Page 99 of Spearcrest Knight

His voice, deeper than I’ve ever heard it, sounds like a man’s, not a boy’s. It fills the cavernous space beneath the vaulted ceilings. Without question or complaint, everyone in the study hall grabs their books and bags and scrambles towards the door.

Then, there’s just silence, and me, and Evan, facing each other across the bleak space of the study hall.

31

Dirty Liar

Evan

Sophie’shairisgatheredback in a strict ponytail, and with her dark glasses and white school shirt, she looks like the poster girl for academic excellence. She looks sophisticated, elegant—beautiful. I’m devastated to realise that even though it’s only been a few days, I’ve missed her.

But wanting Sophie and being angry at her are all mingled up, sending pure fire through my veins. Seeing her only whips my anger into a fervour. I cross the space between us in a few strides.

Before I can say anything, she glares up at me and exclaims, “You can’t talk to people like that!”

“I can if I want to, and I just did,” I retort. “What are you gonna do, report me for not minding my fucking manners?”

Her lips stretch into a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “That’s more your style, don’t you think?”

“I’ve apologised for that, though! What more do you want?”

I’m standing in front of her, practically towering over her, and yet I still somehow feel completely helpless.

“I didn’t want your apology then, and I don’t want anything from you now,” she says frostily. “So get out of my face and enjoy the rest of your life.”

Her gaze slides off me as if she’s dismissing me. She looks down at her exam paper as if her work is the only thing in the room. I reach down and snatch the paper from under her pen.

She looks up with a frown and a grimace. “What did you do that for?”

“I’ve not come here to be ignored!”

“Too fucking bad! I have work to do and you’re an unwelcome, unneeded and undesired distraction.”

She springs to her feet to grab the paper from my hand, but I yank my arm out of her reach. Now she’s standing, her anger a mirror to mine.

“Give it back,” she bites out.

“Why did you quit tutoring?”

The question spills out of me, uncontrollable. It’s been eating away at me since I found out. It devoured me the whole time it took me to come here and confront her.

“You don’t care about tutoring!” she explodes, her rough voice rougher the louder she gets. “You don’t care about your grades at all, you don’t care about anything but your stupid self and I'm sick and tired of wasting my time on you!”

“How is it a waste of time if I’ve been improving?”

“Doing decently in one exam doesn’t mean you’re improving—you’re just too stupid to realise everyone just sucks up to you because they’re scared of your parents!”

Heat rises in my cheeks. “Mr Houghton’s never sucked up to me. I got those grades because you helped me, and I’m improving, and—”

“If you wanted to improve, you’d be pulling your finger out and actually doing some work for once!”

“I have, though! I’ve done all the work you set me!” I stare at her, my heart beating so fast I almost have to catch my breath. “I don’t get where this is coming from?”

“Oh, you don’t?”

She side-steps the desk, standing right in front of me, looking up at me with total disdain twisting her face.

“Could it be coming from the fact that you’ve been making my life hell all these years? Or could it possibly be because you force me to waste my time tutoring you while you spend all your lessons fucking about? Or, I don’t know, could it be because you’re a shit person and you cost me my fuckingjob?”

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