An imagine about the one and only, Steven Meeks :) Enjoy!
"Meeks. Excellent."
Dr. Hager, your mathematics professor, handed him his exam. You discreetly glanced over his shoulder, only to see an A written in red and circled at the top right corner of his paper.
"Fucker," you muttered under your breathe.
The mutual hatred that you and Meeks bore for each other was fueled by the competition of who was the best student. He was undeniably very smart, and so were you. The only difference being that he was the biggest asshole to ever have walked the surface of Earth.
There was a constant rivalry between you. You had no idea of when or how it started - as far as you knew, you'd hated Meeks for as long as you'd known him. And you especially could not stand it when he had better grades than you. The feeling was reciprocal. You'd always insult each other at any occasion and rub defeat in the other's face.
You bit your lip, trying to contain the anger burning inside you. That test was incredibly hard! And you knew you'd aced it. At least, until now. Seeing that Meeks had an excellent grade was making you doubt of yourself. Had you truly done as good as you'd thought?
"Stupid fucker," you repeated under your breathe.
"I heard you, Y/L/N," taunted Meeks as he turned around on his chair to face you. "What's the matter? Can't stand seeing smart people being successful in class?"
"Meeks! Turn around!" barked Hager. "Y/L/N."
He handed you your exam. You nearly snatched it from his fingers, eager to see your grade.
A + .
Your eyes widened.
You turned the sheet over. You'd gotten everything right. You'd gotten a perfect score.
A smirk grew on your lips, and you looked up at Meeks. His face was red, his eyes glaring at you, and he looked like he could kill someone right now.
"What's the matter, Stevie? Can't stand seeing smart people being successful in class?" you mocked.
The bell rang as Hager finished handing back the last few exams, and you stuffed your books inside your bag before heading out.
Your next class was biology, a class that you loved because you'd often get experimental assignments. Today, it seemed to be the case.
"All right, class!" the teacher, Mr. Boynton, said as he cleared his throat. "I'm going to hand you a project that will be due in two weeks. You will not be given any class time to work on it, so be sure to get started as soon as possible. Also - " he glanced at the students over his glasses - "you will be doing this in pairs. I will assign the groups myself."
A groan of general miscontent arose from the class. You sighed loudly, hoping you wouldn't be paired with a slacker.
"Silence, please!" demanded Boynton, and the students hushed as he pulled out a sheet of paper on which, you guessed, he'd written down the groups.
"Dalton and Pitts. Cameron and Woodsby. Overstreet and Baker. Perry and Anderson. Paston and Williams. Y/L/N and Meeks."
You blinked. What?
Did he just -
You turned over to Meeks, who seemed like he was about to explode. No, no, no. This was a mistake. Right?
There was no way you'd just been paired with Steven Meeks.
Hager finished reading the list. "Now, I'll be handing out the description of the project - "
"Excuse me, sir?" Your hand shot up in the air.
"Yes, Y/L/N?"
"Can we switch partners with another group?"
"No."
"But why?"
"Because I believe," he stated, taking off his glasses to wipe them on the hem of his shirt, "that you young people need to learn how to work and socialize with other people who are strangers or not necessarily your friends."
"But - "
"The matter is closed!" he abruptly said, and began distributing the instructions.
You gritted your teeth, trying to contain the anger boiling inside you.
This promised to be a very unpleasant assignment.
*** TIME SKIP ***
You'd just come back from the cafeteria with your friends, to whom you'd vehemently complained about your partner for the biology project. Knox got a slap in the face for suggesting that you and Meeks had couple chemistry. Now it was time for study group, and you sat down beside Todd, opening your folder.
The first thing you saw was the instruction for the science assignment.
"Let's just get it over with," grumbled a voice behind you.
The next second, Steven was taking a seat beside you.
"That spot is taken, Meeks," you hissed.
"Yeah, now it is. Let's put each other out of our miseries and get this stupid project over with."
"What do you mean?" You turned towards him, eyes glaring. "We have two weeks. We don't need to do this tonight."
"Listen, Y/L/N," he spit out, "I hate you as much as you hate me, but this is still a grade, and next week we have our literature, latin and history exams. So as much as I abhor you, let's get this done."
"Stupid fucker," you muttered under your breathe.
"Dumb old bitch."
"Guys, please - can you quit the bickering? I'm trying to work," said Todd.
"Right. Sorry," you mumbled.
So you began working on your assignment. It wasn't too hard but it did take a lot of time. After half an hour you'd barely finished the third question, and there was still twenty-two to go.
"This is taking too long," groaned Meeks.
"Maybe it wouldn't take as long if you actually made an effort," you mumbled.
"I'm sorry, I'm the one who's not making an effort?" His eyes glared daggers at you. "You've barely done anything since we started!"
"Oh, yeah? Like you did anything on question one!"
"That was literally the easiest one! I did you a favor!"
Around you, the guys had stopped what they were doing and stared, waiting for the outcome of your verbal joust.
"You know what? Fuck you, Meeks," you snapped as you brutally stood up and grabbed your school stuff. Then you stomped out of the study group room under everyone's perplexed gazes.
You dug your fingernails into your palms. To the heck with this project - there was no way you'd spend another second of your time in his presence. You didn't care about your grade - it wouldn't be a high one, but at least neither would his be.
As you reached the end of the hallway, you heard someone call your name:
"Hey Y/L/N! Y/L/N, wait!"
"I'm done talking to you, Meeks. I don't fucking care about this assignment, you can finish it on your own."
His running footsteps got closer, until he reached your side, walking fast to keep up with your pace.
"Look, I'm sorry. I behaved like a prick."
"You don't just behave like one, you are one. Now goodnight."
"Hey!" He put yourself in your way, stopping you from passing.
"Look, I'm really sorry. I mean it. Please, let's just go back there and finish this stupid thing, okay? And then I won't ever talk to you anymore. I promise."
For the first time, you saw his face breaking apart. His chin was trembling and his eyes were darting from left to right.
"Okay," you sighed. "I'm sorry too. For being rude. But I want to know why you hate my guts so bad."
"I - don't know." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't know. I guess it's just a defense mechanism. I'm afraid that you won't like me back - "
He interrupted himself, realizing what he'd just said.
Your eyes widened in shock, and your heart started drumming inside your chest. "Did you just say that?"
His face was turning bright red, and he was avoiding your look.
"Yeah," he finally let out. "I did. Does it change anything though? You still hate me. And we still have a project to do."
You let out a laugh. "C'mon Stevie, let's get it done."
As you walked back towards the study group room, you kept thinking about what he'd accidentally admitted.
He liked you.
Without warning, you took his hand in yours and smiled.
I might start adding pictures on each chapter - like headers and stuff like that. What do you guys think?