Glitch (boyxboy/android)

Chapter 17: Confide

"Just because I'm a guy, doesn't mean I'm in a hurry to give it up."

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Leo had been deliberating The PTs words now for four days. He had no interest in Anna or being with her in any way, shape or form, but today was the day of reckoning. Would he be brave, the brave bee? Tell her once and for all that he wasn't interested in playing her games, or would he be the wimpy wasp and buckle under peer pressure?

He had not 'practised' anything physical with The PT since that morning a few days ago. Leo is still not sure how to get his mind around how he felt around his tutor.

It had been strange, but since the first experimental kiss, The PT had been behaving odd.

Leo had noticed a couple of times how its eyes kept on changing colour and tried to overlook how sometimes, he could just catch a glimpse of a certain look the The PT was giving him. It was if The PT had some kind of interference in its data, crossed wires even. 

"You've been quiet since Monday." Yan comments over their lunch of soggy fries. 

"I've had a few things on my mind." Leo sighs, putting a limp fry to his lips. "Today, Anna expects me to ask her to the prom in front of everyone. "

"And...will you?" Yan looks at Leo, fry poised, ready to put in his mouth. 

Leo looks around the canteen. Up until now, he had managed to get through school reasonably unnoticed, unscathed by bullies, who targeted the weak, the strange, the vulnerable, or anyone for that matter in order to deflect attention from themselves. What he decided to do over the next 40 minutes or so could change all that.

"I don't think I have a choice Yan...I mean, she will spread rumours. I won't win either way will I?" 

Yan finally pops the waiting fry in his mouth. "Is she really that bad? I mean....can't you act like you like her?"

"I've tried that already." She's just not the one I like...I mean..." Leo suddenly realises what he has said. That being far too much. 

"Woah...wait! Do you like someone?" Yan pushes the plate of fries on the table to one side to get closer. "Who? Who is she?" 

"No one. She's no one." She really was no one. She wasn't even a she. She wasn't even a he. It was a thing. A synthetic robotic android. Not even human. 

Yan looks deflated at Leo, almost sulking at the lack of Leo being forthcoming with the information. "Well if I don't get the details from you, Harley will." 

Leo looks around the canteen again frowning. "Where is Harley?" 

"I'll give you a clue, it starts with a H and ends with an E." Yan says with an eye roll. 

"They must be getting serious." Leo adds. How are things with Chloè?"

It's now Yan's turn to sigh. "Not so good....she..." Yan gets closer again to Leo. "She's putting the pressure on for...you know...sex." 

Leo nearly chokes on his fry. "S...sex." He was always a little envious of how Yan could just come out with his worries like that, how he wasn't embarrassed or ashamed to admit his fears, his insecurities. Leo wished he could be as forthcoming. Maybe then, he wouldn't be in the situation he was currently in. 

Yan sighs at his friend's surprised response. "Leo, just because I'm a guy doesn't mean I'm in a hurry to give it up. I mean...I like her, but sex? That's a big deal."

Leo after getting over the initial shock of hearing the word 'sex', manages to swallow his fry and form a response. "What is it you're afraid of?"

Yan looks a little into the distance in thought. "I don't know, I guess I just wonder whether she wants sex because she wants sex, or whether she wants sex because it's with me. Until I can figure that out, I'm doing nothing." 

Leo smiles at Yan. How he could just talk his problems through so easily with his friend. Maybe Leo should at least try to do the same...

"Yan...I need to tell you something...about the person I like..." 

Yan looks up, but instead of looking at Leo, he looks over his shoulder. "Oh hang up, Harley's coming over."

Leo looks over his shoulder to see Harley approaching with a very cheerful face. He puts his coke down on the table as he slides himself into one of the plastic seats. "I see you've been busy." Yan says, gesturing towards a slight reddish purple mark on Harley neck, to the left. 

Harley brushes his fingers over the mark before slightly lifting up the collar of his shirt, literally ignoring the remark. "Leo, Hope said Anna will be here soon and she's expecting to be asked to the prom." 

"Great!" Leo says sarcastically. "So I guess I'm gonna have to do it or face being humiliated." 

Harley places a grip on Leo's shoulders. "I tried to get Hope to steer her elsewhere, but she's hell bent on going with you."

"Harley, Leo just said he likes someone else." Yan says on the quiet. 

"Who?" Harley now, along with Yan, looks at Leo with interest. 

Leo's heart suddenly drops. His mouth is going dry. He opens it to speak, but nothing comes out. Then he sees her. The girl who had his fate in her hands. 

Anna, Hope and Chloè all enter the canteen and make their way to a vacant table. Already Anna has sought Leo out. Her glare pierced through him like a laser. She is waiting...expecting and Leo is weak. He is a bee in wasp's clothing.