Underneath the Surface (On Hold)

3: Realization

The next day Dean and I were walking towards the canteen in our lunch break and I told him about the money David had offered me.

'Man, this is awesome!' Dean laughed. 'Hey, look who's here.'

We had entered the canteen and he pointed to one of the tables at the right corner. David was sitting there alone and he seemed to be caught up in his iPhone. Dean pulled me away from the line of students that wanted to get some food from the menu and he walked up to my new tutor.

'Hello David,' he said casually.

David looked up from his phone and put it away when he saw it was us.

'Hi Dean. Nicholas.'

'So, I heard about your generous offer,' Dean began. 'How bad do you want to get those credits? Want go to Yale or something like that?'

David looked from me to Dean and he cast a cool glance.

'Something like that, yeah. Why the sudden interest?'

'Well, David, Dave... If you're willing to pay Nick here some good money I bet it's really important to you.'

Dean sat down next to David and took a French fry from his plate. He slowly began to put it in his mouth and looked provocative at David.

'So, you'll understand there's a business opportunity for us here.'

'You're trying to bribe me?' David asked and he wasn't able to fully hide his discomfort. I hope I did a better job.

'Smart boy,' Dean smiled. 'Double the sum of money and Nick's all yours. Well, not allof course. We're not all disgusting faggots.'

I looked at David's face and saw he was fighting to contain his emotions and pretend Dean's words weren't affecting him. Suddenly, he looked at me.

'Fine,' he said. 'Meet me in the library at 3.30 today.'

Before I could say something, a girl's voice hissed from behind me: 'The fuck are you doing here?' David's brunette friend crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave Dean a murderous glance.

'No worries, love,' Dean grinned. 'Your girlfriend and we were just doing business.'

She looked at David and he nodded.

'Go sell your drugs somewhere else,' she said. 'Leave us alone.'

'No can do,' Dean said. 'My friend here just became David's business partner.'

'You accepted the offer?'

The girl looked amazed for a second and then picked herself back up, with her eyes narrowing.

'What's the catch?' she asked.

'The tutoring money,' David replied before Dean or I could. 'He gets it.'

His friend snorted and then pushed David away from us. 'I need to speak with you.'

Dean grinned when they disappeared from our sight and then dragged me to another table near the hind wall of the canteen. The blonde girl with the huge bosoms that sat there gave us a big smile filled with already yellowed teeth. It was the girl Dean met at the mall.

'Hi Dean!' she shrieked.

'Hi baby.'

Dean gave her a lusty kiss and directed her attention to me.

'Lindsey, sugar, Nick here made sure we can go on a superb date tonight.'

'I did?' I asked a little confused.