Across the Adversaries

Chapter 3: Over My Dead Body

The next day, Margo walked into class with a placid expression on her face. She only glanced at Miles briefly before sitting down in front of him, not saying a word. Miles was sitting in his usual chair, talking to another classmate. He saw Margo walk in and his face changed to one of confusion. He watched as she sat down in front of him, wondering what she was up to.

When Margo sat down, Miles leaned forward towards her and raised his eyebrows. "What's up, Margo?" He asked, his voice soft and relaxed. Margo barely looked over her shoulder at him and shrugged.

"Nothing." She said simply and focused on placing her books neatly on her desk.

Miles raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his seat. "Right, nothing." He said. He didn't believe her, but he decided not to ask anymore questions.

The rest of the class, Miles watched Margo, not knowing what she was planning. The two didn't speak to each other. Miles thought it was weird, seeing how her demeanor changed from the previous day.

During lunch, Miles spotted Margo sitting at her usual table, working on more problem sets. He walked across the cafeteria and sat across from her. He wondered how long she would play hard to get with him. He watched her do her problem sets and tried to resist looking at her face. The entire time, an annoyed look rested on his.

Margo noticed him sitting across from her. After a long while, she looked up from her work and raised her eyebrows at him, still not saying anything. Miles sighed and took a deep breath. He knew she was annoying him on purpose, but he had to know something. His eyes narrowed as he spoke.

"What is it that you want from me, Margo?" He seemed annoyed, yet he spoke softly. He didn't scream. He didn't have an outburst. He just simply had a look of annoyance on his face.

Margo put on her best confused expression. "What are you talking about?" She tried her best to sound bored.

Miles let out an obnoxious sigh. "Don't play dumb with me, Margo." He replied. His voice was still soft and smooth, as usual, but his face showed his frustration. "You weren't like this before. What changed?" He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes as he spoke.

Margo looked around in confusion and looked at Miles, waiting for him to explain.

Miles was a bit irritated, but Margo wasn't going to make this easy for him. He cleared his throat.

"Alright, the other day, I noticed that you were a lot nicer to me." He said clearly. "I know I'm good looking and all, but I highly doubt that's the reason why you were being kinder to me. But now, you can barely even look at me. It's like you're mad at me or something." He smirked. He was teasing her.

Margo raised her eyebrows but kept her expression placid. She waited for him to continue.

There was a pause as Miles watched her. He expected Margo to say something, but she kept her expression the same, not saying a word. Miles let out a large heavy sigh and rolled his eyes.

"Do you think I'm an idiot?" He asked softly. He looked like he was getting annoyed again.

Margo almost cracked a smile at his question, but hid it with a frown. She was finally getting to him. "Of course not." She said simply. "If you were, you wouldn't have beaten me in the midterm benchmarks."

Miles was surprised at her answer. He didn't know how to respond to that. He watched her for a moment then chuckled. "This is going nowhere." He said to himself. He was starting to feel like this was some kind of game. He felt that his intelligence was being tested.

He spoke softly still. "I'm not going to stop until you tell me what you want to tell me, Margo." He looked at her and smirked.

Margo sighed and softened her expression a little, pretending to give in. "Miles, if there's something that you want to tell me, just tell me." She said softly. "You don't have to do reverse psychology on me."