10.16

Catherine took an unattractively large bite of pasta and had to suction in the straggling strands. Rosalyn laughed at what was essentially a killing blow to hotness.
"Shut up, Roz!" Catherine said around the mouthful. It only further cemented how non-hot she was at the moment. Two tables away, Marco discovered the corn in his teeth and tried to pull it out of his teeth with his tongue and lips, which only caused his face to contort like a weird snarl. Catherine swallowed.
"If he's allowed to eat corn, I'm allowed to eat spaghetti. It's only fair."
"Decidedly not!" Rosalyn argued. "Your role is to be as hot as you can forever. He can eat corn and grow a mustache and run through the mud, but you have to be immaculate." Catherine, mouth now full of spaghetti, tried to protest.most of the sound came out as a muffled mmpfh. Rosalyn disagreed. "I know it's unfair to you, Cath, but hot women are cursed to forever be hot. That is, until you finally tie a man down and he has to realize you poop too. Really, you should poop in front of him on your honeymoon, just to make sure he gets the point. Basically, all marriages are ruined by the timing of the partners' poops." Catherine was incredulous.

Marco stood up in the middle of the cafeteria and announced loudly "I would like everybody to listen up! What I'm about to say is very important!" Eventually, the cafe quieted to murmurs. Marco stood up on his chair and yelled "Enrique has something very important to ask, but he's too shy. Can everybody give him some support?" His voice was full and strong and everybody heard it and Catherine wanted to know if he was this embarrassing all the time, or just this once. If he yelled a lot, he might drop on her scale from a perfect ten to perhaps a nine point fivefourthreesevenseven, or thereabouts. She wasn't trying to be exact.
The rest of the students started chanting "Enrique Enrique" and banging trays and clapping at a slow rhythm that slowly sped up. When they had reached a fast waltz, Enrique stood up and the chant dissolved into a roar.
"Hey, everyone. I just want everyone here to know I'm in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, and I want to ask her out." He turned to Erica. Rosalyn gasped and grabbed Catherine's arm and shook her violently. Enrique, quieter now, asked "Erica, will you be my girlfriend?"

Rosalyn was ecstatic at this point and practically squealed. "I knew Marco didn't like her. What did I say? What did I say?" The last trailed off into a high squeal.
Catherine just rolled her eyes and looked at Marco looking at Enrique looking at Erica looking at her hands. Nobody could hear what she said, but Marco jumped up on the chair again and yelled. The whole cafe roared out again, but Catherine could still make out his yell among the bedlam. She just stared at the way he threw back his head and let the sound ripple up from his shoes into his chest, where it built and exploded out, and she thought maybe he was just right. If he could do such an awesome thing for a friend, what would he do for a woman? She immediately tried to picture how he would ask her out. The perfectness of it wouldn't fit in her head, so she gave up and watched him jog around the cafe with his arms in the air.
Rosalyn turned and whispered deep into Catherine's ear. "Well, he's got endurance, at least."
The two giggled at the joke only they could hear, and Catherine shoveled an unattractively large bite into her mouth.