I Hate You

-7-

Heather was catching up on notes in her business class when she heard someone sit next to her. "Um, excuse me, but I have two desks to myself. I don't have a desk partn-" she cut herself off when she saw it was Alejandro. "WHAT do you think you're doing here sitting next to me?! You're not even in this class!"

"I know. I dropped the later class and picked this time up. It's such a lovely coincidence that you're in here too, chica." She gritted her teeth, gripping onto her pencil. "Whoa, be careful not to break that."

She let go of the writing utensil and took a deep breath. She knew there was no other open seat in the classroom he could take because everyone else had a partner. No one wanted to sit by her.

"You have neat handwriting. I bet you excel in English."

"I bet you excel at nothing."

"Heather, I thought you were above petty comebacks." No, I'm not! She glared daggers.

Alejandro got out his notebook and flipped to the tab marked with the week's dates. "Tabs for every week? Who even does that?" Heather mocked.

"I like to keep everything organized. And I know we read a new chapter every week. That way, it's easier to study."

Ugh, that's brilliant! "Well, that's way too much. You're just trying to be a showoff."

"If you insist."

She growled lowly, wanting to kick him from under the table. But the professor walked in and began the lesson. She forced herself to focus on the class instead of that rock-hard, walking prime rib of a-JERK FACE! He's a jerk. A jerk. Nothing more.

Towards the last fifteen minutes of the lesson, everyone was assigned a presentation due in three weeks. The task was to come up with a business and advertise it. And, of course, they were grouped by desk partners.

Heather was enraged. As if the day wasn't already sucky enough. "How should we split the work?" Alejandro asked.

"I don't know! Why don't you make a tab for that in your organized notebook?"

"I do not have enough of those for that. But maybe we could brainstorm in that cute notebook of yours." He smirked charmingly, referring to her kitten notebook.

She held her notebook up to her chest. "How about we come up with something the last few minutes of class, so we don't have to do any work out of school and get this over with?"

"Heather, good projects take time. You should know this after years of schooling."

Her eye twitched. "I know they take time, Alejandro. But I don't want to spend any more time with you than I already have to in this stupid class."

"I don't want to spend time with you either, but we must. I would very much like to get an A on this project. Especially since it counts towards my major."

"Let me guess; you're majoring in prostitution?"

He clenched his jaw. She made him so furious. Maybe even more so than José. No, José was worse. He was always worse. "...No, psychology."

"Shocker. I thought all those girls were practicing for the interview."

"They're mere steppingstones. And not for my career."

"For what then?"

"For my satisfaction."

"Is that what you enjoy? Breaking girl's hearts? Really?" She laughed. "That's so sad. I bet you have, like, a ton of STDs."