Chapter 32: Friendship Ender
’Aright. Wingman. Me,’ I thought, my hands moving on autopilot to get my lunch out of my backpack. ’What does a wingman even do? Do I just... shove them together? Write a script for him? Is there a manual for this?’
The whole idea was so completely insane it barely felt real. I was supposed to be the guy who avoided people, and now I was in charge of a high-stakes romance mission for the class gossip. My life was a joke.
I was pulling my sandwich out of its container when a shadow fell over my desk. I didn’t even have to look up. I felt it. The atmosphere in the room just shifted, the volume of the chatter dropping by half.
A chair scraped against the floor, loud in the sudden quiet, and someone sat down in the empty seat next to mine.
I took a slow, deliberate bite of my sandwich, chewing carefully. I was not going to give him the satisfaction of a reaction.
I could hear the whispers starting up around me, a low murmur rippling through the classroom.
"Oh, here we go again."
"Seriously? Can’t he just leave the poor dude alone?"
I heard one of the girls nearby mutter, "What the hell is Ronnie’s problem?"
The whispers weren’t directed at me this time. They were for him. For a split second, I felt this weird sense of... not power, but... solidarity. I wasn’t the class freak anymore. I was just the guy Ronnie was being a dick to.
"You think you’re pretty funny, don’t you?" Ronnie’s voice was a low growl, meant only for me.