Derek talks with Mitch in a friendly way. Maybe too friendly...

All Jessica wanted to do was call all the other popular kids over so she could tear down Mitch. Imitate his stutter, insult his fashions sense, call him awful names, whatever got a laugh out of them. It took a hell of an effort, but Derek refrained from doing that and instead replied, "Yep, that's my name! So, like, Mitch, what are you doing at this party?" He flinched away from the words, and Derek realized too late how that sounded. "Not in a mean way! I just, y'know, didn't expect to see you here. You're normally really, like, quiet and junk." The tension left Mitch's shoulders as Derek clarified what she was saying, but his arms were still crossed, his posture guarded.

"I d-don't know..." he muttered, not looking at her. "I thought I'd try s-s-socializing, but it's really h-hard..." His voice trailed off, like he couldn't say more.

On the one hand, Derek completely understood what Mitch was saying. While he didn't have a crippling fear of other people, mustering up the courage to talk to new people was always an effort, and to him everyone was new. But on the other hand, Jessica was, like, super confused. Wasn't socialmalizing just, like, talking to people? "Really?" she asked him, somewhat astonished. "But, like, talking to people is super duper easy!"

Mitch let out a bitter laugh. "Y-yeah, of course it is for y-y-y-you. You're g-gorgeous, people actually w-w-want to spend time with you." He was blushing now, and yet his eyes had tears in them, though he hadn't shed them yet. Mitch's heart went out to the poor guy, and surprisingly the Jessica part of him was in agreement.

Jessica took a few steps closer to Mitch, so they were almost touching and stared at him in the eyes, so he couldn't look away. "Listen to me, you dork. I might be a super hottie, but you're a person too! You can't, like, hide away from other people just 'cause you're scared they won't like you!" Despite the words being sincere, it didn't look like Mitch was convinced.