different fandoms at that time. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of telling them.

They laughed and looked at me like I'd confessed to eating raw garden snails on an hourly basis.

After that, they started making subtle snarky comments hinting that I was weird whenever I was in their presence. The girl I thought was my friend began giving me pitying glances as she walked past me, like I was some kind of pathetic earthworm that had been cut into half for the sake of experimental curiosity.

They were quick to distance themselves from me, and I wasn't desperate enough to go chasing after them. It still hurt, but I didn't want them to see that they'd gotten to me.

Ashley, who had been more of a friendly acquaintance back then, had noticed the change in their behavior towards me. She came up to me and invited me to sit with her at lunch, where I got to know Derek and Melissa on a more personal level. By the end of lunch, I had made three new friends who were way cooler than my ex-friends.

Naturally, I became very tight-lipped about things like this after that incident. If Cody hadn't revealed to me that he also wrote fanfiction, I would have disowned my notebook and pretended I would take it to the lost and found.

"We're aspiring writers," Cody said, casting a glance at me. "We bounce ideas off each other."

"That's right," I said, seizing the lifeline he was throwing to me. "We're writing buddies."

Grateful for his help, I smiled at Cody. It was true, after all. We did share our writing and help to improve each other's story ideas. The only thing was that we weren't writing original fiction.

I jolted when Nolan's eyebrows drew together slightly.

"Really," was all he said in a flat tone.

"Yup." I nodded vigorously.

Instead of responding, Nolan turned back to Derek. "No, I didn't tear the nameplate off the door. I get detention on a regular basis. It's not a big deal."

I would be lying if I said that it didn't sting a little, the way he turned away from me like he wasn't just talking to me less than a second ago. On the other hand, I couldn't blame him for being a bit suspicious of my answer.

Was it that obvious that I was hiding something from him? And why did it matter to him, anyway?

Taking a giant bite out of the chocolate chip cookie Nolan had given me, I chewed away furiously in an attempt to distract myself from his strange reaction.

------------------------------------------------

We left the dining hall with several minutes to spare before the bell would ring.

"Hey, I need to use the toilet," I said. "You guys can go ahead first."

"I have to go, too," Nolan said.

"Oh, sure," I said. "Let's go."

Melissa waved at us. "See you in class!"

The rest of them continued on their way, and Nolan and I headed towards the nearest toilets together.