Do you like me? Sirma was speechless, this was the strangest line anyone had ever used on her, in fact, perhaps little old Petsi, for some unknown reason, had enormous self-confidence, and instead of talking about his own feelings, which would have again been a pathetic move, he preferred first to inquire about hers. Uh, well, Petsi, she said, actually, no, I don’t like you that way. I knew you liked me… Yeah, that’s what I figured, Petsi said coldly. You know how it is, she was getting more and more flustered. I mean, either it happens or it doesn’t, I’m sorry, but I don’t like you that way, but we can still be friends, right? They agreed to stay friends, even though they weren’t actually friends in the first place to be able to remain so, nor would they become friends later, Sirma hung up, she happened to be right in front of the big mirror in the entryway and saw that she had an exceptionally stupid grin on her face. Because Petsi has infected me with his stupidity, she suddenly steamed and considered putting him in his place by telling the whole story to the class gossips, but she quickly thought better of it; in the end the poor kid surely had no experience with women whatsoever and was just doing what he could. But on the very next day she realized with astonishment that other guys she knew took March 8 as a particularly fitting occasion for declaring their love. Snickering, Spartacus told them how a kid in another class, nicknamed Smirk, liked some chick from the new eighth grade, Spartacus knew the whole story in detail, because the chick was a friend of his cousin, and one time he made the mistake of mentioning this in front of Smirk and the latter started grilling him for all kinds of information, and not just him, Spartacus said, he built up a whole spy network to gather useful information about the girl. Yesterday Spartacus had been drinking beer with their class and Smirk, with an enviable sense of humor, had told of his spectacular flop. He had stalked her in the schoolyard and gone over to give her a rose, because, Spartacus sniggered, his grandpa had won over his grandma that way back in the day. Sirma and Maya burst out laughing, no way, he didn’t really say that? Yeah, he did, Spartacus replied, the man told it just like that and laughed a lot himself, too, what can you do — he’s Smirk, right?! So anyway, he goes over with a rose like his gramps, although surely his grandpa had cornered his grandma alone, but our man Smirk took the twins along for moral support… The twins were metalheads from the class in question, absolutely identical, on the short side, with long hair and leather jackets, the only way to tell them apart was by their T-shirts: one wore an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and the other a Manowar shirt so they called him the Manowarrior, while the other was simply the twin. For some reason, the short twins always roamed the hallways with a taller classmate between them and Sirma had long since noted that this configuration looked like a cock. So he goes over with the twins, right, Spartacus continued, ’cause she’s leaning on the railing with a friend of hers, he hands her the rose and asks her what her name is. Sirma let out a squeal. He had interrogated me, right, Spartacus said, and I had told him that the girl lives in West Park, so now he asks her where she lives and she mumbles West Park and now — Spartacus lifted a finger triumphantly — this is where the twins come in, because Smirk turns to them and roars in frenzied ecstasy: Whooooooa, man, they live in West Park, too!!! And that was supposed to serve as a topic to melt the ice definitively, however, the girl muttered in alarm thanks a lot for the rose but I already have a boyfriend, now she doesn’t have a boyfriend, of course, Spartacus said, and Smirk knows that, he’s done his homework, but he gets the message, he’s a reasonable guy, after all. But he did say that he’s not gonna work with his grandpa’s know-how from now on. And at the party Sirma threw to inaugurate the studio, Petsi showed up with a girlfriend and Sirma was suddenly really happy for him, she talked to the girl for a long time, she was a good catch, Petsi had obviously learned the ropes, sometimes things don’t work for you with one group of people, you feel smothered, and when you escape them, you suddenly blossom, she thought to herself.