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“And look at that ass,” Irvine says appreciatively.
Zell very deliberately does not look at the ass of the girl in question. “Aren’t you going out with Selphie?”
“Not exactly. Why?”
“Forget I asked,” Zell mutters. He drops his head into his hands and groans. How did he let himself get talked into this again? Sitting in the lobby and ‘people-watching’? Right, Irvine thought he needed some kind of support after supposedly breaking up with that girl from the library. Sure, she and Zell had this big argument, but they weren’t ever dating in the first place, so Zell wonders how Irvine got that impression.
“Come on, Zell, you’ll never get over it if you don’t start looking!” says Irvine, slapping Zell on the back.
“You know, when you said we’d be people-watching, I didn’t think you meant talking about sexy girls,” says Zell.
“You don’t like looking at sexy girls?” Irvine actually sounds almost offended.
Zell isn’t sure whether the urge to laugh or cry is stronger. He compensates for the emotional confusion by starting to jiggle his foot. “No,” he says. He’s been sitting with Irvine on this bench for almost five minutes now and he’s probably going to start pacing any minute, but he resists the urge because he can see Squall walking towards them and really, he’s been trying to stay calm around Squall.
“You’re missing out, I tell you,” says Irvine. He whistles under his breath when another girl walks by. “Not much of an ass on that one, but the tits—”
Both of Zell’s feet are jiggling now. “Irvine, what the shit? Is this really all you think about?”
“No!” Irvine pauses for a moment. “Well, I mean, sometimes. Come on, can’t you at least try to look? You gotta get over that girl sometime.”
“I was never into her in the first place!”
Irvine’s expression is not so much startled as utterly flabbergasted. “You—you weren’t dating? But—why? She was hot!”
“I don’t care about that. Besides, I’m gay,” Zell admits. It’s not exactly a big secret, but he’s never actually said it straight out before, just flirted a little with a few guys. The words feel strange coming out of his mouth.
Irvine’s jaw might actually fall off his face at this rate. “You what?”
“I’m gay,” says Zell, his voice stronger. Then his eyes flick to the side, as they’ve been doing for the last few minutes to track Squall’s progress across the lobby, and he notices Squall has stopped walking.
He’s awfully near. And Zell just said that pretty loud.
Zell abruptly turns a blistering shade of red and bolts for the dormitories.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit…