Becky wore a scarf one day and five minutes was all it took for Chad to start mourning the sight of her neck. There was no training that day, so after school he headed to the library, knowing she would go there. He was right, and to his delight she took off her scarf. As she browsed the selection, he pretended to do the same thing.
A sizeable chunk of his soul yelled, ‘Creep!’ at the rest of it, but he ignored that voice and slowly encroached upon her until he stood next to her.
‘So…’ he began in a voice deep enough to show vocal fry, which was his attempt to sound casual. ‘What have you been up to?’
Becky gave him a wary stare but answered. ‘Not much. Just reading and gaming.’
‘Oh yeah? What games do you play?’
‘Well, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 13 again. Lightning’s cute.’ As soon as she said the last sentence, she covered her mouth and coughed into it. ‘So, uh, what book are you looking for?’
‘Oh, well…’ Chad laughed nervously. ‘I kind of just wanted to see you.’ Becky rose an eyebrow. ‘Not in a creepy way! Um, I just…’
‘I’m pretty sure you saying it’s not creepy makes it worse. I’ve got to be honest- I thought you would be better at this than that. I thought you’d have had more practice.’
Chad laughed again. ‘I, uh, um.... guess it means you’re one of the lucky few who I’ve had an interest in.’
‘Whom you’ve had an interest in.’ She lifted her shoulders and covered her mouth again. She took a few deep breaths and let go of her mouth. ‘I’m sorry, but I like someone else.’
Those words pushed Chad’s heart down to the depths of his body. He froze as he felt cold shivers run down his arms and legs. It took him a while to be able to open his mouth.
‘Cool. I’ll… see you later, then.’ He forced a smile onto his face as we waved goodbye and headed out of the library. He took out his phone and went onto his contact list. He reminded himself to get a photo of Noah to add to his contact information. He then reminded himself that it would probably be hard to convince Noah to take a photo of himself. Something along the lines of selfies being ‘a way for attractive normies to show their narcissism and ugly chicks to make themselves forget how ugly they are.’ Noah had then muttered something about ugly girls still getting boyfriends while ugly guys get nothing. Chad had considered asking him for evidence of that, but he decided not to press the issue and instead let Noah’s anger subside.
Yes, Noah and Chad had had a couple of chats, though they hadn’t made any conclusive plans. The conversation about selfies had come about when they saw a student taking a photo with her food.
Outside the library, Chad leaned against the wall and sent Noah a message.
Let’s head to my place soon to figure out what we’re going to do. Are you free Saturday?
He typed his address and a possible time for Noah to come over. Noah took a while to reply.
Whatever. It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do. Won’t you be busy?
Chad raised an eyebrow before typing.
Why?
Noah’s response caused Chad to be torn between laughing and sinking into self-loathing.
Won’t you be sleeping with some chick?
Chad grit his teeth but didn’t bother replying, somehow knowing that this would result in the conversation spiralling into utter madness.
Saturday arrived and so did Noah, knocking on the door to Chad’s house. This time he wore a shirt featuring a muscular CGI man with a scar across the bridge of his nose wielding two swords. Chad considered asking who it was but he thought he sort of recognised it from a game he hadn’t played.
He led him to his room and asked if he wanted a snack, to which Noah responded, ‘Nes. I mean no! I ended up combining… never mind.’ The two stood in silence until Noah dropped his backpack to the floor and sat down on Chad’s bed. ‘So, uh, why’d you decide to call a meeting?’
Chad sat on the bed next to him before swivelling his body and lying down behind Noah. ‘Well, there’s a slight change of plans. Becky rejected me. Said she liked someone else.’
Noah stood up, looking at the carpet. ‘Okay. See ya whenever.’
Chad grabbed Noah’s arm. ‘Wait, we’ll just have to find a way to get her to notice me instead of the other guy. What kind of guy does she like? Is she more of a personality or looks kind of girl?’
Noah released a single tiny laugh that could easily be mistaken for a cough. ‘Personality? Girls don’t go for that.’
‘You think so?’
Noah nodded. ‘If she’s not interested in your looks, she’s never gonna be interested in you. But… wait… how… how exactly did a Chad like you not attract her? Maybe she’s playing hard to get.’
‘The ‘Chad’ thing again? I still don’t get how I look like a Chad.’
As he sat on the bed again and began explaining, Noah ensured that his head was turned as far away from Chad as possible.
‘A Chad, you know, those guys who are really mus… athletic and… have a strong jawline and… hunter eyes.’
Chad looked at him with the eyes of a puppy being given an unfamiliar toy. ‘What are hunter eyes?’
‘You know… hunter eyes… like, you’re able to swoop in and get any girl you want. Alpha male eyes. You understand what I’m saying?’
Chad touched below his eyes. When Noah dared to look at him his body tensed up and he instinctively took a phone and pair of headphones out of his bag.
‘Wow, rude, man,’ Chad said with a laugh.
Noah snapped out of a trance. ‘S-sorry. I… I don’t know how else I can calm… I’m not a crazy person or anything.’
Chad chuckled. ‘It’s okay, I guess. You do whatever it is you’re doing while I come up with a plan.’
He closed his eyes and stroked his chin in the hopes of getting an idea into his head. Find a way to make the guy she liked look bad? No, it could make him look bad in the process, possibly worse than the other guy. Maybe he could, instead of dragging the other guy down, he could prop himself up and woo her with a big display of love like a serenade or something like that. No, wait, was this the 80s? What if he impersonated the guy and confessed to her again?
With this last idea he started laughing so hard he sat up so he could hold his sides better. Noah seemed unperturbed.
Chad leaned over Noah’s shoulder and saw what appeared to be one of those ‘animes’ he heard about online. He found himself chuckling as a girl with a horse for a head, or at least a horse mask, hit a creepily smiling girl with a chair and sent her flying out the window.
As he pointed at the screen he asked, ‘What anime is this?’ Since Noah didn’t respond, he grabbed his shoulder, sending a wave of shock throughout Noah’s body. Noah immediately flinched and turned his head. He paused for a moment before taking off his headphones. ‘I thought anime was about, I don’t know, ninjas or something. What’s with the horse lady?’
Noah couldn’t push down his smirk. ‘Well, if you must know, this ‘horse lady’ you speak of is wearing the mask to, well, mask her tsundere tendencies. I’ve seen this show before so I know that when she starts to warm up to the other characters and show her dere-dere side, she takes the mask off. It’s a really moving use of character design to convey personality to an audience and it just goes to show how clever character designers use the visual medium of anime to say so much about-’
‘Ha, that girl grabbed another girl’s boob.’ Noah glared at him. ‘Wait, how many chicks are there in this thing?’
‘Well, it’s set in an all-girls school, so…’
Chad gave him a finger gun gesture and clicked his fingers. ‘Lesbians. Nice.’ He almost laughed when Noah’s glare strengthened.
‘Their relationship would be innocent and beautiful. Nothing ‘nice’ about it. Us mere men would be lucky to get to witness such a pure fate come true.’
‘Is it pure to grab another girl’s boob?’
Noah shifted his weight from side to side and looked back at his phone without a word. The two watched the show in silence, part of Chad wishing he could actually hear things since the subtitles were really small on the screen and he couldn’t experience the voice acting, music or sound effects. Then again, he had an inkling that Noah’s protective grip on his headphones would be like a baby’s.
He considered asking him to take the headphones out and let the audio fill the room until a scene cropped up in which one of the characters moaned while being undressed by a faceless being. Granted, in context it was all in that character’s imagination, but Chad’s parents were home.
After the episode ended with the longest ending credits Chad had ever seen, he grinned. ‘Are there any other animes like that?’
‘Anime. It’s the same whether it’s plural or singular.’
‘Oh. Okay…’
When Chad’s voice drifted off, Noah’s eyes widened and he crossed his arms with his phone still in one hand.
‘Sorry for talking so much about this kind of thing.’
How did Chad respond? By ruffling Noah’s already messy hair, of course! Yes, he managed to shock himself with his own actions.
‘Don’t worry too much about it, man. Keep going if you want. I’m probably not going to come up with any ideas, so I may as well make some use out of today.’
‘I can leave if you want-’
‘I said it’s fine. Come on, tell me about these lesbians.’ Chad laughed with his mouth closed. ‘Honestly, the words that come out of my mouth sometimes.’
Noah uncrossed his arms. ‘Well, uh, they’re not technically a lesbian couple or anything. They’re just friends. I just ship them.’
Chad stroked his chin like before. ‘Do girls grab their friends’ boobs? Or is that just a Japanese thing? Fascinating.’
Noah’s eyes narrowed. ‘Shut up.’
‘So what do you mean by ‘ship’?’
Noah talked about anime for a solid two hours, with Chad only interrupting to ask questions. After that, Chad’s mother knocked on the door and suggested that he start doing homework.
Noah left the house with a little smile, though by the time he had reached his computer, that smile on his face was replaced with a furnace within his blood vessels.
He posted to Incels.me.
Anicel1919- [Venting] Was invited to a Chad’s house. I want to die.
He was so smug, acting like he’s actually interested in learning about anime. As if. He’ll forget about me once he gets back to banging femoids. I don’t think I can take being around a solid 9/10. Honestly, if it weren’t for that pimple on his nose, he’d be a 10. And I bet he’s going to end up saying, ‘Don’t worry, bruh, just lift like me and you’ll get all the pussy you want,’ or, ‘just change your personality and everything will be fine!’ It’s too soon to tell, but he strikes me as totally bluepilled. What do I do if he keeps asking me to hang out with him?
ns 15.158.61.15da2
