The Opposition

Chapter 6: Carter

"Don't call me 'babe.'"

"Babe," Tyrone says. "Lemme take you out sometime. You like a good time, right?"

"Fuck off. I would literally rather gouge my eyes out with a mechanical pencil."

Ty's smile falters slightly, but he recovers quickly. "Playing hard to get; I like that."

She scoffs, "I'm not playing hard to get; I'm telling you to fuck off. Nicely." And, with that, she takes his arm and throws it off her shoulders, turning toward me. That's when I notice a piece of paper resting in her hand.

"Suck on that," she says, slapping our most recent math test graded with a red "100%" in the top right corner.

"You can suck on m–" Tyrone starts, but Dimitri elbows him in the ribs, clearly noticing the glowering stare Sadie is shooting him.

I stare at her test. She's always been good at math, and, shit, this test may have just put her ahead. "Cute," I say.

"Defence mechanism," she replies, automatically. "You got worse."

Shit. She knows. I don't think she's going to leave unless I show her the bold "98%" on the top of my test. I'm giving her a reason to gloat over 2%. That mechanical pencil to the eye is starting to sound pretty nice right now. Reluctantly, I pull the test out of my bag and place it in front of her. She studies the single number for what feels like hours, her mouth turning up at the corners slowly. Why does she have such a cute smile? Am I willing to lose to her to see it again? Fuck no. Will I think about it? Well–

Her leg brushes mine as she picks up my test and slides over to me. I feel my skin tingle where her tights are touching me. She holds the test in front of the both of us, as if we're examining a gorgeous photo. "This is a masterpiece. Can I frame it? I'm going to frame it."

"Shut up," I mumble, snatching the test out of her hands.

She places two delicate fingers under my chin and turns my head so I'm looking at her. "Don't pout, Conners. It's not healthy." And she walks off, her test in hand, leaving me with the feeling of her touch on my jaw.

"Hot as fuck," Tyrone groans, watching her retreat back to Lena. While I would never admit this out loud, I kind of agree with him.

"School is kicking my ass," Landon complains. We're back in our dorm rooms, eating dinner in here before we head off to the library for homework hours. As juniors, ours are between 9:00 pm and 11:00 pm. I need more time than that, so I start around 5:00 pm in the dorms. Dimitri is off at a school paper meeting. I can't wait until tomorrow because that's when debate meetings start up, again. I've missed arguing with people just for them to be proven wrong. Even if I don't agree with the resolution, I'm right before, after, and during my eight minutes.

"Then be smarter," I tell him.

He groans. "I am smart."

"Sure," I smirk at him. I know I'm being a dick, but if he can make fun of track, then I'm sure as hell going to rub that "C" in English in his face.

"Let's skip homework hours today," he suggests. "Let's go into town."

"No."

"Carter! You're such a fucking bore! C'mon, you've been working for hours. I'm sure that ten page essay isn't due tomorrow. So get off your ass, grab your jacket, and we're walking."

"No. I'm busy." It's times like these when I admire Sadie. She's always going out with her friend's–I think I've seen her at the local cafe more than I've seen her around campus, but, somehow, she still manages to get all her work done and with good grades. I wish she had bad time management skills or something, but, no, she's fucking perfect. Almost. It'd be nice is she wasn't such a pain in the ass.