A Whole Bunch of Loki's

The Alternative

College.

That strange time where you're not quite a child but also not quite an adult.

Where life continues to throw you into lessons for a degree or certificate that'll look good on paper but there be used.

That period when you're still being taught by an authority figure who could either be barely ten years your senior or old enough to be your grandparent, with no in between, and you're stuck in a room of strangers being given homework despite your sense of freedom.

Then, there's the classmates, the peers and that annoyingly arrogant, smug bastard Loki.

"Fucking Laufeyson," I grumbled, glaring at the back of his head.

For such a rebellious looking asshole, he sure did like taking a table at the front.

Damn him with that black mohawk that was too long in bits so it flopped into his face and around the shaved sides of his head.

Curse the piercings in his eyebrow, his lip ring and the too many piercings along the top of his left ear.

Tosh to the skeletal based tattoos that snaked up his right arm and the snake that slithered around the left.

Though, the snake was beautifully detailed, I'll give the tattoo artist credit there.

I hated him.

"You were staring again, did you actually pay attention to anything today?"

I looked to my best friend Erica, a girl with stunning near grey eyes, dyed black hair and snake bites, who was giving me a cheeky smile.

"Of course I was," I huffed, "because I wasn't staring."

"You so were! Will you stop eye fucking him and just physically fuck him already?"

"I don't want to sleep with him," I rolled my eyes, "yeah, he's hot, but he's such a prick."

"What have you got against him?" Erica sighed, shaking her head, "he seems cool, quiet, smart...totally your type."

"He's just so full of himself, he's reserved but he has this air of smugness, like he thinks he's some kind of royalty."

"So he has bit of an ego," she laughed, "he's cool."

"Then why don't you hook up with him?"

"If I didn't have my eyes set on someone, I so would."

"Of course you would."

Erica shook her head and wrapped her arm around my shoulders, pulling me into her.

"Come on, he's a cool guy, give him a chance."

I looked at her with the blankest expression I could muster and pulled away again.

"I'm going back to our room, I have homework to get done."

"Fine, I'm going to grab some food."

"Naturally," I laughed, patting her shoulder, "I'll see you later and maybe bring me back a burger or something?"

I give her a wave and then we go out separate ways, my mouth now watering at the thought of the burger and making me wish I had gone with her instead.

I just didn't want to put up with anymore of the teasing about Loki.

Intruding thoughts of him was something I put up with enough by myself, I didn't need her to make it worse in the comfort of my own home and voiced outside of my own head.

Truthfully, my feelings for Loki were conflicting.

I did hate his attitude, for the most part, it was his ego that really put me off but he was also weirdly kind in his own way, or at least considerate and he was rarely condescending unless it was towards someone he clearly had a distaste for.