Blinq And You'll Miss It (gxg)

Chapter Two

"You did not!" squealed Libby from the other side of the table, drawing looks from some of the other patrons at The Ginger Man, a nice little place for brunch in Greenwich. I knew there were other places that might have been available, but this was where I always came with Libby, because this was where she was comfortable, and I loved seeing her smile. She was dressed in her typical overall shorts and a paint stained light blue shirt, and her short dark hair was at all kinds of angles, barely contained under the baseball hat with a unicorn on it. She wasn't going to impress anyone with the outfit, but she still looked cute as hell.

Libby had been my best friend since kindergarten, and while things had been rough sometimes, like when we found out that she was on the autism spectrum, we had stayed together through thick and thin. Times like now, when she was humming to herself while shaking her hands below the table due to overstimulation were just one of her mannerisms that I'd grown to love. That also had a lot to do with her hating parties though. She'd tried a few, but I always got her out quick when I saw how overwhelmed she got at them. Funny enough, she was my first crush, years ago, but I wasn't her type. She kept telling me she'd know when she found the person, but right now she wasn't looking. I wish I felt that confident about my own ability to find the right person, since I had been way off base with Jewel.

"I did," I replied with a bite of my steak and egg. I'd already finished a plate of avocado, two spinach omelettes, and the eggs from Libby's pancakes and eggs. I knew she only ordered them to give them to me because she was the best person ever. In another five minutes, the waiter would be bringing me my chocolate French Toast, and I'd be done till later. Yes, when your metabolism is like mine, you need to eat a lot. If it weren't for the fact that the government that funded my family's activities gave us pretty much unlimited food for my brothers, they'd probably notice all the food disappearing. As it was, it just looked like one of them had an extra snack. "I asked Jewel out, and she shot me down." I used my fork like a little plane, making an engine noise while it dove into the egg yolk covered flank steak. "Crashed and burned."

"She's an idiot." Libby took a bite of her pancake, which was pre-cut into pieces for her to dip into the syrup since she hated a messy plate with syrup all over it. Likewise, her bacon was on a separate plate, but whole and crispy, just the way she liked it. We'd been coming here for years, so they knew just what to do to keep her happy, which was why I'd never take her anywhere else unless she asked. "I know you think she's beautiful, but that isn't the only thing you should judge a person by." She had never actually seen Jewel, since she had been privately tutored for a decade, but she still wasn't wrong.

I nodded in agreement while I chewed. "I know, I know. But I guess my brain and heart are out of sync. I see her and I just can't help but stare."

"At least you got Louis away from her. Maybe you should try to get to know someone before you ask them out. It might work out better that way."

"Yeah, I get that. I need more patience. But you're right about Louis." I shuddered at the reminder, my stomach churning as his memories percolated in my brain. "His parents must pay a ton of money to buy people off. Jewel is better off without him for sure. How was your night, did you do anything fun while I was at the party?"

"Oh! I finished my Minecraft castle. It came out pretty cool, you should come check it out." Libby was a Minecraft expert, while I sucked at it. She also had a very cute habit of making huge structures for me to explore on our Minecraft server that had lots of booby traps in them, so I'd die horrible deaths. On the other hand, when we were on the phone and playing and she was giggling up a storm when I died due to a TNT explosion or being dropped into lava, I couldn't help but smile. Fun times.