The Ranking System: Serpenti High, page 7
"And you thought I'd ask you for help?" He was silent, and I laughed in disbelief. Did he really expect me to crawl back to him just because I didn't have a dog tag? He should’ve known better.
I took a step closer, closing the little gap between us. I expected Adam to take a step back. Stupid me. Adam didn't move. Heck, he didn't even flinch. So now, I was standing nose-to-nose with the hottest guy in school. One inch and I could kiss him. Not that I wanted to or anything. It was simply an observation.
"I'd rather hit rock bottom than be your bitch, Adam Hale."
He blinked, then smiled. But it looked forced.
"Then I guess we'll have to go down together."
Well, we did promise we’d be together forever. I just didn’t think that it’d be like this.
***
I walked over to Vadim's desk, but he left as soon as he saw me. I tried to grab his arm, but he slipped away.
“Vadim, wait,” I said, but he didn’t spare me a glance. I tried to keep up, lowering my voice. “Vadim, I know this isn’t the best time—"
“I told you, Axis.” I frowned when he didn't use his usual “tovarisch.” I can't be seen with a Rankless."
I felt like he just insulted the mom I never had.
“I know, but I need your help. You’re the only friend I have.”
A humorless cackle escaped his throat.
"Friends don't exist in this hell hole. You want to get yourself hurt? Go make a friend. You want to risk being betrayed? Go make a friend. You want to get stabbed in the back and left to bleed dead on the floor? Go make a friend." His eyes darted towards me. "You want to survive? Learn to fight on your own."
Well, Vadim was never one to be full of sunshine and rainbows.
“You said you wanted me to stick around longer than your old roommate," I pressed, trying to reason with him. "Come on, Vadim, if I'm gone, who else is going to tolerate your Russian mumble rap when you sleep?"
He stopped, looked at me, then sighed.
“Not in public. We’re roommates, we can speak tonight.”
I smiled and nodded, watching him pace away.
Nighttime arrived and when Vadim came into our room, he tossed me something. I caught it and looked down with furrowed brows. An apple? Vadim must have noticed that I skipped dinner. I looked at him with a grateful look and opened my mouth, but he cut me off before I could thank him.
“So what do you need my help with?"
“Do you know who messed with my lockers today?”
He cast me a skeptical look. “Why?”
“To get revenge, why else?” I said, stating the obvious.
“I thought you were a soft-hearted boy."
“I am. Until someone gives me a reason not to be.”
And right now, I had plenty.
“Peter and Clyde,” he said.
“Do you know what their room number is?”
“Eighty one, I think.”
“You think or you know?”
“Know.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked curiously. He seemed more amused than concerned.
“I’m going to leave them a nice little surprise. I have to thank them for the gift they left in my lockers.”
Vadim smirked with an eye roll and chuckled.
“Something tells me you’re not as soft as I thought.”
"What? I'm lovely," I chirped.
We both smiled, but then Vadim quickly cleared his voice, looking away. I guess it made him uncomfortable being friendly with a Rankless. I knew it was a long shot, but I decided to ask nonetheless.
“Would it be too much if I asked you to come help me? It’d be much easier if I had an accomplice.”
“You’re on your own," he replied without missing a beat. I stiffened but nodded.
“Oh, and Vadim?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks,” I murmured. “Really.”
He opened his mouth, stopped, and went to lie down, turning his back to me. The room fell silent, and I thought he had fallen asleep.
“Watch out for yourself,” he mumbled.
“Don’t worry.” I smiled sadly. “I always have.”
Chapter 14: Two Boys, One Bottle
And thus began my plan. It was 11:00 p.m.—well past our curfew. We weren't allowed outside our dorms unless it was to go to the bathroom, but a guard had to accompany us to make sure we didn't sneak off anywhere, so I couldn't use diarrhea as an excuse.
I opened my pencil case and took out the bobby pin Ruby gave me earlier. She pretended not to know me, like Vadim, but when I asked her if I could borrow a bobby pin, she surprisingly gave me one, walking away before I could even thank her. It left me both disheartened and enthusiastic, and I slowly realized that I wanted a dog tag to get my friends back rather than a social ranking.
Friends? Ha, that was the first. And sadly, it was.
Well, I guess there was Adam, but even when we were little, I never considered him a friend or family. He had always been something else. Someone special. But that was all in the past.
I glanced at Vadim who was lying on his bed. His eyes were closed, and his chest rose and fell, but I knew from the lack of Russian rambling that he was too silent to be asleep.
He didn't flinch when I stood up from my bed. I tiptoed out of the room and closed the door behind me.
“Down the hall, to the right,” I repeated Vadim's instructions from earlier.
It was alarmingly easy to sneak past the guards. I was convinced that the only way to get caught was by walking up to them and slapping them across the face. But even then, I bet some of them wouldn't wake up. The night guards were supposed to actively patrol the halls, but almost all of them were dozing off on their chairs, snoring louder than Vadim on a Friday night.
I found the room. I took a few steps back and leaned sideways to peep through the small crack beneath the door. The lights were off.
I took out the bobby pin from my pocket and tried to remember Juliet's instructions. I was impressed when she picked the locks of my handcuffs the first day we met and asked her— without Christopher's knowledge, of course—if she could teach me how to do it. I was scared she'd scold me at first, but she was surprisingly enthusiastic.
Traces of her calm, comforting tone lingered in my mind, and it soothed me. I thought of her kind smile and her bright eyes and missed her even more, but I quickly pushed away my fleeting thoughts.
I pulled apart the bobby pin, so that it would be long and flat, and nibbled off the round rubbers at the end with my teeth. I inserted the pin into the lock and pressed my ear close to the doorknob, trying to visualize the pattern of the barrels and pins at each click.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
I fiddled a little longer.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
A little more….
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
Bingo.
The doorknob twisted open, and I was in. I tried to celebrate as quietly as I could.
The curtains were pulled, blocking the moonlight from entering through the windows. It was almost pitch-dark, but I used my imagination to navigate myself through the room. It should be designed similarly, if not exactly the same as mine and Vadim's room.
Peter and Clyde, the two guys who stuffed junk in my locker, were sound asleep. I opened the bottle in which Vadim and I peed in earlier in the day, kind of weirded out by the fact that it was still warm. This was bromance at a whole new level.
When I cracked open the bottle, a foul odor hit me full in the face, and my other hand flew over my nose and mouth. I squinted my eyes, wondering where I should pour the liquid. On their shoes? Their clothes? Hm, I wonder…
I opted for the shoes, so they’d wake up with a sticky and smelly surprise, but as I approached one of their beds, I stubbed my toe against an unexpected table. I let out a silent scream of pain. The boy on the left groaned and rolled onto his back and I quickly got on the floor, rolling under his bed to hide. I was in such a rush that I spilled some of the liquid.
“Clyde,” Peter groaned. “Did you hear something?”
Clyde started a sentence that merged into a prolonged grumble.
"Clyde," Peter insisted.
“What?” Clyde finally replied in a croaky voice.
“I think I heard something,” insisted Peter.
“You were dreaming.”
Yeah, Peter, you were dreaming. Go back to sleep, I silently hissed in my head.
But Peter wouldn't give up.
“Clyde,” he groaned again. “Can you get up and check?”
“Seriously? We’ve already talked about this, Peter. The boogieman doesn’t exist."
Peter sniffed the air. “Something smells bad.”
“I know. Take a shower.”
“No, it smells like… pee. Did you wet the bed again?”
I was learning too many intimate things in an alarmingly short span of time.
“Are you really going to bring that up in the middle of the night?” Clyde muttered hastily, sounding more awake and annoyed.
"I swear something smells rotten."
"Maybe it was from earlier this morning when we messed with the new kid's locker," Clyde grumbled.
"I told you karma exists."
"If it does, then everyone in this school is doomed."
Peter wouldn’t stop complaining. Clyde let out a sputtering sigh but eventually got up from his bed. I stiffened when I saw his feet walk past me. He opened the curtains of the barred windows. The shadows of the swaying cheap curtain linen danced against the floor, and a cold breeze entered the room.
“How long do you think he’ll last?”
“Dunno, maybe a day or two?”
"I feel a little guilty for what we did," Peter murmured.
"I'm not your priest, Peter. Go confess your sins elsewhere," Clyde growled.
“I still feel bad.”
“If someone hears you talking like that—” Clyde warned him. I guess I wasn’t the only one who had to fake an iron mask. Peter was finally quiet. This time, Clyde spoke first.
“Stop sulking.” His voice was softer. “We won’t mess with him anymore. We already got a warning from Styx anyway.”
My brows rose from the new piece of information. Why would Styx give them a warning?
“Do you think Styx is marking his territory?”
“I highly doubt it.”
“Then why?”
Yeah, why?
“Adam, why else?” Clyde said. My eyes widened.
“You think?”
“Haven’t you seen the way Adam looks at him?”
“Oh, that look.”
What look? Peter and Clyde’s conversation slowly died, but right when I thought the coast was clear, Peter’s weight shifted from the bed and a loud cry shot through the air. Suddenly, I could see what was in front of me.
“I told you to warn me before turning the lights on!” Clyde hissed.
“I swear I smell something bad,” Peter said, refusing to give up. “You think it’s the rats?”
“Check the rat traps under the bed.”
Under the bed?!
I turned my head and stiffened. There was a rat trap just inches away from my nose. I guess I should be happy that I stubbed my toe instead of getting my nose snapped off. My heart froze when Peter got on his knees to check under the bed. My mind went spiraling in panic.
What should I do? Splash the bottle of piss in his face and make a run for it? Play fair and fight him? Sure, that was an option, but we’d risk waking up the night guards. Who knows what would happen if we got caught? A lifelong sentence in self-confinement? No, thank thee.
I held my breath when Peter got on his knees, but there was a knock on the door.
“Good evening, gopniks." My eyes widened when I recognized the familiar voice.
“What are you doing here?” Peter asked, voicing my thoughts.
“I need tutor in English to teach me proper grammar,” Vadim said in his best broken English, but I knew Vadim was fluent. “You know, my great grandpa used to speak English. He died in the war. Brave man. Balls exploded during the war but survived miraculously.”
“The balls or your grandpa?”
“What is the difference?”
Vadim continued to blabber on about the war and his great, great, great relatives. Was he buying me time?
“What do you want?” Peter cut him off impatiently.
“Was wondering,” Vadim said. “Have you done something to your face? You look good. You look great. I think you might want to hurry up and leave before someone catches you being so handsome.”
Yup, he was buying me time. I silently thanked him for his bravery before sliding out from under the bed. Clyde was still hiding under the sheets to protect his eyes from the lights. I poured the bottle of piss onto Peter’s bed, but something shiny caught the corner of my eye.
Eat or get eaten.
I swiped the dog tags from the table and looked at Vadim and mouthed: run.
Vadim didn’t need me to tell him twice. He split quicker than the wind. I followed him, my shoulder colliding against Peter as I rushed out the door.
“What the— Hey, get back here!” Peter shouted. “Clyde, wake up!”
When I caught up to Vadim, I said, “I didn’t think you’d come.”
“Me neither,” he muttered.
A smile stretched across my face, but it quickly vanished when I looked over my shoulder. Peter and Clyde were running after us, fury all over their faces.
“We have to split. You go left and I’ll—" I turned towards Vadim, but he was already running down the other way.
“Right,” I mumbled to myself, heading the other direction.
I dashed up the flight of stairs but panicked when I saw a night guard turn around the corner. I crashed into him and staggered backward, catching myself before I fell. I ignored his loud “HEY!” and continued running.
I frantically looked around and noticed that there was a door that was slightly cracked open. Without a second thought, I ran into the room and closed the door behind me. I pressed my back against the cold surface and held my breath. Footsteps ran past the door and slowly faded away. They were gone.
I let out a quiet sigh, letting my chest deflate with relief. I slowly studied the room, surprised to see only one bed and not two. Not only was there one bed, but it was bigger than everyone else’s. Who the hell got all this special treatment?
I didn’t want to wait and find out. I turned around and opened the door, but a hand shot out from behind and shut it close. A tall figure stood inches away from me and the familiar tone made me freeze.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Chapter 15: My Death
My briefs tightened when I felt Adam’s hot breath dance against my skin. I stared at his massive hand that pressed against the door, intimidated by the veins bulging down his strong arms. Gosh, I bet he could fit two dicks in his hand.
“Who are you?” he repeated. The mixture of anger, annoyance and curiosity in his voice strangely excited me. With no other choice, I slowly turned around and revealed myself. His brows pulled together when our gazes locked. He must have woken up during his sleep. His messy bed hair made me want to run my hands through it, but in this critical situation, I had to set my priorities straight.
Ha, straight.
“You….” His voice trailed.
I forced a grin. “Surprised to see me again, motherfucker?”
His jaw tightened at the last part. Good. Great. That insult was nothing compared to the pain he’d put me through. Adam’s lips parted, but before he could say anything, I cut him off.
“This is just a dream,” I said with a lilt in my voice, hoping that this dumb idea would miraculously work. “You’re dreaming, Adam.”
I took a step closer towards him, putting my hand on his chest so he’d relax. Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect, because his entire body stiffened.
“Go back to sleep,” I whispered softly. “When you wake up, I’ll be gone, I promise.”
The dark lashes framing his crystal blue eyes blinked, and an expression that I couldn’t quite read flashed through his face. Fear? No, it couldn’t be.
He leaned closer, and my breath hitched.
“What if I don’t want you to leave?”
"What?" I asked in surprise.
He tilted his head, and a small smile appeared on his lips. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his tone.
"What if I don't want you to leave?"
I gulped. The situation was getting dangerous, but I couldn’t tear myself away from his eyes. The rational side of my brain was screaming at me to run, but another side was telling me to stay.
"What if I don’t give a shit about what you want?”
“I’d be heartbroken.”
He was smiling but I felt as if there was a little truth in his words. He inclined his head, his lips almost brushing over my ear.
“I really do want you to stay,” he whispered sincerely.
"You're crazy," I sputtered.
“Maybe I am."
My jaw tightened as I glared at him.
"You're the one who said I was dreaming, weren’t you?" He almost sounded smug. “My dream, my rules. I can do whatever I want, and right now, I want you."
His smooth voice sent goosebumps up my arms. It was dark in the room, but not dark enough to hide the redness in my cheeks. I looked away and focused on the wall, trying hard to fight the heat rushing to my face, but Adam turned my chin towards him. I was pulled into his gaze once more.
“If you want to leave, I’ll let you go.” Despite the reluctance in his tone, he was being serious, and he wanted me to see it.
But I didn’t feel reassured at all. In fact, I was even more confused and nervous. Because when he said I could go, it only made me realize how much I didn’t want to.
"Axis?"
Without waiting another second, I kissed him. That’s right. I kissed him. The fragrance of his shampoo filled my nostrils and the heat of his body burned against mine. He was taken aback at first, but I felt a smile slowly grow across his lips as he pulled me closer, one hand pressing against the flat of my back and another cupping my face. There was no hesitation, no shyness, no doubts. I kissed him furiously, knowing exactly what I wanted. I hated myself for wanting him, but I couldn't fight the temptation.
