#GirlsShitToo

Objectification Nation

On Friday, Valerie smiled at me as I entered the chemistry classroom. "Good work getting our principal in trouble."

"Thanks." I felt myself blushing. Her compliment made me feel somehow prouder.

That's when Dennis came in. He pointedly ignored me, and seeing him do that made laugh inside, because he was as much of the reason for Runsberger's hot water as I was, despite him being Runsberger's bro. "Valerie," he said. "Chad's sick today, huh? You gonna come to lunch with me?"

"No," she said firmly.

"Why not?"

"You know why, Dennis."

"Well, when you change your mind, you know where my car is." A lewd smirk on his face, he left, still avoiding catching my gaze.

"What was that about?" Trish asked Valerie before I could. Trish was standing with Reba, and the four of us sat down at our shared table.

"You know Dennis and I used to go out, right? I dumped him when I caught him cheating on me. Anyway, he keeps joking about me cheating on Chad with him. It's really gross."

"Have you told Chad?" I asked.

Valerie looked down like she was ashamed. "No."

"Why not?"

"Chad doesn't need to worry about that. Dennis is his best friend, and I think he's just joking, anyways. Besides, Chad would probably think I was... leading Dennis on or something. I don't know."

I waited for Trish or Reba to say something, and when they didn't, I stated the obvious. "That's ridiculous! You should be with someone who trusts you, Valerie."

"Chad does trust me."

"Then why would he think you were leading Dennis on?"

Anger became evident in her tone. "I don't know."

I continued to stare at her, wanting a better answer, and she finally said, "I don't want to talk about this anymore with you, Dallas. You're not a great source of relationship advice, anyways; I mean, how many relationships have you even been in?"

Again, I looked around our table, hoping Trish or Reba would come to my defense, but neither of them did, and I suddenly felt embarrassed for my lack of romantic and sexual relationships.

Later, at lunch, it was me and Alex and Sharkbite and Eric, which was weird. Benny had caught the cold virus that was going around. The four of us rode in Sharkbite's care, on the hunt for fast food. Alex and I hunkered down in the backseat, while Sharkbite drove and Eric sat shotgun.

In the midst of our drive, Alex told Eric, "Hey man, thanks for reblogging all of my Inspired by Finland posts. It's pretty rad of you. You've gotten me lots of new followers."

"No problem, dude. I love Finland. The snowboarding season is like...nine months sometimes. We get cheated here in Cali."

"Have you gone boarding there?"

"I've gone in Iceland. But after that, I wanna explore all those Nordic countries."

It felt weird seeing them talk to each other, like old friends. I knew they hung out sometimes since Sharkbite was their mutual friend, but since Alex and Benny had started hanging out with Sharkbite a lot more this year, I wondered if they hung out with Eric more than I knew.

"Dudes," said Sharkbite. "Quit with the bromance; you're making me seriously uncomfortable." I was about to call him a masculinity police officer, but before I could, he pointed out the window and said, "Check it out. Long Legs." He was pointing at a girl who was walking on the sidewalk wearing a flowing dress and high heels.