Steven
My lip throbbed in sync with the rage that guy—Nick, or whatever that dumbass's name is—tried to spark in me. The spoiled daddy's boy thought he could boss me around and humiliate me in front of the whole class. I just got here, and I'm already sick of this school and everyone in it.
I looked down at my knuckles. They were red, the skin tight and hot. I shoved him harder than I intended, I'll admit that. But the guy was asking for trouble, and I'd been ready to show my teeth since this morning. If you don't show them right away, it's too late later. The golden rule of the street: make them fear you, or you'll just end up as another punching bag.
Nick got up from the floor, dusting off his overpriced jeans. The glare he shot me was a promise I'd heard at least a thousand times before him: "You're dead."
And then, I felt her.
The girl next to me, Christina, had returned to her seat. She was sitting so close I could catch the sweet scent of her perfume, trying to mask the smell of mold coming from the school walls.
She opened her textbook and found the lesson the teacher had mentioned. I didn't need to look at her to know she was scanning me. I could feel her warm gaze on my profile—curious, yet somehow different from the rest.
I couldn't help myself. I turned my head just enough to catch her eye. Her eyes were large, light brown, and at that moment, completely fixed on me. There was no fear, at least not the usual kind. It was more of an evaluating look, like she was trying to see what was hiding behind my split lip and hostile attitude.
It only lasted for a second, but that second felt longer than the entire morning. I felt this strange weight in my stomach—not the kind caused by a punch, but something else I couldn't quite define. She abruptly snapped her gaze back to the textbook, but I saw her fingers tremble slightly against the edge of the desk. Her brown hair spilled over her shoulders as she leaned over her notebook, hiding her face.
"You could introduce yourself to us, young man," the teacher's voice broke the strange peace between us. I looked up—she was aiming straight at me. Great, bro...
"If I really have to," I tossed back. Of least to say, she didn't appreciate my arrogant tone.
"I see you're a cocky kid, aren't you? I've read your school file."
Of course she had, I didn't doubt it for a second. With a confident stride, on those feminine legs of hers, she walked up to my desk. She was holding a wooden ruler in her hand, almost like a cane. I smiled faintly. What was she gonna do, look at me and whack my palm? Those methods of theirs had lost their edge a long time ago. They can't hit me hard enough to match how much pain this body can take.
Punches only hurt while they're new. After that, they just become a routine, like morning coffee.
"Well?" The teacher wasn't backing down. She stood frozen in her tracks, waiting for my next move.
She glared at me sharply, like she was trying to read me with a scanner. As if digging through my file wasn't enough, now she wanted to see how fast I'd crack under pressure.
What if I just gave in? Just introduce myself and get this agony over with? It's day one, and I'm already the center of everyone's attention.
I nodded and got out of my chair without a single word. I looked around: everyone was already staring at me and the teacher, who was standing right in front of our desk in the back row.
"I'm Steven Stajić," I said shortly, refusing to give the moment any real weight. I looked straight ahead, avoiding any eye contact with the faces that were measuring and judging me.
I had no intention of giving them anything more than that.
"See, that wasn't so hard. Where are you transferring from, Stefan?" And there it was, the next question. I knew she wouldn't stop.
"I'm from around here, from Nova Misa," I replied and sat back down in my chair without her permission. On purpose. I didn't plan on answering another damn thing.
It seemed like she didn't want to get into another argument. She just turned her back on me and walked back to the blackboard. Smart move, professor...
For the rest of the period, they worked on some problems that I didn't even bother to follow. Honestly, I couldn't care less, and I didn't even have that textbook of theirs anyway. Everyone else was taking notes and doing exactly what they were told. Real little teacher's pets, brale. Nothing worse than that.
The minutes dragged on like hours. The teacher kept explaining something, writing on the board, then explaining again... and I could barely breathe in that boring, stuffy classroom full of snobs.
The bell finally cut through the boredom, and the whole classroom instantly stirred to life. Desks started shifting, chairs scraped against the floor, and suddenly everyone had something incredibly important to say.
And those two dumbasses I got into it with before class immediately turned toward the girl next to me. Listening to them throwing comments back and forth, I quickly figured out who was who. Nick, the guy I wiped out on the floor, is actually her boyfriend. Only then did it make total sense why he was ready to fight over a seat in the back row. The other guy is Michael, his loyal dog, I assume.
"Christina, you're gonna crush it in math. Trust me, babe," Nick was encouraging the beautiful girl next to me. Looks like the girl has a serious problem with math.
"I hope so..." she muttered, clearly insecure.
I can already picture the whole story. If she gets a grade lower than a five, it'll be beneath her dignity, a worldwide tragedy. I knew her type by heart. The scent of an overpriced perfume, a bag that costs more than my phone, and that look that never had to beg for anything.
I had no choice but to watch them giggle and recount some of their stupid little jokes. They weren't funny, not in the slightest, at least not to me if you ask me. Right at that moment, I felt my phone vibrate in my jeans pocket.
It was Dean, my best friend. We grew up together in the neighborhood, house next to house, and I guess that's why we stayed inseparable through all the shit. I unlocked my old, scratched phone and opened the message.
"Bro, are we chilling at Victor's home tonight?"
"Of course, bro. As soon as I'm done with this boredom at school, I'll let you know," I typed the message and turned off the screen.
The bell echoed through the hallway again, but this time it marked the beginning of real hell. Math, hands down the worst subject. I never liked calculating or those trick problems of theirs.
The teacher walked into the classroom with a mountain of papers under her arm. Oh... a test. That's why Christina was so nervous. I was expecting her to be afraid of being called up to the blackboard, but this was obviously even worse.
I stretched, raising my arms up just enough to loosen up a bit before the boredom started. In that movement, I accidentally bumped Christina elbow-to-elbow. She looked at me like I'd hit her right in the middle of her head with a sledgehammer.
She glared at me furiously with those light brown eyes of hers, grabbed a pen from her pencil case, and drew a thick line right down the middle of the desk.
"Stick to your side of the desk, Steven."
I laughed at that desperate move of hers. She's acting like a kid in elementary school, not some fine, mature girl. I didn't plan on getting to know her, let alone touching her. This whole thing was a pure accident.
Too bad, she really is a beautiful piece. Maybe the most beautiful brunette I've ever seen. Pure fire. To be honest, I've always had a thing for brunettes shorter than me. But all of that is for nothing when she's a spoiled rich kid. One little detail and the whole story falls apart.
Sometimes I wonder... does their brain really run only on money and designer things? Or somewhere deep down, beneath that makeup, do they have at least a little bit of humanity? I just don't know where she gets the confidence to think she can boss me around.
"I don't get it, what is so funny to you?" she asked in that defiant, fiery voice of hers.
I didn't give her a shred of satisfaction to let her think I even care what she thinks.
"You. You're funny."
"I'm serious, Steven. Don't cross that line," she waved that well-manicured index finger of hers in front of my face.
"You drew a border like you're defending Kosovo," I tossed back, deadpan.
"Don't be ridiculous," she said, not taking her eyes off me. God, she is just beautiful, even when she's trying to play tough.
"What, do I need a passport when I cross over to your side?" I continued to bust her balls. She was actually really entertaining when she got this fired up and annoyed over stupid things.
"You're not right in the head, you idiot," she muttered through clenched teeth. I had completely thrown her off her game, I could see it in her eyes.
"And you're too normal, that's the problem," I replied, and I didn't even know myself where this sudden urge to bicker with her came from. Until moments ago, I didn't even want to look at her, let alone talk...
"What do you mean by that?" she pretended to be offended. Maybe she actually was.
"I mean... everything about you is clean, everything is perfect, everything is by the book."
"And?" she asked, obviously not getting the point of what I was trying to say.
"And you're boring," I told her, deliberately smirking, just to be stubborn.
"And you think you're interesting, or something?" she asked me ironically.
"Well, I don't know... you've been staring at me for a while now."
She went silent, for the first time since we started bickering. She didn't have a comeback ready; she just looked at me, defeated, with those beautiful, light eyes.
"Looks like we ran out of arguments?" I tossed at her, a bit louder than I should have.
Of course, the resident lawyer, Nick, immediately turned around, and right along with him, his lackey, Michael.
"Is there a problem?" he asked Christina, while sizing me up like he was calculating how much time he needed to flatten me onto the floor.
Does he seriously think I'm afraid of guys like him? How deluded these snobs are, it's unbelievable...
"No..." Christina started to answer him, but I cut her off right at the start.
"Don't turn around, slick-hair," I said it just loud enough for the teacher to hear me too.
"Hey, hey! Calm down, you two in the back! I'll take your tests away before time is up!" Her harsh voice cut through the silence of the classroom.
We were so caught up in this bickering of ours that we didn't even realize when the teacher handed out the tests. And Christina, instead of starting to work on the problems and chasing after that five of hers, was still turned toward me.
She looked at me with pure disgust. It was literally written in every single part of those light eyes, but it didn't affect me in the slightest. On the contrary, it only turned me on even more. I turned toward her and winked at her, provocatively, just to press her buttons and drive her completely insane.
She gave up on the bickering and dropped her gaze to the test in front of her. I could tell by the expression on her face—she didn't have a clue about most of the problems. I wouldn't either, let's be honest, but I was lucky enough to be the new guy, so the teacher spared me this time.
I followed her every move. She would start calculating something, then furiously erase it, then start all over again. Her paper was already completely scribbled over and worn thin from the eraser. She was struggling, and I was enjoying the view.
"Maybe you'll be able to bribe the teacher to give you a five and act like nothing even happened," I tossed at her very quietly, and she lost her shit the exact same second.
"Fuck off, Steven," she muttered sharply, not taking her eyes off the paper, while her cheeks burned.
I leaned back in my chair and locked my hands behind my head. That "fuck off" of hers sounded sweeter to me than any "thank you." I knew her concentration was dead now, gone for good. While she was uselessly trying to solve those irrelevant equations, I was solving her. And I was doing pretty damn well.
There isn't a girl out there who has managed to beat me in a bickering match. That first move of hers, that line she tried to fence me out with, was just her first leap into a bottomless pit.26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUrPhuPtPbo
and then Add to home screen.