Liability

Chapter 14 - Dmitri

Note: Sorry for the mix up, guys I forgot that I added an additional scene to the chapter I posted last time in my actual document and because I want you to have a taste of Killian (who is a piece of work as you will see but not a monster despite his foul and offensive remarks) I couldn't not post it as an individual chapter, so the next one is the one you all have read, for which I'm really sorry. Because of this, I also added Rhys' chapter to make up for the mishap.

WARNING: Racist, ableist, derogative language used by a character

The problem with teenagers is that they tend to think they know everything better and they can do anything they want. Like disappear without a word for three days. Ideally, it would mean that after two days of radio silence, Dmitri has the right to storm into the absent boy's home and check on him to see if he's alive or dead. Ideally. In reality, being appointed as the legal guardian of twenty self-centered idiots who probably never learned what 'No' means comes with its own restrictions. Like that little addendum to the academy's rulebook that Homeroom teachers have to wait a full week before checking on their students if they stay absent from classes. Which leaves Dmitri glaring at the continuously empty seat Mark Goodman left behind after only the second day of classes, but otherwise useless. And based on the similar looks Goodman's friends keep stealing of the unoccupied desk day after day, asking them would be just as useless.

Friday morning finds him in the teachers' lounge, sipping the cup of overpriced sugar coma he's got just to spite Doc Thad and his stupid orders that put a stop to his daily morning runs because of that stupid little concussion and bruised shoulder bone. It's not like he never had worse before, but Doc Thad is just impossible to argue with. It doesn't mean that Dmitri cannot rebel in his own way. After all he's his prababka's boy through and through. Hence the sugary diabetes bomb he's sipping while half-listening to the gossip session between Gillian and Choi.

From what he's gathered so far, the new Mathematics teacher feels out of her depth with her students and doesn't know how to deal with their snottiness. Not that Dmitri can't relate, but she must be a wimp if preteens can drive her to the brink of tears if her shining eyes are anything to go by. Then again, Dmitri can't really decide whether teenagers or the younger kids are bigger monsters and he's been surrounded by mobsters and killers since he was four. Choi, who is turning out to be the resident gossip queen and regular slime ball, keeps touching her arm and trying to placate her with empty words. It's pathetic and a little sickening. He has half the mind to wander over and see how fast the man will escape when the lounge door slams open and a hulking man that could practically be Thommy's older replica with no hair and a menacing scowl the boy could never pull off storms in.

"Killian?" Choi sputters, his eyes wide like saucers. "Did you get lost?"

The man's dark gaze snaps to Choi, striding right over to him much to the apparent terror of the Music teacher, who flinches back like he's expecting a blow. "What do you think, Chopsticks? That three years in this hellhole somehow got me retarded and made me forget where my tin can office is?" he bites out, causing Choi to shake his head quickly, his eyes widening. "Then try to sweep up some brain cells from the floor and tell me where that bitch Pratt is, because she's not in her office and one of those bumbling apes on my team were coming to morning practice high as a kite. And packing this on top of that."

Dmitri leans over his desk to see what Killian has slammed down on Choi's desk, his pale eyebrows jumping up on his forehead when he instantly recognizes the little pills sitting innocently in the transparent plastic baggy across from him. It's the new drug that has been making its rounds around New York's less savory boroughs and trying to weasel its way into the Yuriev's territory as well. Dmitri narrows his eyes and looks up to meet the sharp brown stare of Killian Nolastname.