Playing the Playboys

Chapter 6: The Mall

Yeah, we'll be doing what we do
Just pretending that we're cool
And we know it too

Ryder Rowland was in front of my locker.

Why? I had no idea either.

He stood up from his leaning position when he saw me, a wide smirk appearing on his face.

"Katherine Solace," he said in a voice that most girls would die to hear. "Hey."

Too bad I wasn't one of those girls.

"What do you want?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You," he answered smoothly, making my eye twitch. "But I suppose you're still playing hard to get."

"I'm not playing at anything. I don't want you to 'get' me." I emphasized, glaring at him.

"Sure, whatever you say, Kitten."

Mhm, the typical 'nicknaming the girl' thing. Whatever.

"I have a name, you know." I informed him. "You just called me that moments ago."

"I know, but I prefer calling you Kitten. It suits you."

I just wanted to cringe, to be honest.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say hello to my Kitten," he said. "See you around."

"I am not your Kitten," I said through gritted teeth.

He flashed me his perfect smile. "Just wait 'til you see, Kitten."

He walked away, his whole body carrying confidence. I was tempted to take my heels off and throw it at his retreating figure, but I didn't want to waste a perfectly good shoe on an infuriating asshole.

"What was that about?"

I turned around to see Zoe standing right behind me.

"I don't know," I sighed. "Him being him, I guess."

Zoe took a deep breath before putting on a smile. "Come on, let's get to class."

I frowned, wrapping an arm around her neck. "He's not worth being sad over, you know that, right?"

She sighed. "Of course. But it's not like I can help it."

I nodded, knowing what she meant. We stayed silent as we made our way to our class, which was Math.

Jade was already on her chair, talking to Natalie behind her. Zoe and I sat down on our usual seats as Ms. Olives went inside the classroom. Theodore sat on his usual seat today since I probably wasn't there to usher him to the seat in front of Zoe. Ms. Olives's eyes roamed around the classroom until it landed on Ivan, who had his feet up with his eyes closed.

I rolled my eyes. Typical.

"Would someone do the honors of waking Mr. Miller up?" she asked.

Since no one wanted to disturb the infamous Ivan Miller, no one woke him up.

"Anyone?"

I sighed impatiently and threw a pen directly to his face.

He jolted up, saluting. "Sir, yes, sir."

Everyone laughed, except Ms. Olives.

"Thank you, Ms. Solace." She said, barely glancing at me since she was busy glaring at Ivan.

He picked up the pen when Ms. Olives started talking. He was only two seats beside me, so I easily caught his eye.

"Yours?" he mouthed, twirling the pen with his finger.