His Secret

Chapter 8

Lyla

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Clement: "Well? How did it go with Nathan?"

Lyla: "There's not much to say."

Clement: "What do you mean? There's not much to say."

Lyla: "It was... instructive!"

Clement: "Meaning?"

Lyla: "I learned a lot about him! Too much even! Don't you find him a bit self- centred?"

Clement rubs his chin.

Clement: "Not to my knowledge. Why do you say that? Was he unpleasant? What did he say?"

Lyla: "He talked to me for an hour about everything to do with his life, what he likes to do, movies he likes, where he's lived, his goldfish, his favorite socks, the color of the apple that he ate yesterday, and a load of other important details... all without asking me one thing about myself."

Clement: "Yeah... Not cool."

I can see that Henri is about six feet from us.

Today he doesn't have a book to keep him company.

I try not to look at him. But it proves to be harder than I thought it would be.

Nathan: "Hey there! Hi!"

Well well, if it isn't "Mr. Me-Myself-and-I"!

Nathan walks towards Clement and the two guys do a full on chest bump.

Ugh... I can just smell the testosterone!

Nathan: "Hey Lyla..."

He says this while putting his hand on the wall behind me.

His face is super close to mine.

I'm uncomfortable.

Lyla: "Umm... Hey Nathan."

Nathan: "Tell me something... why didn't you respond to my text yesterday?"

Lyla: "Huh? I didn't realize I needed to respond!"

Nathan: "What do you mean?"

I'm gonna just play dumb...

Lyla: "I mean... you didn't ask a question."

That's a rather cowardly answer... right?

Am I making this up or did Henri just hold back a laugh?

Nathan: "Oh yeah... I guess... Okay! Uh... see ya later!"

Nathan leaves our group and walks towards his class.

Clement: "Hey! Even if that was pretty funny, it wasn't all that nice! You don't wanna at least give him a chance?"

Lyla: "I didn't totally blow him off! If he were to show me another side of himself than what I saw yesterday, I wouldn't turn him down."