Lionheart

Chapter 1

                Hundreds of cool water droplets cause the library’s glass windows to fog up. It’s just as cold from the air-conditioning inside. It’s perfect for the smell of artificial air that mingles with the scent of long-varnished wood and books—old and new. Nick breathes in a lungful of the diverse odors in an attempt to calm himself, but he fails miserably upon catching the foul stench of cigarettes and mint.

                “Hey, Nick.”

                He doesn’t spare a glance at the bandaged boy his age sitting across from him. One paragraph, he grumbles internally. Successfully finishing one paragraph in the presence of this noisy and volatile teenager will enable Nick to reach phenomenal heights of tolerance.

                “Nick!”

                Shut. Up.

                Seth Hammond, the boy whose intrusive existence violates Nick’s most treasured personal space slips into the chair to his right at the edge of the table. He rests a gauze-covered cheek on carefully wrapped knuckles, smiling playfully with a cut bottom lip. His finely-shaped eyebrows are relaxed beneath his soft, sable fringe and underneath them his gleaming gray eyes are smiling suspiciously. Nick scoots away with his chair and buries his face between the pages of his book. Seth doesn’t follow.

                “Nicholas Saunders. Talk to me, please?” Seth tries again.

                “I’m attracted to you,” he tells him offhandedly. Nick doesn’t need to look to know that Seth is sporting his signature foxy grin.

               Nick’s grip on his book tightens just the slightest bit. He doesn’t need to be reminded.

 “Good for you,” he says monotonously.

                Seth chuckles, as though what Nick just said is so goddamn amusing. “Then let’s go on a date.”

                “I refuse.” He receives a snigger then, and Nick debates on the impropriety of giving the other side of that pretty face a good, tender punch right now. At that thought, he adopts an unpleasant grimace and shuts the book he’s been trying to read for a while now. He needs to put a stopper on these violent tendencies.  

                Nick stands up, passing a still grinning Seth on his way to the shelf where he found his book. He returns it where with no interruptions, until something snags at the back of his navy blue jacket and tugs. Nick stiffens a little, runs a hand through his dirty blond hair and turns around.

                Seth withdraws like Nick’s jacket is made of acid. For a moment he looks confused; his smile falters, but eventually his expression turns apologetic for a second, then back to its usual, indecipherable state. Ever since Seth first tried to get Nick to fall for him, he’s never touched a part of the boy he’s become so fixated on. Nick doesn’t know if it’s out of respect or if it’s because Seth is playing at something like he always does.

                Fine, then. Nick isn’t so much a douche as to overlook something like this.

                Crossing his arms, Nick stands to his full height. Seth regards him curiously with an innocent tilt of his head, but with a not-so-innocent quirk of his full lips. Still, despite the nauseating innocuousness Seth radiates from time to time whilst maintaining the secrecy that is supposed to come with sensuality and cunning, there is something lurking in those eyes. The tiny bead of sweat that trickles down Seth’s temple confirms this.

                “Why do you want to go out with me so much, huh?” Nick asks, sounding a little too tired for his taste. He really couldn’t give a flying fuck about it, actually.

                Seth’s face brightens up. “Like I said, I’m attracted to you. You’re really interesting and just,” he gives a genuine shrug, “amazing, yeah?”

                “Okay,” Nick finally says.

                Seth raises an eyebrow, grins. “Okay? That seems a bit anticlimactic.”

                Nick gives him a half-assed glare, but leaves the criticism hanging in the air as he turns on his heel and leaves the library. For a moment, Nick actually begins to feel hope that he can go home in peace, but Seth’s loud footsteps race after him, the wooden thuds grating at his nerves.

                “So,” Seth begins, coming up to walk alongside Nick, “does ‘okay’ mean you’ll go on a date with me?”

                Nick shakes his head and turns away. “I didn’t say anything, Seth.”

                Seth beams at him. “That’s the first time you’ve ever said my name.”

                Rolling his eyes, Nick takes his umbrella from the stand located at the right of the library’s double doors. “Whatever.”