"i don't have to ask what you resent. i already know"
The next day Andi felt numb, not quite sure how to process the phone call from the night before. Her only consolation was that she was not crying anymore, thank God.
Simon was in the dark still. She wanted to tell him what happened but she was hesitant. Shutting him out was not fair, but if she could barely admit to herself that the phone call happened, how was she supposed to talk about it with someone else.
Not to mention Abaddon's words haunted her. So quick to trust... Did you learn nothing?
Maria tried to help her feel better, to keep her spirits up. The two of them rescheduled dress shopping for that night. It was the Latina's effort in getting Andi's mind off whatever caused her breakdown. The Mexican girl was also still in the dark.
Andi hoped that classes would also take her mind off everything. However, when she remembered she had Fundamentals of Psychopathy, the blonde doubted that would happen. It's not that she did not like the class, because she did. It gave her an inside look into how psychopaths' minds operated, a skill she would need if she were to go after Abaddon, a bonafide psycho.
However, being reminded of a certain psycho was what she was trying to avoid, at least for twenty-four hours.
Andi sat in her seat next to Simon, silent as she fiddled with the ends of her ponytail that draped over her shoulder. She did not look up when Marcus sat across the aisle from her, even when he greeted her.
The lack of response must have confused him, sure. Especially after their chummy evening at the diner. Andi remained unfazed though, staring straight ahead and waiting for their teacher to be wheeled in.
"Where's the teacher?" she heard Marcus ask Jaden from beside her.
"Find a thousand dicks and suck 'em," the Hessian snapped back.
Marcus recoiled, "So many?"
Andi could not help the slight quirk of her lips at the response. Marcus' quick wit amused her just as often as it got him in trouble, which was often. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he had turned towards her with a crooked smile. Obviously, he had seen her reaction to his comments. The blonde rolled her eyes, shaking her head at him.
Just then, the side doors opened and the Scorpio Slasher was pushed in on his wheelchair. It was not as if the man could not walk, it was that he had to be strapped down.
Everyone in the room straightened hastily, aside from Marcus who did not know any better, and Andi who did not care.
"Welcome to the Fundamentals of Psychopathy," the Scorpio Slasher greeted without any emotion. He began to wheel himself down the aisle between desks before stopping next to Marcus. "Now, why would Lin enroll such a lowlife into his esteemed Atelier of the Deadly Arts?"
Marcus met the Slasher's eyes, challengingly. "You don't know my reputation."
"Well, reputations can be deceiving. Do you know mine?"
Shabnam raised his hand from the front row, causing Andi to scoff and start doodling nonsensically in her notebook. "Um—," the spectacled boy started. "You're keen on astrology, 41 victims, no bodies found."
Billy coughed from the back, "Cannibalism."
The Slasher quickly pivoted toward the green-haired boy, "I would never resort to such desperate theatrics." He began to address the rest of the class, "Today we will be studying the murderer's muse: resentments. No better fuel for the feast." Turning his attention back to Billy, he prompted, "List what you despise, please."
"Skaters who turn into rock stars," the boy joked. "Like Gator, he's great, but the dude thinks he's Prince."
Not happy with the response, The Slasher spat at him, hitting him on his uniform tie. Without another word, the psychopath continued on to Viktor.
"Capitalism," the Russian teen said, unsurprisingly.
"Yeah, that's hard to argue," the Slasher said moving on.
Lex was up next. "Thatcher."
"Snore," The Slasher said, before approaching Andi. "Andi."
The blonde turned toward The Slasher, expressionless. Although, this time there was a glimmer of amusement in The Slasher's eyes. "Still plotting my death?" he asked her.
Andi gave him a sarcastic smile, "Of course. Don't worry. It's one you'd be proud of."
"I don't even have to ask what you resent. I already know." A hint of a smile graced his lips as her smile dropped. "Have they contacted you yet? I'm sure you'll make a fine recruit. Just like Erik. Now he, he was a prodigy. It all started with him, and it will end with him. An infinite cycle. A snake eating its own tail."
Andi gulped nervously. She had always suspected that The Slasher knew something about Ouroboros. He always came across as someone who knew more than he was letting on, but she did not know if that was just his psycho-ness. His comments finally confirmed her suspicions.
She could feel everyone's eyes on her, especially Simon and Marcus'. The collection of stares caused her to pale. Attention never bothered her, necessarily. But, now, she felt like her secrets were being outed, that they could all see right through her, despite her better judgment reassuring her that was not the case.
Not paying her anymore mind, The Slasher turned back to Marcus again. "What about you, boy?" The Slasher asked. "What do you hate?" When Andi looked up, she caught Marcus' eyes over The Slasher's shoulder and he gave her a concerned look. He had never seen her so shaken before. He eyes flickered away from hers in an instant, moving to The Slasher with intense resentment.
Marcus' jaw clenched. "Bullies."
"Go on."
"Tiny-dick egotists who hurt people for no reason, make people lock their doors at night. People who make general existence worse, people like you," the Nicaraguan boy continued, not backing down in the face of the notorious serial killer. "Fucking hate people like you."
The Slasher went to move closer before the monk's cattle prod slammed on the desk between them. Their intense staring match ended, as they both glanced up at the monk.
The Slasher looked back to Marcus briefly, "Today's lesson was on resentments, and it looks like I got a new one." Marcus refused to look away. "I'm just trying to picture you without feet."
The Slasher wheeled back to the front of the classroom and Andi met Marcus' gaze again.
"You okay?" he mouthed to her.
Andi nodded. "Yeah," she mouthed back.
Little did she know that Simon sent Marcus an appreciative nod too, thankful that the other boy stood up to the psycho that upset her.
Andi stood behind the wall in Atypical Combat Skills as Saya, Maria, and Marcus attempted to take out Master Zane.
They were doomed from the started when Marcus' foot caught on the window, sending him straight into the ground and alerting Master Zane of their presence. Maria and Saya made a valiant effort but lacked the usage of their surrounding environment. They did not have their weapons, but that did not mean they could not improvise.
Marcus, though, lacked training with actual weapons. He had been improvising every day since he was a kid. As he wrestled on the ground with Master Zane, the Latino boy reached out and snagged the telephone from the table. He slammed the phone against their teacher's head, getting the larger man to back off a bit. Marcus did not stop there though, wrapping the phone cord around Zane's neck and pulling as tight as he could.
Andi was impressed at his resourcefulness.
Master Zane tapped out and Marcus released his hold on the cord. They all stood, Zane taking off his ridiculous wig. "Now, class, as you just witnessed, sometimes you gotta fight with bare hands like the guru of white karate, Chuck Norris, 'Firewalker.' Scoom! Skam! Wham-dam!"
The blonde covered her mouth with her hand to hold back the laughter. Master Zane was a unique guy. Not to say that was a bad thing, because it was not. He had an interesting teaching style and Andi enjoyed his more goofy nature compared to the seriousness of some of their other teachers. It was refreshing, and just what she needed after dealing with the Scorpio Slasher earlier.
"Other times," Master Zane continued with his lesson. "You gotta improvise."
"You are twice our size," Saya tried to reason as Maria nodded behind her.
"Size, schmize. When I was a bouncer at Chest of Drawers—aka 'Check for Sores'—on the Jersey Shore, every Italian from Seaside to Sicily tried to take a swing at ole Master Zane, and I knocked the Drakkar Noir right off 'em with nothing but a brick. Atypical combat skills save your keisters, meisters. Now, you two—," he said, gesturing to Saya and Maria. "You two are losers."
Maria crossed her arms in a huff as Saya ranted, pointing at Marcus, "Well, his swan dive kind of fucked up our entrance."
"Nothing ever happens according to plan. Uh, hobo kid here, he still nailed it with the skimmy-skam-shabaldam!" Saya looked at their teacher exasperated, Maria too.
Marcus, though, was beaming at the praise. Andi gave him a smile from her spot with the other students. For once, the kid was actually good at something, not getting shit on by the teachers and student body for being horrible.
When class was dismissed, Andi caught up with Marcus on their way back to the dorms. "Good job, dude!" she congratulated him.
"Thanks," he replied, smile still present. "You really helped me out this week. I couldn't have done that without you." Andi waved him off though, not letting him push his victory in class off on her. "I'm serious. The phone cord thing—I thought of it because of your AP Black Arts assignment. You're my deadly muse," he joked.
Andi rolled her eyes and bumped her shoulder against his, "Stop being cute." When her eyes met his, she felt an odd flutter in her stomach. Just friends, she reminded herself.
"You seem to be in better spirits," he commented as they entered the dormitory floor.
The blonde nodded, "Yeah, but only because you did so well. If you sucked then I'd still be a moody asshole today." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Thanks, by the way."
"For what?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"What you said to the Scorpio Slasher. I know you didn't, like, defend me or anything, and I definitely don't need you to do that, but he caught me off guard. Usually, I don't care what he says but—Well, it was nice to see someone not feed into the fear and stand up to him for once."
"No problem. I hate bullies. You know that. And when they fuck with my friends, they'll get what's coming eventually."
Not sure what else to do, Andi reached up and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. She felt his arms snake around her waist in response, embracing her with equal enthusiasm. With her face nestled in the crook of his neck, she could detect the smell of cedarwood, a vast improvement from a couple of weeks ago. The smell comforted her and she was reluctant to pull back, but the hug was lasting too long for 'just friends.'
God, she was already hating this arrangement that she organized.
Pulling back, she played with the sleeves of her cardigan, while he nervously scratched his neck. "Well, I better go. I have to meet Maria. We're going shopping for the dance tomorrow."
Marcus teasingly rolled his eyes. "I still can't believe you're going to that."
Andi shrugged. "You're just jealous."
"Yeah, that's it," he drawled out sarcastically.
"I'll see ya around."
"Definitely."
Maria was waiting for her by Simon's car an hour later.
The two hurried to the mall as quickly as possible, hoping to get in as much shopping time as possible before the stores started to close. This was their last chance to find a suitable dress before the dance the next day.
They browsed the racks of one of the department stores, dresses piling up on their arms as they collected as many as they could carry to try on. They bantered back and forth, as they picked out suitable choices, even recommending ones for each other.
"So, you and Marcus seem pretty close," the Latina said.
Andi knew the topic was bound to come up. Maria was one of the people she was closest to at King's. It would be weird if they did not talk about Marcus eventually. Although, Andi did have to admit she was apprehensive about the topic.
On Marcus' first day, he and Maria almost kissed before the gathering at the Graveyard. And now, about two weeks later, Andi had slept with the guy and got butterflies around him like some cliché girl in a romantic comedy. It was a bit of an awkward subject to her.
"Uh, yeah. We've become closer recently."
"Mm-hmm," Maria agreed, her eyes narrowing as she began her interrogation. "Did you guys kiss yet?"
The question took Andi off guard, the blonde almost dropping the dresses slung over her arm. "Maria!"
"What? It's a valid question," the dark-haired girl shrugged nonchalantly. "No stop stalling and answer the question."
Andi sighed, "Yes." The brunette squealed.
"Really? When? How did it happen? Was he a good kisser? You've got to tell me!" she went on excitedly.
Andi laughed, "Whoa. Calm down."
"I'm sorry. Okay, okay. One question at a time. When did you guys kiss? Go."
The blonde smiled thinking about the night. "At Shabnam's party."
Maria huffed, "So long ago and you didn't tell me! Aye, of course it was at the one party I didn't go to." Andi did not comment on the fact that Maria should have just blown Chico off that night to come with them. "Next question, how did it happen?"
"Well, we were both pissed off at Lex for being a dick and I pulled him into the bathroom so he wouldn't start a fight and... it just kind of happened. I don't know."
"Was he a good kisser?"
Andi bit her bottom lip and nodded. "Oh yeah," she said, before muttering, "He was good at a lot of things."
Maria's jaw dropped. "I heard that. Don't hold out on me now, chica. Tell me more."
Andi laughed nervously. "Well, later that night, Marcus found me in one of the upstairs bedrooms, upset, and we got to talking..." When she paused, Maria gestured for her to continue. "And then we had sex." It was a vague answer, but it seemed to satisfy Maria's curiosity.
The Mexican beauty lit up at the revelation, but it was short-lived. "Wait, wait. This isn't like with Juan and Viktor, is it?"
"No, no. Uh, I don't know if anything is going to happen though. You know how I am, and I felt like we were going kind of fast so we're just going to get to know each other as friends."
"Oh." The brunette girl tried not to look disappointed. A real relationship would be a huge stepping-stone for Andi dealing with her trust issues. Maria understood her reluctance and wanting to take it slow but she hoped that she would not keep holding herself back from being happy.
Maria quickly covered her disappointment with a bright smile. "Well, like I said yesterday, I'm always here for you and will support you in whatever you decide to do."
Andi smiled back at her friend. "I would hug you right now, but my hands are kind of full," she laughed.
The Latina joined her, "Then let's go try these on and make a decision. My arms are getting tired anyway."
Bit of an awkward ending, I think. This chapter follows the show a lot but there will be more original content next chapter. The rest of the shopping scene will also continue in the next chapter. There will also be some interaction between Simon and Marcus, which I hope you will all enjoy.
ENJOY! FOLLOW, FAVORITE, AND REVIEW TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! :)