Chapter 4: Confusion

System rebooting…

Damian Blue was successfully rebooted.

Critical error:

High level of confusion detected, troubleshooting…

No solution was found, sorry Damian, you're on your own.

I'm gonna be 100% honest with you, I did not see that coming. Why would she tell me that? I realized I still had not said anything back. She was laughing at me.

-Sorry, but if you had seen your face, you'd be laughing to. Come on, let's go grab some Subway, my treat.

So she actually did not want me to pay for her. I tried to answer something, but I only managed to nod my head. She smiled at me and led the way, she was pretty when she smiled. I still did not trust her. As I followed her, I tried to find something smart to say, but when we arrived at the restaurant, I still had not said a word. God, I was pathetic. I managed to mumble my way through the chaotic task that was ordering a footlong at subway. I also got a bit of my dignity as a man when I insisted on at least paying for my order. When we finally got to sit down with our food, I had almost regained the full extent of my speaking capacity.

-So anyway, she said, breaking the awkward silence that was in place, what program are you in, weirdo?

-Modern art, and why do you keep calling me that?

I had chosen modern art for two reasons:

1. It looked like an easy program, I later found out it was not.

2. Nobody would suspect a modern art student to be one of the most dangerous hackers in the world.

-Modern art, she laughed, and you wonder why I call you weirdo.

I almost got offended, but it was pretty funny, I smiled.

-No, but seriously, she continued, it's because you never talk to anyone, like literally no one. I tried to find out a bit about you, before asking for your help, but you don't even have a facebook profile.

I had to admit, she was right. I was impossible to get in touch with. In fact, she probably was the person with whom I had the longest face to face conversation in the last two years. We kept talking for at least half an hour after we finished eating. I was starting to get uncomfortable, this was way too much social interactions. I did not learn much about her that my program had not already told me, but she was starting to know a lot of things about me. The only problem was that most of these things were lies, I mean, I could not tell her that I spent most of my free time hacking and stuff. All this lying about me was starting to get tiresome, besides, we had not even started studying.

-So anyway, she asked after telling me all about her friend Tiffany, are you living with your parents or…

She stopped, I guess she saw on my face that it was not a good subject of conversation. I had no parents, at least, not for a long time.

-Your exam is not gonna pass itself, I said to change the subject, we should probably start studying if you want to raise your grades.

She did not insist on knowing more about my parents, that was the first time I saw her being uncomfortable. We decided studying at the coffee shop was going to be more productive than the library (due to the easy access to caffeine). At first, I thought she was not going to study for real, but it turned out she was pretty serious about the whole thing. After a few hours, I had managed to teach her everything she had missed from cutting classes. I would not say that she had become good at mathematics, but she should be able to pass her exam if she remembered all she learned today.

-How do you know all this, she asked, I mean, you don't even have math class.

She had a point, modern art had nothing to do with numbers and all. Hacking did, but I could not tell her that. Keeping track of all my lies was really going to be a problem if I kept talking to her.

-I looked it up on Wikipedia yesterday so I could help you out. Besides, I was always good at maths.

Yesterday, I was hacking Time Square, but it was true that solving equations came naturally to me. Still, I had to make a list of everything I told her and everything she told me when I would get back home. I did not want to come close to busting myself as I did earlier in the hallway.

-Anyway, she said, it's getting late, thanks a lot for the help, I really owe you one.

-No problem, I replied, it was actually pretty fun to go out for a change, but yeah it's getting late, I should probably get home before my cats starve to death. I'll see you around I guess.

She looked at me with a funny expression, like if she was hesitating on whether she would let me go or not.

-Shouldn't you be a gentleman and offer to escort me back home, she finally asked.

She caught me by surprise, she really was the best at confusing me.

-I don't even have I car, I nervously answered.

-Then walk with me, she said, smiling, I'm only fifteen minutes away.

I gave in, it was her smile, I could not say no to her smile. It reminded me of her... just like the smell of cinnamon. I felt nervous the whole time I was walking with her, I had no idea what to say and she was not leading the conversation like at Subway. Maybe it was the fact that she told me she found me attractive that made me feel like this. It made me question myself on what I thought of her. She clearly was my type, if I even had a type. I never really dated any girl in my life. When ended up walking in silence, which was perfectly fine with me. When we got to her place, I got really anxious that she would ask me to come in or something like that, but she did nothing of the sort. She simply thanked me again, gave me her number and then hugged me. Obviously, I froze as soon as she touched me. Luckily I had a sweater and it was really quick so she did not notice. She was about to get into her house when I realized that I did not want the evening to end like that. I have no idea how I managed to muster the courage to say her name, but I did.

-Naomi, she turned around, you're pretty cute yourself, I said.

She smiled, told me to call her and got inside her house. On my way home, I kept thinking about her. Tonight had actually been fun. I was wondering if I should text her as soon as I got home, or maybe even call her when it hit me, I was starting to trust her. This was bad, I threw her number away.