~~~~~
In Freshman year, I thought things would be more different with France, now that we were in high school already and supposedly more mature, but no. The school year didn't end without him doing something nasty. And there I was expecting him to have changed for the better over the summer break.
Expectation vs. Reality, indeed.
It was during lunch. Margareth, Athena, our other friend, and I were at the already-full cafeteria trying in vain to locate a decent table so we could eat already. Unfortunately, the only vacant tables were the ones near the trash bins, and for some reason, every student actively avoided that particular area. I didn't know why back then, but it was that day I was about to find out. Against my will, of course.
All three of us were on the lookout for whichever group of students were already finished eating so we could take their table and finally take our lunch as well. Then three girls stood up with their trays, indicating they were done, so we practically ran towards it before anyone else could take it.
Before we could get within one meter of the table, however, four boys scrambled to put their dumb asses on the chairs and their lunches on the table-top, so the girls and I had to screech to a halt two feet away.
"Hey, jerks. That's our table, we saw it first!" Margareth had all but growled at the four doofuses, who took one look at our faces then they were guffawing in a very ungentleman-like manner.
France was the one who recovered first from their stupid fit of laughter.
"Sorry, ladies. It's ours now, we got here first," the prick pronounced proudly. "But if you want this table so much, you're gonna have to wait until we're done. If not, there's still plenty over there." He pointed at the trash bin tables with glee. "I think you'd like it there, anyway. Very cozy."
He added in a cheeky wink, and I didn't miss that he was staring at me when he did that. Stupid asshole.
But because I wasn't in the mood to fight that day and I was already very hungry, I'd told the girls to ignore him and that we should just go sit at the vacant tables by the trash bins because we had no choice. I was like, It can't be so bad, right? The girls had given me doubtful looks, but because we were dying to find somewhere to sit and not look stupid standing around here holding our food, in the end, we'd gone over there, towards the worst decision of our lives yet.
When we sat down, at first there was nothing. Okay, this isn't that bad, people are just overreacting, was what I'd thought, which I shouldn't have. We settled ourselves, took our burgers out and began to eat. Five seconds later, the airconditioning in that area fanned our way, wafting the horrifying stench of all biodegradable and non-biodegradable trashes of the world combined, and that's when everything made so much damn sense.
That was the time when the cafeteria didn't observe proper garbage disposal and segregation yet. That was the time when, after one bite of our cheeseburgers and one smell of that freaking disgusting rotting corpse smell, all three of us ran for our lives to the nearest restroom and puked our goddamn guts out.
If you think it's not possible to get literally sick out of disgust, then you're wrong, because me and my friends all got sick in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day stuck in the clinic, trying to stop our goddamn selves from retching already, but it was only when HD brought us strawberry-flavored ice cream that the sickness subsided. He wanted to know what on earth happened, if we'd gotten food-poisoning because if that were the case he swore he was going to make the cafeteria-owner pay for "almost killing" us with spoilt food.
But I'd reassured him it was nothing like that, and that, we would be fine.
But we weren't fine, and we were never the same after that. Call it trauma or whatever, but after that day, Margareth, Athena and I never set foot inside the cafeteria again, not even when we heard the news that the trash bins would be removed due to the 'incident', and that from then on, the school was to observe stricter rules and guidelines when in came to disposing trash.
Silverlining, that may have been. But lunch, for the three of us, was better taken outside of school premises, for safety precaution.
Freaking France and his damn arrogance.
>>>
That wasn't the last one, though.
Just last year, he almost stole my first kiss. Damn prick, manipulating everything so we ended up inside the closet during Seven Minutes in Heaven at a mutual friend's party.
This was one memory of his shenanigans I would love to banish from my mind, because...well, for one thing, he almost kissed me! And to add insult to injury, I almost let him!
After everything he'd done to me, right?! I should have been punching him and throttling him and clawing his eyes out the moment that freaking door closed and we were locked in from the outside. But no, I didn't do any of those. Instead, I did nothing. Nothing! I didn't even look at him, or said one word, or acknowledged his presence. I just leaned on my side of the closet and waited out the seven minutes, praying the idiot beside me couldn't hear the lecherous pounding of my heart.
But of course, he wouldn't be France if he didn't have anything to say.
"So, my dear, beautiful snowflake. How should we do this? Mild and sweet or hot and torrid?"
The grimace on my face was automatic. "Ew. Don't talk to me, you despicable piece of crap. I'm not doing anything with you."
"Aw, you're no fun." He clucked his tongue. "I'm pretty sure you would've enjoyed choice number two, babe. A hundred percent guaranteed."
I smirked. "I bet there's nothing you can do that can be considered enjoyable. You're just being delusional."
"Is that a challenge? Because I'd be very much willing to demonstrate."
"Whatever! I said don't talk—"
"Yeah, no talking. Got it."
Two seconds after he said that, he was suddenly in front of me, inching closer and closer, closer still until he was crowding my personal space and I couldn't breathe without inhaling his scent in. I gaped up at him (he was so tall the top of my head barely reached his chin) in disbelief, and was about to ask what the fuck he was doing when without warning, his hand went to my face and he was lifting my chin with his index finger. My words got stuck in my throat in shock, more so when his thumb, his daring freaking thumb, grazed my lower lip, and the contact sent about a thousand volts of electricity that coursed through my veins.
That was probably why. That electric shock I'd felt must have fried my brain cells, because the next thing I knew, our faces were only half an inch apart and my eyelids were falling shut without any permission from me whatsoever. I freaking anticipated his kiss, for crap's sake!
But what did I get? What did I get?!
"I see you're the choice number one kind of girl. Sorry, but that's not my kind of thing, sweetheart." I felt his hot breath fan my face and when I opened my eyes, the asshole was laughing soundlessly. At me! "Oh, god, you should've seen your face! You really thought I was going to kiss you! Oh, this—is—epic!"
His hand fell away from me as he stepped back to the other side of the closet, leaning against the wall and choking his esophagus out from too much merriment at my expense. He even had tears in his eyes, the leche!
Dear gods, it was the most embarrassing moment of my life yet and no one was even watching!
I'd been about to attack him with my claws so he'd stop making fun of me already, but at that exact moment, the seven minutes was up and the door was opening to cheers and woots, especially from the boys.
I was so pissed-off, let alone ashamed of myself, that I'd taken matters into my own hands and decided that right then and there, I was going to teach France a lesson.
So in front of everyone, I pulled the hugely grinning asshole by the shoulders (it had been easy since he didn't see it coming), brought him down to my level, and kneed him in the crotch with all my might.
His groan of absolute pain was like music to my ears.
Another round of cheers erupted, and this time it came from the girls because the boys became too busy cackling like villains when they realized what had just happened. Though some of the girls gave me outrageous looks for hurting their beloved France's family jewels, but I was too high to care. Marga and Athena gave me a high-five each and I went home that night feeling good about myself more than I ever did my whole freaking existence.
Suits the bastard right for messing with the wrong girl.
~~~~~