Chapter Three

The cafeteria was bustling as always, and students streamed in and out of it. Ria settled onto a seat alone. She didn't make any friends and mostly kept to herself, because she didn't want her mother to threaten any of them and put them in danger for her sake. She picked on her salad as Declan settled around the bench before her table.

"You know," Declan announced to his friends. "I just saw a dude giving a couple necklace to another dude. Did you guys see that?"

"Yeah, Rick and Edward have been together for ages," his friend replied.

"It's so fucking gross," Declan said. "Gay men are not men. Their dicks aren't working, that's why they're gay."

Her mind flashed to what she had seen not too long ago. Declan, fighting off the advances of her male professor. Suddenly, she understood why he had uttered those words, but it was probably lost on his friends.

"Oh," his friend said awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess."

"That necklace had a clover for a pendant. Like those for women," Declan said. "So fucking gay."

"Hey, that's kind of homophobic," his friend said.

"Homophobic, and so what?" Declan challenged. "Gay men are just fucking disgusting."

"Well…"

"Anyway," Declan cut him off, turning around to glare at Ria. "That's one beautiful necklace you have there."

Ria spooned more salad into her mouth. "It's none of your business," she told him.

A twinkle reached his eyes. "Such rebellion," he said. "Who taught it to you?"

Well, not my mother, that's for sure.

Declan got up from his seat and went over to her side. Reaching out, he grabbed onto the necklace around her neck and yanked hard at it. The necklace broke and he pulled it up to the air.

"It looks so ugly," he said. "Like you."

Ria left her seat, trying for the necklace but Declan held it just out of her reach. "Give it back! My dad gave that to me and he's no longer here!"

"Oh, am I spoiling his memory?" Declan mocked, the hand with the necklace high in the air.

Ria jumped up and down, hands extended towards the chain but unable to reach it. "Declan!" She continued aiming for the necklace until her leg caught slightly at his, throwing her body forward. Her hand connected with his chest, and her face neared his. His hot breath touched her cheeks and heat crept into the hand which was on his chest.

Their faces were close. Too close.

Declan looked down at her, eyes running over her parted lips, the expression on his face suddenly feral. Then, as quickly as she had caught that look on his face, he roughly pushed her away in haste.

❃❃❃

Ria penned down a number beside the equal sign and looked through her working before she scribbled out the number at the bottom. No, this wasn't right. She crumpled the paper up and threw it aside to take another paper out. She wrote the question at the top again and attempted to solve it, but nothing came out of it.

This was not another question where there was no answer, right?

What's with those kinds of questions anyway? Wouldn't it be better if every question had an answer to it? What kind of answer was 'No Answer'? She scribbled more numbers and symbols down the lines of her paper before she stopped herself. No, she just made a mistake. She scratched everything out with a pencil and moved down the lower half of the paper before it struck her. She was completely stuck! She had no idea how to solve this question -

Lawson.

She turned to the seat next to her. He was leaning back in his chair, engrossed in a book in his hands. Should she ask him if he knew how to solve this? She bit her lips and returned her attention to her paper. She slumped forward onto the table, her head in one hand as a sigh of frustration left her. She stared past her shoulder at Lawson again, and he sent her a cursory glance before he looked at his book again, a smile settling onto his lips.

"Lawson," she asked finally. "Can you help me with a question?"

"I thought you'd never ask," he said, setting his book down.

"Actually, nevermind," she said, annoyed that that had been his answer. She moved her paper away from him with a frown. "It's okay."

"Still pretending to be the best student?"

She shot him a look. "I am the best student."

"The scoreboard seems to think differently," he said with a half-smile and she rolled her eyes. "That question is not going to solve itself."

She pushed the paper to him reluctantly. He looked over it, and wrote some numbers down. "Why did you have to transfer? Life at school was easy until you came along."

"I heard that I was the only one who managed to overtake you," he said.

"You were. Not for long though, I promise you."

"We'll see about that."

"Weren't there any other schools you could've transferred to?"

"Well," he said. "Do you want to know why I chose your school?"

"Why?"

"I transferred to this school because of you, Ria."