Rival Lovers

| 010 |

Today was genuine hell.

It started off with the fire alarm in the dorm going off at 6AM. Not a drill, not a false alarm, but someone burning literal popcorn in the dorm next to us. I stumbled out of my bedroom, in my sweatpants and my hair sticking up looking like I had licked a socket.

Only to see Lucas there, fully dressed in a grey hoodie and some baggy black jeans and looking way too smug for this hour of the morning.

"Oh, look." He grinned, taking the cap off his water bottle and taking a sip. "The gremlin woke up. Is it really called a beauty sleep if you wake up looking worse than yesterday?"

"Bite me." I hissed — Jerk. Another horrible way to start off my already horrible morning. 6AM was way too early.

I stomped past him over to the fridge, swinging it open as I huffed and grabbed a granola bar from the opened pack. I remember buying this, and I don't remember eating one. Did that stupid, prepubescent ballsack really eat one of my granola bars after scolding me for wanting to drink his fucking milk?

That was only the beginning, by the time I'd dragged myself to class, I realised I had forgotten my laptop charger. Mrs Maxfield, naturally, chose that exact day to also announce a pop quiz, just another way to absolutely bomb my day.

"Oh, Zara." She said as she handed me back my unfortunate looking paper with a grim smile. "Better luck next time."

What words. Isn't she supposed to be my teacher? Not mocking me with that stupid smile.

But the cherry on top? The cherry was walking into the library for my part time shift at the front desk only to find Lucas already there, sitting in my chair.

What in the hell was he doing here? Now, this wasn't exactly the most ideal part time job. But I needed to get into my teachers good graces a little bit, and it was a good way to pass the time because literally nobody expect nerds sit in here. It's perfect to browse my socials and pretend I'm doing something whenever the librarian comes over to check on me.

So this was my free time, my alone time, my private time. What the hell was that toenail doing here invading my space?!

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, pointing at him like he was a stray dog that had awakened into my territory.

Lucas turned in the chair, turning off his phone. "Oh, great. It's you," He rolled his eyes.

"I work here, you don't." I snapped, crossing my arms.

"Not by choice. Coach said I need 'community service' for missing curfew and tackling Andrews. And my genius teacher, suggested the library. Apparently, shelving books builds character."

I sighed in frustration. Holding back a groan, running a hand down my face. "You? Shelving books? You can barely string together a coherent sentence half the time."

"And yet, I'm still smarter than you." Lucas smirked, setting the stack of books down on the desk with a loud thud.

"I'm going to request hazard pay," I muttered, stepping behind the counter to grab my assignment list for the shift.

"Oh, don't flatter yourself. I'm just here to get this over with," he shot back, leaning casually against the counter like he owned the place.

"Good. Then stay out of my way, and don't even glance at me."

"Well, that's what I'm trying to do. But it's kind of hard to miss the gremlin in the room."

I scoffed, this little prick. "Ha-Ha. Very funny, dickwad." I glared, snatching a book and throwing it at him, it landed on his lap as he grinned.