"Heya, I thought you said you weren't coming," a voice said the moment I took a seat, and I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
"Silver," I muttered, then noticed Selena waving in the direction the voice came from. With a resigned sigh I turned and saw him heading toward us with a tray of food.
I knew it.
This guy was a high ranker.
"Can I sit with you guys?" he asked, and I was about to say no outright when,
"Of course," Selena said with a small smile.
I turned to look at her, genuinely caught off guard.
Weird, I thought we were on the same page for a second there.
"Sweet," the guy said, dropping into the seat.
I guess I was stuck with him today no matter what I did, and to make an already annoying situation worse, he was clearly far stronger than me.
"Didn't know you actually swing both ways," he said out of nowhere, right as I was drinking water while waiting for the food Selena had ordered to arrive.
"Wha, ark!" I tried to respond but choked on the water instead.
I will kill this guy.
"What do you mean, swing both ways?" Selena asked, rubbing my back with that same smile that made me uneasy.
"Well, I don't know how this might sound, but," he trailed off, and I could see the delight written all over his face.
This guy was actually trying to get me killed.
"If you say that I swear I'll end you," I said, still recovering from nearly choking to death.
"Woah, chill, I was just messing with you," he laughed, then turned to Selena. "Sorry for pulling your leg, don't worry though, your guy's clean. I'll make it my personal duty to let you know if he ever gets tempted to," he trailed off, but the meaning was obvious.
"I'd really appreciate that," she smiled, turning to look at me.
"What are you two even talking about, she's not even in a re," I started to say, then stopped.
What the hell is this?
I turned slightly toward Selena and found her smiling in a way I didn't like, her eyes narrowed to slits.
Is she trying to crush me right now?!
"She's not even what? What were you saying?" Silver asked, his curiosity getting the better of him, but the pressure increased the moment he asked and I felt like I was going to snap.
"She's not even the type to care about that sort of thing," I forced out, trying not to let the pain show on my face. "That's what I meant," and then the pressure eased slightly.
"Huh? She doesn't care if you cheat on her?" Silver asked with a bewildered expression, though it was pretty obvious he was doing this on purpose, knowing I was a low ranker and she could easily hurt me if she wanted to.
"Yes," I forced out, and the instant those words left my mouth it felt like something doubled down on me, and I couldn't move, she had her hand on my lap and was clearly using telekinesis on top of it.
"Wait," Silver said, then turned to Selena. "So you don't care if he cheats?"
"As long as it's with Selena, I don't mind," she replied, then smiled at me.
Right. Selena was her middle name, and like everyone else she'd only given her first name during introductions, Anna. Silver didn't know that, so he had no idea what she actually meant.
"Selena? But the girl wasn't Selena," he said, and if I had the option I would have put a knife through his windpipe.
"Really?" she said, moving her free hand to her chin like she was thinking it over.
"Yeah."
"And who exactly was that?" she asked.
"Well, it's one of the girls from class who kept looking at him, and he kept looking back," he said.
"Hm, that had to be Tessa then," she said after a moment, shaking her head like she'd worked it out.
I looked at Silver, already understanding what she was doing, she was baiting him.
Don't say it.
"No, I think he called her Eloisa," he muttered, and then I heard a voice behind us.
We all turned, and there were three girls who had just walked into the cafeteria.
Oh no.
The problem was the girl on the left, who was already looking at me in a way I couldn't quite read.
"Can we sit here?" she asked, and I could see Ariana looking confused beside her.
"No," I said, but she ignored me completely and sat down anyway.
I couldn't even begin to explain what this lunch was turning into.