And just like that, my mind has gone into a whirl.
I stand frozen in place staring for what could have been a lifetime and remember Jacinta is probably waiting for an answer. “Oh, that’s Rylan,” I say, stuttering through my sentence and attempting to sound as though his very presence doesn’t affect me.
My eyes linger on him talking to Ms. Layton, who reaches out a hand and places it on his forearm, throwing her head back in laughter in a pathetic attempt of flirting, but nonetheless, jealousy shoots through me like a bullet. But it’s his easy way of conversing with her that really gets me, it’s the softness of his face when he isn’t in instructor mode, all the things that I so desperately want to experience with him. I tear my eyes away, making a mental note to keep an eye out for Ms. Layton.
I focus back on Jacinta who I notice is watching me intently with calculating eyes and I see the very second she works it out. Her green eyes pierce mine. “You’re crazy about him,” she grins, sucking in a shocked breath as though she’s proud of her revelation.
I wince. “I might be,” I tell her, breaking into a grin that confirms her suspicions.
“Since when?” she demands in a hushed whisper. “I mean, I don’t blame you. He’s hot. But you could get in serious trouble if anyone found out.”
“Well, that’s just it, no one is going to find out. Besides, it’s not like I’m actually going to do anything about it. I mean, he’s a teacher for God’s sake and he must be at least 22. There’s no way he would be interested in me. What does it matter though? It looks like Ms. Layton has already staked her claim on him.”
“You are a feisty little thing today,” Jacinta jokes, but then turns serious at my glare. “You have no idea what he’s into. He could be gay for all you know. But I do suppose you’re smart enough not to actually go after him, right? This is dangerous territory.”
I give her a small smile and am just about to agree and get onto her for the gay comment when she stops me. “This is why you didn’t go after Daniel,” she says, finally understanding.
“I couldn’t start something with him when I can’t get Rylan out of my head,” I admit, relieved to finally have the words out.
Jacinta lets her eyes wander for another long look of his perfect ripped body. “Did you consider that starting something with Daniel is the perfect way to forget about Mr. Dreamy over there?”
“Of course I did. But that wouldn’t be fair to Daniel,” I say. “Though, seriously look at him, how could I possibly date Daniel when I know there are boys…no, men like that around?”
Jacinta shakes her head before scrunching up her face. “Hold on,” she says, turning back to me. “Didn’t you say he was an ass?”
“Ah, yeah,” I laugh. “I’ve changed my mind. I think it’s an act. I just can’t figure out why.”
Jacinta is quiet for a short while then gives me one of her mind-boggling grins. “Wow, you really do like this guy,” she says as we start to walk back up to the dorms. “Just be careful. I don’t want to have to make a new best friend because you’ve been shipped to some ‘normal’ school for an inappropriate relationship with a teacher,” she jokes, but I know her well enough to know this is also a serious warning to stay away.
“I know, I’ll be careful. As I said, I’m not going to do anything about it. It will go away,” I say almost hoping for a miracle as I turn back to feast my eyes on him one last time before we turn the corner.
”Yeah, right. We all know that when you want something, you’ve got to have it and you’ll stop at nothing to get it.”
“Hmm,” I say, making out as though I’m deep in thought. “That does sound like me, doesn’t it?”
We finally get back to our dorm room and I pull out my laptop. I hit the power button and wait the agonizing five minutes for it to slowly power itself up. I open my emails, find the one from mom, and hit reply.
To: Gabrielle Moore
From: Bianca Moore
Subject: Re: Checking In
Hey Mom,
We miss you too.
That would be great if you could get the time off work to come and stay for a weekend. Jacinta said her parents are wanting to visit too, so maybe we could make it for the same weekend. What do you think?
Combat Training is going alright. It’s a lot harder than I thought and my body is aching after all the work I’ve been doing, but I’ll get used to it. So far, all I’ve managed to do is make friends with the floor, and the guys’ fists, but I’ll work harder and I’ll be better.
My instructors said we start on weapons this week, so it’ll be a nice break. Hopefully, I have a little more talent with guns and knives than my fists! I’ll keep you posted.
Shocker! I haven’t been in too much trouble, but don’t worry I’ve got plenty of time to change that.
Let me know about your visit and I’ll arrange a guest room for you.
Love you, Mom. I hope you’re doing okay.
Bianca xx
I hit send and close down my laptop. “What’s up?” Jacinta says, startling me.
“Oh, nothing. Just worried about mom. She must be lonely,” I murmur.
“I’m sure she’s alright. She’s strong and has you and Millie to worry about,” Jacinta says trying to brighten me up. “Now, look at the state of your nails.”
I look down at my hands and their fading bruises from the week of torture and notice my nails definitely need some attention. “Ugh. They look awful,” I say as Jacinta gets up and makes her way into the bathroom. She pulls out the large box of nail polishes and hand creams, and just like that, the rest of our afternoon is completely filled.
Chapter 11
I push my way through the door of my math class and scan the room for Jacinta who I find sitting up the back of the room. I make my way through the maze of students and plonk myself down next to her. “How’s your day going so far?”
“Oh, you know, I’ve just sat through an hour of language with Trey sitting beside me, not talking and looking completely awkward. I had no idea what to say and he clearly wasn’t in the mood to strike up any sort of conversation, apart from ‘hey, can I borrow your eraser?’” she says in a deep tone as she attempts to mimic his voice.
“That bad, huh?” I cringe, slightly amused. “Sorry, I asked.”
“It’s not funny,” she demands. “I need a break from this place. I’m going to sign us up for the shopping trip this Sunday.”
“Fine by me,” I tell her, suddenly feeling the urge for the weekend to come along and start making a mental list of all the things I’ve been wanting to buy.
“Girls,” our teacher calls out. “Is there something you’d like to share with the class or do you mind if I begin the lesson?”
“Oh, of course, go right ahead,” I respond earning myself the look of death before she snaps her attention back to the rest of the class and starts her lesson.
“You’re going to end up in detention again,” Jacinta whispers once the teacher's back is turned.
“I know. I can’t help it,” I whine.
After class, Jacinta and I make our way into the cafeteria, grab a sandwich each, and head out to the courtyard to eat in the sun.
“Hey, wait up,” we hear Daniel call from behind us with Trey awkwardly following behind, looking like he would rather be anywhere else but here. “Where are you ladies going?”
“We thought we’d sit in the sun today,” Jacinta says, looking everywhere except at Trey.
“Cool, we’ll join you,” Daniel announces with a smile.
“Oh...okay, sure,” she mumbles as we walk out to the courtyard.
“We didn’t see you much over the weekend,” Daniel comments openly, though I’m pretty sure he’s directing his comment at me.
“Yeah, we had a quiet weekend. We woke up pretty rough on Saturday so just had a girly day. You know, played with each other’s hair, gave ourselves manicures, had a pillow fight in our underwear, you know, that kind of stuff.”
“Wha
t? Seriously? Where was my invite?” he gasps, horrified.
“Oh, you didn’t get it? I swear I sent you one,” I promise sweetly as we finally reach a spot for us to sit. I plonk myself down as gracefully as possible and break into my sandwich. Jacinta sits down on my left and Trey to my far right, each as quiet as a mouse.
Daniel catches my eye and mouths, ‘What’s up with them?’
I give him a dramatic eye roll, ‘I’ll tell you later.’
“So, are you guys excited about starting weapons today?” I ask, trying desperately to break the awkward tension.
“Yeah,” Trey says, finally breaking his silence. “But I doubt they’ll actually let us use anything. It will probably just be a demonstration and lectures on what to do.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I sigh as the urge to start sulking takes over.
“What? Did little Bianca Moore just say I was probably right?” Trey says in mock horror.
“Oh, shut up,” I tease. “And I’m not little anymore.”
“No, you certainly are not,” Daniel agrees, dropping his tone low and fixing me with an incredibly suggestive look as his eyes sparkle seductively.
Jacinta laughs with a mouth full of bread. “Get a room.” Her laugh’s quickly cut off when Nora, the bitch from her Fairy class walks past with her posse of losers, each giving Jacinta a nasty look.
“What’s your problem?” Trey says in a harsh tone, rushing to Jacinta’s defense, just as I knew he would.
“Who me?” Nora says as innocently as ever, doing her best to act offended. “My problem is this skank,” she says with a sickly-sweet smile.
“Oh, really?” I crack, jumping up to face Nora. “The only skank I see around here is you,” I say slowly and menacingly. “Jacinta has done nothing to you. You need to back off.”
I see Nora sizing me up, clearly trying to figure out if she could take me, though we both know who would win in a fight. “Get out of here,” Daniel says, suddenly by my side pulling me just out of reach of Nora.
“Whatever,” she says, changing her tone. “I’m bored. Let’s go,” she orders to her tribe of dimwits, then turns and leaves.
“Seriously,” Trey says. “What is her problem?”
“Who knows?” I say sitting back down and picking up my sandwich.
“I do,” Jacinta grumbles as three sets of eyes land on her waiting for an explanation. “She has a mad crush on Trey,” she says, nervously.
“What? No way,” he shudders, clearly with a mental image of the two of them together. “That doesn’t explain why she’s such a bitch to you, though?”
“Come on, man. Figure it out,” Daniel encourages Trey quietly, though loud enough for us all to hear. Though, Trey clearly doesn’t catch along and is stuck inside his clueless mind. “Nora is feeling a little territorial.”
“What?” Trey replies, looking even more confused.
“Hmm, put it this way,” Daniel says. “When a dog pisses on a pole, and another dog comes along, that new dog is then going to re-piss on the pole, marking his territory. Making sense now?” he asks with a triumphant grin, clearly very proud of himself.
“I really don’t think you’re helping,” I laugh.
“Oh, you two, shut up,” Jacinta shouts, her face turning red as she turns to Trey. “She hates me because she thinks I’m trying to steal you away from her because I like you. Which is completely ridiculous, and apparently the rumor is that you like me too. Though, it’s pretty damn clear after Friday night you don’t,” she yells, slightly hysterically before her eyes widen in embarrassment. She instantly gets up and storms away, leaving Trey and Daniel with their mouths hanging open.
“Girl logic…you’ll both do well to figure it out one day,” I suggest, shrugging my shoulders and hopping up to run after Jacinta.
I hear Trey behind me. “She likes me?” he asks Daniel completely dumbfounded and making me roll my eyes at how ridiculously daft the male species can be.
“You’re an idiot, man,” I faintly hear Daniel’s reply.
“Hey, psycho,” I call out to Jacinta. “Wait up.”
She stops and waits for me to catch up, looking absolutely humiliated. “That was probably a bit much, huh?”
“Yeah, probably, though on the bright side, at least he knows how you feel about him now,” I say, making her groan while trying to be as cheery and as encouragingly as possible. “And on the plus side, I’ve never seen Daniel rendered speechless like that. It was amazing. Pure talent at its finest.”
She looks at me bluntly. “I made an ass of myself. If he didn’t like me before, he certainly wouldn’t now.” Jacinta groans again, looking down at her hands.
“I think you’re being a little too hard on yourself,” I say as the end of lunch bell rings, telling us all to get our asses to class.
Jacinta gives me a sad smile. “Let me know if he says anything during training.”
I reach out and give her a tight squeeze. “Sure thing. Good luck with Nora in there,” I tell her as we turn and head off to class.
----------
“Alright, we’re all here. Let’s go,” Rylan says, picking up a box and making his way to the door, not looking back to see if anyone is following. The class immediately jumps to attention and follows him out of the room as Tessa stays behind to lock up.
We follow Rylan silently, all of us trying to figure out where the hell we’re going. He leads us through a maze of buildings that I had no idea existed until we come to an old building with a hard wooden door. Rylan pulls out a key and quickly hashes a code into an alarm pad, waiting for the three small beeps to indicate the alarm has been disabled before pushing the heavy door open.
Our small group floods through the door and into a dark room. Tessa follows us through last and makes her way over to another door, this one big and metal. She pulls out her own set of keys and begins typing in a code to another alarm. Once the alarm is deactivated, she walks through into some sort of control room. I see Tessa through a glass window and watch as she fiddles around with some buttons before the room is filled with light.
The room is quiet as we take in our surroundings and I feel as though I must have died and gone to combat heaven. The room is covered top to bottom in all sorts of weapons. Every handgun and rifle known to man adorn the far wall where directly opposite are all sorts of daggers, knives, and swords. My eyes widen when they land on the bow and arrows and the whips. Hell yes! I wouldn’t mind learning how to master that whip.
“Why don’t you all take a look around,” Tessa says as though she has just delivered us with Christmas morning. It takes all of three seconds for the room to break into chaos with all the boys heading straight for the guns.
“Don’t touch anything,” Rylan says loudly over the boys.
I make my way slowly around the room and find there are much more than your typical weapons here. In front of me lay throwing stars and brass knuckles. I reach my hand out and pick up one of the stars, feeling its edges and taking note of its weight and curves. I imagine myself using weapons like this and the thought thrills me.
“You’re not interested in guns?” Rylan asks, suddenly beside me.
“Jesus,” I shriek, the shock of his sudden appearance causing me to drop the star and letting the fine edge slice through my thumb. “Ow, shit,” I groan as I squeeze my stinging thumb between my fingers then open it up to find blood pooling into my palm.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he cringes reluctantly as if the admission hurt him. “Come, you’ll probably get some disease from that,” he orders as he reaches down to collect the star before leading me into the control room.
I silently follow him as he walks over to the small desk, pulls out a chair, and indicates for me to sit down. He walks to the other end of the room and grabs a first aid kit out of the large overflowing cupboard. “I could have sworn I said something about not touching anything,” he mumbles with a shake of his glorious head, leaving me wondering if he’s te
asing or scolding me.
Rylan grabs a second chair in the corner of the room and puts it down in front of me. He takes a seat and then silently starts to rifle through the first aid kit. His proximity has my head swirling and I once again feel weak.
“Well?” he asks, reaching for my clenched hand and forcing it open as I take guilty pleasure in the feel of his hard, calloused hands on mine.
“Well, what?” I question as he douses my wound with some sort of antiseptic liquid that stings like a bitch. “Holy shit,” I screech and attempt to rip my hand from his. Rylan holds on tight and repositions my hand in front of him, squeezing my hand between his to try and lessen the sting.
“Oh, sorry…this might sting a little,” he smirks sarcastically in a tone that would rival one of my own, which in any other circumstances I would have appreciated. I quickly realize that he’s taking way too much pleasure out of this. “You weren’t interested in the guns? Everyone went for the guns, but you didn’t,” he points out as he begins cleaning the blood and liquid off my hand. “Why?”
“Oh, uh…I guess I think guns are cheating. You know, anyone could use a gun. Just point and shoot,” I say then cringe as he presses down a bandage on my thumb.
His dangerous eyes sparkle in amusement. “I think you’ve got a lot to learn about guns. It takes a lot of skill to use one properly,” he says then on seeing my disbelief continues on, “You’ll see. Let’s go.”
Rylan hops up from his chair and quickly cleans up the mess my thumb has left behind. I’m frozen in place, unable to move after his sudden absence. His fine sweet, manly smell lingers in the air around me, making me dizzy.
He puts the first aid kit back in the cupboard and turns to exit the room, but stops in his tracks. “Are you going to sit here all day?” he asks in that same sarcastic tone, indicating for me to leave the room so we can get started on the day’s lesson. I jump up from my chair and rush past him out the door to join my classmates.
Soul and Disaster: Slayer Academy (Book 1) Page 9
