Chương 40: A Terrible Case Of Friendship

Orion's study session was nice and quiet because I was in no mood to chitchat after becoming a celebrity for the day. He dutifully wrote out his answers, keeping his eyes on his paper, but every now and then a smile would take over his lips and I got the distinct impression that he was holding back laughter. I watched dust motes flying in the air from the sunlight filtering through the blinds, ignoring it, but eventually, the impression turned to reality when he started outright chuckling.

"What's so funny?" I folded my arms in front of me. His pencil didn't pause.

"I just wish I had been there to see it." My eyes rolled, looking away.

"I'm sure everybody in school has painted a vivid picture for you." Finally, he stopped writing to look at me.

"Did you really shoot laser beams out of your eyes or was that just a rumor?" I just stared at him.

"If I could, I would have done it to you long ago."

"But I mean– Brandon "Meat Tower" Taylor falling like a giant Sequoia because you chopped him down. It's got to go in the yearbook at least." My eyes were going to get a sprain from all of the rolling they were doing.

"I really don't think so. Not that they shouldn't include a list of every time a kid got bullied here, but they won't. Because the title would have to be: Here Are All Of The Times This School Failed Its Students." He shook his head.

"Seems like you don't have to worry about bullying at all anymore." I leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

"When Brandon showed up for school this morning, I was sure that he would launch himself at me in front of everyone, but he didn't do anything. Which was pretty weird, but I'll tell myself it's because he was just that scared of my physical prowess." Orion nodded.

"Meat Tower needs the world to revolve around him, and you disrupted that. His small brain and narcissistic ego can't handle that. Sooner or later he will come for you." I glanced over at his paper.

"You're pretty perceptive about human nature for a guy who can't figure out the character motivation for Curlie's Wife in Of Mice And Men." Orion scoffed, pushing his glasses up.

"I figured it out. She's trying to go full Harvey Weinstein on a guy with the mind of a third grader. Her "motivation" is pretty clear. Brandon is easy to understand too, a spoiled bully that is probably a sociopath. He won't let it go." It was pretty hard to believe that Brandon was just going to let me live out the rest of my days here without some kind of retaliation.

But even if he couldn't attempt a physical punishment, you'd think he'd try to go for a verbal assault, at least by loudly telling anyone who could hear that I hadn't done anything to him. Instead, he'd barely talked all day.

"Well, the principal assured my grandmother yesterday that he has issued a no contact order on him while he continues to attend a school he should have been kicked out of five years ago when he first started, so I'm sure everything will be fine." Sarcasm dripped from my words like honey from a comb. He shrugged, probably because he was picking up bad habits from me.

"You seem pretty well equipped to take him on now. As long as you expect it, you should be okay." I was inspecting my nails.

"Yes, well, I'll be leaving in two months, so then I really won't have to deal with it." He nodded, eyes back on his paper as he started to write again.

"That's right, I forgot. What are you planning on doing after graduation?" My head leaned into my hand, staring at the table.

"Um, get a job, save up money, actually enjoy life. You know, the usual things after surviving high school." I had stopped counting down the days until graduation long ago. Escaping this insane asylum was no longer the constant thought in my brain, the only way to get through the day. There had finally been something else going on in my life that I didn't have to cling to that. Soon enough, my days would just be spent at home, places I chose to be, and I'd never have to see any of these people again.

For some reason, that thought didn't fill me with the existential joy it should have. Of course I would still see Mavis outside of school. She would come over, we'd watch Gran's superhero-free TV together, I'd hide my secret double life from her– pretty much same old, same old. As for Orion… Meeting up with him had become something to look forward to and I could even acknowledge that conversations with him were enjoyable.

The idea of no longer being able to sit down and have some kind of literary discussion or witness his incomprehensible geeking out over robots just seemed… boring. How had he tricked me into thinking that his technological, instruction manual way of thinking somehow belonged in my life? This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I quickly looked down, eyebrows pinching and mouth pulling sideways. Curse these people who actually made me like them.

He wrote for a long beat, then finally said, "I'll have to get a new tutor." I shrugged, my shoulders staying up high, still not looking at him.

"You don't really need me anymore. You've gotten pretty good with your analysis. You even got the metaphor behind the title of The Crucible all by yourself."

"Thanks to metallurgy, yes."

"See? You'll be fine. Besides, I doubt those Ivy League schools care that much whether you can write in iambic pentameter as long as you build them nifty humanoid robots to help them take over the world." He smiled again.

"Nifty, huh? Gee willikers, Grandma, maybe you are Dorian Grey." Robot Man was just teasing, I knew that, but if he was going to be part of the people that strangely chose to be near me often, he'd have to get used to being teased back. I began gathering my things.

"Well, I'll be leaving now. You clearly don't need me, seeing as you finally get my obscure references." He held up a hand." Wait a second, wait. I was just making a joke, which, by the way, you do all of the tim e. Also, I don't plan on going to an ivy league school, or any college at all for that matter." I sat back on my metal chair and my smirk slipped into a frown.

"Really? Mr. Genius isn't going to higher education? What, did you get some deal with Tesla or something?"

"Nope, I just changed my mind."

"Why?"

"I think there are better things that I could do." He shrugged.

"Just like you."

"Well," I waved a hand around, gesturing to the room.

"Why am I still tutoring you then? What does it matter if you're not trying to get into college?"

"It's been good to stretch my brain this way." His eyes were steady on his paper.

"And I've enjoyed spending time with you." I opened my mouth to make a rebuttal, but my mind sifted through his words until it found no sarcasm.

"I…" I mumbled.

"Me too." The sound of his pencil scratching along the paper filled the air as I looked at my fingers twisting together, refusing to look up.

"Not to mention, the weapons I gave you were expensive, so I wanted my money's worth in tutoring." My head raised.

"Everything working out well with them?" His eyebrow was raised, looking at me directly. Orion was an official friend now and as such I should try not to lie to him as much as possible.

"I may… have… lost them. Well, actually they got stolen, and it really wasn't my choice to leave them in a place where they could be taken, but…" He let out a sigh, nodding his head as his eyes returned to his paper, but his lips turned up at the corners and his voice came out easy.

"So you need new ones?" I held my hands up, shaking them back and forth.

"No, no, I don't want to lose more of your stuff. I'm good."

"That's right. You don't need them because of your crazy finger attack." It was my turn to sigh.

"It's a very technical, weaponized form of tai chi and I swear I'm going to get that tattooed on my forehead so I don't have to explain it anymore." He laid his pencil down, stretching out his fingers.

"It's pretty cool. You can't blame people for being impressed."

"I can if they won't leave me alone," I grumbled, putting my folded arms on the table and thumping my chin down on top of them.

"It's true, you will have a hard time being the tragic loner with everyone fawning over you." He slid the paper over to me.

"You may have to transfer to a different school in order to recover your surly street cred." My eyes began scanning his writing, but my sarcasm meter had no problem going off here. The idea of having to deal with this kind of reaction from people over an extended period of time sent chills down my back and thoughts of escaping to Alaska in my head.

"You're overestimating the attention span of the student population here; by tomorrow, Nina Sanchez's bathroom selfie will be the only thing worth talking about. Secondly, I am not a loner; I'm just socially independent. Thirdly," I pointed at his paper.

"That's not what Candy's dog's death represents."

"Huh," he said, standing up and taking the paper. His eyes read over it, then he put it into his backpack.

"Guess I need more tutoring, afterall." I shook my head, but a smile grew on my lips. My legs stretched as I stood.

"I'm available anytime to tell you how wrong your metaphors are." We began walking to the door.

"You know, this experience made me appreciate my life better. It's not like people weren't talking about me before. The only difference is when they don't like you, they largely leave you alone." His hand turned the handle and pushed the door open. People stared at us like always with that questioning glance, but I hardly noticed it.

"So, that's the plan, huh?" Orion said as we walked down the hall.

"Stay unlikable?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"I think I will inform the other introverts at our conference, except that we can never agree to congregate."

"You can pretend to be an outcast all you want, but I saw you let Collin stay at your table today at lunch. I don't think you want to be the tragic loner anymore." I looked away, frowning. It was true that my friend count had doubled recently, but when that only meant going from one to two, it didn't exactly show that I was winning a popularity contest. Collin was just a one time thing; it was easier to be nice in the moment and he hadn't been outright disgusting like Tony had.

Even then, maybe I shouldn't have done it because it had made Mavis upset. The intricacies of kindness and friendship were exhausting and troublesome. It had been a lot easier to be a loner. When the world contained many a narcissist and their sycophants, the clear choice had always been to be alone rather than try to figure out which people were trying to either use or abuse you.

But walking here in the hallways with Orion, surrounded by people who were staring, whispering, or planning out their blog post about this, it felt a lot better to have someone at my side.