Christina
"I'm telling you, it's gonna be at least three-nil," Nick chimed in, his voice echoing through the classroom packed with vape smoke.
We were standing by the teacher's desk, at our usual spot near the window where the sun always beat down the hardest. The air was thick—not just from the strawberry and mango scents drifting from the vapes, but from the rumors flying in every direction.
My best friend was in the middle of recapping her night out. I listened as she explained how she ended up on a river club with a guy who was at least ten years older than her. Crazy girl. She hadn't even memorized his name before ending up at his apartment somewhere out in the Kotež Two neighborhood.
"Look, I love you, girl, but you are seriously losing your mind," I commented.
"Girl, you have no idea how hot he was... I just couldn't resist," she said, trying to hide her flushed cheeks with her palm. Poor thing.
She'd always been like that. The type of girl who goes straight after what she wants. Older guys, VIP booths, river clubs—that was her home turf. Always ready for chaos, whereas I, unlike her, liked to stay in control. I wanted peace, and I wanted to be tied down to one person. Or at least, that's what I thought.
"Kind of hard to believe when your choice in guys is twenty-five plus," I said, giving her a gentle nudge in the ribs with my elbow.
"Twenty-six," she corrected me, dead serious, as if that one year changed the whole damn thing.
I paused for a second.
"Excuse me?"
I was completely caught off guard by her statement. She didn't have a single shred of fear about going out with older guys. They could do anything to her, a young, naive kid like that. But no, she was the predator hunting them down, not the other way around.
"Twenty-six. And he owns a company," she repeated firmly, leaving my mouth half-open in shock.
"Nadia, the fact that he owns a company doesn't make it any less weird that you ended up at his place after four cocktails."
"Actually, five cocktails," she corrected me again, proud of her tolerance.
I rolled my eyes. "You're a walking billboard for bad decisions, you idiot."
To her, I was a total virgin saint, the complete opposite. Honestly, I never cared for clubs, river clubs, and all that noise until I started dating Nick. After that, I mostly went out because of him, just so I wouldn't be his boring girlfriend. Otherwise, I'd much rather stay at home with a book or a Netflix series. People often told me I was a buzzkill and didn't know how to have fun, so I just gave up and let them drag me wherever they wanted, just to get them off my back.
Sometimes I wonder if I really am that boring... or if I just don't need the chaos and one-night stands to feel alive.
"And you're a walking billboard for boredom," Nadia fired back without skipping a beat.
"Sorry, girl, but I'm just not a fan of some half-drunk guy calling me 'baby' while ordering me a cab home," I replied with a faint smile.
Nadia burst out laughing at my nonsense. We were complete opposites, yet somehow we ended up as best friends. Nadia, my crazy girl... she'd covered for me so many times when I was in trouble.
"Oh, Christina, if you could've just seen him... He had this specific energy..." She trailed off, biting her lip as she searched for the right word to describe him.
"A criminal's?" I chipped in.
"No! A CEO's."
A CEO? Okay, now I was starting to picture the scene, and it was making me feel a little sick. Gross.
"Same difference, just with a suit," I said. A CEO or a criminal, it amounts to the exact same thing.
She rested her head on my shoulder, and her heavy, jet-black hair completely tangled with mine. We looked like one person, our strands intertwining behind our backs, making a chaotic mess of black and brown.
Good thing the guys from our class weren't listening. What a nightmare, they'd think we'd completely lost our minds.
"You know what the worst part is?" she continued, and I listened patiently. I don't even know why I always live through her disasters as if they were my own.
"What?" I looked at her, curious.
"I think I actually like him," she said so softly I could barely hear her. That was the first time that morning I looked at her seriously, no joking around.
"How long have you even known him?" I asked, already knowing the answer that was coming. There was no way this was anything serious—just another one of her phases that would blow over in a couple of days.
"Umm... well... since last night," she confessed, avoiding my eyes.
Poor thing. I could already see the whole movie playing out in her head. She'll find him again. She'll cling to him like crazy. Then she'll cry, and then she'll finally realize on her own that she never even loved him, she was just having fun.
"God forbid," I muttered, and I couldn't help but laugh. Oopsie, Nadia.
Because Nadia was pure chaos. And somehow, she always managed to survive her own disasters. The ones she always jumped into headfirst without thinking. Unlike me. I planned mine carefully. And maybe that was even worse.
"Oh come on, it's not fun," she didn't get to finish, because her gaze drifted somewhere behind my back.
Nadia shut up instantly. She threw her shoulders back and switched her expression to her neutral, everyday school-mode. She was always good at that—hiding her emotions and putting on a mask in a split second. It was like she had a few of them ready in her pocket, pulling them out whenever needed.
I turned around. Nick was walking over with Michael, his best friend. He always walked like that, like the entire classroom was his private property, wearing that faint, confident smirk that never left his face.
"What are you two gossiping about so much?" he asked in a voice that was deep and somehow way too self-assured for someone who was barely eighteen.
"We're talking about my perfume collection," Nadia lied without blinking, while I just gave a tight smile.
Nick didn't even wait for me to say anything. He stepped into my space and pulled me close, possessively, without asking. He placed his hand on the back of my neck, gently running his fingers through my hair, and kissed me.
"I'm picking you up tomorrow around five. The black BMW will be waiting for the most beautiful Grobarka right outside her house," he whispered against my lips, completely ignoring the fact that Nadia was rolling her eyes right next to us.
I caught the scent of his peppermint gum and that expensive cologne his dad had brought him from abroad. The scent of security, and a little bit of suffocation.
"I can't wait, Nick. I've missed Partizan."
It was a classic Friday morning vibe. Boredom, plans for the match, and Nick's ego filling every single corner of the classroom. Until the door swung open, slamming hard against the wall.
The classroom went dead silent in a split second.
The new guy stormed in without a word. He didn't look left, and he didn't look right. He walked slowly, but not unsurely. More like he didn't give a single flying fuck where he was or who was sitting around him. He had this massive chip on his shoulder, his face looking like he was cursing the day he ever had to step foot among the rest of us.
During first period, our homeroom teacher had let us know a new student was coming. Honestly, I'd been expecting just another spoiled brat who was transferring because he got bored. Just like most of my friends.
But it looked like I was wrong. Both about his look and his attitude. You could tell he wasn't some preppy rich kid. I'd say he was more like just another thug from the rough neighborhoods.
By the looks of it, he'd probably been expelled from his previous school for something serious. Most likely a fight, or something even worse. His bottom lip was slightly split, and his knuckles were scraped raw.
He didn't look like the type of guy who apologizes to anyone. I think Nick just got his first real competition.
"Look at him, dressed like a total bum," Nadia muttered in that mocking tone of hers.
She's usually a really good friend, but she can be so judgmental based on what people wear. I never liked that snobbish side of her. But that's how it goes when you belong to a wealthy family in this city—people look at you like you're above them, so you try to stay there at all costs. My mom was always drilling it into my head that I had to be pretty, smiling, and flawless, no matter what. As if that outer shell was more important than anything you carry inside.
Beneath that hostile face, he had short, black hair, faded almost to a buzz cut. His beard was in that masculine phase where it's just starting to grow in properly, just enough to give him a rugged, dangerous look. And his eyes... dark, pitch black. The kind of eyes that pierce right through you, scanning you, looking for your weak spot.
And for a split second, I felt like he looked right at me. Stupid. You're imagining things, girl, just chill.
"Whoa, Christina... Look where this guy just sat," Michael's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
I looked over and stood there in shock. Are you kidding me? He'd literally sat down at my and Nick's desk. And for the first time this morning, Nick's signature "I'm the baddest guy here" smirk completely vanished. I knew exactly what that meant.
Of course, Nick being Nick, the second he saw what was happening, he marched straight toward the desk and the new guy, pissed off and brooding like someone had shattered his ego, not just taken his chair. You could see it from a mile away—he was itching for some serious trouble. This is not going to end well... mark my words.
I immediately went after him, trying to catch up before he did something stupid. Nick had always been that guy—the most popular kid in school, always surrounded by a crowd and girls buzzing around him like flies on honey. You could literally feel his confidence radiating in the air; he walked like the entire school was his turf.
"Bro, that's my seat!" he barked. He wasn't screaming, but his voice was loaded with this suppressed aggression. Intimidating the opponent with loud talking—that was always Nick's first move.
My heart skipped a beat when their eyes locked. The new guy stayed completely calm, indifferent, like he was dealing with a toddler throwing a tantrum because they wouldn't buy him a toy. He just sized him up with that cold face of his and gave a faint, provocative smile. The guy seriously had balls.
"Did you hear me, bro?" Nick slammed his palm against the desk, trying to rattle him, trying to make him react. Silence stretched for a few seconds, and then...
"So?" the new guy replied, cool as hell, without moving an inch.
The classroom went dead silent once again.
Everyone crowded around our desk like they were watching a title fight in Vegas rather than a stupid argument over a fucking desk. I seriously couldn't comprehend why they even needed to do this.
"So, get the hell out of that chair!" I could see Nick's eyes flashing with rage. He was genuinely losing it, way more than any sane person would over a basic chair.
But honestly, it wasn't even about the seat. Nick was furious because the new guy wasn't listening to him, unlike all the other boys who usually moved out of his way and bowed down to him. Ever since freshman year, nobody in our class, or even the whole school, had dared to cross him. At least until now...
One part of me was screaming to step in and shut down this stupid argument, while another part told me to keep my mouth shut and stay out of it. What if they actually start swinging? The teacher was about to walk into the classroom, and these two were literally standing on the verge of a fistfight.
The new guy just let out a bitter laugh and tossed it right back in Nick's face. "I don't give a flying fuck, mate."
Phenomenal. All brains and logic fly out the window once male pride and stubbornness kick in. This was no longer a dispute over a desk; this was a war between two egos. I just wondered who would snap first and make that first, irreversible move.
"I'm telling you for the last time, bro. Get out of the chair and get the hell away from my desk!"
"As far as I can see, the chair was empty until I took it. I don't see your stuff anywhere," the new guy cut him down, his sentence sharp as a scalpel. He was completely calm, which was rattling Nick more than any swear word ever could.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Do you even know who I am, you stupid dumbass?"
"I know, bro. Just another spoiled daddy's boy, right?"
And that was it. Those words snapped every single nerve in Nick's body. He instantly grabbed the new guy by the collar of his hoodie and yanked him upward, lifting him with all his strength so they were standing eye-to-eye.
They were a perfect match. Same height, same burning, aggressive glare. You could practically feel the tension; both of them were on fire inside. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before everything went to hell.
"What did you say?! You want me to break your fucking face right now?!"
Nick got right in his face, and the new guy reacted in a split second. He gathered all the strength in his shoulders and shoved him back with force. Nick literally flew backward, tripped over the leg of a desk, and wiped out on the floor, his head slamming against the edge of the desk behind him. That dull thud of an impact echoed through the entire classroom.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98ZiIZKppz
"Hey, hey! Take it easy, boys!" I shrieked and rushed toward Nick. He was lying on the floor, holding his head, visibly dazed. It looked like he hit it way harder than I thought. I knew something like this was going to happen—my gut rarely misleads me, especially when trouble is in the air.
"Nick, are you okay?" I knelt down next to him. My hands were shaking as I brushed a strand of hair away from the back of his head to check if he was bleeding. My chest tightened; even though he gets on my nerves a lot, I didn't want to see him hurt.
He wasn't always my favorite person, far from it, but this... I didn't want to watch this.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he muttered through clenched teeth. His eyes were unfocused, his clarity at zero, but he was still trying to push himself up on his hands, ready to pick up right where he left off.
Instinctively, I looked up at the new guy. I don't know what I was expecting—an apology, an excuse, maybe a single shred of regret in his eyes? But there was nothing. Absolute zero, bro. Nick could have been seriously hurt, though thank God he wasn't.
He just stood there by the desk, cool as a cucumber, as if nothing had happened moments ago. His hands were loose, his shoulders relaxed... As if he'd just put down a pen, rather than leveling the toughest guy in school.
"Hey! Get over here!" Michael was already moving to jump into the fight and defend Nick. His hand shot forward, but the teacher's voice froze him in his tracks like a cold shower.
"What is going on here, children?" a voice called out from the doorway.
Her appearance cut through the uncomfortable silence like a knife piercing an artery. The crowd that had gathered around our desk scattered at the speed of light, everyone scrambling back to their seats in a panic.
"Nothing, professor. Just getting to know the new student a little bit," Michael chimed in with that slimy tone of his, before anyone else had a chance to utter a word.
"I certainly hope so..." she replied suspiciously, her eyes scanning our faces. "Everyone sit down in your seats! Today we're doing exercises, textbook page 201, right where we left off last class."
I went back to my seat, right next to the new guy who stubbornly refused to budge from mine and Nick's desk. I pulled out my textbook and flipped to page two hundred and one, but... my brain had completely checked out. My focus was dead zero. My eyes kept drifting sideways, toward him.
He was still motionless. How can someone be that composed after what just happened? How can you be so oblivious to the fact that you could have seriously hurt someone?
Worst of all—now I was the one stuck sitting next to this drifter until the end of the school year. If he keeps being this stubborn, daily headaches are definitely coming my way.
Nick, of course, took the seat right in front of us. He kicked Luke out of his chair like he was just a basic piece of furniture getting in his way. Even though his back was turned to me, it felt a little better just having him right there. Close by.
I tried to calm myself down, but the air between me and the new guy was unbearable. The tension was brutal, you could literally feel it in your nostrils.
Knowing Nick and Michael, they aren't going to let this slide. Third period, and martial law had already been declared.
They'll get their revenge the first chance they get, that's for sure. The new guy clearly has no idea that he just declared war on my Nick and the entire crew. And I, completely innocent, just ended up on the front lines of this battlefield.28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOw7RtDFrZW
and then Add to home screen.