I've been waiting in this billiard hall for over thirty minutes already. My patience is running thin. Two hours ago, Jaimes texted me saying he'd meet me here, and now I'm sitting, checking his message for the tenth time to make sure I'm in the right place.

Where the hell are you? I cursed silently, taking a sip of my drink. I glanced around, noticing some students from our university. Oh, isn't that Clayton? He's one of the varsity players, always surrounded by his posse. I was observing him and his group when someone snapped their fingers right in front of my face.

Startled, I whipped around to see who it was.

"Oh! You..."

"Yeah, it's me, angel. Quite disappointed?" Jaimes replied with that usual smirk.

"What? You're late! You told me to be here an hour ago," I shot back, glaring at him.

He didn't seem fazed. Instead, he calmly ordered a sandwich and a drink. "I haven't had breakfast. I'm starving. I hope you don't mind."

I rolled my eyes, finishing my drink. Then I pulled out my notes from our Trigonometry class.

"Where can we talk?" I asked, eager to get this over with.

"Here. Is that a problem?" he asked, looking genuinely confused.

I huffed. "Well, it's too noisy here. How are we supposed to start our project with all this commotion? Tell me, how?" My voice dripped with sarcasm.

To my surprise, he smiled—a real, genuine smile. It caught me off guard.

"Well, aren't you something," he said with a chuckle. "Fine, I'll get my order to go, and we'll head to the parking lot."

I shrugged, putting my notes back into my bag, and waited for him to finish. As I scanned the room again, I locked eyes with Clayton. He was staring at me curiously while one of his friends whispered something to him.

Clayton smiled when he noticed I was looking his way, but before I could decide whether to smile back, I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder.

"Can we go now, or are you not done eye-fucking that asshole?" Jaimes sneered beside me.

I scowled at him and grabbed my bag. "I'm done. Lead the way to hell, Satan."

He chuckled. "My pleasure, angel."

Once outside, Jaimes leaned against his motorcycle, arms crossed, as he looked at me. "Okay, angel, what do you have in mind? I've been suggesting things for an hour, and you've shot down every single idea."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

His glare was so intense that I swear if looks could kill, I'd have been dead already.

"All of your ideas suck," I muttered, not meeting his gaze.

There was a long pause. When I dared to glance up, I saw him staring at me, unblinking. It was unnerving.

"Alright, then," he finally said, his voice icy. "What's your brilliant idea, if all mine were trash?"

I froze. The truth was, I didn't have an idea. This was Trigonometry, after all—my worst subject.

"Well, angel?" he pressed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm waiting."

"Actually... I guess your last idea was pretty good. We can go with that," I said quickly, trying to salvage the situation. "I took down some notes while you were talking earlier."

"Oh really?" he replied with mock surprise. "So now it's a brilliant idea, huh? Since it was my idea, you can handle the visuals or whatever."

"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"Don't you think it's too much work for me? I've got other things to do."

"But we haven't even started anything!" I protested.

"Oh, I did. The whole idea was mine, remember? You can handle creating a small diagram or whatever you think fits. If you have questions, text me," he said nonchalantly, standing up as if the conversation was over.

"But what about your part? What are you going to present? Should I email you you part?" I asked, still trying to make sense of his nonchalance.

"There's no need. I'll handle my part. After all, it's my idea," he said dismissively.

I stared at him, speechless. There was no point in arguing. I just wanted to go home.

"Whatever," I muttered, standing up and stuffing my things back into my bag.

Jaimes glanced at me, his smirk returning. "I can drop you off at your place if you want."

"No, thanks. Just drop me off at the university," I replied, my patience completely drained.

"Alright, I'll get my bike."

As he walked away, I caught sight of Nick, my brother, standing across the street. I walked up to him and kissed his cheek.

"Hello to you too," Nick said with a grin.

I smiled back. "C'mon, I'm starving. Let's get some lasagna."

He handed me a helmet, and I climbed onto his bike. As we pulled away, I noticed Jaimes on the other side of the street, surrounded by a few girls. I don't know why, but for the first time, I actually looked at him. Like, really looked at him.

For the past three hours, I'd been so focused on our project that I hadn't noticed how Jaimes looked. Tall, broad-shouldered, and that dark skin—there was something undeniably attractive about him.

He caught me staring and smirked.

I frowned and quickly looked away.

Later that night, after dinner with Nick, I sat at the kitchen table, sipping my coffee. He was scrolling through his phone when he casually asked, "Arwen, can you manage to get to the university on your own tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I think I can manage. Why?" I asked.

"I've got a project to finish with a classmate," he said without looking up.

I grinned. "A classmate or a girlfriend?"

He rolled his eyes. "Classmate. I don't have time for that stuff."

"Uh-huh, whatever you say, big boy," I teased before heading to my bedroom.

"Goodnight, Arwen," he called after me.

"Goodnight, brother," I whispered to myself, closing my door and collapsing onto my bed.