Page 10 of Rivals
Chapter 11
Revna
Ifinallygotmyselfto get out of bed. It was tough because it meant I had to face the day, face Lachlan and all of his bullshit, even though I did this to myself. I admit out of all of the reckless and stupid things I have done in my life, this may have been the dumbest because it linked me to Lachlan, which is the last thing I would ever want in life.Ever.
I found an old bagel in the freezer and defrosted it. I cried a little because my options were to starve or steal something from my roommate, who also barely has anything to eat like me. I sometimes forget that I have enough money in the bank to not go to bed hungry a few nights a week. But sometimes I’m so tired I skip right to bed. So this probably isn’t an issue of getting food, and it’s more of a me problem.
Resolving to try to take better care of myself, I decide to go to the grocery store after class. I glance at the clock on the wall and smile to myself as I chew on my bagel. It’s a little past eight in the morning, and Lachlan is probably waiting for me. Ha, the joke is on him. If he believes I will listen to what he thinks I need to do, he can try, but it will never work. I don’t have class until ten, so he can suck on that.
I grab my phone to check emails and see if I can catch an hour shift at the diner before class. A few email notifications popped up on the screen earlier, so I checked those first. Most of it is spam, and a few of my other professors sent emails to the class about end-of-semester stuff. Then I see an email with no subject line from someone who has never emailed me a day in his life. I bite my lip while my thumb hovers over the email. I could delete it. But curiosity wins out, and I tap on it before I change my mind.
It takes a second, and then the attachment he sent loads. My heart stops, and my stomach drops. That piece of shit! I don’t change, I don’t brush my teeth, I grab my hoodie and storm out the door. I don’t even care that I don’t have a bra on because there is no time like the present to kill a man, and I am especially murderous because I haven’t had my coffee.
***
The doors fly open, hitting the walls as I charge towards Lachlan, whose head pops up from the sound of the doors. A roguish grin builds on his face, which only fuels my fire. He is sitting inmyspace like he owns it, smiling smugly because he thinks he got one over on me. I’m going to push him off the stool and use one of the legs to shove through his heart.
Sometimes, I scare myself.
I quickly scan the room to see that no one else is here, stomp right past him to his section without a word and grab his brushes. I break a few by pulling off the metal clamp that holds the bristles to the handle. I take his paint, and instead of taking the time to squeeze out each tube, I grab scissors and start cutting the tubes up. I drop it into the mason jar of water still sitting there, then toss the whole thing into the trash.
Next, I take the scissors and slice a hole in each of the blank canvases sitting in his area. Granted, there are only two, but I don’t care. I feverishly look around for anything else of his. The easel belongs to the school, and I have enough wherewithal not to mess with that. Unfortunately, there is nothing left, so I set my sights back on Lachlan.
My chest heaves with all the exertion. I’m sure my face is nothing but stormy and filled with rage as I prowl over to him. His eyes dip to my chest, and I don’t have it in me to be embarrassed. My hands are in fists, and all I want to do is deck him. I learned how to have a good right hook in foster care. If I didn’t, then it was me getting beat up.
“Are you done?” Lachlan asks, completely unbothered. He looks almost… relaxed as he sits on the stool, one foot on a lower rung with his back leaning against the wall.
His words startle me. He doesn’t yell, he doesn’t even seem angry. He just seems exasperated, like you would be with a toddler that threw a hissy fit. The fight bleeds right out of me. What the hell?
He tips his head, watching me carefully, and crosses his arms. His eyebrow tips up in question. “I said, are— you—“
“I heard you the first time, asshole.”
“And?” he asks, waiting for my answer despite the obvious.
“I could kill you for what you did,” I say on the verge of tears. I worked so hard to buy those paints. It was nice paint, too. Not the cheap crap I usually have to buy.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he says, unfolding himself from the stool. “So, I did a few sketches and have a few ideas for what we can do. That being said, I don’t want you to do much at all. That’s what got us here in the first place. Plus, I—“
“Ha! You’re kidding. Do you think that I would let you choose anything for me? This is ridiculous. Get out of my space and go back to your own. You’ve done enough damage.”
Lachlan’s nonchalant attitude turns dark like the flip of a switch. The anger brims in his eyes, and he takes a step towards me. My skin pebbles, and my heart jumps. This time, I stand my ground. I will not be intimidated by him. He takes another step, and my body tenses. I don’t think he will hit me. He sucks in general as a person, but he’s not that kind of man. I would have picked up on that.
His hand moves so quickly I hardly have time to react as he grasps my neck. He doesn’t squeeze, he firmly holds me there, bringing my attention fully to him. My hands clasp around his large wrist. Lachlan is tall and lean. He isn’t built like a linebacker, but he’s no string bean, either.
His pointer and middle finger drop over my pulse, and his hand squeezes my throat to tilt my chin up to look at him. His eyes burn into mine, the greens turning brighter with his fury. “You got us into this mess, Revna. I told you you would pay, and this is a route to your redemption. What I say goes. You will not argue. You will work with me until we are through this, whether we win or not. Because, Revna, I will make sure you do not graduate, and I will find a way to blacklist you from every gallery in this city. Just for fun, maybe I’ll start some kind of rumor that you… I don’t know… copy someone else’s work and change it enough so it looks like your own. I’ll get creative with it. We both know that even a whisper of plagiarism in this world means you will be left with nothing.”
I can’t catch my breath with Lachlan standing so close to me. I could run, but yet again, my body can’t seem to move. I’m frozen. His touch holds me in place, and I hate myself for it.
He leans in, with his hand still wrapped around my neck, and his lips graze my ear. A shiver runs down my spine, making me feel things I refuse to acknowledge. “And Revna?” he says almost breathlessly. “You know how this world can be, so don’t fall in love with me. It won’t end well.” Then I snap, yanking his hand off of me. It doesn’t take much. He steps back, giving me space. I stare him down, despite his height, looking for the words to shut this asshole up.
“I don’t like you, Lachlan. I never will. I have not admitted to anything. And because I swear I have some kind of evil curse following me around, we will, at the very least, have to agree on something. I think it’s the only way to make this charade work.”
His lips thin as he stares me down. My chin tilts up defiantly. “Fine.”
Huh. Well, that was strangely easier than I thought. The better question is, what are we going to come up with? I have an hour until class, and I don’t have my stuff, so we might as well get started.
We stand in silence, lost in our own heads. I stare at the empty easel, willing myself to come up with something, anything, so that we can be done with each other. Lachlan stares at his sketchbook, his eyebrows furrowed. I guess this is our version of a truce, at least for now.
