Cold and Charisma (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Seven

I thought of something—anything—to get him to stay just a bit longer.

"Wait—!" 

I called out, making sure to catch his attention before he could stand up from his seat. "What?!" He shot back, his voice laced with annoyance, his face mirroring his tone with a grimace.

"Do you want the answers?" I blurted out the first thing that came to mind in my attempt to keep the conversation going, even if it was a bit mundane.

 "Do you think I'm dumb?" What?! He completely twisted my words! I widened my eyes at his defensive response.

Of course, he interpreted my offer as an insult to his intelligence. Why didn't I think before I opened my mouth? I quickly put my hands up in defense, eyes wide, scrambling to defuse the tension. 

"No—! No, of course not. That's not what I meant—" Riley cut me off abruptly, his eyes shooting daggers at me from below.

"Shut up, that's exactly what you meant. Do you think you're better than me?" His voice rose with each word, anger simmering beneath the surface.

"What?!" I furrowed my eyebrows, frustrated that he was taking my words out of context. "No! Not at all! I was only offering because of the workload Mrs. Wilkins gave us!" The grimace on his face persisted despite my attempts to explain.

Riley shot me a glare, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Wow, offering answers because you think I'm dumb? How considerate of you." I pinched the bridge of my nose in aggravation—how did he manage to find fault in everything I said?

"That's not what I meant, Riley," I stood up as he slung his backpack over his shoulder, mirroring his movement. I continued frantically, "I just wanted to help you out a bit, since you were struggling in class a little—"

Riley interrupted sharply, his eyes narrowing with skepticism. "Oh, now you're trying to be my knight in shining armor?" His tone dripped with sarcasm, and I felt a pang of frustration. I hadn't meant to offend him; I was genuinely trying to help.

When Mrs. Wilkins assigned the homework earlier, I noticed how Riley tensed up. I watched as he erased his answers repeatedly, clearly frustrated. I only wanted to lend a hand, not make matters worse.

I knew I'd give him the answers somehow– no matter how I did it. I moved dangerously close to him, only inches away from his face. 

Riley immediately tensed up, not expecting for me to move so close. He stood his ground though, and I could see that he was trying his best to keep the same, hateful glare on his face. I looked right back at him, a smile of admiration on my face as I looked down at him.

Riley looked up at me, eyebrows furrowed, face scrunched, with a glare that showed me just how much he didn't like me. But instead of the same, relaxed, nonchalant attitude of hatred that he usually had, his body was much more tense. 

His body didn't hold the same dismissive mannerisms like the last few times we talked, he seemed almost frozen in place at our proximity.

The once frantic, panicked, look on my face was replaced by a growing grin as I noticed this.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it was obvious to anyone that Riley Lachkov was nervous.

And it was all because of me.

"Riley, look, you're right, I'm sorry about that," I made sure to keep eye-contact with him, with my grin never faltering, as I continued to speak. I could see that he was tempted to look away, but I knew how stubborn he could be. And I knew that he wouldn't do it, no matter how much I stared into his eyes.