Tom's POV
The girl sat behind him in Math class. Thankfully. There was just something so off-putting about her that made him physically ill. It wasn't just her homely appearance, with her frizzy mass of brown hair the color of mud or her flat gray eyes that were too spread apart on her narrow face. Or her stick-thin figure and too-pointed chin.
No, it was just the way she carried herself. With her eyes always down at the floor when walking in the halls, or when a teacher forces her to talk in class. Her shoulders were always slumped and her feet always dragging. As if she'd rather be anywhere but here. Like she was always bored. Like she was too good to be here.
It really annoyed him. To the point of wanting to grab her by her low slumped shoulders and shaking her. What is your problem?! he wanted to yell into her pretentious face.
Thump. Thump.
What the...?
The girl was kicking his chair. The nerve. Aggravated, he swiveled in her plastic chair and faced her. "Do you mind keeping your feet to yourself?" he hissed.
Two splotches of red materialized on her pale cheeks, but her eyes went to her desk and said nothing.
"Too good to say something?" he mumbled before turning back around.
"Way to be, asshole." It wasn't the girl, it was a guy, sitting right behind the girl. Tom spun in his chair again to glare at who dared speak up. It was Alex, a drama-club loser. He stared right back at Tom, not flinching or bothered at all. "Got something else to say?" He whispered.
Tom did not give a reply. He didn't have to dignify the loser with a response. Just wait until after class. I'll teach him to fucking speak to me...
Alex's POV
The girl sat in front of him in Math class. She was fairly new to his school, she'd only been there for about two weeks. They had never uttered two words to each other, but he was enamored.
It was obvious she didn't know how beautiful she was. Her gray eyes were like spring storm clouds, promising lightning and thunder. Chestnut colored hair flowed past her shoulders in tight curls. Sometimes it was held up in a loose ponytail that showed her sweet face and full lips. He enjoyed those days. She had a dancer's body, slender and fit, with long pretty legs. Though her breasts were small, he imagined they were smooth, soft, and would fit nicely in the palm of his hands.
She seemed lost at times, with her eyes always in the distance, whether they were staring at the stained tiled school halls or out the second story math room. He often wondered why she felt lost, where her mind went when she stared off into the distance the way she did. He knew he could help her belong, if she gave him the chance. And if he grew the guts to speak to her.
Suddenly, her purse slipped off her desk and softly hit the class floor. As she uncrossed her legs so she could reach down and grab it, both feet thumped against the chair of the angry wrestling jock, Tom.
Swiftly, as if he was waiting for an excuse to bare his fangs to her, he turned in his chair and faced the girl. "Do you mind keeping your feet to yourself?" he snarled. He had uttered "feet" as if her shoed feet were so disgusting that his chair had become infected the moment they had made contact.
When the girl just lowered her head and made no response, Tom muttered under his breath, "Too good to say something?"
With still no reply from the girl, Alex couldn't keep his words to himself. "Way to be asshole," he stage-whispered. Not caring if the teacher heard-not that she would notice anyway. Her head was buried behind a newspaper, silent as a mouse as usual.
Tom turned in his chair again, his thick square jaw tightened so hard it looked about to snap off. Alex's heart jumped, but he forced himself to keep eye-contact. "Got something else to say?" The words came out before he could stop them. When the bully's eyes narrowed into slits before facing forward again, Alex shifted nervously in his seat. I'm going to pay for that... he thought, frightened. But when the girl shifted her head slightly, making quick eye contact and mouthing "thank you" before quickly looking away, he knew it was worth it.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
