Sweet Revenge

Chapter 11

"What is this?!" I shout, grabbing the slip of paper from Ryan's hand. I feel as if I am seconds away from punching a wall, so before I do, I crumple the paper in my hand instead.

    "Wow, you're really mad, huh?" Ryan teases, a chuckle in his voice while looking at my fisted hand. I am not in the mood to joke around with him.

    "Yes, Ryan, I'm mad," I begin, speaking in a cold tone, "Wouldn't you be too if someone decided to joke about your dead best friend?"

    Ryan lifts his hands above his head in a "I didn't do anything wrong" way. In reality, everything he does is wrong. His whole being here right now is wrong.

    "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way, I was just trying to lighten the mood." For a second, he actually looked like he meant the apology and I was going to believe him. Then, I regained my senses. I am not going to get fooled by him.

    "Whatever. You can go home now." I say, my arms crossed against my chest. In reaction, he scrunches his eyebrows in a confused manner.

    "What? I thought you said you wanted help with an assignment. I was ready to help you."

    "Ok, fine. Help me really quickly, and then you can go home." I agree, just to humor him. I crouch down on the floor and grip my MacBook again, opening it to a document for my AP Physics class. The length and content of the assignment intimidated me an extreme amount. Physics was so much simpler when I did it in homeschool with my mom.

    "I don't assume you're any good at Physics, are you?" I ask, hoping he would read the room, say no, and get out of here.

    "Actually, I'm great with numbers." He states, a big grin plastered on his cocky face.

"You are, huh?"

He nods in response, which only makes my fists ball up even more.

"Makes sense, only psychopaths are good with numbers." I respond, a bitter edge in my voice.

"Okay, so first I'm a stalker and now I'm a psychopath." He laughs, shaking his head slightly as the throaty sound comes out.

"I mean, did you or did you not stalk a bunch of girls in our school two years ago?" I ask him a rhetorical question and he flinches.

"Like I told you, that's in the past now. I'm a new person." Something deep inside of me really wants to believe him, but it isn't that simple. He doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to being a decent human being, and I have to be aware of that.

"It doesn't matter. Let's just do this stupid assignment." I shrug, unbothered. The only reason why I'm keeping him around for a little longer is because I would never be able to do this work without him.

I handed him the MacBook and took a few steps toward my bedroom door, until he stopped me.
"Where do you think you're going?" He questions me.

"What do you mean? I'm just getting a snack. You can start working on the assignment for me." I instruct him.

"No, no, no, that's not how this works," He starts, waving his hands, "I'm going to help you with it, not just do the whole thing for you."

"What's the difference?"

"There's a big difference. I'm actually going to show you how to do it so you can learn. Much better, don't you think?" He explains.

"Ugh, no." I definitely do not feel like having Ryan teach me something in a condescending tone while making me feel stupid.

"Didn't you used to have your mom do this all day when you were homeschooled?" Ryan makes a point, slightly rolling his eyes at my reluctance.

"Yeah, but I hated homeschooling." I don't want to overshare my past life to Ryan, so I bite my tongue before I can say anything more.