Chasing After Infinity (4 page)

“Do you ever shut up?”

I glare at him. I hate it when people steal my lines. I sit on the windowsill, refusing to look at him. This is not going the way I planned.

“Since we’re alone, want to do something fun?”

“If that’s an innuendo, I’d pass.”

“Do you always have to think the worse of me?” He hops onto the ledge beside me.

Snorting, I move away from him. “Well, considering the fact that you’re an arrogant
dipwad
, I’d have to say…yes.”

“I’m not that bad once you get to know me.” He smiles devilishly.

I reply with a grim smile. “Not taking any chances so
don’t
get your hopes up.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Then he leans forward—much too forward until our eyes meet.

He watches me, obviously waiting for me to get all riled up. I won’t let him see me ticked off. Two can play at that game.

I come closer to him until we’re so close that our breaths mingle, my finger beckoning him over. He leans in like we’re in at some top confidential secret and my lips barely graze his left ear as I whisper, “I need you…”

Suddenly, I slam my hands into his chest, pushing him over the windowsill and hissing “…To get out of my damn face!” Caught off guard, he staggers over a bit but manages to catch himself, clearing the way for me while I leap off and stomp past him.

Then the bell rings and students flood out from nearby classrooms. I sling my bag over my shoulder, leaving Adrian looking quite surprised in the centre of the hallway.

 
Ψ
Ψ
Ψ
 

Hayden is there at lunch, sitting at our table near the window, saving me a seat as promised. Sunshine streams behind him, acting as backlight to his blond hair, making him look like an angel with an askew halo. I slide in beside him, my stomach dying to eat after two hours of crunch time. Immediately, I start shoving food into my mouth, not caring if the slurping sounds disturb him.

“I think school is starving me,” I complain.

He pushes away his plate of half-eaten pizza over to me. “You can have this. Your inner cow is emerging…I reckon you’re yourself again.” Hayden pokes my nose lightly and I whack him away.

“Is me being myself such a bad thing?”

 
“That really depends.”

I start chewing loudly in his face. He pushes my face away, grimacing. I look down to his slice of pizza. “Are you sure you’re not eating this?”

“Nah.
I’m not hungry.” He grins, stretching and leaning back on the chair. “I already have abs, so I’m sexy enough.”

There are two sides to him: the conceited side and the rebel side. On rainy days, he’d love to get on the teacher’s bad side and smoke pot in the washroom.

He strikes a pose like a male model on the runway, making me snort. “Yeah, you’re sexy, all right.”

Hayden grins, sauntering with a slight swag, shaking his hips as he gets up to throw out his garbage. “I’m sexy and I know it,” he singsongs. “Girl, look at that body.”

He’s eating the stares up as girls turn to look at him. I can’t stifle the torrents of laughter and bow over, my shoulders shaking quietly. “Oh God, cut it out!”

“When I walk in the spot, this is what I see, everybody stops and they staring at me. I got passion in my pants and I
ain't
afraid to show it.” He does a dramatic wiggle, giving his audience a good view of his butt in those jeans.

He blows me a kiss. “I’m
sexy and I know it
!”

I hurl an empty carton at him and he finally stops, returning to our table as we both break into loud laughter.

“I don’t know how I can stand being seen with you in public,” I say after a moment where we’re catching our breath from laughing so much.

“With my good looks, the answer’s obvious.” He swigs some juice.

“Oh, just shut up for once.”

 
“Guess who I just saw running out of the bathroom crying?” Kara
Stevens’s
voice says. I look up to see her sit next to me, tucking her long legs under the table. With her ocean blue eyes and flaming red hair, she is pretty hard to miss. I met her in grade five when we had bonded over getting glue all over our sticky hands during an art project. Her tray clatters to the table for emphasize as she says, “Sarah
Adening
, the pom-pom cheerleader.”

“Huntington’s cheer-cheer girlfriend?”
I raise my eyebrows, still munching.

Hayden looks bored, his earlier goofiness gone. “Did he dump her on her ass or what?”

“Seems like it. Her friends were all trying to comfort her in the hallway. I heard she got the news through a
text message
this morning.”

“One down, forty two to go.”
Hayden snickers.

I say, “He’s obviously not capable of loving someone if he had the nerve to break up with someone through internet and not face to face.”

Kara makes a non-committal sound,
tsking
. “Well, you can’t exactly say that when you haven’t dated him.”

“Even if I did, I’d be able to prove my theory.” I sniff. “Why are we talking about him anyway?”

“Let’s discuss matters more interesting soon because I’m ready to fall asleep,” Hayden quips.

“You guys,” Kara replies, rolling her eyes. “I just don’t get why you two are so dead set against him. He’s pretty nice when he wants to be and not all that evil honestly.”

“Has everyone drank some super strong Jack and all gotten stoned over Huntington?” I demand and snort.
“’Cause he’s got each person here wrapped around his freaking finger.”

Then suddenly, I feel my chair tip over by someone behind me and startled, I nearly crash onto the floor. I right myself and spin around to give the person a scowl. It’s as predicted, Adrian. Speak of the damn devil. He’s laughing now, his entire posse with him. His buddies slap him on the back, cackling and barely holding back laughs as they stare at me. A girl is beside him and she’s the only one not laughing, her porcelain features stern, her blue eyes narrowed at him.

“Watch yourself, Ave,” Adrian drawls, holding my chin with his finger. I wrench it away. “You might want to be careful around me. I warn you not to repeat that episode this morning again.”

“I do whatever I want and you can’t stop me,” I bark.

Adrian’s eyes flash but he soon controls himself. “Okay. So be it.” He turns slowly, tension spiking the air. He walks toward his table but at the last second, he whips around, grabs a nearby glass, and pours the orange juice over my head. I don’t move but stand there, silent as cheers and hoots ring across the room. The juice soaks my hair and seeps through my shirt. I grit my teeth together, refusing to let him faze me as he throws the remaining juice on me, smirking.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

It comes from behind me, a low, warning voice. I turn slightly to see Hayden getting up from the chair he’s been occupying. His eyes are stormy as he moves swiftly toward us, sneering.

Adrian steps closer. “And just who are
you
?”

Hayden ignores his question, looking half-amused. “I don’t know why you’re fucking with her. It better be a good reason. But I advise you to leave her alone.”

“I see.” Adrian cocks his head to the side, watching me from behind Hayden. “What if she doesn’t want me too?”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Hayden, lay off,” I say fiercely, slipping between them in case they start fighting. I knew it was going to end badly if they do. “I can handle my own shit.”

Adrian glances at me and curls his lip. “Yeah,
tell
your little boy to calm down,” he says in a mocking voice. What he says next hits me hard.
“Used goods.”

Rage boils in me, simmering beneath me.
That’s it
. I see Hayden tense and before he can hit him, I’m the one who pulls back my hand and hit him. Much to my shock, he sidesteps me and dodges my swing with a smirk on his face.

“You throw a punch like a girl,” he states dryly. I don’t wait two seconds before I punch him hard in the face. He obviously isn’t prepared as my fist collides with his nose and he stumbles back a bit, spitting at me as blood trickles down his chin. I draw back my aching fist and stare. Kara’s hand flies to cover her mouth. The entire dining hall student body turns, suddenly all tense and quiet.

Behind me, I can feel Hayden’s eyes on my back. I can almost see the way he’s looking at me, completely slack-jawed.

“You’re a girl so I won’t fight you,” Adrian growls, his glass green eyes on me, drilling into me. He wipes his face with the front of his white shirt, bloodying it. Then his whole expression changes and he smiles darkly. He walks languorously past me and then turns around to drawl, “You better watch your back because there’s a dangerous game for you to be playing lying ahead.”

I stare into him and smile sickly sweet back. “Hey, why don’t you
kiss my ass
?”

At that time, I didn’t know how much trouble I was going to get myself into.

And boy, I was going to get in a hell lot of a mess.

chapter
three

AVENA

It has officially begun. When I get to school on Thursday morning, I'm greeted with a huge blown-up picture of me glued onto my locker. It looked like my face except for perhaps the drawn black bushy moustache and
 
scrunched eyebrows with narrowed eyes. Kara whistles deep and low beside me.
Clearly Huntington's work.
Students snigger when they pass, looking from me to the poster.

“You've got it now,” she says, shaking her head.

“If he thinks he's trapped me, then he's dead wrong,” I bark.

I open my locker and get out my books, shutting it brusquely. Adrian can't run the school forever like he's the king of the world and anyone who gets in his way becomes ruined. My pride refuses to take his stupid crap.

“Why do you insist on trying to mess with him?” Kara asks me through the reflection of her compact mirror, putting on her shimmery
lipgloss
. She offers me the tube but I decline.

“Because he has no right to act like he's God's gift,” I retort.

She shrugs. "Well, I bet it felt good to punch him, eh?" A toothy smile breaks out on her face.

I smirk involuntarily. “What do you think?”

We exchange a private grin as we fight to break out in stifled laughter.

Then I see my picture beside Kara's head and my laugh dies out. I find the horrendous poster stuck on quite well when I try to pry it off. I wedge my fingers under the paper, tugging but it won't budge free. Dammit! I hand Kara my textbook and use both of my hands to yank it off. The poster stays strong and I kick my locker door in frustration. In retaliation, it swings shut, hitting me straight across the nose. Revenge, it says in Adrian's spiteful voice.

“God, are you okay?” Kara holds my shoulders while I hiss in pain, bowing over, my hands flying to my face. I look up, blinking away the drowsy haze and see her stifling her laughter. My nose throbs in pain. No blood, only a huge bump on my forehead, rapidly turning red.

I barely let out a groan of outrage, spitting out venomously,
“
I’m going to kick that ass!”

Then I've decided. No more Mr. Nice Guy. If he wants to play rough, I'd give him rough.

I
 
head
 
home and immediately
 
go to work. My numerous trips to the drugstore had the salesclerk there asking me what the matter
 
is by the third visit.

The next day, I’m dead on ruthless. By the first bell, I’ve got everything set. All it needed
 
is its victim. I stand around the corner of the corridor, waiting for the first signal.

As students pour into the hallways, I glance down at my watch. When is he ever coming around? I cross my arms over my chest, irritated. I steal a look at the hallway again and feel my heart lift with smugness as Adrian rounds the bend. As usual, his throng of sophomore girls trail beside him, trying to engage him in conversation. I see him half-heartedly smiling to them, spinning the lock dial.

Then a girl stops him and kisses him. Distracted, he drops the lock and envelops her in his arms, pulling her closer. I roll my eyes. Can’t he just get on with it? While kissing, he reaches behind her to open his locker to get out his books.

I barely hide my laugh as a huge overload of tampons crashes over their heads, spilling to the floor. Flabbergasted, Adrian stares at his locker while the girl pushes him away. Tampons are in his dark hair, making him look ridiculous. The sophomores scatter away and people stop as they pass to gawk. Whispers and giggles spread out as he stands there, looking fairly incredulous.