The Most Awkward Study Group

George had never, in his life, avoided eye contact as hard as he did on that day. And that’s something, considering he can’t remember the last time he did look someone in the eyes. In fact, he can’t guarantee that he ever has.

Bri, god bless her soul, tried her hardest to involve him in the conversation, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to participate without stuttering or trailing off, so he didn’t bother trying. This clearly bothered her, as she kept rolling her eyes as she barely pretended to do her homework. Eventually, she let out a big sigh and stood up.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” She announced, before heading off.

“Oh, me too, I’ll go with you!” Sadie followed her.

Now, Bri had no intention of going to the bathroom. Instead, she ducked behind the counter and watched George and Ani from a distance, hoping to **** a conversation. ‘Cos like, maybe she was the problem? They spoke all the time in Physics last year, so maybe George has, like, performance anxiety or something.

“You tryna get them together too?”

Bri jumped as she turned to see Sadie. It made sense that she had kept following her, but she still didn’t expect it. Wait, too?

“Oh my god, yes! You are too?” She replied excitedly, to which Sadie nodded. “We should totally team up!”

“Yeah, I mean, they clearly need all the help they can get.” Sadie commented, glancing back to the table where George and Ani continue to sit in silence.

“Yeah, seriously.” Bri commented as she opened her Instagram DMs, sending a quick message to George.

> fucking talk to her you idiot

Bri looked back up to see George look at his phone. She also noticed Ani glance at hers, so she turned to see Sadie also had Instagram open.

“What did you send her?” She asked Sadie. She held up her phone, revealing the message ‘fucking talk to him you idiot’.

Bri smiled. “We’re gonna be a great team.”

Sadie smiled back, as they both turned to watch the conversation again. Except, there still wasn’t a conversation. Instead, they saw George open his mouth to speak, then close it, then try again, and then ultimately pussy out.

“Well, that failed. What now?” Sadie asked.

Before Bri could respond, they heard the door open, and Sadie’s face dropped as she saw who it was.

“Oh shit.”

Todd Butler had entered the diner, and was beelining towards Ani.

“Why is that an ‘Oh shit’?” Bri wondered.

“Because Todd is very in love with Ani and gets jealous easy.”

“…Oh shit.”

George knew he was a pussy, ok? He knew that this was the perfect opportunity to talk to her, and it’s not like he hasn’t spoken to her before! It’s like, now he’s thought about it too hard, so nothing can live up to the expectations he set in his head.

Did that make any sense to you? Don’t worry, it didn’t really make sense to him either.

“Hey, Ani!”

That’s weird. That was a male voice, and he sure as fuck didn’t speak…

He looked up to see Todd Butler standing next to there table.

“Oh my god, Todd! Hi!” Ani responded with excitement. “I thought you had Robotics Club?”

“Yeah, I did, but it ended early, since, uh, I was the only one who showed up.” George restrained a laugh at that. Robotics Club was notorious for containing only the nerdiest nerds, and the idea that even those nerds had better things to do was pretty funny to him. “And then I remembered you said you were coming here, so I figured I’d stop by. Hey, uh…” He trailed off as he acknowledged George for the first since he showed up, snapping his fingers as if to jog his memory.

“George.”

“George, right!” That was weird. He had spoken to Todd before, and he definitely knew his name then. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

George went to answer, but didn’t get a chance to, as Todd sat down without hesitation. He sidled up very close to Ani, uncomfortably close if you asked George (though he was probably biased, since anything within like, 5 feet is ‘uncomfortably close’ to him).

Todd immediately started talking to Ani and George immediately zoned out, having no interest in whatever he had to say (in his defence, Todd had physically turned away from him. He was never good at reading body language, but that seemed like a pretty clear sign of disinterest).

“Oh, hey!” Bri said as she and Sadie returned. “Tim, is it?”

“Todd.”

“Todd. You’re sort of in my seat.”

“There’s enough room on the end here.”

Bri bit her tongue, trying to figure out a way to get him to leave, but coming up blank. She glanced to Sadie, who could only shrug. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

George’s eyes glazed over again as Todd got back to talking. He had no concept of time passing, but he would estimate like, 10 to 20 minutes passed before Bri finally gave in.

“You know what, I’m gonna call it a day.” Bri announced as she got up.

“Oh. Uh, we should totally do this again some time!” Ani suggested.

“Yeah, totally. Hey George, I can still give you a ride home if you’d like.”

There was a moment of silence as George **** himself to zone back in. “Oh yeah, sure.”

And with that they left, making their way from the diner and towards Bri’s car.

“That guy’s a dick and you need to beat him.” Bri quickly told George. “Like, that dude sucked so hard that your happiness is now my second priority.”

“…I know you didn’t directly insult me, but-”

“To be fair, your happiness is still a priority, it’s just not the priority. I mean, did you see how much he sucked? I’ve never wanted to punch someone in the face more, and I just got cheated on.”

“I don’t know, I sort of zoned out when he started talking.”

“Wha- you can just do that?”

“Yeah, I do it all the time.”

They finally reached Bri’s car. She got into the driver’s seat as George moved around to get into the passenger seat.

“Wait, did you just say you got cheated on?”

Bri turned to look at George, an incredulous look on her face. “You didn’t know?”

George shook his head.

“I assumed everyone knew by now.”

“Well, who would have told me?”

Bri went silent for a moment, evaluating that response. “You know, you’ve given me a whole new perspective on how someone can live their life.”

“Was that a compliment?”

“That’s up to you to decide.”