SpellShocked (SpellShocked Saga: Book 1)

Chapter 27 - Vazaria Seeds

"Okay...so let me get this right," Zac began. We were sitting on my bed, having returned from dinner, and wanted to spend a bit of time together, just the two of us. "This Theo dickhead threatened your friends to make you sign up for a contest where he wants to fight you and beat you just to prove he's the best?"

"Pretty much," I sighed.

"This guy must have a tiny penis," Zac stated.

"Zac!" I yelled, chuckling at his blunt attitude.

"What? It makes sense, dude is clearly compensating for something, and my money is on a tiny penis."

"Well it would be the only things that was wrong with him, aside from his personality. The guy looks like a god. Actually, a lot of the students there look like gods," I lamented, thinking of Hunter in particular

"Well that's good, plenty of eye candy for you to drool over."

"I'm not drooling over anyone," I laughed, "You forget I'm still deeply in the closet."

"You'd think you'd have a better sense of fashion, you've spent so long in that damn closet," he joked.

"You're one to talk! You wear the same three pairs of jeans on rotation!"

"That's because I look sexy as hell in them," he winked salaciously and licked his lips, so I kicked him gently.

"I meant to ask," he said after dodging my foot, "What's that weird crystal around your neck?"

"Oh, it's a small Erzite crystal. It does a bunch of stuff; it's an alarm, it translates languages to your native one. Hunter stole it for me." I laughed remembering how he had broken into the storage room for me.

"That's pretty cool," Zac said, a strange smirk on his face.

"Okay, what?" I asked, chuckling.

"Nothing," he lied, still smiling, 'It's just that you're in love with Hunter."

"I'm what?!" I yelled.

"Dude," he stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Dude what?!" I retorted, "I'm not in love with Hunter!"

"Okay, but at the restaurant we had the same waiter as the last time we visited, the one who made you go all flower shop in their bathroom; last time you were all heart eyes emoji over the guy and this time you didn't even notice him."

"And? Maybe I was just distracted?"

"Okay, but how about the fact that you've mentioned Hunter about a million times today, and you're always texting me funny things he says." I opened my mouth to argue but he kept speaking. "Or the fact that every time you say his name, you smile like an idiot?"

"I do?" I asked, not even aware of it.

"Oh yeah," he snorted. "Come on, Charlie. This is me you're talking to. I know you better than anyone on this planet."

I paused for second, ready to argue back. But I stopped because I knew what he was saying was true; I knew I'd been developing feelings for Hunter that went beyond friendship. I sighed, "I'm not in love with him, but I do think I might...like him...just a little bit."

"Or a lot a bit," he joked.

"But it doesn't even matter," I interjected, "He's not gay, and even if he was, I can't handle people knowing I was too, and I really don't want to screw up one of the few friendships I've ever had just because I feel all goopy whenever he looks at me."