Porter: Prue, you were bouncing between them like a ping pong ball! You should have seen it from where we were sitting. It was totally hilarious!
I groaned.
Prue: It was totally embarrassing! I can't believe I bumped into that guy and knocked my food onto him twice. And I practically screamed in Luka's face before literally running away. I won't be able to look him in the eye, let alone ask him out.
Porter: I wish I could show you a picture of Luka's face when the other guy grabbed you to keep you from falling a fourth time. He looked crazy jealous.
Prue: Did not. You had to be seeing things.
Porter: I swear. Ask Ghislaine if you don't believe me.
Prue: She was already saying I need to read between the lines and that he had pretty much told me straight to my face to ask him out. I thought you'd be blunt and honest with me though.
Porter: That is blunt and honest. He was all super smooth when he caught you, but when the other guy touched you, Luka seemed...stormy? Definitely not the calm, easy going guy we normally see.
Surely not. Porter had to be pulling my leg, right? Luka hadn't expressed being interested in me that way.
Ghislaine: Check out this clip from the new blog I follow!
Ghislaine: Attachement Ladyblog..MP4..History_Book
The video was from the same girl that had first filmed Ladybug a couple weeks ago. Something falls out of the sky as the superheroine swings by with her yoyo attached to a helicopter. It's a familiar looking textbook. Francois Dupont made a big deal about it when we were in tenth grade because they had just gotten the new history books for our year. Did that mean Ladybug was a teenager?
"This is no ordinary textbook, this is a tenth grade history book, and I should know because I have this very same book."
Ghislaine: She also posted a comment about how Francoise Dupont is the only school that uses that book.
Prue: Even if that's all true, why try to figure out Ladybug's secret identity? I mean, don't you think she keeps it secret for a reason?
Ghislaine: Like what?
Prue: I guess the same reasons superheroes in comics and movies do it, so people they love won't be targeted by bad guys.
Ghislaine: That kind of stuff doesn't happen in real life.
Prue: A month ago you would have said the same thing about superheroes and a supervillain in Paris.
She didn't have a good reply to that. I debated on asking her about Luka and what happened after I left. I finished my ancient Egypt history essay while I mulled it over. I didn't want to keep discussing my clumsiness, but I had to know.
Prue: What happened after I left?
Ghislaine: From the café?
Prue: Yeah.
Ghislaine: The guy you ran into trying to run from Luka left with another guy after speaking to the cashier. Olivier and Mekaisto grabbed a table while Luka cleaned up the mess you left behind, and he joined them after.
Prue: Does it ever strike you as odd that Luka is always hanging out with Mekaisto and Olivier instead of his own classmates?
Ghislaine: It would, if I didn't consider that he has a particular motivation. Those are both guys in your class.
Prue: Not this again.
Ghislaine: Is it really that much of a stretch to think Luka has a crush on you?
Prue: The only guy who ever had a crush on me is Angelo.
Ghislaine: And everyone thought you were dating, even me when we first met. The only one who knew better was Porter. Now that he isn't around, and you and Luka are in the same school again...
Prue: Prove it, then. If you can prove Luka has so much as flirted with me, I'll ask him out.
Ghislaine: You serious?
Prue: Deadly.
Ghislaine: He all but told you to ask him out during lunch.
Prue: He was talking generally about dating and mentioned one of his preferences.
Ghislaine: He looked super jealous when that guy steadied you from falling again at the café.
Prue: Hearsay.
Ghislaine: He messaged to make sure you got home safe after the stone beings stuff.
Prue: He saw me right before I left school. Anyone would check on a classmate they felt was being reckless.
Ghislaine: What about over the weekend? Didn't you see him on Saturday? He took you you to his house, didn't he?
Prue: Yeah, but not like a date. He wanted me to meet his sister.
Ghislaine: Is that not a good sign?
Prue: I've now had more uninterrupted conversations with Juleka than with him. She messages my personal account. Luka still contacts my school account.
Ghislaine: You both suck at this.
Prue: Or only I do and he isn't interested in me. After what he said about Madelyn, why wouldn't he have asked me out by now if that's what he wanted?
Ghislaine: Maybe he's shy, or nervous. He might not know you like him.
Remembering what I'd said to cover my accidental admission by the canal, that wasn't a stretch to assume. Then again, I only made a complete fool of myself when I saw Luka. Wouldn't that clue him in?
Ghislaine: You know how oblivious boys are.
Prue: I don't like it when you seem to read my mind. Most boys are clueless, sure, but Luka isn't like most boys. He's intuitive. He's bound to have noticed how I feel about him.
Ghislaine: If that's true, when put with his other qualities you've mentioned, there can't be any doubt. He must like you. He wouldn't toy with your feelings like that. To make sure he's reading the situation correctly without messing up your friendship, he wants you to make the first move.
Prue: You're over analyzing again.
Ghislaine: Is there a reason you're fighting this so hard? Don't you want him to like you?
Prue: Of course I want him to like me. But after three years, maybe it's time to accept that Luka and I will just never work as a couple.
Ghislaine: You're joking, right?
I so wasn't joking. Three years of self torture was enough. It was time to give it up, right?
Ghislaine: Well, if you really mean it, you could always give Angelo a chance. Maybe he's changed in the last few years.
Prue: I haven't even talked to him since he transferred for him mom's deployment. Maybe he met someone at his exchange school and forgot all about me.
Ghislaine: That wasn't a no.
Prue: It wasn't a maybe, either.
Ghislaine: While you're in a mood to consider other romantic prospects, how about the hottie from the café with the accent? You could definitely bump into him again.
Prue: Even I can't be that unlucky. Enough of all this focus on my nonexistent love life. Who do you think Porter's secret admirer is?
Ghislaine: I think it's Roger or Robert. Of course, with them being identical and dressing alike, it's impossible to know which one.
Prue: Why do you think it's one of them?
Ghislaine: They're friends with Théo, and they both have a class with Porter.
We didn't discuss my romantic pursuits any further, but I was thinking about it at the back of my mind the rest of the night.