"Jamie, mah man!"
The tan teen bumped Marc's fist, smiling a bit.
"Hey Marc, how's it going?"
The darker skinned boy groaned slightly, showing just how exactly it was going.
"I think ya know. Finals, dude. Even in a performing arts high school, they still suck." Marc complained, leading the way to their usual table, with Travis following him.
"Ugh, don't even start." The attractive boy replied, shaking his head. "And to make things worse, Mr. Harrison gave us new material right before the finals week. I just don't get it!"
"Harrison… Script Writing, right?"
"Yeah, screenplays for movies and TV," Jamie grumbled, plopping down on the bench. "We only just began studying TV tropes, and that's a freaking huge topic! And I don't even get like half of it."
"Tropes?" Marc asked, confused.
"Yeah, you know, the usual ways of where the script goes and how the character develops," Jamie replied, letting out a small breath. "We covered only some of them today. I mean, it's really interesting, but shouldn't we have done it at the beginning of the semester?"
"I feel ya, man." The musician said sympathetically, bumping Jamie's shoulder slightly, "Now tell me about that trope thing, are they any good?" He wiggled his eyebrows at his friend for a good measure.
"You're about to ask something perverted, aren't you?" Jamie deadpanned. Marc just shrugged his shoulders, not showing any guilt over the way his teenage mind worked. Jamie drew in a breath, remembering the material he just studied.
"Actually…" he began, brows furrowed in concentration, "There was a moment when we got to the Belligerent Sexual Tension. Which, coincidentally, is the thing I didn't understand."
"Oh, tell me, tell me!" Marc jumped slightly in his seat, grinning. Jamie just rolled his eyes at his friend's antics. The hormones completely controlled the dark-skinned man who already was ladies' man even before that.
"Not much to tell. Well you know in TV there is usually a pair of characters who seem to hate each other, but all the fans wish they got together anyway? No, wait, that's not the right description. Um… Well, let's see, usually there is a sweet girl, and a tough guy with the whole tall-dark-handsome thing, and they are constantly at each other's throats, but you just know they so want each other. That's Belligerent Sexual Tension." Jamie finished, his face showing that he still doubted he got that right.
"Like… Damon and Elena?" Marc inquired, and Jamie groaned.
"Exactly, although I still can't get over the fact that you watch that girly drama."
"It's not girly, it's hardcore and bloody and awesome!" Marc exclaimed, defending his TV show choice for the thousandth time and renewing a two-year long debate.
"Game of Thrones is hardcore and bloody; Vampire Diaries is girly." Jamie commented calmly.
"Are you harassing Marc again? How many times do I have to tell you to cut it out?" A pleasantly raspy voice mockingly chastised him, and Jamie turned his head slightly, smiling at the newcomer.
Egan beamed back, showing off her famous smile and sitting next to a sulking Marc.
"So," she began, raising her eyebrow. "What's wrong with The Vampire Diaries?"
"Let me see, besides the plot holes, dull characters, and bad acting? No, that's cake." Jamie teased back, smirking. They were doing this routine for a while now, with their group split into two: those who adored Vampire Diaries, and those who hated it. To be honest, it was more him and Corrine against everyone else, but while he just teased the others, mainly boys for watching the show, Corrine was rather vicious about it.
Well, Corrine was always vicious about everything, so it wasn't a complete surprise.
Maybe breaking up with her was the right choice after all.
"Okay, first of all – characters develop over the course of the show, and you watched what, the first four episodes? Everyone knows you have to survive through the first season of the show and only then will it get better. Secondly, there are no plot holes, you just have to actually watch the next episode, and thirdly…" Egan faltered slightly there, scowling a bit. "…alright, sometimes the acting is cringe-worthy, but the other times? It's downright awesome. I mean, Nina Dobrev? You can easily tell if it's Katherine on the screen or Elena."
"An amateur like you would praise such poor acting skills."
Ah, think of the devil. Viciousness in all her glory.
Jamie sighed as he took in Corrine's appearance. Dark and dangerous as always. Black stressed shirt with red stitching's that draped the side, dark washed jeans, Doc Martens, and a leather jacket. Her smoky make up made her dark eyes look even darker on her pale skin, and the deep maroon lipstick made her lips even more alluring.
He shook his head slightly, scolding himself. They broke up over four months ago, mutually. He knew he had no romantic feelings for her, and while he loved her dearly, he wasn't and never will be in love with her anymore. But he still was a teenage boy, and Corrine was a girl that made everyone's teenage hormones go crazy.
Jamie shifted his eyes from Corrine, wanting to distract himself, and his gaze fell on Egan who scowled immediately at seeing Corrine. He chuckled to himself a bit. Those two got even worse, fighting and bickering every time they got stuck together in the same room, which happened a lot, since they had the same friends. But their fighting makes it seem like they were never friends before and that they weren't the ones who formed this goofy circle of friends in the first place. Time really does fly by fast.
The tan teen stared at the half-Latina as her face grew angrier for no reason. Of course, her and Corrine didn't like each other now, but was it really necessary to get that mad? Egan's nostrils flared a bit as she shot Corrine glare, her whole body tensed up, while Corrine stood there, smirking.
"I am not an amateur." The brunette girl gritted through her teeth.
"Sure." Her frenemy retorted back, disinterested.
Egan's face took on a smug impression as she seemed to have figured out something.
"An amateur wouldn't beat such an experienced actress as yourself at getting every role in this school, just saying." She shrugged her shoulders, feigning innocence and battling her eyelashes at the dark girl.
Jamie saw murder flash through Corrine's eyes. There was also something else, something familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it, it was gone in a second.
"What did you just say?" the taller girl growled at Egan who continued to smile innocently.
"Oh Corrine, I'm so sorry." She mockingly placed her hand on her chest, fake sympathy all over her face. "I didn't mean to. What I wanted to say was, 'I'm better than you and you're just jealous'."
Jamie only sighed at that while Marc shot his eyes between the girls and then dug in his food to avoid being involved in the fight. That was what he was talking about. Egan got bolder, and Corrine got nastier, and it resulted in a catastrophe happening on a daily basis.
Corrine glared at Egan, her eyes falling down to her hand that was still on her chest. However, they seemed to be caught there for a moment longer than necessary.
Jamie blinked. He was imagining things now. Surely Corrine had no interest in ogling Egan's chest.
"Watch it, Ferrarduccio. You wouldn't want to find out if you'd look better with your hair shaved off." Corrine threatened, her eyes now on Egan's.
"Oh, like you'll ever manage to get close enough to me to deliver on your yet another empty threat." The mixed girl shot back arrogantly.
"For a person who never locks her bedroom window, you sure sound confident." Corrine shrugged.
Egan's eyes widened slightly.
"How did you? …You stalker!" She exclaimed accusingly.
"And you're a naïve little girl who thinks I'm not able to do anything to her." Corrine growled. Egan rose to her feet, facing her off, both girls tense with anger.
"Um, you do know my father is an attorney, right?"
"Oh, dear God please tell me you did not just threaten me with your daddy. And while we're at it," the taller girl got closer to the half-Latina, "There are tons of way I could make you suffer without it being a criminal offense." Her voice dropped to a husky whisper.
Jamie frowned, confused. That wasn't right.
That was Corrine's bedroom tone.
Then again, he was never threatened by Corrine, not in a serious manner at least. Maybe that was also her menacing tone? Corrine did get a lot of pleasure out of torturing someone.
However, the slight shiver that ran down Egan's spine at hearing that made him frown further.
Was she that scare of her old best friend Corrine? Or was she…
No. That couldn't be right.
"Oh, come on, girls!" Marc came to the rescue. "Can we just eat in a peaceful atmosphere? Can you two just be cool? Just once? Just this once?"
The girls looked taken aback by Marc's outburst, and grumbling their apologies, sat down next to each other, glaring one last time before getting to their food.
Jamie also glanced at his friend, a bit surprised. Marc must have been really fed up with all the tension.
Tension.
Jamie's eyes grew wide as he replayed Mr. Harrison's words in his head.
"There's a couple, usually a sweet but quickly angered female paired with a secretly kind jerk, who are not able to admit their feelings."
But that was TV, and this was real life, right?
The tan boy studied his ex-girlfriend carefully and found her watching the half-Latina. She took in the way Egan picked up her yogurt, wrapping her lips around the spoon and slowly taking it out of her mouth, licking it slightly to get more of the treat, and Jamie blinked again. It couldn't be.
Corrine's pupils dilated rapidly as she watched Egan, her own hand squeezing her burrito as she unconsciously licked her own lips.
That was the look she gave him sometimes when they began to date, and it meant one thing and one thing only. She was about to jump his bones every time she got that look on her face.
He shifted his shocked eyes to Egan who noticed Corrine staring at her. Jamie expected her to acknowledge it somehow, but all she did was stare back, making Corrine begrudgingly take her gaze away and to her destroyed burrito.
And while Jamie thought Egan would also go back to her food, she continued to gaze at the dangerous girl. Her mouth fell open slightly as she watched Corrine licking her fingertips, her green eyes widening at the sight, her tongue darting out to wet her lips.
Jamie wasn't an expert in Egan's expressions, but her was pretty sure he could decode that particular one.
It screamed of lust.
They so wanted each other.
Jamie rubbed his forehead slightly, still shocked a little bit.
At least now he finally understood the whole BST concept.