The Importance of Becoming a Narcissist

Chapter Four

Leo Zachary(POV)

I stared around in the center of the lobby in the boys' dormitory, jumping every time a student would accidently make contact with me as he scurried by, murmuring a distracted apology at my disgusted expression. I, for one, did not enjoy living under my father's roof, but it was still a semi-acceptable alternative to living in a building where there were always a bunch of guys running around with barely any clothes on--or none--at all.

This was, for some reason, consistent. Every time I paid Mason a visit or walked with him to class, it never seem to occur to these people that no one in here was interested in seeing their junk flying all around.

Most of them seemed oblivious of my presence, however--or were doing a very fine job of ignoring me. For that I was grateful. There were very few things in this world actually worse than earning the attention of a half-naked dude.

Derek Pierre, who was descending the steps from the dormitories and into the common room, looked very much amused by my apparent discomfort. He laughed heartily, his notebook and pen in one hand as I grudgingly sighed with relief once I saw that his uniform was covering all of him.

"Afraid of a little skin, are we? You're lucky you don't do any sports. One step in the locker room and you'd have a heart attack," he said arrogantly.

I glared, "Not everyone can be as comfortable as you in a locker room."

I'd meant that to at least make him feel a fraction of unease I was in, but he just laughed at me and continued down the steps, making me sulk even more.

He and I had known each other for so long I couldn't even remember a time that he wasn't actually annoying me. Since before we could talk, probably. We sort of stuck with each other since our families had been previously acquainted and it just sort of made sense to everyone that we would be friends. Growing up, we were in all the same clubs, schools and activities. I supposed at one point I did think of him as a friend. But recently I had realized the real reason we had never become true friends despite all those years spent together.

He was obsessed with trying to out-do me at everything. Academics, theatre-- as if Hanover wasn't full of overly competitive rich kids as it was. He also loved to mention all the things he was good at that I wasn't, always looking for covert ways of challenging me. Even my social life has been permanently soured by his presence.

As of then I didn't particularly care for him. And I wasn't sure if he knew this or not, but he never showed signs that he did. So I settled for just pretending to be his friend, mostly because we hung around the same people, had the same classes and it was nearly impossible for me to avoid him. In short, he was really just a huge pain in the ass that I just barely tolerated on a day-to-day basis.

He began to pick at his teeth in a nearby mirror as I waited for our third companion to leave his room. If we left we would still be early, but enough procrastination could change that. Minutes later Mason opened one of the doors to the right and was slowly making his way down.

He was a good-natured guy, and probably one of the very few that I trusted. He and Derek were both big and bulky from being on a billion sports teams I never cared about, but while he had that whole Edward Cullen thing going on with the big hair and girly eyelashes, Derek's skin was dark, his face sculpted and his hooded and black.

Promptly making my way towards the exit, I absently called at Mason to hurry.

"He can't hear you," Derek replied, trailing behind. "Gabriela started texting him like half an hour ago."

I swiftly turned my head to look at him again. He was staring down at his phone with a big, goofy grin on his face.

I made an exasperated noise. "Can you not make yourself look like a lovesick idiot for two seconds?" I'd always tried to keep my less-than-loving sentiments towards Mason's girlfriend to a minimum in his presence, but I may have hinted once or twice in the past that she was a complete and utter, life-sucking demon-bitch.