The Score (Sequel to The Exchange)

Chapter 24- Congrats on Womanhood

I had recruited Viktor, a non-native English speaker, as my editor-in-chief for my speech.

A brilliant move on my part, but I knew that his hockey schedule ahead was not exactly favorable for us, since he had a game in Michigan that weekend and another one in Massachusetts shortly after.

He still didn't know which M state was which, and I couldn't blame him. Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Michigan all sounded alike. And that wasn't even counting Maine, Maryland, Montana, Mississippi, and Missouri. I kinda felt bad for the poor dude.

For a little while, it was going to be a lonely life for me, but on the bright side, finals were getting close, and right after was winter break. That meant Arti, Blaine, Matt, and the triplets were going to all be right where they belonged: with me.

Viktor read through my (rough) outline of what the hell I was going to talk about for fifty minutes. Of course, I didn't have to talk that long, but if I had the stage, I was gonna use it.

He looked up at me. "Well, I don't think you should start with, 'What's up, motherfuckers?'"

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's unprofessional and rude."

"So am I, so I'm failing to see the problem here."

"Just pretend that you're a nice, polite person during your speech. It'll be better for you," he suggested.

"Next you're gonna tell me to smile or some shit."

"You really should smile. It'll make you seem friendlier."

I rose an eyebrow at him. "I don't think there's a friendly thing about me. Just keep reading and tell me what you think about the actual content of the speech."

"Sure, Candy Cane." He continued reading, then looked up at me again. "You really need to chill with the language."

I rolled my eyes. "It's a rough outline. That's not what I'm gonna say word for word."

"One, two, three, four, five. Five times you said the word 'fuck'. And that's just the introduction."

"You know what, if you're just going to yell at me for my language, I don't want your help."

He smiled. "Sorry, Candy Cane. I'll do what you want."

"Damn right you will." I smiled back at him.

I liked it when he followed my simple instructions.

And although I wouldn't ever say it out loud, I missed having Blaine to do the exact opposite. He liked to purposely mess with me, doing what I told him not to do. Of course, I figured out the pattern, and occasionally I'd tell him not to do something I wanted him to do, and he just went right along with it.

Rule number one of relationships: always be the smarter one.

There were a lot of things I missed about it all, even though I was hesitant to even go through with anything with Blaine. It was difficult going from having someone to do couple-y things with to suddenly having that taken away.

And it wasn't even sudden. We both knew it was coming, and like the idiots we were, we didn't really care.

But with Viktor, it seemed that I was missing out on something. Every single person on the fucking planet seemed attracted to him, except for me. I wasn't sure if there was something wrong with me (well, I knew there was something wrong with me), or if I just liked to be different.

It sure as hell couldn't hurt to figure out what I was missing out on, right?

I was just curious.