Indifference (boyxboy)

4. A Counter Proposal

Ryan

"Yo, nerd face! What's the answer to question 1?"

I saw Elijah flinch before slowly turning to look at me.

"You haven't even done question 1 yet?" he hissed back.

I leaned over to take a glance at his paper, and saw he was working on question 6 before he quickly covered it up and leaned as far away from me as possible without falling off his chair.

I was tempted to give him a push. A small nudge would have been enough to send him sprawling onto the floor. I didn't though. Because then Mr Roberts would make me sit back in my old spot.

Elijah's face was priceless when I chose to sit next to him again. But I was failing this class, and I'd come across a certain opportunity by sitting next to the class nerd. Maybe there were more projects on the horizon. And if I could get Elijah to do the work for me, he could maybe lift my grade from a solid F to a shaky C.

"Do your own work," he shot back, much to my annoyance.

"You might as well help me now, or I'm just going to make you give me your paper once we're out of class. We can do it the nice way, or the painful way. I don't care which."

Elijah's hand paused, his pen stilled midword. I could almost see his brain whirring, thinking through his options. Then he started writing again as if I hadn't said anything.

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. Was he ignoring me?

"Did you hear what I said?" I asked, trying my best to keep my voice down and not attract attention.

"Yes, I did," he said, but then carried on working.

I felt my hand start to clench. I didn't like to be ignored. But more than that, I didn't like my bluff being called.

You see, I had a reputation in the school. One that I was hoping to maintain. People feared me. They moved aside when I walked past and hurriedly looked away if they caught my eye. I liked that. It meant I didn't need to speak to them.

And of course, I got my reputation for a reason, but also it was fuelled by the usual high school gossip. Yes, sometimes I came to school with cut up hands, but whereas they often linked it to some gang related violence they'd heard about, it was in fact from the bare knuckle fighting I sometimes did for money. And yes, I beat up a few people at school, but they were dicks and always had it coming.

Contrary to popular belief, I didn't hurt people like Elijah. Yes, I may occasionally scare them into getting my way, but I'd never hurt them. Hell, one punch from me on that weak chin, and I'd probably kill him!

But still, he couldn't possibly know that, so why wasn't he just giving me the answers like everyone else would?

I'd been so caught up in my thoughts that when the bell rang, I'd still not written a single word.

"Make sure you have the questions finished for next lesson," Mr Roberts called out as everyone began to leave the classroom.

I turned back to Elijah, and was shocked to see an empty chair next to me.

"The little shit," I mumbled before grabbing my bag and shoving my stuff in as I ran out of the door.

I quickly scanned the mass of bodies walking down the corridor, but couldn't see him anywhere.

I grabbed hold of a boy with glasses. "Where did Elijah go?" I growled at him.

His eyes went wide and he began to tremble in my grip. Some random noises came out of his mouth, none of which made sense, so I immediately let go and shouted at the rest of them.