Play Pretend

9: The Top Dog

9: The Top Dog

Connor Rogers

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Jason snapped at me the second we entered the FBI building. I fiddled with my hair and kept silence, feeling anger still sizzling inside me.

“Do you remember why we were there?” Jason continued his assault, “we’re supposed to befriend Erik to get information off him, not flirt with his girlfriend and tick him off!”

“I wasn’t flirting with her,” I mumbled, “I saw her by the bar and tried to make her loosen up so she would chat with me. It was part of the plan to get information off her.”

“Well, it completely backfired, didn’t it?!” Jason scowled, “now you pissed Xavier off, making it that much harder to get close to him again!”

“Hey, Jase,” Leila came up to us, “lay off the guy. He was just doing his job.”

“And failed miserably, Lei,” Jason shot back quickly, “and it’s our job to put this mess back on track.”

“I’m sorry, okay?” I raised my voice, “won’t happen again.”

Jason was about to open his mouth to lecture me again, but seeing the sour expression on my face, I think he caught the message that I was in a much fouler mood than he was. So he stayed silent and allowed me to leave.

That night I couldn’t sleep. Every time I tried closing my eyes, an image of flowing brunette hair, sparkling green eyes would appear in my mind, and immediately I had to pry my eyes open again. I sighed, staring up at the ceiling.

Eleanor Kings…

Eventually, sleep finally conquered my thoughts and I drifted off into a deep, uneasy sleep.

After that incident, I avoided Eleanor like the plague, but the more I tried to escape her, my eyes seemed to catch her gaze even easier than before. We crossed path in the cafeteria, passed each other several times along the corridors, and even had the same Dance lessons.

On the other hand, I tried my best to tune back to like Erik. It was difficult though, whenever I was in a ten foot radius within his space, he would shoot me a glare that would easily send me six feet under. Jason told me to bear with it though, and I did, simply because I didn’t want to lose my job again. I couldn’t afford to.

One day, Logan Frazer, one of Erik’s friends, came up to me and told me that Erik wanted a word with me. I nodded, frowning slightly, and followed him to the back of the school, where Erik himself, along with Jason, Leila, Max and TJ, was waiting.

“S’sup,” I said casually, moving to stand with Jason.

“I just had a word with Jacob,” Erik nodded at the Asian, “and I understand what you did the other day. You didn’t know she was taken right?” I nodded reluctantly under Jason's hard stare. “Then I guess that’s understandable. She should’ve said she was taken herself though.” He muttered something about punishing. My eyes widened.

“Hey, it wasn’t her fault,” I defended, “I mean, I wasn’t exactly flirting with her. I was just, you know, chatting and stuff.”

“She still should’ve mentioned it,” Erik snapped. I opened my mouth to retort, but Jason’s elbow connected with my sides, and I knew I was stepping on the boundary.

“Anyways, it’s about time I allow you into the circle,” there was a smirk on Erik’s face, almost as if we should’ve begged at his feet, thanking him for letting us be in ‘the circle’. I held back my scowl.