I swear the lunch queue at the cafeteria got longer every day. Offering to go grab our usual table, Mark had simply handed me a $20 for his food once he saw how many people there were, leaving me to wait alone. I'd been here almost ten minutes now.
I was almost at the front when a large hand wrapped around my wrist, digging the fastener of my bracelet into my skin. I winced as I was pulled into the hallway, the food trays clattering loudly to the floor behind me.
As soon as we were out of the way, I was spun around, and my suspicions were confirmed when I was met with Ryder's mischievous smirk.
"So Lola, guess what I just overheard your two little friends talking about."
"You mean Claire and Anna? Don't pretend you don't know their names, a**hole, you don't need to protect your reputation in front of me. My expectations are already below floor level."
He raised his eyebrows at my tone of voice and I mimicked the expression, my eyes cold.
"Besides, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"So when Claire told Anna about your plan to seduce me... that was just a spur-of-the-moment lie?"
As always, my flaming cheeks abolished any thoughts I may have had about lying my way out of this, and confirmed the truth.
"So my question is, why?"
He hadn't heard the whole story. Excellent. Even if I was utterly incapable of fabricating a believable lie, I happened to be excellent at withholding the truth.
"and my question is, why would I tell you?"
"So it's true." Ryder muttered thoughtfully to himself, eyebrows furrowed as he paced around me. Breathing out heavily through my nose, I raised my chin slightly, avoiding eye contact and remaining silent.
"You know it'll never work, right? Even the girls who try to stay away from me fall for me, how are you planning not to when your plan is to get as close as possible?"
He smirked.
"You can't play a player baby, it doesn't work that way."
His arrogance was the last straw.
"Right, you call yourself a player? I'm proposing a game."
He didn't reply straight away, but the spark of curiosity I could see in his eyes led me to continue despite my instant hatred of my own idea.
"I will continue trying to seduce you, only this time, you will return the effort. Whoever falls for the other one first... loses."
Digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole with every word, it was like the shovel had a mind of its own. My annoyance had got the better of me, and I had no idea how to fix this. It was one thing to humour Claire's revenge scheme, but this was something else entirely, something I no longer knew how to control.
"You're that confident in your own ability?"
"No, but I'm that confident that I could never fall for you."
By this point, our noses were almost touching, and I could feel the warmth of his breath on my lips as we both went silent.
Gradually, our breathing became more even, but my heart pounded in my chest when he didn't move, so loudly I'm surprised he couldn't hear it.
"Then let's seal the deal."
Before I had the chance to question what he meant, his hand reached up to cup my cheek aggressively, and he pressed his lips roughly to mine. The intensity of the feeling made my knees weak, and never in my life had I wanted to give into temptation so badly, but before I had time to truly succumb, I placed both hands on his chest, and shoved as hard as I could.
He staggered back in shock, and a look of hurt passed through his eyes before he walked away, looking at me strangely before he wandered back into the cafeteria. I slid down the lockers slowly, sitting on the floor in shock as people wandered past, staring at me curiously. Standing up, I crossed the hallway into the toilets, my eyes widening at the reflection in the mirror. Flushed cheeks and plumped lips, from such a momentary lapse in defence hardly seemed right. Then again, Ryder had gained a lot of practise in the last year. That had to be the only reason behind my involuntary reaction.
Staying in the toilets for a few minutes, my thoughts filtered back to Claire's initial plan. She'd never intended for him to know about it, but in some ways I could see how it might work better. Ryder was so confident in his own abilities that there was no way he'd give up on a challenge he thought would be impossible to lose. If I hadn't been so unsure of my willpower, I may have even lead him on with that kiss, humour his arrogance a little. Then again, my pushing him away would've made him see that I wasn't going to be an easy target. Sooner or later, he was going to have to pull out the big guns, and all of this would help lead to his utter humiliation when the time came.
I still didn't approve of Claire's plan, but for some reason it didn't seem so far out of reach anymore.
Taking a deep breath, I grabbed my bag from the floor, quickly taking one last look in the mirror before exiting the room. Re-entering the cafeteria, I slipped into the cafeteria and took a seat opposite Claire. My stomach grumbled at the sight of the now closed food bar and I smiled gratefully at Mark when he pushed half his chips onto a napkin and slid them along the table to me.
It didn't take long for the silence to become awkward, and I looked around the table questioningly, wondering if I'd walked in on something they hadn't wanted me to hear. Claire narrowed her eyes at me, her nose turned up in disgust as she stood and walked away.
I looked at Mark and Anna in confusion, and Anna glanced in Ryder's direction before standing also, nodding her head towards the door in a gesture for me to follow.
"What's going on?" I questioned worriedly as soon as we got out of earshot. Pulling a blonde hair away from her lower lip, she smiled sheepishly before blurting out in a rush.
"Well, everybody saw you being dragged out by Ryder, but nobody really knew why. You didn't come back when he did so everybody sorta looked at him for an explanation. He told all of his friends that you'd been flirting with him for ages and he just couldn't get you off his back without giving you what you'd been begging for. "
She paused, looking the most uncomfortable I'd ever seen her.
"He then went on to compare your kissing to that of his grandma's dog, saying he couldn't go through with it in the end and that he left you all hot and bothered. You went to the toilets to 'sort yourself out' before you came back in, as he so nicely put it."
Taking a deep breath at the end of her small speech, her eyebrows furrowed in the centre of her forehead as her lips quirked up in a worried grin.
"He... he..."
It only took a moment of stuttering for the anger to take over.
"That asshole! How dare he?" My voice quivered in anger.
"Anna." My fingernails dug into the skin of my palms as I tried to regain calmness, and I breathed out deeply.
"Could you please find Claire and tell her that it's not at all true. I need to tell her and Mark what actually happened an-"
"And me." Anna interjected and I nodded.
"Yes, and you. Then I need all your help getting back at him. There is no way he can get away with this."
Anna let out a small snort of laughter, eyebrows raised as she scurried away. Heading back to the canteen, I narrowed my eyes at Ryder's curious expression before sitting back down, and launching into the story of what had actually happened.
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Banner at the side by uFiona
So I hope you all enjoyed it! Don't think there's anything else to say.
-Bree