Chapter ten—Through the Looking Glass

I clear my throat nervously as I shift in my seat and still try to avoid all of their gazes, even though I can feel all of their eyes on me.

"There's nothing wrong if you are, dude," Drew says, I assume trying to alleviate the awkwardness.

"I—I just, you know, I haven't had the chance, to, uh, meet the right one, I guess," I mumble, my gaze still on the table.

Drew pats me on the back with one hand, and when I look up at him he has a smile on his face. When I look at Luke and Christian, Luke is gazing at me with a smile too, but he has a thoughtful look on his face. When I look at Christian, it looks like he's confused about something. I don't try to overthink about either of their expressions, knowing I'll probably just end even more confused.

"Well, maybe you'll find the one soon, yeah?" Drew comments, smiling without an ounce of judgement in his voice or expression.

I smile slightly back at him, feeling grateful that even if he knew I was a girl, he wouldn't be judging me for not being as experienced as them.

"Well do you like Victoria?" Luke asks, giving me a scrutinizing look.

I slowly shake my head. "Christian likes her," I say, looking at him to watch his expression. He looks even more confused now.

Luke smiles slightly at me. "I know Christian likes her, but I asked if you liked her."

I shrug. "She's nice and she's pretty, you know, but I don't like her more than a friend."

Drew laughs. "No guy here would ever just want to be Victoria Spencer's friend before wanting to sleep with her first. Christian may have a huge crush on her, but I can assure you everyone does at one point. Shit, even Luke and I wanted her until we got to know her personality better." Drew snickers after his rather critical remark.

"Hey, she's not that bad," Christian says, frowning at Drew now.

Luke chuckles. "Of course you'd think that, you're so hung up on getting her to notice you, you don't really notice anything important about her."

"That's not true. I do notice things about her other than her appearance. I noticed how well she is with kids," Christian remarks, making Luke roll his eyes.

"Did you also notice how she's so well with them because she's related to them? I bet you twenty bucks that if it was a stranger's kid she was taking care of, she'd be the total stuck up princess she always acts like," Luke says.

"If you guys don't like her why do you always hang out with her?" I ask, wondering how I didn't notice until they said something that they weren't too fond of Victoria.

Drew turns to me. "We like hanging out with Kate—" I see Luke raise a brow at Drew that he studiously ignores—"and Victoria is always with her. And we really only tolerate her, I mean some days she's not so bad, but she's just so self-involved it's hard to hold a conversation with her that actually means something."

"You guys don't know what you're talking about," Christian says, anger shining clearly in his eyes. "Victoria's perfect in every sense of the word. You just don't know how to appreciate her and all of her flaws."

Luke rolls his eyes and shakes his head at Christian. "Dude, you're so in denial."

Christian gives him a dirty look. "Whatever."

I watch as Christian looks down at his plate with a pensive look on his face. I wonder what's going through his head. He's obviously thinking about Victoria. I find it quite weird, though, how easily Drew and Luke could see through Victoria but Christian can't.

Drew stands up with his plate in his hand. "As fun as this has been, I need to get back to the dorm and do a little bit of studying for that stupid pop quiz Mr. Davis is going to give us. God knows none of us will get any time to study tomorrow with that pointless fundraiser going on. See you later, guys," he says as he dumps his trash into the waste basket and heads toward the exit doors.

Luke stands up next and throws his stuff away too. "I forgot about Mr. Davis' stupid pop quizzes. I should probably study for that too. Ugh, I really hate school. Bye, Andy. Christian." Luke winks at me before he leaves and nods his head to Christian.

For some reason, I feel like Luke is acting like he knows something I don't. Maybe he figured out you have a V where you're supposed to have a P. That's not possible though. How would he have figured it out but no one else has? And if he does know, what did I do tell lead him to think I'm not a boy? Well, you're not the best actor if you didn't know.

"Andy, can I ask you something?" Christian asks me, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I look up at him and blink a few times, feeling myself blush for forgetting that he was actually still there. "Uh, yeah, sure."

He gives me an unnerving look that kind of makes me feel uncomfortable. "Do you really not like Victoria?" he asks.

"Um, no, at least not the way you like her," I admit to him.

"Why?"

I frown at him. "Why what?"

"Why don't you like her, like more than a friend like her?"

I shrug, not knowing exactly why he's asking me this or what he's expecting from me. "I just don't. I don't find her attractive in that way, I guess."

He stares at me for a moment. "Well, do you find Kate attractive?"

"Uh, she's okay, too, I suppose. Why are you asking me these questions, Christian?"

He shakes his head and avoids my gaze. "I just, uh, I just, um, I want to get to know you better."

My frown deepens. Since when does Christian stumble on his words? This is quite weird to witness. I always thought of Christian as being self-assured but now he's acting anxious and contemplative. Now I'm really wondering what's going through his head.

"And asking me if I find the only two girls I've met so far is a way of getting to know me better?" I ask in a curious voice.

He avoids my gaze as he gets up and throws his plate into the trash. "You know, I'm a little beat I think I'm gonna head back to the dorm." He doesn't say anything more as he leaves the cafeteria, leaving me with more questions I want answered than he asked.

Ugh, just another problem for me to have to deal with later.

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P.S. Even though updates are becoming more regular, give me some time to edit and post new chapters. I got a new job at a hospital and training starts next week, so I'll be working two jobs and I'd really appreciate it if you guys can be patient as I try to work through this new transition in my life.