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Chapter 16 - "I prefer a swift punch."

Donovan fought against his smile as he noticed Link's goofy one. Link didn't notice his own smile, his focus on his phone. If Donovan pointed it out, he figured Link wouldn't even be aware of it.

A goofy smile and all due to a girl. How many times had Donovan seen Link disappointed, frustrated, and hurt because of a girl? And now he'd found one that liked him.

Donovan turned back to his locker and exchanged his notebooks, still struggling not to smile.

When a girl appeared on the side opposite Link, Donovan won the struggle against his smile and went blank. Heather looked at him without her usual eagerness to have his attention but with a wrinkled brow and hurt eyes that caught Donovan off guard.

"Why her?" Heather asked.

Donovan said nothing. Not because this was his normal response to girls approaching him but because he found he had no idea what she was referring to.

"Why Owens?" Heather said. "What is it about her that made you say yes? I mean it's freaking Owens after all. She's not... She's not normal. So why?"

Clarity struck him and he understood her expression. Her question wasn't about why he'd agreed to a double date with Carter, but instead, it was a question of what did she lack? Why hadn't she been good enough for him to be interested in?

Despite all his history and logic that told him not to have this conversation, Donovan felt he couldn't leave this girl trapped with thoughts of low self-worth.

"Heather," Donovan said, keeping his tone neutral but not too warm, not wanting to cause confusion. "What makes you want to be in a relationship with me and not Mitch?"

Heather shifted, crossed her arms, looked away, back at him then shrugged. Donovan understood she didn't want to admit her attraction to him was largely based on the shallow ideal of his looks.

"It's preference," Donovan said. "Liking me doesn't devalue who Mitch is as a person. It's the same for you and Carter. My choice to go on a date with her doesn't reflect on you. It simply means I have a preference. Do not take this personally when it's not."

"It doesn't make sense," she said.

"Not to you. But you are putting too much weight on my choice when it is not connected to you."

Heather stared at him and Donovan didn't know if she was trying to figure out another question to throw at him in hopes of making the situation make more sense or struggling to accept what he said.

Either way, Donovan knew that he'd said enough. He closed his locker and tugged on Link's jacket as he walked by. Still focused on his phone, Link detached himself from the locker and followed along with Donovan.

The second bell rang and the hallways quickly emptied as they headed to the library. As they rounded a corner, Donovan spotted Carter further down the corridor.

From the distance, Donovan couldn't help seeing her as another student. Another girl among the hundreds of others. Yes, Donovan would admit that she stood out with her forceful yet deceptively caring personality. But how many other girls had he interacted with were the same? Each seemed to have a hard outer layer shielding the vulnerable layer inside.

And yet... Carter felt different to him.

It wasn't the fact that she wore her clothes wrinkled and her hair messy. There were plenty of other girls who had that appearance, the stress of homework and late nights the cause.

No. He found he couldn't pinpoint why Carter should be separated from the rest of the girls around him in his mind.

This irritated him.