Detached

CHAPTER 39

*MEERA'S POINT OF VIEW*

Riyansh nodded, and I let my gaze rake over the class. Most of the students were girls and all of them were now eyeing my near guard with undisguised lust. One of them was staring with an open mouth. My back stiffened as panic set in. What Riyansh wanted to hook up with one of these girls? What if he started to like one of them and wanted to bring her back to the apartment? How was I going to cope with that? Jealous anger and resentment settled in the pit of my stomach, and I felt the frown tug at my forehead.

“Yes, ma’am. I’m Riyansh, and this is Meera.” He squeezed my hand so I looked up at him, seeing that he had one eyebrow raised in question.

I shook my head quickly, not wanting him to know that my mind was running rampant and thinking up scenarios where he fell in love and I had to watch it happen. I definitely didn’t want him to know about my dream the other morning. The teacher turned out to be quite nice though, and I actually had fun in class which wasn’t something I was used to.

As soon as the class ended, Riyansh screwed up his paper into a ball and tossed it towards the trashcan, holding his hands up in celebration when it went straight in without touching the sides. “Three pointer,” he chirped, grinning. I chuckled at how childlike he was sometimes – it was incredibly cute.

Taking my bag off of my shoulder and holding his other hand out to me. “Let’s go eat, I’m starving.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re always hungry. I’m surprised you’re not as big as a house.” I’d definitely never seen anyone eat as much as he did.

“I’ve got hollow legs,” he joked, leading me out of the classroom.

I kept my head down as we made our way to the lunchroom. I’d promised him that I would try to integrate into the school and be more sociable, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for it today.I sat down at an empty table Riyansh sat opposite me, and I saw Dean in line to buy food too. I smiled. With him dressed in normal clothes instead of a suit, he blended in so much better. He actually passed as a mature student, and no one was batting an eyelid at him.

The chair next to me scraped, so I looked up to see a guy sitting himself next to me. My back stiffened automatically as my hand tightened around the fork I was holding. A predatory smile crossed his face as he leered at me. “Hi, hottie, what’s your name?” he asked.

“Well it’s not hottie, that’s for sure,” I scoffed.

He grinned, opening his mouth to answer but before he could, Riyansh leant forward over the table. “Her name is back the fuck off.” He was smiling politely, but the tightness around of his jaw and the hardness to his eyes showed that it wasn’t a friendly smile.

The guy recoiled slightly before standing up and holding his hands up defensively. “Easy. I didn’t realise she was taken,” he shook his head, shifting nervously on his feet, clearly intimidated by Riyansh, who had that menacing agent look back on his face again.

"Right. Well, now you do." Riyansh said through gritted teeth.

The guy smiled sheepishly before turning his attention back to me again, ignoring the obvious possessive vibe that Riyansh was radiating. “If you ever ditch this loser, my name’s Varun,” he said, grinning at me.

“Not planning on ditching the loser, Varun, sorry.” I looked at Riyansh, seeing the angry expression on his face as he watched the guy strut back across the lunchroom to his friends. “Back the fuck off? Could you have been any ruder?” I muttered sarcastically.

Riyansh’s frown deepened. “What? I thought I was extremely polite.”

I burst out laughing. “Extremely polite, yeah,” I choked out.