Chapter Thirty-Eight: Tangled Web:

Wallace doesn’t know it, but he’s developed quite a fanbase. Why? Other people don’t seem to get it either. It just… Weird? Strange? Odd? Call it what you will. These girls all want Wallace. He doesn’t know this, however. His mind is elsewhere at the moment.

First, there is Julia. What does she see in him? She’s way out of his league. Julia was pretty the princess of the freshman class. All of the boys want her. She flirted with them too. But what does she really want? Is she looking for a good time or someone to play her prince? She seems to see it in Wallace. He’s always wanted her. But now, he doesn’t seem too sure about what he wants.

She isn’t the only one.

Blare wants Wallace too. What started out as an experiment has turned into a mild obsession. (Heh, mild.) Right now, her friends and crew are going along with it. What’s the harm, really? This too will pass. She already met with him again. In fact, it was just a few minutes ago. She had to play it cool in order for this to work. Blare happened to check him when he was heading to the bus station to his apartment. (Yeah, happened to.) Still, no one questioned it. This was just the meet-cute, right? To be fair, Blare was looking for someone else. It might have been a professor. Even she doesn’t remember. That’s not important. Her meeting up with Wallace again it.

It goes something like this. Blare had just come out of the library, looking for the professor at the bus stop. She had a question about an upcoming show on the radio. Blare held the forms to her chest. The sophomore frowned to herself.

“Come on,” she said. “Where are you?” Blare looked around at the crowd. She stood on her tiptoes at one point. Did she already miss him? The DJ frowned to herself. Was she going to have wait until morning?

That’s when he walked by her. More like, bump into him. Actually, he bumped into her. Blare about crashed to the ground. She gritted her teeth.

“Hey!” she snapped. Blare whipped her head around. She looked up to see the country boy staring at her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said. “Are you alright?” The DJ gave him a blank stare. Her mind went blank for a second.

“It’s you,” she said.

“Huh?” Wallace asked. Blare jumped to her feet.

“You and I have met,” she said. The country boy blinked.

“Huh?” he asked.

“Blare!” someone shouted in the distance. She turned her head and perked up.

“Hey, girl!” she shouted. The DJ turned and ran to the direction of the voice. And that was it. But that was enough to have her hooked.

Let’s not forget Morgan. She too wants Wallace. In fact, she made contact with him the other day. She isn’t going to bow out of this race. Julia might not like her. But we will have to see on that. For now, Morgan’s eyes are on the country boy. She wants to be the one to take him to the Halloween Dance. Morgan knew how to get what she wanted. Wallace would be no different. She just has to get through the other girls first. It didn’t matter. Morgan was up for a challenge.

There is someone else too. Oh yeah, there is Leslie too. She’s rather shy, but she wants that country boy. The opportunity had presented itself to her. She has to be the one to step up and take a chance. Usually, Leslie was the one to sit back and watch romance and intimacy pass her by. And she was fine with that. But something is different. There’s something… relatable with Wallace. He was an outsider like her. Why was he trying so hard to be a part of Julia’s world? He was never going to fit in with her world. Why doesn’t he understand that? This made Leslie frown. She was going to have to make him see that. But first, she was going to have to make the first move.

Let’s see. Who else do we have? Well, there is Professor Liz. Yes, she counts too. She has to. She’s not going to have it any other way. It doesn’t take much for Liz to crush on a man. That includes students. She doesn’t try to go all the way with them. Sure, the professor flirted with them, but it never went any further. She had her job to think about. It was the best thing in the world, but a job was a job. Still, Wallace was just there. Looking at his face tempted her to be bad. The country boy is rather put off by this, of course. It’s rather easy to see why. Despite the obvious, Professor Liz doesn’t take the hint. Or rather she doesn’t care. Some college girls weren’t going to get in her way either.

So many girls. Why do they all like him? Why do they all want Wallace Martin so much? He can’t figure it out. No one else can either. It looks like they don’t really care either. Still, the games are starting to get hot. Who’s going to be the first one to get burned?