hatred | vance hopper

six

"You ready to get your ass handed to you, Emerson?" Vance asked, taking his place in front of his precious pinball machine.

"Yeah, right. You wish," Layla said, leaning up against the wall beside him.

Vance was extremely confident that he was going to win. There was no way he couldn't win. He was amazing at pinball and Layla had only played a couple of times. Vance put a couple of quarters into the machine and started up his game. It wasn't long before the points started to quickly rack up. Layla bit her nails nervously. She didn't know if she could beat his score already. So, she did the one thing she knew would save her.

"Vance sucks at pinball," Layla teased.

"The hell I do! I'm fuckin' awesome!" Vance yelled. He knew Layla was trying to trip him up, and he was not letting that happen.

"If you don't suck then how come you haven't beaten your high score yet?" Layla paused, but before Vance could snark out a reply, she said, "It's because I'm better than you."

Vance yelled in anger as his ball fell into the pit. He rounded on Layla, fury burning in his icy blue eyes.

"What. The. Fuck," He seethed.

Layla shrugged in response, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen." Layla looked up at the screen and saw a bright '84,400' lit up, "And like I said, you still didn't beat your high score," Layla teased.

Vance sneered at her, "Fuck off, cuntwad. You won't be able to be this score, let alone my high score."

Layla rolled her eyes at him and cracked her knuckles in preparation. She needed all the help she could get. Layla shoved some quarters into the machine and started the game. Layla was already nervous, but the fact that Vance was standing so close behind her she could feel his body heat and his breath on the back of her neck made it no better.

"Can you back off a little, V?" Layla grumbled.

Vance faltered a little at the nickname she gave him. She had never called him anything like that before and it made him feel weird. He didn't want her to see that it messed him up, though, so he quickly recovered.

"Why? Am I makin' you nervous?" He teased in her ear.

Goosebumps rose all over Layla's body. Yes, Vance. You were.

"No, I don't get nervous. Unlike you, dickhead."

"I don't get fuckin' nervous."

"Then how come I made you lose?" Layla smirked.

Vance was about to retort until suddenly, he was knocked backwards. He looked down and saw two younger kids play fighting. In their fight, they managed to not only knock back Vance but also knock into Layla's pinball game.

"What the hell?!" Layla yelled as the sound of the pinball game ending echoed throughout the Grab 'n Go.

Vance glared at the two kids in anger. He shoved them both to the ground and got in their faces, "You fucked up our game."

The two kids trembled in fear, "W-We're sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't fucking cut it," Vance said as he punched them both.

"Vance, come on. Stop," Layla said, however, he didn't listen. Vance continued to punch the kids, the sound of fist colliding with skin being heard over and over throughout the convenience store.

"Vance, stop!" Layla said, grabbing his shoulder.

Vance whipped around and glared at her. In the moment that he looked away from the two kids, they hurriedly scampered away.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" He yelled in her face.

"Because they didn't mean to!"

"Who fucking cares?! They knocked into us!" Vance said. He looked up at the screen and started laughing.

"Sucks to fuckin' suck for you, though. Looks like you're doing my work for a week, bitch."

Layla followed Vance's eyes and saw her score lit up on the screen. '83,900'.

"Goddammit."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Do I really have to do your work for a week, Vance? It's almost Christmas break," Layla whined as Vance piled his assignments onto her bed.

"A deals, a deal. You would've made me take you out to that stupid dinner if you had won. The fucks the difference?"

Layla bit the inside of her lip. Vance acting like that only solidified the fact that she never had a chance with him. Nothing more than the odd friendship they had somehow formed.

"Whatever, Vance. The projects done, so you don't have to stay over anymore."

Vance furrowed his eyebrows, "What, you're pissed you have to hold up your end of the deal so you're kickin' me out?"

"I have a whole lot of work to do, so," Layla said, wiggling Vance's work around for extra flair.

"Whatever," He huffed as he stormed out of her bedroom.

"The hell you doin', man?" A voice asked.

Vance whipped around to be met with Layla's brother.

"What do you mean?"

Billy rolled his eyes as he puffed on his cigarette, "What you treatin' her like that for?"

"I'm not treating her like anything! Fuck off," Vance grumbled. Usually, they got along pretty well, but Vance was already annoyed and Billy wasn't making it any better.

"Can you really not tell? Are you that fuckin' oblivious?" Billy scoffed.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Vance asked, clenching his hands.

Billy looked at him for a minute, then shook his head. "Never mind." These kids were absolutely clueless.