The Middleman | ongoing

1 | definitely gotta blast

1 | definitely gotta blast

Song: Babe Ruthless by Angel Haze 

Depicted Above: Deepika Padukone as Leia Kar

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"Uh... I think you dropped your hit-list..."

The half sheet of paper was now held in between my hands. My eyes quickly and discreetly scanned the list of about twenty names.

What the hell could this even be? Why were some names marked out with red pen?

I reached out my hand to the notorious and infamous loner of our school, Quinn Carter. My intentions were to return the sheet back, but so many questions plagued my mind, and I instead chose to retract my arm.

Hesitantly, I plopped down in the Starbucks window seat across from Carter. My actions didn't just surprise myself. Carter's eyes widened a little in annoyance, somewhat in confusion, and quite a lot in surprise.

"So... you're awfully young for a killer... and much too educated?" I drawled out.

What the hell was I actually doing?

Making small talk with a potential serial killer? Times like this I couldn't understand why the fuck I was so ballsy.

Carter's eyes gleaned and his tight-lipped deadpan from earlier quirked into a mischievous yet very dangerous smirk. Dangerous not just because he was a possible murderer, but also because the gesture was doing really weird things to me. When paired with that black bomber jacket, snug white shirt with clipped on aviators, crazy sexy mussed up hair, and the fact that my heart was already beating in sheer fright, I was on my way to a hospital. Soon.

I shrugged off his physical attractiveness or at least attempted to and cleared my head.

"You think I'm a bounty hunter?" He closed the lid of his laptop and leaned in closer into the table.

"Well, it's not exactly a grocery list now is it?" I quipped back though it may not have been in my best interest.

"Anddd... you're right. You couldn't exactly find this," he lazily motioned to the sheet of paper in my hands, "at our neighborhood Walmart now, could you?" he questioned.

I ignored the question. "So what's this list about, huh?"

"Give it back to me why don't you, huh?" He cocked his head and mocked back.

"Nah, I'm good... I think I'll hold onto this, yeah? Sound good with you?"

He scoffed in annoyance, but I defiantly stared into his deep chocolate brown eyes.

"What do you want? Coffee? Money? Name your price for it."

Like I could be bought.

What did I look like to him? A politician?

"Sounds pretty important... this list. Don't get your panties in a twist, hun. All I wanna know is what it's about." I took my time answering, leaning my body back into the chair and stretching a little with as much false bravado as I could muster.

His eyes flashed, not in annoyance however, but more as if he was contemplating telling me. But that was only for a second. Actually a second might even be dragging it.

"No deal, anything else you want in exchange, though?" he fired back.

"Nah, not really... guess I'll hold onto this. Nice talk, loved this little heart to heart, but I gotta leave." I flashed my eyes at my phone. "Yep, definitely gotta blast."

"Hey, hey, hey... that's mine. I'd like it back please."

"Shouldn't have dropped it on the floor, dude. Finders keepers sound a bit familiar?"

Maybe I shouldn't have been so catty as he got more annoyed by the second, but it was all a joke.

I really didn't mean it in a rude way. Anyone who knew me knew that.

But then again... Quinn didn't know me. Hell, he probably didn't even know my name. He probably didn't even realize we went to the same school—same grade. That's all I knew about him as far. He was the resident lone wolf. He hung by himself. He kept to himself. No one else. And he was quite attractive, dayum.

I left the table managing to minimally scrape the floor with my chair, the sheet and my phone in the same hand as I made my way to the door ready to head back home and finish the rest of my homework fast. I was gonna kill Kevin for making me kill my time here when he didn't even show up to our study date.

I took a look over my shoulder.

Quinn was shaking his head but surprisingly he had a little bit of what could be... a smile playing on his lips?

He wasn't frustrated or annoyed like I predicted and kind of wanted him to be.

What the hell.

Or maybe I had just imagined the slight smile? Nope. I wasn't prone to hallucinations.

Didn't he need this sheet? Whatever. Guess I'd have fun with this.

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a/n: hey guys. first chapter here. i hope this piqued some curiosity as to what the list is and you got a sense of the characters.

this is my first piece of work on wattpad so i dunno i hope this is good. i've read some really great books on wattpad and was inspired to kind of get my thoughts down on paper. it's definitely a damn hard task, but a little grind is always worth the output, right? my intent is to explore all sorts of emotions in this book and hopefully ones that ya'll can relate to. one of the best feelings is being able to connect to something on a deeper level.

i also plan on making my characters diverse, not just in personality but also in background. there's definitely a lack of equal representation in media so i really want to help make a difference in that area. for example, leia kar, is indian-american and the protagonist of this story.

i chose "babe ruthless" by angel haze as the song as it really depicts leia. she's kickass and doesn't take shit. she's ballsy and will put up a hard bargain as seen here and she's really a strong character.

also you guys may have noticed that my cast list is basically contradicting itself by saying "whoever you prefer" for the characters and then literally providing a cast. the cast i put up is who i envision playing and really depicting the roles. for the most part the characters look like the cast, with exceptions of more insignificant details. if you personally feel someone else is a better fit you can use whoever you feel like. that's why the "whoever you prefer" as the cast part is the first thing on the list.

i could just state that in the author's note here, but not everyone reads the author's note, and also i want ya'll as readers to be aware that you have the ultimate choice to imagine the story as how you want it concerning those details.

comment and vote ya'll thanks!