The Exchange

Chapter 37

Viktor and Matt were in the kitchen, both of them with a couple of the Christmas cookies I made in their hands. I was surprised that the cookies even lasted until Christmas, not to mention early January.

I smiled. "Hey, Viktor."

I hadn't even figured out what I had to say to him that practically dragged me up the stairs, but I was generally pretty good at making it all up as I went.

He looked up from his conversation with Matt. "Hm?"

Matt looked at me. "Don't worry. I wasn't in the middle of saying anything of importance."

"Matt, come on. I'm not trying to interrupt, but I just wanted to say something quickly," I said. I still didn't know exactly what that was, but with how Blaine rationally talked me through the shit in my mind, I figured that for once, Viktor would like what I had to say.

I smiled to myself. For someone who was so good at figuring out what I needed to hear, Blaine had the incredible ability to simultaneously be the dumbest person on the planet.

Viktor rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. "I can't help it that I'm popular."

I burst into laughter. "Did you seriously just quote Mean Girls?"

"I don't know. I just hear people say that a lot. Is that a movie or something?"

"Yep. I'll watch it with you if you want."

"No. We are not going to indoctrinate him with your garbage movies," Matt said.

I laughed. "But anyway, Mr. Popular, I need to talk to you about a thing or two once you guys are done."

"Okay." His voice was certainly uncertain, and I had a feeling that although he didn't want to admit it to himself, he knew who and what I wanted to talk about: the exact reason he had been avoiding me for a couple weeks.

I waited for Matt and Viktor to finish up with whatever they were talking about. I ran my fingers through my hair and pretended to pretend that I wasn't listening. Because I wasn't. Because their conversation was boring and definitely not nearly as important as mine.

I sat down at the kitchen table and rested my face on my left fist, and tapped my fingers on my right hand.

"Amanda, would you stop?" Matt asked, letting out an annoyed huff.

"My patience level has hit an all-time low, and I do have friends that desperately need my attention as well."

"Well, fuck, in that case, you go ahead and talk to Viktor, because you're pretty important."

"I'm glad we agree." I laughed.

Matt shook his head. "I don't even care anymore. You can have him."

"I just need to borrow him for, like, two seconds, and then you can go back to your stupid conversation about how Caleb, whoever the fuck that is, needs to get his shit together."

"Caleb really does need to get his shit together, though," Viktor said.

I stifled a laugh and let out an exasperated sigh instead. "Since I can't figure out what Matt's deal is, I'm just going to say what I wanted to say. I'm not going to do anything to Lukas tomorrow unless he directly and physically harms you. That's it. The end."

Viktor's mouth opened, but no words came out.

"I certainly am glad that you interrupted our shit-talking session for that pointless shit," Matt said with a sarcastic smile.

I crossed my arms. "Well, I thought that he'd like to hear that straight from me since it's been bothering him for a while, but I'll be going now. He's all yours again."