Of Fae and Hate

CHAPTER EIGHT: SOSKIA

“Iwouldtellyou you looked good, but I’m not a liar and that top looks hideous,” Clemmentime’s voice comes from Neryssa’s room.

This isn’t the first time I’ve found myself eavesdropping on their conversations.

I’ve kept my distance from Neryssa Ebirac, not allowing myself to stay in a room with her for longer than necessary since she slapped me.

I’d wanted to go after her that day in the cafeteria, grab her by those lavender curls, wrap my hand around her throat as I pushed her up against a wall, and then I’d… I’d… that’s the part where I’d gotten stuck.

I hadn’t known whether I’d wanted to kiss the girl blind or kick her ass.

So instead, I’d stayed back and watched her saunter out of the cafeteria with her head held higher. The swish of her hips had kept most of the cafeteria’s attention off of my shell-shocked face. But when she’d been out of sight and everyone’s attention was back on me, my anger had worsened.

How dare she think that she can just embarrass me and get away with it?

It’d been all I could think, even as Clemmentime had bitched at me about throwing my plate into the back of Neryssa’s head. I’d ask myself the same question over and over again anytime I’d gotten the urge to approach her, but then I’d remind myself that I’d been being more than your average bitch since the moment I met her out in the quad.

Which I blame on Alik.

If he hadn’t been standing in the middle of the quad practically fucking Mercienne Hersh, I wouldn’t have been so pissed. He could have just as easily fed off of the green haired girl in his room. But he’d been making a point of doing it in public, with her leg wrapped all around his waist, knowing I would see or that it’d get back to me at the least.

This campus loves reporting my fiance’s infidelities to me and vice versa. It’s why I’m always much more discreet than him. I don’t like people in my business, and I don’t like Alik Tudow at all.

Anytime he gets word of one of my hookups, he’s suddenly in my face with a thousand questions as if this engagement is anything more than an agreement between our parents.

Or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

My jaw clenches and I inhale a deep breath, rubbing my neck.

I don’t have time or the patience to be thinking about Alik Tudow or Neryssa Ebirac right now.

But as if she knows I’m thinking of her, Neryssa strides into the living room. With the rooms connecting, its easy to watch her from the kitchen. She’s wearing the tightest pair of black jeans I’ve seen on a person. I’m not sure they’re not painted on or the work of a spell, because I don’t know how else she’d be able to squeeze into them. She’s wearing a green tank top with a bunch of loud sequins, the top I’m assuming Clemmntime told her was hideous.

She isn’t wrong.

The shirt is cropped, exposing Neryssa’s stomach. She isn’t the thinnest girl I’ve ever seen, not even close, and I can’t help but to take in her curves. Her brown skin is smooth and my eyes move to the black ink I can see on her side. I can’t quite make out the words. She has a belly piercing, a small diamond glittering.

A throat clears and I look up to find Neryssa watching me with a smirk on her face.

She hasn’t missed my thorough inspection of her body.

Or the fact that I like what I see.

Neryssa folds her arms over her chest, her lips quirking up at the corner as she raises a brow at me. Her shirt only climbs higher and I can’t resist taking one last peak at her brown skin, wondering if it's as soft as it looks.

“I would ask what you’re looking at, but it’s pretty obvious,” she drawls. Her tone is caught between amused and something that I can’t quite put my finger on but dare I call it smugness. Apparently, her anger from our confrontation the other day has been wiped away by arrogance.

I clench my jaw, turning my back to her and grabbing the loaf of bread off of the counter. I can feel her stare boring into the back of my neck, even as I refuse to turn back around and give her any satisfaction.

Why the fuck is she even talking to me anyway?

She’s kept her distance from me just as much as I’ve done the same, rushing past me anytime we’re in the same room. Though there’s always anger in her eyes, she never stops to talk or linger and it’s been for the best.

Because again, who knows if I’m going to kiss her or punch her the next time we get into it?

The only person who’s ever left me with such confusing feelings is Alik, yet at the end of the day I always know where I stand with him. We’ll fight, both our attraction and each other, we’ll ignore each other, piss the other one off… and in the end, one day we’ll be married.

Reluctantly.