Off Limits (Christoffer Schistad - Skam)

Part 13

"Ready?"

"I was born ready."

"I'm serious, Chris!"

"I know you're serious, that's why I'm joking, geez, don't get your panties in a twist!"

"I can't, I'm not wearing any," Mara replied, raising a brow and smirking. Chris' eyes switched between her eyes and her skirt several times and both his eyebrows shot up in pleasant surprise. "I'm kidding Chris, we're at school, of course I'm wearing underwear!"

"Way to crush a man's hopes, Mara," he groaned before reaching back to grab his backpack which rested on the back-seat of his Mercedes. "I should be the one asking if you're ready. You've been a ball of nerves since this morning, I swear if you faint on me-"

"I won't faint!" She shoved him in the shoulder to get her point across though it seemed to have the reverse effect.

"It's going to be fine," he reassured her. "You'll make lots of jealous!" Chris winked at her and opened the door to exit the car.

Mara followed him out before asking, "Why would I make people jealous? If anyone should be envied today it's you! You've caught the most prized of all Nissen girls in your nets," she said with a bright smile.

"Shut up or your head won't fit through the door," he warned her.

Her jaw fell open and after she reminded him that he was in no position to tell her that given the gigantic size of his ego, Chris threw his arm over her shoulders and began to walk toward the school's gates. However Mara shrugged it off before they reached them.

"Not yet," she said. "No need to add up to our dramatic entrance."

Something akin to perplexity crossed his features, but it vanished before Mara could determine what it really was. He understood her hesitation to throw their relationship out in the wild a couple days after they came clean to William. He might see it as a way of rubbing it in his face and that was the last thing they wanted. Not to mention that they still both sported a black eye and other various facial bruises – which was enough to make hundreds of different rumours erupt in the school before noon. Nissen was a gossip mill. People were used to seeing them hang out with each other, which gave them a bit of time before everyone realised that it wasn't so platonic anymore, though it was bound to happen. But Chris and Mara would not blow on the red embers of gossip.

Sure enough, whispers greeted them and people looked at them with shock and concern when they stepped through the gates, looking like they had undergone a severe beat up. Which they did but they should see the other guys.

"What?!" Chris barked at a group of boys from first year that openly ogled them when they walked past them.

"Since when do girls participate in the riot club's fights?" One of them snickered.

He wore a beanie from under which curly brown hair peeked out. The remark was most likely not meant to be offensive, but Mara was on edge and she didn't exactly like having a black eye.

"Since they can kick ass just as good as any boy," Mara huffed, shooting him a nasty glare. "Need me do demonstrate?"

"No, Jonas was just joking," another one said with a nervous laughter, looking panicked at the thought of provoking the school's princess and the Penetrators' protégée.

"I bet he was," Chris simply said, his tone leaving no doubt as to the fact that he wasn't convinced at all. "We don't endanger our girls, the Yakuza guys jumped us on the street."

With that, they walked away, still putting a polite distance between them since the attention of the entire Nissen population was onto them. It was a heartbreak to still have to act so distant after what they have been through. But among all the eyes directed at them were also William's, who was leaning against the wall nearby the front door, surrounded by his friends.