How Did it End? | Mattheo Riddle

Chapter Three

"I still don't understand how you can confuse an inanimate object." She sighed wishing, that it would just click for her. She looked back at Mattheo who was still writing.

"Oh come on, Avery. Think about it. You're smart." He said in a reassuring tone, the lack of a mocking tone took her by surprise and she just laughed causing Mattheo to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" He asked her, tilting his head a little as he watched her face.

"Nothing, I'm just not used to you giving me a genuine compliment. It almost feels like a joke." She told with a little shrug, a playful smirk danced across her lips.

Mattheo got caught up watching the way her eyes lit up when she smiled, he wasn't used to being on the receiving end of that. It caught him off guard and put a weird pit in his stomach. He shifted uncomfortably. His light-hearted demeanor quickly shifted into his usual cold closed-off self. He couldn't describe the way he felt when he saw her laugh, but for whatever reason it made him angry. At least that's the only emotion that he was able to pick out.

"Don't get used to it, Avery." He muttered, dipping his quill in her ink again, and went back to writing his essay.

Seraphina watched the full range of emotions that played out on Mattheo's face in real-time. But like Mattheo, couldn't figure out what they were exactly. She didn't press him or ask him any questions about it. Mattheo's feelings were his own to deal with and she had been considerate with them enough for the day. She looked back down in her parchment, reading over what she had written before continuing. She was still trying to work out the disconnect that was happening in her head. She reached for her book again, hoping that the answers would lie there, spelled out perfectly for her.

Mattheo glanced over at what she was looking at and rolled his eyes, reaching taking the book from her, and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He didn't know why her inability to grasp what he thought was a simple concept was annoying to him but it was.

"Riddle-" Seraphina said but Mattheo just sent her an icy cold stare and she just stopped watching him as he flipped through the pages. When he found what he was looking for he placed the book back in front of her.

"Use this and the Triward cup as your example." He told her as he went back to writing his essay. Mattheo didn't know why he was so set on helping her, maybe it was his way of saying thank you for sticking up for him earlier that day. He just felt like she deserved something for getting detention for him on the first day of classes. In his head, helping her get top marks on their first essay in charms made up for it. Especially because he knew how much she valued her grades.

"But what if I don't explain it right?" She said hesitantly before looking at him for a long moment trying to figure out why he was helping her.

"Wait are you just trying to set me up to fail our first assignment?" She said slightly annoyed that she even trusted his advice in the first place.

Mattheo frowned getting annoyed that she thought he would do something like that after this afternoon. "Take my advice or don't Avery, I don't care." He muttered looking back at his paper.

Seraphina watched him for a moment, trying to work out if he was setting her up. After a long moment of watching him write she looked back at the book. Deciding to just take his advice, if he was wrong then she would just hex him for it later. But for whatever reason his nonchalant attitude around it made her believe that he was being genuine.

Seraphina and Mattheo were so caught up in their conversation that they had no idea that their friends had stopped talking and were just watching them like they would a play. Their eyes were watching their every move like they were waiting for a bomb to go off but it never did. They were coexisting without making snide remarks and purposefully trying to hurt each other.