10.11

[I'm addicted to writing scenes. I can't help it; they're so much easier. Sadly, these scenes don't expand to be stories often enough for me to justifiably try to claim that I am a short story writer. I'm a struggling short story writer, trying to get quick fixes of scenes--like I'm taking meth to cope with my cocaine addiction.]

Marco wasn't aware of his effect on her. Catherine wasn't quite sure he needed to, especially, because it was kind of embarrassing, really. She knew girls weren't supposed to think this way. She knew that nice girls were nice, and didn't think about nice boys and the shape of their nice jeans over their nice butts, or the way their nice shirts slid across nice shoulders when they turned to be just overwhelmingly nice. Catherine knew this, but that didn't stop her from staring at Marco when he walked (though walk is tame, perhaps swaggered) through the cafeteria (though not swagger, really, it's just he walked purposefully, and some would describe it as a swagger. There wasn't any arrogance in it anyway). He had nice arms and she had more than once thought it would be nice if he were to wrap her in them. But she wouldn't ever tell him. And he wouldn't ever know. She had only told Rosalyn about it, and only on pain of death and because of permanent friendship. Rosalyn thought they would be great together, but only because their babies would be "so unspeakably cute." But both had sworn secrecy on the subject, and Marco continued to wear shirts that were just ever so slightly too tight and Catherine continued to look and think she was just ever so slightly horrible for wanting to know what his skin would feel like.

But it wasn't really truly fair, she thought, that she couldn't tell him about it. This is a liberated society, after all. And she was a powerful (empowered [power-hungry]) woman. And she was attractive (in more ways than one [both sexually and intellectually]), or at least that's what Rosalyn said, and Rosalyn had excellent taste in friends (at least, that's what Rosalyn said). Catherine thought Rosalyn was sweet, but perhaps a bit too free with her praise. Still, Marco didn't know quite the effect that he had on Catherine. She bit her lip pensively, but would never describe it that way aloud to Rosalyn for fear of dorkslaps. Marco sat down at a table a row away and started talking to his friends. She decided to not stare.

The next time she looked up, Marco was eating corn on the cob. It was, in her opinion, the least sexy food in the universe. He laughed at something Enrique said, and she could clearly see corn stuck in his teeth. This brief moment of humanity did not serve to humanize him at all. Instead, she wondered if he would brush his teeth when he kissed her.

Of course, Marco wasn't aware of his effect on her. She planned to keep it that way.