Everyone had told Gabby Chen that she wasn't special. Her father said it by never coming home, and her friends in high school had really doubled down on it. Unfortunately for all of them, Gabby didn't care.

She was lucky to be at a good college and her roommate, Aiko, was cool and Gabby was absolutely acing her classes and was trying to exhibit more school spirit. When she had time. Gabby didn't have a lot of free time. She was busy, school work was exhausting and having a social life was probably going to be the end of her.

Holding her cup of coffee, Gabby sat in the lecture hall waiting for her professor to finally leave the lecture hall so she could ask the TA for notes. Aiko sat next to her, their laptop out on the desk and their long bleach blonde hair braided up. Gabby had watched them do it this morning and was astonished at their efficiency.

"It's way too early for this," Gabby grumbled under her breath. Her coffee was still way too hot but she took a sip anyway, hissing when it burnt her tongue. "This class is bullshit anyway. Prerequisites are so unnecessary."

Aiko shrugged, "Maybe you should have gone to bed earlier instead of staying late in the design building."

"I had things to finish," Gabby whined, her tongue buzzing from the heat. She noticed that Aiko didn't really have anything to say about the prerequisite comment, probably because it was true. Prereqs were stupid and everyone who'd ever taken one knew why. They were unnecessary and took away from the time she could be spending in the design studio.

She stood up from her seat, her long and flowing skirt quickly getting caught on her chair and she had to quickly yank it out as the professor exited the lecture hall. Walking down the steps, Gabby didn't think much about asking the TA for notes, she did it at the end of every class and, though the TA was always very awkward, he never really made fun of her or laughed at her for not taking them herself.

She had taken notes, she just couldn't fucking understand them. Math made no sense to her, at least not from her own notes, the TA took pretty sensible ones.

"Hey," Gabby said, her grin wide as the TA, a tall white man, probably a senior with the way he walked and talked, gestured towards her with the notes in his hand.

"Gabby," He said, his eyes a bit wide. "Hey! I really like your outfit, by the way."

"Oh, thanks!" Gabby smiled. She never disliked being complimented. She wasn't, like, narcissistic but it was nice to be told that someone noticed how much she tried on her outfit. "Your jeans are really cute," She said in return.

"I'm Fox, by the way," He said, his blonde hair styled in a sort of short and curly mullet. It looked nice on him.

"Gabby," She said before quickly doubling back. "But you obviously knew that. Duh."

Fox was sort of bouncing on the balls of his feet, the notes in his hands as he held them behind his back. He seemed really nervous about something, which Gabby understood. She could get nervous and a lot of people got nervous around her. She could deal with nervous people. It was a fundamental part of her life. Though she much preferred confidence.

He cleared his throat quickly and then smiled, a bit shaky. "Would it be weird for me to ask you out right now?"

Oh. Gabby... Gabby considers herself a matchmaker. She knows what kinds of people could be a cute couple and which ones would self-destruct quickly. She could see that Fox and her were not a good match. He was too nervous for someone as confident as Gabby. They'd break up way too quickly. It would be like a match, flames fast but burns out so fast that it's not really worth it.

"I'm sorry, Fox." Gabby twisted her face into a sort of sympathetic and kind expression. She had let so many people down by now that it was almost second nature. "I'm not really looking to date right now and–"

"Wait really?" Fox's nervous smile fell a bit. Something weird came over his face, a shadow of some sort, and suddenly Gabby thought that maybe she misjudged him a little bit. "You're not looking to date right now? That's such a bad line. Come on, just one date."

"I don't really think–"

He cocked his head to the side, interrupting her yet again. "Come on, Gabby. One date. It won't even be anything weird. Just dinner. We could go for Italian?"

Yeah no. Gabby knew she couldn't get through to him. He seemed to be really in the mindset of dating her, and the more he spoke, the more she knew that just saying yes was a bad idea. He didn't seem to be the kind of person to take no for an answer, so if she tried to break up with him later she couldn't see that going well. He seemed opinionated and controlling, something that Gabby could see going sideways fast.

Gabby was at a standstill here. She needed those notes, there was a quiz next class, and she needed to study. Fox was holding the notes behind his back and, as he spoke, started gesturing with them. She needed them and she was starting to feel like he wasn't going to give.

There was only one thing a guy like this responded to and it was masculinity. Looking around the lecture hall, she saw Aiko just leaving the door. Shit. That wouldn't have worked anyway but at least it would have been a backup.

She wasn't afraid. She didn't do that, at least not on the surface. Internally, though, oh boy. Gabby could have been quaking. She could do confrontation just fine, it was when it got violent or pushy or there weren't really any ways to get out of it. That was when Gabby felt trapped. She felt trapped with Fox in this lecture hall.

Suddenly, her eyes caught on the only person left in the room that wasn't a part of the situation. Slouched over in one of the chairs was a brown haired Hispanic boy. His curly head was in his arms as they propped on the desk. He could work. The level of masculinity there would work to separate Fox from her.

"Sorry," Gabby said, interrupting Fox's rambling about dinner or whatever. "I already have a boyfriend." She said this as she looked over towards the slouched over guy, who seemed like he was just starting to wake up.

Fox frowned and handed her two copies of notes. He looked dejected and his tone of voice was really sad sounding. "Then I guess you can bring him his notes."

An internal sigh of relief was warranted but Gabby realised she was stuck in something else too. Now she was stuck going to talk to this guy and making it seem like they were dating.

Cool, okay. This was fine.

She grabbed both pairs of notes and turned her back to Fox, walking over to the curly haired guy. Hopefully this guy would go along with it and she wouldn't look like a fucking idiot in front of her Math TA.