CHOICES (Completed)

BLACK (&) COFFEE

I have my head in my hands, as Lily and he silently sit, gauging my reaction. So basically, the whole school had somehow managed to get me to contest some stupid elections, competing with Victoria Secret for some position in a students’ group? I need to wash my face. I need to take a moment with myself. Why did I have to do all that, that day?

It’s gonna be a day worth remembering, I promise.

It was him. All of this is happening because of him. I grab my coffee cup and turn with unforeseen force as I collide into something hard that blocks my vision, the force causing me to spill my coffee all over the black surface. As the liquid sticks to the material, I slowly make out the surface to be a shirt, which implied it must be carrying a wearer along and I raise my eyes to meet the brown ones glaring back at me with shock and rage.

Speak of Hardin Scott and he appears. Wait, didn’t the phrase use the word ‘devil’? Yeah well, not much of a difference anyway.

*

“Did you just do that?” The angry voice of Hardin fills me up as I look into his eyes, fuelled with annoyance.

He stands in a black shirt, the sleeves as usual folded up to his elbows, popping the veins in his lower arm, and which is now drenched with my coffee, making it stick to his chest, highlighting his toned muscles underneath. The only distraction was the face that now held a scowl, apparently waiting for an answer. Right.

“I would have really suggested a good eye clinic for you, except that I don’t know one. The current pair clearly doesn’t seem to be functioning well enough.” I reply vehemently. Though I know part of the fault was mine, I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“Really? You’re going to give me that, when you barely have ‘half eaten, half thrown away peas’ as eyes, yourself?”

Peas? PEAS? But then, I collided with him. Naturally he had an upper hand. I think I liked him better when he was non-existent within the same mile radius that I walked in. But why peas? No one likes peas.

“Shut up. I was just-uh going to the left when I accidentally turned right so-yeah.” I try to justify myself in the lamest way possible and I know a taunting comeback is already on its way.

“You obviously lacked knowledge about right and wrong. That I knew. But you did so for right and left too, now that’s news.” There. I expected that. I glare at him hatefully as he starts wiping off some of the coffee in his shirt.

“It’s black – the shirt. The stain is hardly visible. So relax about it, okay?”

“And you think the colour matters? Sure, why not? If it’s black let’s just throw coffee all over it because it’s hardly visible? Do you hear how stupid that sounds, now?” I hate to admit, but it sadly does. I need to work on my comebacks. Maybe write them down when I remember them half an hour later, after the argument has ended. And then memorise it for the next time.

“I think you’re just making a big issue out of it, really.”

“Oh sweetheart, believe me I haven’t even started.” Started? What does he mea- I am taken aback as a gush of liquid falls all over me, with force enough to make me stumble back in the process. My face stands shocked and drenched as I see a satisfied Hardin with an empty bottle of water in his hand.

“Now, we’re even.”

“Are you cra-“ I don’t complete as Hardin twists my wrists behind me which brings me unbearably close to him. My breath hitches as I realise our proximity. Our drenched bodies are almost pressed together and my lungs stop co-operating. His hold on my wrists erupts a wild fire within me and I momentarily forget that we have an audience. My nostrils betray me as well, as an irresistible smell enters and I recognise it to be his fragrance, cologne and coffee. Holy Mendes.