Unforgivable.
Cadmus wasn't just pissed. Cadmus was downright pissed.
The nerve of her to do such a thing. She must have lost her mind.
He felt the juice drip down his face and cling to his skin. Sweet and sticky. He wanted to burst out and throw a fit and flip a table but was too stunned to do so.
Blair, on the other hand, looked as nonchalant as ever. The sight made his blood boil like never before. Right then, it had occurred to Cadmus –
This would be a scene engraved deeply and permanently in his memory.
"Also, you must've been imagining things. I wasn't afraid of you or anything. To start with, I wasn't even shaking. Maybe you're the blind one here…" Blair went on to snark before turning away from Cadmus, ready to leave.
"You said it isn't a good habit to exag-ge-rate. And yet, everything about you is an exag-ge-ration."
At that very moment, their fate as mortal nemeses was sealed, and from that point forward, their theatrics as feuding grade-schoolers became a spectacle for all to watch.
Both would engage in mind battles. Both would immerse in verbal warfare.
"Ugly peasant," he would call her.
"Spoiled brat," she would call him.
"Butt-faced."
"Poop-head."
"Stupid tomboy."
"Lameass shorty."
"Oh, yeah? You're dumb times infinity."
"You're dumb times infinity plus infinity."
Neither would back down.
Most people would side with Cadmus. So, the blame would fall on Blair more often than not.
Even so, she didn't care one bit, and admittedly, it made him a little concerned.
They said that the opposite of love was hate. But maybe it was actually indifference.
And truthfully, it's the main reason why Cadmus wanted to harass Blair all the time.
He wanted a reaction again. He wanted to make her respond that way again.
Stuttering. Trembling. Looking very sorry.
But to his dismay, she was a tough nut to crack, and she made sure he knew that.
"Quit pretending already. In reality, you feel like crying, right? It's you against everyone in school," Cadmus had once told Blair months after becoming classmates.
"I don't want to hear that from someone who's been putting on an act all his life. In reality, you're only faking your personality to please others, right?" was what Blair had shot back to Cadmus in response.
She had pulled the last straw when she said that, even though it was him who first opened his mouth. He felt like he'd been punched in the face, and the fact she wasn't aware of it made it a lot more maddening.
Blair had unknowingly touched a part of Cadmus that no one had ever touched before.
He ceased the teasing sometime after that. It had bugged him from day to night.
'Fake… Fake… Fake…' were the words that would repeat in his mind, tormenting him.
Now, in some cursed turn of events, her assigned seat for the next school quarter was placed directly to his left. The center back of the classroom was his safe haven. No one would bother him there, and he felt like he was above everybody. At least it had been for the first several months.
Blair's presence was as annoying as Cadmus had expected.