Lionheart

Chapter 16

              Classes were to resume in ten minutes, and because Nick's Maths teacher is an absolute dick, he took it upon himself to leave the library without so much as a look at Seth and Mallory.

At least, that was how he hopes it went; instead he found himself giving Seth the tiniest of nods when the boy waves goodbye with a bright grin plastered on his face. The blonde ambles to the exit, grumbling under his breath. He's getting pretty sick of this programmed courtesy, but Nick knows perfectly well that he can't get out of it.

"Wait!" comes a furious whisper from behind Nick. A colorful blur slips beneath the arm holding one of the blue doors open and stops to stand before him. Of course it's Mallory, but Nick closes the door behind him and dodges the little pain in the ass.

"Are you pissed?" Mallory asks, but for once she doesn't sound like she's throwing her weird, manipulative shit at Nick. The kid sounds genuinely curious, but Nick almost snorts at the question, anyway.

Mallory seems to catch on to Nick's silence and develops a dry demeanor. "Right...okay, that was a stupid question. Why'd you just walk out like that?"

Nick makes a sharp turn to the hallway where his locker should be, and Mallory struggles with juggling speech and catching up to Nick's larger strides. It should be funny any other day; Nick can just start walking briskly and Mallory would just have to decide between following him around all day and telling him whatever it was she wanted to say. However, it is more appealing to allow Mallory a few words in. After she gives her piece, they can go back to ignoring each other.

Mallory appears to notice the lag in Nick's steps. It seems to help when she sighs, relieved. They've developed a rather leisure pace of walking, until Nick chooses to stand beside a window in a hallway that is nearly devoid of students. The hallway of the teachers' faculty room is always quieter.

"Here...?" Mallory begins to hesitate, and for a while her eyes glaze over. Nick has to snap his fingers to get her out of the impromptu trance.

The sophomore shakes herself out of the brief reverie. "Yeah, so. D'you see that?"

Nick raises his eyebrow. Mallory rolls her eyes.

"Jesus. Do you ever talk? I'm talking about Seth and Adam."

Yes. Of course Nick saw it. At that time, Mallory was trying desperately to get Nick's attention. In the interest of pissing Mallory off, Nick could very well sense when she was looking in his direction. When she stopped, of course Nick had to gloat when she wasn't looking. Of course it just had to be the exact time when Seth laughed, eyes curved and voice pitched just so that the noise could be equally noticeable and subtle at the same time. Seth hadn't noticed Nick, and neither did Adam, which was possibly why Seth still leaned in, eyes half-lidded and lips curved up teasingly to one side in an enigmatic smirk as he whispered lowly into Adam's ear—

Nick frowns. Mallory does the same.

"Aren't you curious?" she prods him. The midget of a demon actually looks human for once as she fights to get a grasp on what Nick might be thinking. He brushes her away.

"It's none of our business," he tells her. Days ago, this would have sounded convincing—Nick truly would have believed himself, but—

"Is it really, though? If anything, you're kind of involved, y'know? Seth really, really likes—"

Nick shakes his head. "You can't be serious. He can't be serious." They don't know each other. How many times does Nick have to shove this in their faces? He's getting a little bit sick of wasting his time on trying to be concerned about Seth's advances and what every word he says might mean. Every gesture of kindness, every smile, and every whatever Seth did doesn't have to be a manifestation of his roman—not platonic feelings for Nick. Seth can mess around with whomever he wants.

Again, Mallory rolls her eyes. Nick looks at his watch. Six minutes left.

"You're a real shit, you know that?" Mallory scoffs at him almost derisively.

It's Nick's turn to roll his eyes. "So are you, you know that?" he fires back... except, Mallory is an even bigger shit, but he's not about to resort to that behavior. "If you have nothing important to say, I'm leaving."

"No!" Mallory whines. She grabs a hold of Nick's shoulders and starts to shake him. "Listen to me!"

Nick slaps her arms off, with deep grimace. "Jesus. What now?" The nerve of this kid.

"You gotta talk to Seth about it! I don't know why he's acting like that. I don't think he's trying to get you jealous but isn't it really weird? Do you want him to chase after you and see him act that way with Adam?"

Can the ceiling fall and crush him now? He's been waiting for weeks. "How many times do I have to—"

Mallory punches Nick's arm. He doesn't budge, but neither does she. "If you really, really don't believe Seth has a colossal crush on you, just fuckin' ask the guy. Be a man!"

At this point, Nick Saunders is at a complete loss. How does one handle a kid this disrespectful? Just what is her deal? How does she factor into all of this? How can someone be so goddamn meddlesome? Nick has four minutes to get to class, but he is seriously contemplating a visit to the clinic for some painkillers. If he's lucky, he can get a few hours of sleep in if he's not up to skipping the rest of the day entirely.

He sighs. "Just go, Mallory."

A/N: In which Nick is 130% done.