The cut that always bleeds - materialrolls

part 11

Nina held her breath hoping some new chair would fall out of the sky so Evan would have to sit there but much to her anger, nothing of the sort happened. Evan hesitantly walked over to the chair next to Nina; his expression full of every kind of negative emotion a human was capable of feeling. He reluctantly sat next to her, not facing towards her once. Fine, she thought, I won't look towards him either. So they sat in the most awkward way possible for two people to sit in, backs to each other and their disgust represented by raggedy breaths. Nina swore she saw the teacher rolling his eyes at them.

'Today, class, we have a project where you will have to work in groups of two. The person sitting next to you will be your partner, I don't get paid enough to actually pick people out for you', the teacher said, frustrated with the task of dealing with moody teenagers. 'You have to write a collaborative essay about the effects of propaganda through every day social media. Need your finished work by the end of this period.'

Everyone rapidly started discussing their ideas to pen them down soon but between the two, there was only silence. For some strange reason, it wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, but it was infuriating for the both of them. As the clock kept ticking away, so did their chances to do well on this essay.

'Look, Nina, I need an A on this essay so there's not much we can do right now', Evan said, finally turning towards her.

'Of course all you care about is your stupid A but fine, it isn't like I have a choice anyway', Nina rolled her eyes.

They picked up their pencils, tension thickening with every second in the air between them. Nina envied how effortlessly Evan could ace his assignments, for her it took extreme hard work and even then she wasn't doing as well as him. She let out a sigh and looked towards him when he started brainstorming ideas for the essay. Nina was half listening and half seething with irrational anger. She noticed how the sunlight fell on his sharp features and excessively emo haircut.

'Nina! Nina, are you listening? What are you staring at?', Evan half yelled at her.

Snapping out of her trance of hatred and confusion, she faced him.

'You're so boring, Evan. It isn't my fault I get distracted so easily', she shot at him.

'Well, it isn't my fault your attention span is shorter than a goldfish's either,' he replied, crossing his arms and pouting.

Nina noticed Evan started looking at him in utter confusion and she realized it was because... she was smiling.

'Never thought you had it in you to smile, Nina', Evan said, half terrified.

'Oh come on, you look so idiotic in your little toddler pose. Crossed arms and all', she replied, trying her best to look intimidating.

'If you're trying to look intimidating, just wanted to let you know you're failing miserably', Evan laughed.

Nina noticed his laugh was uneven and he stopped for pauses to breathe at different intervals. He chuckled like someone who didn't care what other people thought of his unusual laugh. She wished she was like that too but she had to suppress her laugh most of the time, mostly scared of how her friend group would make fun of it. She recalled Ray's laugh, elegant, cute and perfect.

'Nina, are you okay?', Evan asked, suddenly concerned because of Nina's even scarier expression.

'Fine. Now let's get on with this essay', she hurried, changing the subject.

The two of them shared their ideas and managed to agree on some points, though it took extreme patience to actually listen to the other. Ten minutes before the class ended, they were done with what they considered a pretty well written essay.

'Well, Emo Evan, we might have worked together on this essay but this doesn't change anything', Nina stated, trying to convince Evan, and herself, that everything between them was mostly the same.

'You don't have to remind me, Nora', Evan replied in the same tone as her, smirking.

Nina handed the teacher the essay and walked towards the door to leave. As she stood in the doorway, she turned towards Evan to say one last thing.

'It's Nina, asshole.'