Loving Lisbeth Salander (XIV Series #1)

The Boy in White III

“Did your Gods send you here to ruin my lunch breaks?”

“I—”

I rolled my eyes and stabbed my green balls with a fork before glaring at the kid again. I like to think that he jumped a little from his seat because I was terrifying but maybe that’s just how naturally jumpy people are when they start seeing sharp things and aggressively stabbing helpless green veggies. “Now, screw off.”

“I’m Mark, if you’re wondering who I am.”

I stopped fidgeting with my food before sighing to turn to the guy who has been constantly bugging me for two days now. I tried not to entertain him and keep my life going but that just didn’t work. “I don’t f*****g care who you are.” I took the green ball to my mouth and munched. I didn’t know this kid but everyone was looking at our direction, and it’s enough sign to tell me that I’m not one to mess with this kid. I was way too informed with the glares they were giving at me that he was everyone’s campus favorite. I let out a small grunt as I shifted my gaze to glance at the kid who was still smiling and sitting across me like an innocent kid. f**k. I’m getting really frustrated of the attention I was getting from him. I was frustrated of the attention I had from Heartlock the other day. Seems like I’m getting more from this kid. I never liked the idea of catching everyone’s attention unless needed and this time, I don’t need attention. Especially not from him. I just wanted to peacefully eat my f*****g grass meal and get this over with.

“Do I smell?” He asked and started sniffing himself.

I squinted my eyes at him at how clueless this guy was for everything that he was doing to me. One glare would have been enough to show him I was bothered by his existence. Surely, it was enough but he was just being a hard ass. “Just leave me the f**k alone.”

“But I want to eat here otherwise you can’t make me leave this table.” He replied. I could sense from looking at his eyes that he was trying not to look scared and all this bravery was just a façade he was making, but the gleam in his eyes spoke something else. “If you told me I smelled, maybe I would go and leave you alone.”

“You f*****g smell. You stink.” You reek of desperation. I wanted to add but rather not say because if I did, he would only take it as a compliment.

He raised his finger, shaking his fore finger in the air from side to side. “No. That’s not how it works. Now, you’re just mocking my words.”

Mocking his words?

“And using it to get me away from you.” He smiled, tilting his head. If yesterday, he couldn’t even look at me in the eyes, he couldn’t take them away from me today. “It comes off as a lie, isn’t it?”

He makes a lot of sense today, even I couldn’t deny that. “Would you just leave me alone if I told you to leave?”

He shook his head, still wearing a smile. “No.”

I sighed in dismay. The glares from all these people – it’s suffocating. I am this close to calling it off and walking out of this cafeteria anytime soon.

“I want to eat with you,” He said and I froze.

If that isn’t obvious enough, I don’t know what is.

“Everyday.”

I spaced out, unsure if I heard his answer correctly. Maybe my brain was the one refusing to take his reply because I was allergic to the way he was treating me. “Are you trying to ask me to kill you right now?” I dropped my fork at the table and glared at the kid. The deadliest glare I could possibly do. One that would flee someone off once seen.

“You’re smart.”

What does that have to do with what I just said?

“A smart killer wouldn’t murder someone in an open area with a thousand witnesses around.”

I couldn’t respond anything. I knew he was smart but I didn’t think he would render me speechless. Only I was capable of doing that to people I talk to. A smart killer wouldn’t murder someone in an open area with a thousand witnesses around.

He leaned closer, wiggling his brows. “I’m sure you can do better than that?”

My attention diverted back to the guy who still was grinning as if he just accomplished something so grand. I guess he did. He caught me off-guard. That rarely happened to me. Not even the professors here or the student council would make me like this.

“I may look like I could be a helpless victim, but I’d be a pretty great murderer.” He suddenly said. “Strategic planning is my game and I thoroughly enjoy mystery books during my free time,”

“I didn’t ask.” I barked back at him, raising a brow.

“The best way for people to remember you is if you tell people things about yourself even if they don’t ask for it.” He added, still with that stupid smile on his face. “That’s the reason why it remains in their memories.”

“I didn’t ask.” I said for the second time, sighing for the nth time for how irritated I am to dealing with this kid. It’s like he never runs out of energy. Is he on drugs or something? The type that would make someone hyper and annoying.

He chuckled. “Did you not just hear what I said?”

“I’d only remember you as annoying.”

“If you do then I guess I succeeded.” He grinned even wider. He looked so calm and collected despite sitting near me, the one they call and brand as a spawn of evil, daughter of Lucifer and whatnot, which I don’t find offensive or bad by any means, but now’s the time I deal with this persistent douchebag.

I grabbed his wrist, looking around and still saw the people were watching us from their tables. I stood and pulled him out his seat, forcing him to walk out of the cafeteria with me to finally have a word with him. Maybe I should have done this earlier, but I didn’t think he would keep talking despite ignoring and avoiding him when he does it. “What the f**k is your problem?” I immediately asked. “Are you trying to commit suicide or something? Why won’t you f*****g leave me alone? What do you really want from me?” I asked but he just stood there with the same expression he always had whenever I saw him.

He put his hand over his pocket, rocking back and forth with his heels. “I already told you. I want to be your friend.”

“And I already told you no.” I gripped on his wrist tighter as if he could feel how strongly I despised him around me, but he just looked like the happiest student in the school.

“For someone who finds talking tiring, this is truly an honor.”

I looked away in frustration, shoving my grip on him away. This guy is clueless as f**k. Stubborn and persistent was an understatement. He was far more annoying than I thought. This guy—

“You should know,” He started so I waited for what else he had to say. “The more you push me away, the more determined I am to pursue you.”

He can’t be sane. He must be high. He must be taking some kind of a stupid drug I didn’t know about. “Are you out of your f*****g mind?!” He can’t be. He must not be. I was too sure he wasn’t sane enough to say and admit all these while saying it to my face, but his eyes looked like they were sincere.

He smiled and shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I can still walk a straight line. I’m perfectly sane.”

Fuck, I said that out loud again. I leaned closer to his face. “You wouldn’t want to be f*****g friends with me.” I warned him in a serious tone. “I’m warning you.”

“And because I like you.”

Tell me he did not just f*****g say that. I’ve been in this very same situation before, but he was just straight-forward. The only time someone was this serious and straight-forward was him. I should have known from the way he looked at me before that he had a different intention than just being friends and being annoying. God. “Let me crush your dreams and tell you now that you’re f*****g wasting your time.” His glimmering eyes were not shattered at all. “Why don’t you just focus on school and graduate with honors to make your parents proud for once?”

“I’m actually a part of the honor roll. A part of the student council too.”

Bragging right. I give him that.

“So go keep doing that and stop f*****g with me.”

“No.”

I crossed my arms in frustration at how little his hesitation was. He wasn’t fazed with being seen with me, or being with me to begin with. “Look, Marvin,”

“I-It’s Mark.”

What f*****g ever.

“See! You can’t even—”

“f**k whatever your name is.” I rolled my eyes tampered by his correcting. I don’t like remembering names anyway. They would eventually slip my mind so there really was no point in trying. “If you think you’re going to somehow catch my attention by acting all brave and hard-headed around me, then no. I’ve seen guys like you act like this in front of me before, and they all still look pathetic to me.” They all walk away from me, even. “Do yourself a favor and just f*****g wake up from your fantasies because they’re never happening.”

“I’m not like one of those guys you mentioned.”

“What, you think you’re so different?” I fired back at him, creasing my brows even inner. “You’re not!” Not f*****g different from every white asshole there is on this stinking planet. “Get your ass back to the library and just study your ass off, and have a life of your own because I have my own f*****g life to take care of.” Well, barely.

“And you know I won’t leave just because you tell me to.”

I knew that.

“You should know by now I’m just as stubborn as you.”

I cluck my tongue, looking away, but not because I disagreed. But because I acknowledged it. “You won’t gain anything from sticking to me like a dog. You can do more if you don’t stick your nose around my tail.”

“Who said I was going to gain anything?”

I raised a brow.

“I just want to be with you.”

“That’s still gaining,”

“Maybe something like that but it should have sounded romantic according to—”

I let out a loud snore. Romantic? Get the f**k out of here. “They only sound f*****g romantic when you’re in a fairytale bullshit, and those f*****g words are never romantic unless you’re doing it with someone who has seen and read every Shakespeare sonnet there is, or a script from a stupid romance movie. Stick that in your mind. “

“Now you’re showing me more reasons to like you.”

Fucking seagull who doesn’t know how to give up. f**k this. I glared at the kid who looked like he was dead f*****g serious. I sighed, rolling my eyes in dismay. It was always pointless arguing with a persistent and stubborn bastard like him. “You’re wasting your f*****g time. Do what you want and don’t say I didn’t warn you.”