Go Against Destiny ✓

destiny 02

Throughout his dating life, Sky had only been with the opposite gender. All his twenty-five years, he had assumed he was straight.

It was with that expectation that he thought it was an awful prank when he walked into the faculty room and found another man at the end of his own string.

It was for that reason that he had been too frustrated to stop himself from blurting out, "I like women."

He had not meant to come off as an asshole. But fate had been messing up his romance for so long that he had had enough of its jokes.

It was a second later that he realized he might have taken his disappointment out on the wrong person. He had figured out while getting closer to him earlier that they might be the same, that this guy might also have the ability to see the invisible strings, judging by the way his gaze had kept flicking between their little fingers. On that account, he too might have been despairing at the hands of this absurdity for years.

Sky wanted to apologize, but the words of regret died on the tip of his tongue as he watched a flare of emotion flash in the person's light brown eyes. It definitely wasn't a glint of amusement, but more like a spark of irritation.

"Good for you," he said, his tone too pleasant to be genuine, while a corner of his mouth curled up into a smile. Courteous but icy.

The guy turned his head away from him and opened the desk drawer to reveal a few old stationery items that were probably left behind by the former owner.

Not bothering to move away, Sky regarded the guy who started to take things out of the drawer. Boxes of staples and empty ballpoint pens clattered as they got sorted on the table.

It went on for about a minute until his hand stopped moving and the rustles came to a halt.

All pretense of politeness had been abandoned when the new faculty member faced the assistant professor. Raising a perfectly lined brow, he asked, "Do you need something else? Are you perhaps waiting for me to applaud you for, I don't know, being into women?"

Sassy. Sky had never imagined he would be hiding this much willfulness under his delicate appearance when he had chanced upon him gaping at his arrival. This guy was obviously a head shorter, yet he had no problem staring him down.

Deciding not to fight fire with another, Sky diverted the subject. "You're the new instructor, aren't you? Can I get your name?"

A sigh came along with a roll of his eyes. "John Paul Nieves. What are you going to do with it, Mr. De Vera? Report me to your grandmother and father?"

Intrigue caused a brow of his own to shoot up. So this John Paul Nieves had prior knowledge about him. The fact that it didn't daunt him at all only piqued his curiosity about the guy.

Sky took a moment to give him a once-over before his eyes settled back on his unimpressed expression. John Paul Nieves really had a soft feature that even his deep scowl had failed to mask.

"You can see them too, can't you?" Sky asked, dodging the other man's question for the second time, "These ridiculous strings."

"I certainly can," John Paul answered; his words were curt, but the intensity in his gaze seemed to ask, 'So what?'

"I just want you to know now that I don't believe in this whole destiny nonsense, and I don't have any plans to go along with it."

"Fair enough. Then, let's just both agree to pretend that these things don't exist."

Surprised by the response, Sky frowned. "You're not going to debate it?"

A mirthless smirk crossed the young instructor's mouth as he scrutinized Sky through narrowed eyes.