Magelore Book 1: Smoke and Fire

Chapter 8

Raven

Raven woke up before Akira the next morning.
Carefully, she extracted herself from Akira's grip and stood up.
Not five minutes later, Akira sat up as well. Raven stopped and looked her dead in the eye.
"Last night never happened."
"Deal."
As quickly as possible, they went to breakfast. As partners, they were supposed to sit next to each other, which made for a lot of awkwardness before Akira stood up, mumbling something about needing to use the bathroom. Like clockwork, the boy she'd been talking to the night before showed up.
"Hi!"
"Hey." Raven took a bite of cereal. "Akira's in the bathroom."
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you. I'm Maximus, but you can call me Max."
"Raven."
"So, you're Akira's partner?"
"You say that as if I'd be sitting anywhere near her if I wasn't."
"She's kind of hot."
Raven started coughing and spluttering. When she recovered, she turned to Max. "What?!"
"I mean, she is."
"Well–I–are you two, like, dating?"
Max made a face. "Ew. No, we're just friends. Are you two dating?"
"We met like two days ago! And in case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty sure she hates me. Plus, I don't like her. Probably should have started with that: I don't like her."
"Suuurrrre."
"I hate you."
"Duly noted." He glanced up. "And here she comes." With a wave, he ducked away.
"Was that Max? What was he doing here?"
"He–" he said you were hot and then asked if we were dating. "He just said hi."
"Hmph. Could've waited for me."
"Yeah."
They ate in silence until Raven decided it was getting weird. "Um...you know, I just wanted to say, uh, good thinking yesterday. With the dragon fire, I mean."
Akira looked away. "Yeah. I mean, thanks."