Lionheart

Chapter 15

                It has been approximately forty-eight minutes since Mallory and Adam stepped inside the school library and commenced their study session. Mallory has an older sister, which may explain why she did not have enough foresight to brace herself from Adam's scathing insults. Really, it wasn't so bad the first twenty minutes; Adam became exasperated the first time Mallory narrowly passed one of his tests—that was supposed to be it. Mallory thought it was okay because Adam apologized. But slowly, Mallory learned, the more Adam apologized, the more he forgot about what he was apologizing about. If someone were to ask her right then and there to make a line graph of the correlation between Mallory's mistakes and Adam's descending levels of patience, she would do it. No questions asked.

But apparently, Mallory's been "investing what little mental prowess she has on stupid, mundane shit" and will therefore eventually be rendered "utterly useless if someone ever needed something from her". In short, Mallory is incapable of doing simple tasks. Her brain is apparently a gift certificate rendered "null and void" from disuse. Is she exaggerating? Perhaps... perhaps not.

Mallory sighs, eyes glazing over as she once again reads the same paragraph she's been told to read for the past ten minutes. She already memorizes the damn thing, but Adam is getting increasingly creative with his insults that she can no longer bear to look for praise. This one time, Mallory dared to watch Adam scrawl impatiently on his fourth piece of paper, only to be met with one of the coldest glares she has ever seen. He raised one of his thick eyebrows (once cute, now rather intimidating) and tapped Mallory's open book with a pen. "If you have time to watch me make another test, you have time to actually cram something—" he reached up and jabbed Mallory's large forehead with the butt of his pen—"right here."

"If I get this one perfect, will you let me talk?" she asks, finally speaking for the very first time since they sat down.

"Assuming you do get it right," Adam mumbles. Mallory gives him a scoff in return.

"You're being really mean. I'm supposed to be helping you."

Adam pauses to consider Mallory's words, but he doesn't even bother lifting his head to truly acknowledge her. "Sure. You're not learning anything." And now, Mallory is finally at a loss. Is this funny? Or should she cry?

"Oh... Adam, you're teaching Mallory. This is...hm..."

Something within Mallory leaps and lodges itself in her throat—her pulsing heart maybe—but she maintains a calm mien, twisting in her wobbly seat to wave at Beautiful Seth Hammonds. He stands by their desk, looking profusely confused and concerned. Mallory spots Nick burying his face in his book just a table away, perhaps already lost in his own world. This is the perfect opportunity to bother him, but goddamn so many things are happening at the same time Mallory doesn't know what to do first.

But because Adam has successfully sucked the life out of her, she settles for basking in Seth's cuteness.

"Hi, Seth," Adam greets quietly. He sounds more timid than Mallory expected him to be, but she chalks it up to his shitty mood.

Seth bites his lip to keep from laughing. He fumbles with his hair before deciding that it is perfectly okay and perfectly normal and perfectly not perfect to push his hair back. Mallory's eyes dart to the two dots on his right temple and holy fucking sweet mango tarts those were the cutest beauty marks she has ever seen and they look aligned as hell. And then he looks at Mallory and smiles genuinely and Mallory nearly chokes because Nick needs to see this.

"How are you holding up, Mallory?"

The question seems to drag Adam back to reality, because he perks up in Mallory's periphery. She glances at him, and he looks downright apologetic. It's adorable and maybe she can forgive him for being an ass.

"Better than his friends, no doubt," she snickers. Then, when Seth turns a bit to regard Adam, Mallory furiously waves her arm to get Nick's attention. He side-eyes her with more sass than an irritated Adam, but it's enough, and Mallory points at Seth, mouthing, "What the fuck come over here you need to see this he's so gor—" until Nick simply disregards her existence altogether.

A chiming laugh draws Mallory's interest back to Seth and Adam. Seth has taken it upon himself to sit at Mallory's right and Adam's left so he could regard all three of them (or perhaps just stare at Nick read without bothering him).

"You're doing pretty good, Mallory! I can't stand fifteen minutes studying with Adam."

The corners of Adam's lips curl up. "Don't exaggerate; you can last as long as Mallory." He looks at her, narrows his eyes slightly and hands over what is hopefully his last test of the day. "I hope you get this right."

Seth snorts adorably, but before Mallory can start fawning, her eyes follow the movement of his right arm. Seth's pale hand curls itself over the back of Adam's neck slowly, almost too intimately that if Mallory weren't so mesmerized by the brazen act, she'd have the decency to look away. With anyone else, it can be seen as a casual display of affection, but something in her stomach churns when Seth assumes no one is looking and leans into Adam's space. Adam, bless his soul, unconsciously chases the warmth of Seth's hand as he divides his attention between Seth and Mallory's textbook. Mallory already feels her jaw unhinging, but she swerves to a different train of thought as she tries her hardest to convey her alarm to Nick.

It's barely noticeable, but Nick's face is carefully blank as he observes Seth and Adam with detached curiosity. He isn't particularly bothered—and Mallory doesn't expect much of him—but the fact that Nick is the slightest bit aware of the two unsettles Mallory.

Mallory is ninety-eight percent sure that nothing is really going on between Seth and Adam, but they certainly have history.

A/N: Too short. I usually struggle with Mallory's chapters but I figured out how she truly fits into the story. I'm also pretty much done with the basic framework so it's okay I guess. I just need more practice writing.