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“You’ll do great,” he assures her with another kiss.

She tilts her head to face him. “I hope so. I don’t like it when I score below C. It’s not a bad grade, but I feel—”

“It is bad.” I put her rambling to stop.

She faces me. “No, it’s not. It’s an okay grade. Meaning you can improve if you work hard.”

I don’t know if she’s saying it because she believes that, or she’s seen the C on my Biology test. The only subject I don’t get an A-plus in.

“Heath met a girl.” Sebastian changes the topic.

I don’t know if I should thank him or punch him.

“Girl? Heath met a girl?” Marie looks between us in excitement. She’s been waiting for me to meet someone. She hates that I’m a loner.

I do, too. Third wheeling with a couple who are nauseatingly in love isn’t fucking fun.

“I’m straight, Blondie,” I state in a grave tone.

“You are?” she asks with her hazel eyes peering up at me.

I narrow my eyes. “Why the fuck would you think otherwise?”

“You never talk to girls and hate when they hit on you,” she says without skipping a beat.

“That doesn’t mean I’mnotstraight.”

“Well, I thought… anyway, so, you met a girl. Where did you meet her? What does she look like? What grade is she in? Do youhave the same classes? No wait, tell me her name. I wanna know her name. I’ll find the rest. But really does she—”

“She bumped into me. That’s all that happened.”

The hyper-energy whistles out of her like a deflated balloon getting pricked. She leans back into her boyfriend. “So, no talking and exchanging numbers?”

“We didn’t go that far.” I humor her.

“How far did you go?”

“Nowhere.”

“That’s a bummer. You should’ve taken a few steps.”

“I stayed put.” I’m getting annoyed with this topic. Seriously! So I bumped into a girl and helped her. What’s the fucking big deal?

“He helped her by picking up her papers and folder,” my best friend adds.

Marie gasps. “Heath helped her!”

Why is it so strange that I helped a girl? I’ve helped people bef—never mind I haven’t. I hate people and do everything to avoid them.

“It wasn’t a big deal.” I grind my molars in frustration.

“What is she like?” Marie asks just like Sebastian. The two of them are so similar in ways. Like two sides of a coin.

“Pretty,” I say without thinking.

What the fuck? I didn’t mean that.

What the fuck is wrong with my head?

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