I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which layed the foundation. It was too long ago. I was in the middle before I realized I'd begun.

---Jane Austen.
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The moment Theo's eyes met mine, he went completely still. So still for so long, that it actually scared me when he dragged his feet towards me.

Bracing a defensive posture, I played varied retaliatory messures in my mind that I would inflict tenfold if he so much as dared to look unseemly in my direction. But the sly prick did none of the things I'd anticipated and instead grabbed my hand in his before raising it slowly towards his lips.

Looking reverently at my face, which I am sure was drained of all colour, Theodore Wilkinson spoke to the man behind me,

"Moore, I never took you to be the brightest of the bunch, but what terrible bolt of insanity drove you to bring this precious little being to a place like this for ravishing?"

Ethan snatched my hand from it's former beholder, and pushed me behind him.

"How is that any business of yours, Wilkinson? If anything I should be the one smashing your balls for walking out of the toilet with my sister."

"Oh!", Theo said, looking behind, as if he had only just realized that he had company. Rebecca flashed him a menacing smile, at which her escort just shook his head, before turning around, and pointing a finger back at her.

"That little piece of shit, is no concern of mine.", he grunted. "I'll pay you a hundred bucks, if you can get her off my back."

He payed no head to the disoriented grumble of the offended siblings, and pushed his friend aside to come face to face with me.

"Hera, I want you to know just one thing. No matter what he did to you, he'll only be a distant memory, the moment I lay my hands on you..", Ethan trembled with rage, and made a move to sway Theo's advances by grabbing him by his neck, but the latter continued to look into my eyes and relay his intentions, even as he engaged his friend in an effortless act of arm wrestle.

"And I will have you in my arms. Mine to do as I will. Be as certain of it as your next breath. Until then, I insist that you dream of all the wickedness you can think of, for it will be a pleasure to see your surprise when I surpass all your wildest imaginations. Good bye."

Pushing my lungs into an uncomfortable state of breathlessness, Theo offered his  final farewell by throwing a nasty punch at Ethan in the same place, where I'd hit him the day before. With a look promising death, Ethan was about to pounce back, when I pulled him with all my might, and pushed him towards the wall.

"Stop it! Both of you.", I cried, frustrated with this constant spurt of testosterone.

"Be done with this infantile behavior already! What kind of people are you all?  Fighting over a girl you know nothing about? What do see in me, huh? Beauty? I don't hold a candle to any of the other girls of this school. I don't come from money. I have got nothing but a good brain, and from what I have seen so far, you guys don't give a damn about it. So what the fuck is all this about? ", I shouted on top of my lungs.

I waited for some explanation to follow, but as they simply stood dumb folded at my outburst, failing to produce any comprehensible word of assurance, I turned towards the girl who'd simply stood in the corner doing nothing, but brooding with jealousy.

"You.", I called out to her. "Can't you just get off your high horse? Why, why do you have to push yourself at someone who doesn't want you? Why do you need someone else to make you feel special? You are stunning, god damn it, perhaps even smart, but you never allow anyone to see anything beyond that vile temperament of yours. You push the only person who gives a fuck about you, by doing everything that kills him slowly. And above all, not only did you insult me at every chance you got, you stood in a corner doing nothing, while another girl was manhandled by two people. Shame on you all. I am a living being with feelings. I chose whether to be with someone or not. And even if I do get involved with either of you, I hold the right to walk away whenever I want. No one owns me."

My breathless, trembling, voice echoed fiercely, as the other inhabitants of the room stood mute and unmoving.

"There's more to life than these meaning less conquests. Both of you just allowed a girl to come between you, and tear your friendship apart, if you are even friends to begin with. Because I am really beginning to question that equation. You are all in high school, so why don't you work to make something out of your life. In the meanwhile if you do find a person who brightens up your World simply by existing in it, whose presence makes you tremble, and distance makes you crumble, go ahead and cling onto him or her with all your might. What's actually amazing is, you don't have to go looking for your other half. Love finds you, and when it does, it knocks you down, and blows you apart. There's nothing subtle about it. So please, don't abuse your friendship and the sanctity of a romantic relationship between two people, over a girl who means nothing to either of you."

Not waiting for a reply, I walked out of the washroom, and headed straight to my next class. The entire day passed away in a blur, and soon I was back to Evangeline's dorm room, having a nap.
She still hadn't returned by the time I woke up, so I decided to go ahead and have a talk with the authorities about changing my room.

Fate hasn't ever been very fond of me, so I met one of the people who'd stood victim to my verbal abuse, earlier that day.

"Hey.", I said casually. I was about to get a response, when the ringtone of my phone alerted me of a video call, and I lifted it to see the caller.

"Who is he?", came the question from the person whose eyes were gazing at the picture displayed on the caller Id.

"My fiancé.", I replied.