The Brat Tamer

Chapter 1 - Stir Up

Salvatore is among the most famous students in the Stallion University. His cold personality, striking looks, and academic excellence are just details about him. Women flocked over him because he leads the official band of the university. He was a Student Council Vice President dedicating his last year in the university to implement their long term projects which started 2 years ago. He led several economical-friendly activities and humanitarian assistance programs. Needless to say that he has a massive exposure to different communities given also the fact that he came from a family of doctors who hold an annual medical missions to urban places. The real reason why girls are all about him is he also leads the Amesur Band currently, he is the president of the official band of Stallion.

He has always been into music. Even during his younger years, his focus was always in musical clubs and groups. He attended many lessons related to music, and he can play a number of musical instruments. In college, he figured he wanted to compose songs and he actually did. He was 19 when he first produced a song for their school's golden anniversary. The song was recognized by the founder and up to this day, it can still be heard in important events. He has also collaborated with a famous music producer before, but for some copyright issue, they decided to not release the song.

Now that he's set to graduate in one month, he's busy handing over the tasks to the next student council officers. He was never lenient to the next president of the Amesur Band as well. He promised to still be watching even after he graduates.

"Salv, you should take some days off from school activities. This has been your life, what will you do after we graduate?" Vally asked when he saw his friend still busy with paper works for the council in the middle of their lunch.

"This has to be done. By the way, I can't join you later in the night out. My meeting will finish late." That's only a reason to not join them in clubbing tonight. He's tired and he just wants to rest in the evening.

"We'll wait for you then. The bar is open until 4 AM. What meeting will last until morning?" But his friends won't ever give him a break.

He didn't answer, but he knew they would be waiting for his meeting to finish. Salvatore met his 3 friends, Jerry, Kendrick and Vally, in high school. The three of them are all business majors and only Salvatore is majoring in Music, but since he also decided to take some business units in college, he still often see them and they still hang out from time to time.

"I'll see you in thr place, you don't have to wait for me here."

"We'll be calling your house if you don't come with us. Come on, man! This is the onky time we can enjoy. In the coming months, it will be another hell. A lot will change though." Salvatore is aware of that. He devoted most of his time in school, so graduating means leaving all his accomplishments behind. He has to fugure out how to survive in the real world. Will he still make music? Can he do that for the rest of his life? It makes him question his decisions, but he wants to trust that his love for music won't change.

"You don't have to remind me that. I know we'll start anew after graduation. But I want to do what I can now." He answered.

"I understand. You're in a detachment phase right now, it's not easy. We're here to help. The grad students party is already this weekend, right? Did you also organize that?" Jerry asked trying to symphatize with him.

"We have minimal engagement, it will be facilitated by the school admins." His friends agreed. They should enjoy the night. It might be the last event that all graduating students gather to interact and bid goodbye to each other.

After their fancy lunch, they headed to the student council office. Despite being spacious, it is still crowded which made Salvatore frowned. He hates the chaos.

"What's happening?" He asked the secretary who just finished talking to one student.

"The system went down while the ticket sale for school fest concert is on going. They are inquiring how to get a ticket." That made his brow raised.

"What made them think this is the correct office to get concert tickets?"

"Ahm, I think it's more of a complaint than an inquiry. They collectively suggest to not open the ticketing again abruptly. There should be a proper announcement when the system will be available again, and I agreed. We should raise it to the technical board." The secretary is just waiting for his go signal to call the systrm admins office.

"Okay, go and ask them what happened, and what time can will the issue be fixed? Instruct them to close the sales for now, we will request to set another date and time to open it again. Once you get a response from them, inform the admin office and ask them for the date and time we'll open the system again, we will have our own announcement to put this in order.

"Okay, will do that, Salv."

His friends were admiring from a distance when he did his job. He announced to everyone that they are communicating already to resolve the issue and he assured that there will be proper announcement for the next schedule of tickets.

The afternoon went slowly, they are doing the things they need to do before graduation. And it feels real. As Salv anticipated, their meeting finished late. It's almost 10 and they were still ssking to have dinner after. He politely declined because his friends aee already waiting for him in the bar.

They were already tipsy when he arrived. The loud music is enough to make him dizzy, it has been ages since he went here.

Their girlfriends are sitting beside them when he approached them.

"What's up? I like your new hairstyle." Frey complimented him.

"Thanks, Frey! Good to see you back. How's New York?" He is Kendrick's girlfriend who had her internship in NYC.

"Just the same, busy and expensive." The had a little conversation before someone crushed into their group. Salvatore has seen him somewhere but he cannot remember where.

"Ryle!! You're also here, what a small world!" Salvatore looked around and all of them are excited to see this guy named Ryle. He doesn't really like his aura.

"I had to meet some friends here, didn't expect to see you here on a Wednesday! How are you? It's been a long time." The guy sat beside Salvatore and their legs even touched which made him flinch. He cleared his throat and made a distance from him.

"Yeah, now that's internship is over, everyone is suddenly showing up. I can still hear news about you breaking girls' hearts. Is everything well?" Jerry asked him. Salv's brow raised. He's a casual heartbreaker, he can't believe. Salvatore immediately noticed that he acts feminine and he didn't expect this guy to be a player. He looks fine, his frame says he works out regularly, he also screams sophistication.

"That's something we normalize already. They gave consent on me breaking their hearts. By the way, who's this friend of yours? Never seen him before." Ryle turned to him and he gave a head to toe look. Salvatore made it known that he didn't like what he just did.

"Salvatore, this is our friend and blockmate, Ryle Montenegro. For sure you've heard about him before. He's a qualifier for suma c*m laude in iur faculty." Salv looked at Vally when he introduced the guy then his eyes went to him who is smiling wide at him. So he's not only rich and good looking, he's also a genius at some level.

"Never heard of him, sorry I'm from another faculty." He coldly answered.

"Oh... Ryle, this is our friend Salvatore. He's also a qualifier for suma, VP of student council and president of our univ's band." Ryle noticed the cold personality of Salv right away. He is wearing a leather jacket to cover the school uniform.

"Nice to meet you, bro." Ryle offered a handshake, but it took salv a memont to accept that.

They had some more conversation about how their internship went. Ryle was very comfortable around them, but Salv suddenly felt left out. The others can relate to the topic, but since his internship is completely different from theirs, he cannot join the conversation plus Ryle is sitting between him and his friends.

"So you're into music?" Ryle turned to him and asked that question in a flirty tone. He's been using the same tone since he joined them so Salv thinks he's just naturally flirty.

"Yeah." He answered not even trying to sound nice. Salvatore reached for his beer to avoid eye contact with Ryle.

"Really? I find it hard. When I was young, I was forced to attend music lessons, but I would always skip. I'd prefer dancing though I enjoy listening to good music." Ryle tried to break the animosity, but Salv won't play along.

"I understand." That made Ryle bite his lower lip. Never found someone as cold as this one. He also reached for his beer and sipped from there.

"I also tried volunteering along with the student council, but that didn't work for me too. I'd rather do sports." He leaned on the header of the couch reducing the distance between them.

"I guess we're completely different." Salv simply answered and stood to go to the bathroom. He didn't notice he's been drinking a lot. He felt dizzy and was about to fall to the couch, but he managed to carry himself.

"Are you okay? You look drunk." The mischievous smile of Ryle is crushing his ego.

"I can hold my alcohol. I'll be right back." But he has no plabs of returning quickly. He went to the bathroom to sober up and then went to the rooftop to get some air. There are some girls approaching him in the damce floor when he passed by. One of them snatched him away, pulled him close and made him wrapped his arms around her waist. He's not young for that, but it's also not his thing. He politely distanced himself and said sorry to the woman.

Salv was surprised to see Ryle still with them. He can tell that he already drank too much. He's flirting with anyone, even the waiter who's serving them right now.

"You're back. We thought you went home already, but left your phone." He gave Ryle a serious look, but his eyes were sparkling from tears because he was laughing so hard from the joke of the waiter.

He tried to take it from him, but he put it on his lap as he said...

"Your mom called asking what time you'll go home." And the provoking smile and tone didn't sit right on Salv. He's trying to hint that he's a mama's boy.

"You are not supposed to answer calls..."

"Sorry thought it was my phone. Look we're using the same model." He even showed his phone which made his forehead furrowed because he knew this guy is messing up with him.

"I thought you're here to meet friends, why are you still sitting with us?" He didn't try to sound nice. He wanted to imply that he's not comfortable around him.

"I was waiting for you. I want to talk to you and learn about music." Ryle has always been friendly to anyone. His friends know that he acts feminine, he even looks like he's flirting even with men but it's just normal to him. He's never had a boyfriend nor interested in boys. He likes women only, he likes to see them obsessed over him and eventually break their hearts. But Salv is not aware of that. The Ryle that appears in front of him now is seductive and very intimidating.

"Your driver is here, Ryle. See you around, but go home for now before you cause trouble." Jerry called him. Salv took a deep sigh and came close to the guy. Salv's frame is obviously bigger than him, he shouldn't be intimidated by some flirty guy who appeared from nowhere. He reached for his phone and murmured something that only Ryle could hear.

"Don't act all invasive when you can't even take care of yourself when you're drunk."

Ryle chuckled in annoyance. He will remember this guy, and will make sure to have the last words next time.