Between two kops

Chapter two

Christina

"I'm telling you, it's gonna be at least three zero," Nick called out, his voice echoing through the classroom filled with vape smoke.

We were standing near the teacher's desk, at our spot by the window where the sun always beat down the hardest. The air was heavy, not just with the smell of strawberry and mango from the vapes, but with the gossip flying around in every direction.

My best friend was in the middle of breaking down her night out. I was listening to how she ended up on a raft club with some guy who was at least ten years older than her. Freaking lunatic. She didn't even remember his name, yet she ended up in his apartment somewhere in Kotež 2.

"Girl, you know I love you, but you're seriously out of your mind," I commented.

"Bro, you have no idea how cute he was... I couldn't resist him, Christina," she said, trying to cover her flushed cheeks with her palms. Poor thing.

She was always like that. The type of girl who goes straight for whatever she wants and imagines in the moment. Older guys, Vip booths, raft clubs. That was her home turf. Always ready for chaos, whereas I, unlike her, liked being in control. I wanted peace and to be tied to one person. Or at least, that's what I thought.

"Kind of hard to believe when your choice in guys is twenty five plus," I said, lightly nudging her in the ribs with my elbow.

"Twenty six," she corrected me deadpan, as if that one year changed the whole picture.

I paused for a second. "Excuse me?"

I was caught off guard by her statement. She didn't have a single shred of fear about dating older guys. They could do anything to her, young and naive as she was. But no. She was the predator hunting them, not the other way around.

"Twenty six. And he owns a business," she repeated firmly, leaving my mouth half open in absolute shock at her casual tone.

"Nadia, just because he owns a business doesn't make it any less weird that you ended up at his place after four cocktails."

"Actually, five cocktails," she corrected me again, proud of her tolerance.

I rolled my eyes. "You're a walking advertisement for bad decisions, Girl."

Compared to her, I was a saint, the total opposite. Honestly, I never liked clubs, raft clubs, and all that noise until I started dating Nick Petrović. After that, I mostly went out because of him, just so I wouldn't be his boring girlfriend. Otherwise, I'd much rather stay home with a book or a Netflix series. People often told me I was a buzzkill and didn't know how to have fun, so I just gave up and let them drag me along wherever they wanted, just to stop them from nagging me.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm really that boring... or if I just don't need all that chaos and one night stands to feel alive.

"And you're a walking advertisement for boredom, Girl," Nadia shot back without hesitation.

"Sorry, babe, but I don't really love getting called 'little girl' while some half drunk guy orders me a taxi," I replied with a faint smile.

Nadia burst out laughing at my non sense. We were completely different, but somehow we still ended up as best friends. Nadia, my crazy girl... she'd covered for me so many times when I was in trouble.

"Oh, Christina, if you could've just seen him... He had this whole vibe going on..." She paused, biting her lip as she searched for the right word to describe him.

"A criminal vibe?" I threw in.

"No! A Ceo vibe."

A Ceo vibe? Okay, now I was starting to picture the scene, and it was making me a little sick to my stomach. Gross.

"Same difference, just with a suit," I said. Ceo or criminal, it comes out to the exact same thing.

She rested her head on my shoulder, her heavy black hair tangling completely with mine. We looked like one person, our strands intertwining behind our backs into a chaotic mix of black and brown.

Good thing the guys in class weren't listening. Hell, they'd think we'd completely lost our minds.

"You know what the worst part is?" she continued, while I listened patiently. I don't even know why I always live through her disasters as if they were my own.

"What?" I looked at her, curious.

"I think I actually like him," she said so softly I could barely hear her. That was the first time that morning I looked at her seriously, no jokes.

"How long have you even known him?" I asked, already knowing the answer that was coming. No way was this anything serious. Just another phase of hers that would fade after a couple of days.

"Umm... well... since last night," she admitted, avoiding my eyes.

Poor thing. I could already see the whole movie playing out in her head. She'd track him down again. She'd attach herself to him like crazy. Then she'd cry, and in the end, she'd realize on her own that she never even liked him. She was just having fun.

"God help us," I blurted out and couldn't help but laugh. Oopsies, Nadia.

Because Nadia was pure chaos. And somehow, she always managed to survive her own disasters. The ones she dove into headfirst without thinking. Unlike me. I carefully planned mine. And maybe that was even worse.

"Hey, it's not fun," she didn't get to finish because her eyes drifted somewhere behind my back.

Nadia Ristić went quiet instantly. She straightened her back and switched her face into her neutral, school mode Nadia. She was always like that, able to hide her emotions and throw on a mask in a second. Like she had a few of them ready in her pocket, just pulling them out as needed.

I turned around. Nick Petrović was walking over with Michael Nešković, his best friend. He always walked like that, as if the whole classroom was his private property, with that slight, confident smirk that never left his face.

"What are you two chatting about so much?" he asked in a voice that was deep and somehow way too confident for someone who was barely eighteen.

"Talking about my perfume collection," Nadia lied without blinking, while I just gave a bitter smile.

Nick Petrović didn't even wait for me to say anything. He stepped into my space and pulled me toward him. Possessively, without asking. He placed his hand on the back of my neck, ran his fingers lightly through my hair, and kissed me.

"I'm picking you up tomorrow around five. The black Bmw will be waiting for the prettiest Grobarka outside her house," he whispered right against my lips, completely ignoring Nadia rolling her eyes next to us.

I caught the scent of his peppermint gum and that expensive cologne his dad brought him from abroad. The scent of safety, and a little bit of suffocation.

"Can't wait, Nick. I've missed Partizan."

It was classic Friday morning energy. Boredom, match plans, and Nick's ego filling every corner of the classroom. Until the door opened with a heavy thud against the wall.

The classroom went dead silent in a second.

The new guy burst in without saying a word. He didn't look left, nor right. He walked slowly, but not hesitantly. More like he didn't give a single f**k about where he was or who was sitting around him. His face was deadpan pissed, as if inside he was cursing the day he ever had to step foot among us.

During first period, our homeroom teacher told us a new student was coming. Honestly, I was just expecting another spoiled guy moving schools because he got bored. Just like most of my friends.

But looks like I was wrong. Both in his looks and his attitude. You could tell he wasn't some flashy poser or daddy's boy. I'd sooner say he was just another deadbeat from some sketchy neighborhood.

By the looks of it, he was probably expelled from his old school for something serious. Most likely a fight, or something even worse. His bottom lip was slightly split, and his knuckles were scraped up.

He didn't look like someone who apologizes to anyone. I think Nick just got his first real competition in this school.

"Look at him, dressed like a total bum," Nadia threw in with that mocking tone of hers.

She's normally a really good friend of mine, but she can judge people purely by what they're wearing. I never liked that snobbish side of her. But that's how it is when you're part of one of the rich families in town. People look at you like you're above them, so you try to stay up there at all costs. My mom was always shoving it down my throat that I had to be pretty, smiling, and flawless, no matter what. As if that outer shell was more important than everything you carry inside.

Underneath that pissed off face, his black hair was cut super short, almost buzzed to the scalp. His beard was in that manly phase where it's just starting to come in thick, just enough to give him that rough, dangerous look. And his eyes... dark, seriously dark. The kind that pierce right through you, scanning for your weak spot.

And for a second, I had the feeling he looked straight at me. Bullshit. You're imagining things, girl, chill out.

"Whoa, Christina... Look where this guy just sat," Michael's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked and was left in total shock. Are you serious? He literally sat in my and Nick's desk. And for the first time this morning, Nick's signature "I'm the toughest guy here" smirk vanished. I knew exactly what that meant.

Of course. Nick being Nick. The second he saw what was happening, he headed straight for our desk and the new guy, pissed and pouting like someone had just shattered his ego, not just taken a seat. You could see it from a mile away. He was in the mood for some serious s**t. This isn't going to end well... mark my words.

I followed right behind him, trying to catch up before he did something stupid. Nick had always been that guy. The most popular guy in school, always surrounded by a crowd and girls sticking to him like flies on honey. You could literally feel his confidence in the air. He walked like the whole school was his territory.

"Bro, that's my seat!" he barked out. He wasn't screaming, but his voice was packed with suppressed aggression. Scares tactics with noise. That was always Nick's first move.

My heart skipped a beat when their eyes locked. The new guy stayed completely calm, indifferent, like he had a little kid in front of him throwing a tantrum over a toy. He just measured him up with that cold face and offered a faint, provocative smirk. The guy seriously has balls.

"Did you hear me, bro?" Nick slammed his palm onto the desk, trying to rattle him, trying to force a reaction. The silence stretched for a couple of seconds, and then...

"So?" the new guy replied, cool as ice, without moving a single inch.

The classroom went dead silent once again. Everyone gathered around our desk like they were watching a Vegas boxing match, not some stupid fight over a f*****g desk. I genuinely couldn't understand why they even needed this.

"So, get up from that seat!" I could see Nick's eyes flashing with rage. He was actually pissed off, way more than any normal person would react over a regular chair.

But honestly, it wasn't even about the seat. Nick was raging because the new guy wasn't listening to him, unlike the other boys who usually got out of his way and bowed down at his feet. Ever since freshman year, no one in our class or the whole school, for that matter, had dared to step up to him. Until now...

Part of me was screaming to jump in and stop this stupid argument, while the other part told me to shut up and stay out of it. What if they actually start fighting? The teacher was about to walk in any second, and the two of them were literally standing on the brink of a brawl.

The new guy just offered a bitter smirk and threw it right in Nick's face. "I don't give a f**k, mate."

Brilliant. All sense and logic go out the window when male pride and spite take over. This wasn't a fight over a desk anymore. It was an ego war. I just wondered who was going to break first and make that first irreversible move.

"I'm telling you for the last time, bro. Get up from the chair and get out of my seat!"

"As far as I can see, the chair was empty until I took it. I don't see your stuff anywhere," the new guy cut him down like a scalpel. He was completely calm, which rattled Nick more than any curse word ever could.

"Who the f**k do you think you are? Do you even know who I am, you stupid dumbass?"

"I do, bro. Just another spoiled daddy's boy, right?"

And that was it. Those words snapped every last nerve in Nick's body. He instantly grabbed the new guy by the collar of his hoodie and jerked him upward with all his strength, pulling him up so they were standing eye to eye.

They were matched to the millimeter. Same height, same burning, aggressive glare. You could feel the tension. Both of them were burning up inside. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before everything went to hell.

"What did you say?! You want me to beat the s**t out of you right now?!"

Nick got right in his face, and the new guy reacted in a split second. Gathering all the power in his shoulders, he shoved him back hard. Nick literally flew backward, tripped over the leg of a desk, and spilled onto the floor, cracking his head against the edge of the desk behind him. That dull thud of an impact echoed through the entire classroom.

"Hey, hey! Take it easy, guys!" I shrieked and ran over to Nick. He was lying on the floor, holding his head, visibly dazed. Looks like he hit it harder than I thought. I knew something like this was gonna happen. My gut rarely tricks me, especially when things smell like trouble.

"Nick, are you okay?" I knelt down beside him. My hands were shaking as I brushed a strand of hair off the back of his neck to check for blood. My chest tightened. Even though he gets on my nerves a lot, I didn't want to see him hurt.

I didn't always like him, far from it, but this... I didn't want to watch this.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he muttered through gritted teeth. His eyes were unfocused, zero clarity, but he was still trying to push himself up on his hands, ready to pick up right where he left off.

Instinctively, I looked over at the new guy. I don't know what I was expecting. An apology, an excuse, at least a shred of remorse in his eyes? But nothing. Pure zero. Nick could've been seriously hurt, even though luckily he wasn't.

He was just standing there by the desk, cool as a cucumber, like nothing had happened a moment ago. Relaxed hands, calm shoulders... As if he had just put down a pencil, not knocked the toughest guy in school to the floor.

"Hey, bro! Get over here!" Michael was already charging in to back Nick up. His arm shot forward, but the teacher's voice froze him in his tracks like a cold shower.

"What is going on here, kids?" came from the doorway.

Her entrance cut through that uncomfortable silence like a knife slicing through an artery. The crowd that had gathered around our desk scattered at the speed of light, everyone scrambling back to their seats in a panic.

"Nothing, Ms. Just getting to know the new student," Michael chimed in with that slimy tone of his before anyone else could say a word.

"I hope so..." she replied suspiciously, her gaze sweeping over our faces. "Everyone take your seats! We're doing exercises today, textbook page 201, where we left off last class."

I headed back to my seat, right next to the new guy who had stubbornly remained sitting at my and Nick's desk. I pulled out my textbook and opened it to page two hundred and one, but... my brain was out to pasture. Zero focus. My eyes kept drifting to the side, toward him.

He was still motionless. How can someone be so composed after this? How can you be so oblivious to the fact that you could have seriously injured someone?

Worst of all, now I'm the one who has to sit next to this delinquent for the rest of the year. If he keeps digging his heels in like this, daily headaches are guaranteed.

Nick, of course, sat right in front of us. He shoved Loki off his chair like he was just a piece of annoying furniture in his way. Even though his back was to me, it made me feel at least a little better that he was right there. Close by.

I tried to calm down, but the air between me and the new guy was suffocating. The tension was brutal, literally palpable in every breath. Knowing Nick and Michael, they weren't going to let this slide. Third period, and state of war had already been declared.

They'd get their revenge at the first chance they got, that was for sure. The new guy clearly had no idea he'd just declared war on my Nick and the whole crew. And I, through no fault of my own, ended up right on the front lines.