Page 34 of A Dead Man's B-Side
“Relax, princess,” he whispered. “Are you still not going?”
I ignored the nickname and looked ahead, finding Mr Browne writing on the board, before turning back to hiss out, “Yeah, and I suggest you do the same. Or we’ll hear about your insides getting scraped off a tree in the school paper.”
He glared but smoothed out his features when the girl sitting in front of me turned to both of us with a questioning stare.
Where Wolf went for shrugging her attention off, I stared her down until she decided to cut her losses and faced the front again.
“Do you people have no sense of self-preservation?”
Wolf rolled his lips between his teeth, seeming to think of hiswords before speaking, “Listen, I got a feeling about this. This is important, and I’d rather go in with an ally.”
“We… are not allies.” I jabbed my finger between us to emphasize my point.
His eyebrows flattened. “Don’t be a wanker.”
“You’re not even British!” I breathed out with a look of exasperating frustration.
He pointed a finger at me, and maybe that was the movement that caught Mr Browne’s attention. “Listen–you need me more than you care to admit, alright?”
I was glad for the interruption, in a way, because I hadn’t known how to respond to his words. Except, it was an interruption made by Mr Browne, and his attention was the last thing I wanted.
“Mr. Kingsley. Mr. Miroslav. I hope your conversation isn’t as important as my lecture.” He tilted his head towards us and raised a single brow, as if chastising children.
I turned my glare on him, unashamed as if by deeply buried instinct, but didn’t say a word; it was Wolf who spoke for both of us, “Of course not, sir. We apologize for the interruption.”
Ever the well-mannered boy.
Feeling the eyes of the entire class on me, I lowered my gaze to my desk and kept it there until Mr Browne recaptured their attention.
Finding myself failing to understand what he was going on about, I looked at the board and began writing down what was written. Maybe later, I’d make sense of the words.
I didn’t make it past the second line when a crumpled paperlanded on my desk. In a slow movement, I turned to Wolf, who appeared to be quite focused on Mr Browne’s words.
Appearedbeing the keyword.
Unfolding the paper, I read through its contents with a grit of my teeth.
I’ll see you this evening.Don’t be late.
Already in a foul mood, I crumpled the paper before holding my pencil in a vice grip and continued in an attempt to follow the lecture.
It didn't take long before Mr Browne had asked the class to divide into pairs to work on a vendor contract, something I had no idea about, after stating, “Clause nine contains a trap, let’s hope you find it before a real lawyer does. But remember, this is merely an exercise to jog your memory about what you learned last year. No need to hand it in.”
When the class volume had increased significantly, I turned to Wolf and found him facing me already. “Come around, wanker?”
“I will gut you like a pig.”
“Gentlemen.” None of us had noticed the old bat creeping up on us, and none of us had noticed him standing over our desks with his arms crossed.
I looked up to the intrusion and was satisfied enough when Wolf had flinched. “Sir, again–”
Mr Browne held up his hand. “Save it. Since you two can’t keep your hands to yourselves, metaphorically of course, you’ve justearned yourselves after-school detention.”
“Thanks for your big mouth, dimwit. You’re even worse than August.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Well, I guess this solves our dilemma, anyway.”
