The Quadrants

Chapter 5

In first period, Rohan sat beside Eve in the front row, and he noticed her eyes turn continually towards him. Titus was seated on his other side, dabbing at his still bleeding lip with a tissue. Rohan mused to himself how it must have been killing Eve not to be able to ask what had happened. The teacher had not stopped talking since he and Titus had been escorted into the room part way through the class, following their trip to the school nurse and a grilling from the principle.

"What on earth happened?" Eve hissed, the moment they were set to work on a task from their books. "You both look like you've been hit by a truck. And why is he sitting here, anyway?" A crease set itself between Eve's brows as she threw Titus a disapproving look.

Rohan smiled at her weakly. His face ached in several places, in fact, his whole body ached, and he could especially feel the painful throbbing still coming from between his legs, where Titus had possibly rendered him sterile.

"We had a bit of a disagreement," Rohan whispered back. Eve raised her eyebrows at him. "And now we have to sit together... for the rest of school, till summer vacation."

Eve's mouth dropped open, a look of disgust coming to her face. "What for? So he can beat you up more conveniently?"

"It was that or Mr Jefferies was going to suspend me, and expel him," said Rohan, pointing a thumb in Titus's direction. "It's a kind of enforced friendship thing. But it's only for a week and a half... and if he lays a hand on me, he's out." Rohan said this last part loud enough for the other boy to hear.

Eve glanced around Rohan and frowned when her eyes met Titus's. His hair was messed up and hung across his face, and he grinned at her through his bruises and cuts before giving her a wink. Eve pulled her head back behind Rohan, to block Titus's view. "I'd have taken the suspension," she said matter-of-factly.

Since Eve chose to continue spending her time with her friend, that now meant spending time with Titus, too. The three of them sat in the courtyard outside the staffroom, where the boys had been instructed to pass their breaks for the duration of their sentence. Eve perched on the bench seat beside Rohan, sometimes talking to him, but mostly reading, and trying to ignore the big lump at the other end.

"Whatcha reading, Lawson?" Titus asked, on the second day of their enforced companionship.

"You wouldn't know it," she snapped. "I'm sure you've never read a book in your life."

Titus reached out and snatched the book from her hands, turning it over to see the cover. "Wuthering H..."

"Hey!" Eve sprang up to retrieve her possession, but Titus quickly stood to his full height and held it just out of her reach. He watched with a grin as she jumped around, grabbing for it. "Give it to me."

"Give it back to her, Titus," said Rohan, leaning against the wall and twiddling a leaf in his fingers. Since their fight, Rohan found that Titus no longer intimidated him. He had fought back. Titus had seen his power and now he had felt it, and now Rohan knew, and Titus knew, that he was no sitting duck—no longer a sissy-boy.

Eve stretched up and clasped onto Titus's arm, the one holding the book, and tried pulling it down. "Give it back!" she demanded, straining, her face turning red as she became more exasperated by the second. Titus's smile increased at her feeble efforts. "You're such a dick!"

"Oooo!" Titus raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "Feisty."

"Titus!" called Rohan, leaning forward now. Although Titus couldn't hassle him, at least for a few weeks—and maybe he never would again—he wasn't about to let him start giving Eve a hard time.