"Come on, Ryder, just give me a little bit! You always get a ton of guacamole with your nachos and you never eat it anyway!" Kelsey whined.
I glared at her. "No."
"You are the worst best friend I have," she said, crossing her arms and pouting at me.
I shrugged and bit my chip. "Too bad." Suddenly her arm snaked past me and in to my plate, then she retracted it with guacamole on a chip. I glared at her. "Slut."
There weren't many things I called people a slut over. The things I won't call people a slut over are: sleeping with a lot of people, kissing lots of strangers, cheating on boyfriends. The things I will call someone a slut over? Taking my food.
She grinned at me evilly and bit her chip victoriously.
I caught her eyeing my plate again and peeked at her through the corner of my eye. "If you touch my food again I will cut your arm off." I kept watching her, and even though she rolled her eyes, she didn't go near my plate again. When lunch was over, I walked with Kelsey out of the lunch room in to the hallway, which was very, very loud. "The hell?" I muttered.
Kelsey stood on her tip-toes to look over the heads of other people--or, she tried to at least. She was five foot nothing. "I think they're talking about the new kid," she decided.
"New kid?"
"Yeah, some kid just joined the school."
"Second semester Junior year is a hell of a time to do it," I muttered. "Why couldn't they have waited until Spring Break? Doesn't it start on, like, Thursday?"
"I don't know. I hope it's a boy though," she said, swooning. "A hot one, at that."
"You have a boyfriend."
"Just because I don't have my wallet doesn't mean I can't browse."
"Shut up, Kelsey."
She grinned at me. "Well, I'm going to Chem. Good luck finding your way to class through all of this mess. See you after school, Ryder!" she called over her shoulder as she wove her tiny body through the mass of students.
I sighed, beginning to walk to Astronomy Two. Someone slammed in to me suddenly and I lurched forward, only barely able to twist myself so that I didn't hit my head on the door. "Watch it!" I snapped, spinning around angrily.
Everyone within a two foot radius stopped walking.
I glared at the girl who had slammed in to me as she fixed her hair.
"Ugh, you shouldn't have been in my way, loser."
"Repeat that?"
Lacey looked up and regret flashed across her makeup-coated mask of a face. "Um...yeah, I said you probably should've been being more careful since the hallways are so crowded, Ryder. It was stupid if you to not be paying attention."
I glared at her one more time, watching her swallow nervously, and turned around again, opening the door to my classroom and taking my seat in the back.
Now, I wasn't the "bad girl" type exactly, but I was intimidating when I needed to be. Or wanted to be, for that matter. I was sarcastic, and rude, and most of my jokes would probably get me beaten if I said them to the wrong person, but I had a four point five grade average and two friends that I knew I could rely on when I needed to. I followed the rules I wanted to follow, and ignored the ones I didn't. What? It's not like anyone really cared what I did.
The second the room was full of students, they were all buzzing with talk.
"I heard he started school here because he just got out of jail and has to finish high school."
"I heard he already got in three fights...today."
"I heard the teachers are afraid of him."
"Um, yeah, of course. All of the students are."
I drummed my fingers on my desk in irritation as rumors continued spreading about the new kid. Sure, he might look intimidating, and his eyes might be as scary as mine, but there was no way someone trying that hard to scare people off was actually a bad person.
"Oh my god are you serious? He actually has this class?"
"Yeah I'm serious, would I joke about it so lightly?"
"He's, like, a killer or something."
"But he's really hot."
I dug my nails in to the desk a little bit; not like it was giving in at all, but the pain in my finger tips helped me to control my irritation. Who was this kid, anyway? He couldn't be all that special.
Suddenly everyone in the room fell silent.
I looked up.
He was here.
The first thing I noticed was that he had a hoodie on, with the hood up, indoors. Classic douchebag look, just below wearing sunglasses inside. The second thing I noticed was that his eyes were locked on me.
I didn't look away. I lifted an eyebrow, as if to say yeah? What? and stared right back at him. Other people might be afraid, but I wasn't.
A smirk appeared on his face and his eyes turned from me to the silent classroom, then to my astronomy teacher. The teacher cleared his throat, then pointed to a seat for him to sit in; my only problem with that was that it was the desk next to mine. The boy moved to the desk next to me, but his smirk was gone now, replaced instead with the same mean look that he had had when he walked in.
I took this time to look at him more thoroughly.
He had black hair, as far as I could tell around the hoodie, and his jaw was sharp. He was fairly muscled beneath the fabric of his hoodie, but not freakishly so like so many of the other guys at my school were. His leg was bouncing slightly as he leaned back in the chair, very clearly bored by the class already.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped to mine.
I couldn't look away; one, because that would mean being submissive, and two...his eyes were...odd. They were green eyes with a mean look in them, but... "Half of your eyelashes are white," I said randomly as I looked at him. On his left eye, half of the eyelashes were snowy white, standing out heavily in contrast to his skin and dark eyes, which were now filling with irritation.
"So?"
Weird. His voice reminded me a little of thunder, because while it was low and intimidating, it was also rather...soothing, in a way.
"What does it matter to you?"
I blinked, snapping myself back in to reality. "I just thought they looked really cool, that's all."
Surprise flashed briefly in the depths of his eyes before he looked away from me finally, looking at the teacher again, though I could tell he wasn't actually paying attention. I probably offended him by commenting on his eyelashes. It was just so...unique. I loved looking for the things that made people different. Quite honestly, his eyes were beautiful. Well, for a brooding douchebag, that is.
I didn't speak to him again throughout the rest of class, and I was the first one to stand up when the bell rang to dismiss us. The second I was standing, however, he was in front of me, dangerously close.
"I don't think you should come near me. I can tell you'll only be a nightmare for me." His voice was low and his eyes were locked on mine. I could feel the heat from his body, too close to mine, and his eyes were intense. "It would just be better if you didn't try to talk to me again after today, do you understand?"
I lifted an eyebrow. "Step away from me."
He didn't acknowledge that I had spoken.
"I said step back, would you?" I put my hand on his chest to push him away, but his hand caught my wrist and gripped it tightly. "The hell do you think you're doing?" I asked as calmly as I could manage as my pulse hammered in anger.
"Don't tell me what to do."
"Hypocrite."
He smirked.
"Now, let go of me, and let me leave, or I will break your wrist," I said, talking as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't make a scene. I wrenched my wrist from his grasp and spun on my heel, turning to leave.
My plan of not making a scene hadn't worked out very well.
Every set of eyes in the room was locked on me.
"The hell are you looking at?" I muttered, sending glares until they looked away from me. Finally, when I was left alone in the room with him, I turned to him again. "I think it's you who had better stay away from me," I growled quietly, looking him in the eye. His expression gave away nothing. It was annoying me. "Next time you touch me, I won't give you a warning before I break your hand, do you understand me?"
Again, his expression gave away nothing.
So I left.
* * * * *
"Oh my god so he literally just, like, grabbed you?"
"Yes."
Kelsey had a sour expression now. "Big jerk. Who does he think he is? Harassing a cute girl like you for no reason." Her cheeks puffed out. She was such a child. "Hmph, well next time I see him, I'm giving him a piece of my mind."
I snorted. "You really don't have that many pieces left to give, Kelsey."
She rolled her eyes. "Ha ha," she said without humor.
I smiled innocently and spun my keys absently. "The hell? Where did I park?" I muttered, looking around for the familiar black car. I pressed the panic button, like I always did when trying to find it, and when I turned to look at where it was coming from, I noticed someone leaning against it. A very familiar someone.
The whole giving-him-a-piece-of-her-mind thing didn't work out for Kelsey. She hid behind me immediately when she recognized him. "U...uh, Ryder? Why is he near your car? Like he's waiting for you?"
I glared at him from across the lot. "I don't know." I walked to him, keeping my strides long so that I could reach him quickly. "What do you want? I thought you wanted me to stay away from you or something."
"So you were listening."
"Not to you. I told you to stay away from me, too."
"I'm Corey," he said, ignoring the fact that I had spoken. "I'm new."
I gave a sickly sweet smile. "I'm Ryder. I don't care. Get off of my car."
"You really shouldn't talk to me like that."
"Oh yeah? Why?"
His eyes darkened and his chin lowered a little bit. I hadn't had a full understanding of exactly how tall he was until I was standing here, roughly a foot from him. He was easily six three. "Because."
"Your reasoning is so valid. Get off my car."
He smiled. It made my blood boil.
"I said move," I said, going to push him.
But, just like in the classroom, he caught my wrist. This time, he spun me around so that I was pressed against my car with my hand immobilized. His hips had me pinned to the door of my car, and his eyes were intensely staring into mine. Corey's eyes trailed over my very angry face, then over my hair, and then my shoulders. I wanted to hurt him. Badly. "Little girls like you shouldn't try to boss big boys around."
"Bite me," I growled.
His eyes darkened a little bit as a small, strange smile played on his lips. "Very tempting."
I felt blood rush to my cheeks. I was angry.
"Let go," someone yelled suddenly.
Corey turned his head, just barely, and I did too.
Great. Kelsey had gotten her brother. Just what I needed. Note the sarcasm.
Corey stayed where he was, then eventually his grip loosened on my wrist, and he let me go, moving away from me.
I stared after him as he walked away.
"I didn't know if you two were going to fist fight or start fucking," Aiden said when he reached me, Kelsey trailing not far behind him.
"What?"
"Oh come on. That was so intense. I was waiting for one of you to say 'shut up and kiss me'."
I glared at my him. "You're a moron."
"Yep," he said easily.
I shook my head. "Moron," I repeated quietly. I looked off in the direction of Corey, who was now out of sight.
What the hell was up with him?