Love, Hate and the Line

Chapter 7

"So, are you going to tell me what exactly you were doing with Ben Ashford during Chemistry yesterday?"

I clutched my books tighter to my chest and rolled my eyes at my best friend, Owen. "Hello to you too, O."

"Oh come on, spill some beany beans!" he pleaded.

I chuckled. "There are no beans to spill."

"Ugh, as if," he muttered.

"Seriously? You're quoting Clueless now?"

He blushed slightly, his dark skin obscuring most of the red creeping on his cheeks. "Yeah, well, I miss Oliver and we watched that together so.."

I felt sorry for him. His boyfriend of two years, Oliver, had been sent to go to military school when his parents found out he was gay. Both Owen and I worried about him, being fairly sensitive, and especially Owen couldn't wait for him to come back.

"I'm sorry, O. Just tell me if there's anything I can do for you."

He shrugged. "What you could do is tell me how Ben looks shirtless.."

"And how exactly would I retrieve such intel?"

"Why, you sleep with him of course."

I nearly choked on the granola bar I was eating. "What the bell, O?"

"Oh come on girl, you're hot, just admit it. He couldn't get his eyes off of you when he stepped in that chem lab. Besides, it's high time you get rid of that everlasting V-card of yours."

My cheeks turned beet red. "Okay, first of all, you're gay so I'm not going to take anything you tell me about my supposed 'hotness', for lack of a better word, seriously. Secondly, you know I'm not planning to.. engage in any relationship of a romantic kind any time soon, to put it a little more eloquently than 'lose my V-card'.
Lastly, you were probably ogling him so much that he just had to avert his eyes and they accidentally landed on me."

To be honest, it wasn't completely impossible that he was looking at me that way. Thing is, if he was, it wouldn't be because he thought I was hot, but rather because I was the girl that had mouthed him and his father off mere minutes ago. I hadn't told Owen what happened and I wasn't planning to. He would certainly confront Ben, and while I appreciated him being protective over me, I didn't want him to get hurt.

I took in a deep breath. "Anyway, O, I have be at the library in two minutes."

He pouted. "You're no fun, I thought we would hang out. What do want to do at the library, anyway? It's not like there's anything left for you to read.."

"Uhh, yeah, I'm just going to uhh,-"

"You're meeting up with Ben, aren't you?" he said suspiciously.

I sighed. "Yes, but-"

"Oh my god, I knew it, you're totally going for it, aren't you?" he squealed.

"No, I'm not, I have to tutor him."

Owen looked disappointed. "Well, charming him over Kirchov's laws of Physics and periodic tables might be a little challenging, but I know you can do it, babes!" he said, strolling away.

I rolled my eyes and muttered: "But I'm not even attracted to him.."

Yeah, just keep repeating that.

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I stepped in the library at exactly two minutes past one. I was surprised to see that there were literally no people at the library. It wasn't a secret that most pupils didn't spend a lot of their time at the library, but there weren't any librarians present either.

Looking around the huge, beautiful library, I saw Ben sitting in a far corner, having a seemingly heated discussion on the phone.

His strong jaw was clenched and his hands were balled in fists at his side. Everytime he moved his arm up to take the phone in his other hand, his muscles flexed. His soft Levi's jeans fitted him perfectly, and the black, short-sleeved shirt he was wearing hinted at the defined muscles of his torso. Of course, he was the only freaking person allowed to choose what he wore rather than being forced to wear the stupid school uniform which had cost me two month's pay.

I resisted the urge to slap myself for fawning over his physique like all the other girls in this school and looked at my feet, clutching my books tightly to my chest as I walked over to him.

"You better goddamn fix this because I'm not going to do shit. There's a reason all of this is mine and you better not fucking ruin everything I've done the past two years." Beep.

He threw his phone on the table, looking extremely agitated and looked down so that his eyes would meet mine. He was ridiculously tall and, for some reason, I had gotten the short genes in the family, so I had to bend my neck to look at him. I was met by his piercing stare, though, inspecting every detail of my face. Self-consciously, I blushed and looked down.

"Uhm, we had a tutoring.. appointment?" I stuttered.

He coughed and seemed to gather himself from whatever had caused him to be distracted.

"Yeah, I cleared out the library so we could have some space. Let's just start, I'm in a hurry." he said, his voice deep.

I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean, you cleared this library out?"

"There were very little pupils here and I just told the librarian that she would lose her job if she didn't get lost in a matter of minutes," he shrugged.

"You threatened Mrs. Delaney?! Why would you do that!" I hissed. I realised that I didn't have to whisper anymore since there were no librarians to shout at you when you were making too much noise, but old habits die hard.

He looked even more agitated than he had been before. "For god's sake, what does it matter? Sit down and explain me this bullshit or I might just make a trip down to the principal's office."

I contemplated denting his face with my Physics books. Some quantummechanics should wipe that arrogant look on his face.

I hated the fact that he had threatened both Mrs. Delaney and me. It never occurred to some people that a whole lot of money on the bank didn't give them the right to just order people around like that.

Nevertheless, he was right that he could make my scholarship (and with that all the plans I had for the future) go poof and I wasn't going to ruin everything I'd achieved so far out of spite.

The corner of his mouth tilted arrogantly. He held a lot of power over me and he knew it.

So, I quit glaring at his maddeningly handsome face and I sat down. Through clenched teeth, I stated: "Open your books and tell me what the lack of grey matter inside your skull is unable to understand."

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A/N

Hey guys,

A brand-new, shiny update for ya! Please please please help me out here and go back a couple of chapters to vote and/or comment. This chapter is for mary_vlopes and bahja1001 because they are so supporting with voting and all.

Love,
M