Lionheart

Chapter 3

Mallory sticks a tongue out when the blonde upperclassman is no longer looking. She glances at the slowly deflating cutie sitting beside her. Although Mallory can't see the way he's gazing at the slowly disappearing boy (who the heck walks so fucking slow?), she can tell how he's feeling by the way his shoulders are slumped and the way his chest rises and falls slowly, but deeply like he's exhausted.

"Hey," she says softly, coaxingly, and he regards her with curiosity, "cheer up."

The nice upperclassman sends her a strained, but grateful smile. "What’s your name?"

"My name's Mallory."

He nods once. "Seth."

Mallory tilts her head towards him. "Mr. Super Pissy-Pants is...?"

Seth cracks a tiny grin at that. “His name is Nick. Nicholas Saunders. And I'm sorry about him. He's—“

Mallory raises her hand to interrupt Seth as she sits down once more. "Why are you apologizing for him?" she asks, resting her cheek against her fist as she pivots her waist to get a better view of Seth. "It's not your fault.” He looks at her so gratefully that it kind of makes her embarrassed. She averts her gaze and coughs behind her fist. “So…” she squirms in her seat to get more comfortable. “Have you guys been friends long before you suddenly took an interest in scrotum poles?”

Seth stares at her distractedly, lips lifting to form a partially impressed and partially troubled smile. Mallory gets that look a lot.

                "Scrotum poles?" he repeats finally, unsurely. The way his eyes crinkle slightly hopefully means that he’s trying to hold in his laughter.

Mallory is pleased. "Did you finally decide that you need me in your life?"

The smile from earlier finally turns into a full-blown grin that gives testament to the more sanguine Seth Mallory witnessed earlier. "Yeah, I guess I did." And just like that, Mallory can tell deep within her that this guy just screams “heartbreaker”.

Mallory allows herself a self-satisfied cackle. "Your fate has been sealed, then." No sooner after she says that does she sober adequately to fire another question. "But… can I ask what the deal is with him?" Thankfully Seth seems to feel a tad more at ease around her from what she can tell by that earlier smile. It’s a shock to Mallory how fast Seth can warm up to her, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that she tried to mitigate the earlier situation. Well, regardless of how nice his trust makes her feel, she sorely wishes that he’s not like this with anyone else. He’s lucky Mallory doesn’t have significant ulterior motives.

Seth shakes his head slowly. "We haven't known each other for long... In fact, we didn’t even know each other personally," Seth admits with zero ignominy. "I just went and ask him out on a date without even thinking whether he's homophobic or just isn't interested."

"He doesn't really look homophobic," Mallory pitches in, and Seth nods in agreement. "Yeah, he doesn't. It's the way he just is. He looks like he doesn't care about anything around him. I've heard from the few ex-girlfriends he had to the people whom he pissed off. The more I heard, the more I wanted to see for myself. You don't see someone like that every day. Someone who has awesome grades and a pretty nice face normally wouldn't have the attitude of a moody kid who's pissed at everything all the time."

Before Mallory can reply, Seth launches off into another explanation. "You saw, right? Nick's got an ugly temper on him. That's what makes him even more interesting…" Seth trails of unexpectedly, seemingly content with everything that he's said until that point. "That's it. I just want to get to know him and maybe have him all to myself while I'm at it, I guess..." Then, he stops to raise an eyebrow at himself. He turns to Mallory and sighs. “Sorry; that’s kind of weird.”

But Mallory doesn’t care about that shit. Fuck norms. What unsettles her is just how naïve Seth is. Where do vulnerable guys like this spring from? She’s a little bit afraid for him, but Seth is a rare, beautiful find. And he's amazing, too, for liking such a shitfaced ingrate like Nick when he probably deserves a lot better.

And when she and Seth part ways after a lengthy and trivial conversation during their purportedly long walk to the school's parking lot, Mallory understands that she really, really wants to see how things turn out between Seth and Nick.

Mallory types in Seth's contact name, Dreamy Bum Bandit, which she thinks is inconveniently long, but incredibly accurate. Swelling with pride, she reaches over her own shoulder to pat herself in the back. Next up is Nick.

She receives a call as she continues to mull over possible nicknames. The caller ID says "Desperate Junior". Mallory finds herself grinning as she picks up. The guy's desperate for a girl, but he's pretty good-looking and funny (unintentionally so) and quite possibly gay—now that she thinks about it, she can learn a few more things from him using her feminine wiles and naturally assistive (favor-garnering and guilt-tripping) habits.

"Mal! Spaghetti!" her mother hollers from the kitchen on the first floor. Mallory sits up like a hungry animal, which she technically is, and bolts out of her bedroom. The phone is left vibrating on her bed.