Top Dog (Garroth X Reader) [Book Two]

~17~

I narrowed my eyes at him and reacted in no way other than staring at him until he walked over to Mrs. Fuller and began whispering to her. I glanced over at Garroth, his head was still down and I wondered if he had even heard the door open or if he was too distracted by stomach pain. The next time I looked up Nickel was leaving the foods room, bag of salt in hand. I returned my gaze to Garroth.

"You just missed your best friend." I said.

He lifted his head from the table as if in a daze.

"What?" He asked.

"Nickel." I said quietly.

"W-what's he doing?" Garroth asked immediately.

"I don't know. He got something from Mrs. Fuller." I said.

Garroth hummed as if in satisfaction and then laid his chin back on the table to continue looking out at the classroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do you want this?"

I set the foam container down in front  of my brother, who looked down at it with  a disgusted look.

"What is it?" Marcus asked as he reached out to open the small container.

"Lasagna. Garroth and I made it in foods class." I said.

Marcus's look somehow managed to turn even worse as he looked slowly up at Garroth who was standing next to me.

"Don't eat it." Garroth warned, " You'll throw up in the boys locker room and everyone will hear."

"That sounds like a personal experience." Marcus said glaring at Garroth.

Garroth shrugged as if that wasn't what had happened to him.

"That's just what I would assume might happen to you." He said.

Marcus let the lid fall shut and took a step away from it.

"Garroth only threw up because he ate enough to feed a horse. I thought it was good." I said.

"I don't wanna eat anything he made anyways." Marcus said motioning to Garroth with an empty hand

"I'll have you know I'm a wonderful cook." Garroth said.

"I did all the work." I said.

Garroth snapped his head towards me and glared.

"Liar." He said.

"I am not. I did all the measurements you just put stuff in." I said.

"It's lasagna. Not chemistry." Garroth said, "Speaking of which, how'd you affect my brothers grade?"

I narrowed my eyes at him as I took a few steps past him towards the stairs to me room.

"What are you on about?" I asked.

"Vylad's got like, a hundred and six percent in chemistry. He's gonna be a scientist or some shit when he's older. Any points off on your assignment he'll blame on you." Garroth said. I didn't turn back to him but I could hear his heavy footsteps on the stairs behind me.

I stared silently ahead as I thought about Vylad and how I could never picture him getting angry, especially not over a perfectly fine grade.

"We got a ninety-eight on that project." I said appalled.

"Unfortunate, those two points really got you huh." I turned around as I reached the top of the stairs and reached my arms out to pinch Garroth wherever I could reach him. He flinched and held onto his arms as I did so. "Ow." He whined.

"You're only saying that because you're jealous I spent a few hours with you're brother." I said, "Which is such a weird thing to be jealous of, by the way."

"There is not an alternative universe out there where I am jealous of Vylad." Garroth said raising an eyebrow at me and tilting his head to the side like a dog.

"Really?"

"What do you mean really? And could you continue walking?"

I turned around and took a few steps towards my room.

"You talk so mean about Vylad. He's a sweetheart." I said as I grew close enough to open my door.

"I just know him a whole lot better than you do. He is not a sweetheart, I am." Garroth said.

"Sure you are."

"I am." Garroth said.

He grabbed onto my shoulders as we entered my room and used them to pull himself to me. He put my hair in his hands as if he were going to put it in a ponytail and brushed it all over to my left shoulder. He wrapped his arms around my waist and stood as close to me as he could get with his head buried in the crook of my neck.

"I know you are."

"I'm such a sweetheart, I will be the loudest cheerleader for you tomorrow." He said. He lifted his head a small amount so he could turn it and press his lips against my neck.

"Speaking of which," I sighed as I remembered my 'invitation' to Nickel. It had been so long since Garroth and I had talked about Nickel, I knew the bliss would come to an end sooner or later. "today in history Nickel asked me about softball. I told him I had a game tomorrow and he definitely took that as an invitation. So I'm just telling you when he comes up to you tomorrow and is all like hey Garroth your girlfriend invited me, all I said was 'regional finals tomorrow'"

I felt the vibrations of Garroth's chest as he laughed behind me.

"Okay." He laughed.

"Well you'd be pissed if that's what happened." I said.

I tried to turn my head to look over at him but his face was too close to mine to do so.

"Yeah probably. That's alright, Nickel can come. I'm the good luck charm."