Not A Walking Cliché
Hilary screams as his fist connects with Kai's nose. Several people around them shriek and gasp as red bleeds into his white shirt.
"Call her a slut again one more time," says Tyson, his body shaking with anger and adrenaline. "I dare you."
His dark hair hangs in front of his eyes. Kai brings a hand under his nose, notices the blood on his fingers when he pulls them back. His jaw clenches. He turns to Tyson with murder in his eyes.
There are more than ten different shocked gazes on him, but Tyson is affected only by his.
The music flows around them, still loud, still booming, yet he doesn't hear it. His focus is on Kai and it is so sharp it's the sole reason he sees the exact moment Kai makes the connection between Tyson and Hilary in the dim purple light of the room.
The surprise is evident on his face for a mere fleeting moment as he glances between the two of them. Tyson realizes his mistake when the corner of Kai's mouth lifts in the tiniest of smirks. And a dangerous glint appears in his gaze.
He wipes the blood off his face with a swipe of his thumb, letting it dry on his fingers as he says to Hilary, who is standing frozen behind Tyson, tears threatening to spill: "You're the one who told him I had a small dick."
Somehow, it's the most frightening statement he's ever heard.
Kai doesn't seem to care that a few people around them are listening.
"What?" she asks him feebly, her hands still cupped in front of her mouth. Confusion slowly overtakes the expression of horror on her face.
Tyson stops breathing, all his courage suddenly leaving him as his friend puts two and two together.
Kai's eyes shift to him.
"Isn't that what you said?" he asks. "That you were defending me from her?"
Tyson's mouth open and close, unable to form words.
"What do you mean?" he hears Hilary ask behind him. He feels her gaze on him.
"Quit a team you two make," Kai remarks quietly to him, holding his eyes.
Satisfied by the damage done, he turns around and walks away from them, the crowd parting for him without a word.
"You talked to him?" Hilary demands to Tyson. He has a look of worry and guilt on his features as he faces her. "And told him I said he had a small dick?" She struggles to make sense of the situation. "Why would you do that?"
Her eyes are wet and wide. There's a frown marring her forehead.
"I never said such a thing."
"Hil, you don't understand," he begins weakly, unsure how to explain his actions to her.
"You went behind my back and talked to him." Hilary tucks her hair behind her ears as shock quickly transforms into anger. "And lied to him. Making me look like a bitch."
"I can explain." He tries to take her hand. She moves a step back from him.
Hilary shakes her head, betrayal writ all over her features. Then she whirls, making straight for the door.
Tyson follows her, swimming through people to stop her from heading home without talking to him.
She bumps into Emily on the way out. "Where are you going? The auction just starte- hey!" she shouts after Hilary when she doesn't stop.
When Tyson reaches the redhead, she clamps onto his arm. "Why are you all leaving? Hilary just walked out the door."
"I can't stay. Something's happened."
"What?"
"Hilary's mad. I'll explain later." He pries her fingers off his arm and darts after his friend.
Emily stares at his back perplexed.
"Stop"
"No"
"Please let me explain."
"No!"
Hilary spins, her hair whipping around in the air with her. "You were the reason he called me a slut."
"What?" Tyson comes to a halt on the grass, a couple blocks away from the Blitzkriegs' house.
"He called me that because he was hurt," she explains. "Hurt because of what he thinks I said about his dick being small!"
"He didn't know it was you! I never told him your name!" he defends. "I said it was my 'friend'."
"God, Tyson, you think he didn't find out who your 'friend' was as soon as you left?"
"Yes! He was surprised at the party earlier."
"Because you punched him." Her voice goes soft and her tone accusing and full of pain as she says, "You made his nose bleed."
"He deserved it," Tyson says with venom. "He called you a slut."
"No, he doesn't. He called me that because of you."
"He called you that because he is an asshole. Hilary, he's not in love with you. He used you for sex."
"You sound like as if you were there when you were not," she argues. "You don't know what he is like behind closed doors. You don't know about all the things he said to me. I told you very little about our dates."
"Please, they weren't dates. He took you along with him when he went for coffee."
"How is that not a date?!" she shouts at him.
"He did the same with other girls too," Tyson tries to reason.
"You! Weren't! There!" She yells each word at him having had enough.
Tyson shuts up. Astonished by the fervour with which she defended him.
"You messed up everything," she says in a softer tone, but the words hurt him more. "He won't trust me now. It's all gone to shit. You fucked everything up."
A sob startles out of her. "I hate you." Tears fall.
Tyson goes numb. He watches her cry feeling like the worst person on the planet. "He asked me to see him."
She doesn't hear. Her sobs drown out his words. When he steps close to her to wrap his arms around her, she pushes him off and runs back to the dorm. He lets her go.
Tyson's heart beats erratically after she's gone. He runs a distressed hand through his hair as he stares at a tree in front of him. God, he fucked up. Hilary thinks he was the reason Kai insulted her when he was already planning to do it. He was trying to be a good friend, but shit had blown up marvelously in his face.
Kai. That son of a bitch. He's smarter than everyone gives him credit for. He turned that situation around in his favour so quickly and with such efficiency, Tyson suspects he has done it multiple times before. When he punched him, and Kai connected the two dots, he decided to kill two birds with one stone. With a few words, he'd shifted the entire blame for calling Hilary a slut onto Tyson, making her hate him, and made sure Hilary's feelings for him stayed intact. So he could use it against Tyson in the future.
What kind of evil mastermind playboy is he at odds with?
For a second, he's slightly buoyant as he replays the earlier incident in his mind, then Hilary's tearful face flashes in his mind again, and his mood plummets. How is he going to fix this? His heart does not work right when she is mad at him.
Tyson almost walks back home, before he recalls he left Kenny half unconscious at the party. He shoots Emily a text to check up on his friend, but she doesn't reply. He jogs back to the house worried for Kenny.
When he enters the party for the second time that night, the music seems louder. The energy higher. His head throbs as he makes his way to the yellow couch where he'd last seen his friend.
He staggers with relief when he finds Kenny still lying in the same place, sleeping. "Hey," he gently pats his cheek to wake him. "Get up, buddy. Let's go."
The Physics major grumbles as he sits up and brushes grit from his eyelids. Tyson smiles at him.
"Three thousand dollars going once!" Tala's voice resonates in the air around him. Cheers go up after the call.
"Three thousand dollars going twice!"
Tyson turns around, feeling like he was moving in slow motion. Three thousand? he thinks to himself. What the-
He sees Kai leaning against the wall, at the edge of the living room where it meets the dining. The girls in the hall do not notice him standing there a few feet behind them. His attention on his phone in hand.
"Tyson" Kenny gasps as he pulls himself to his feet and sways.
It's as though Kai hears his name being called amidst all the ruckus in the room, and his head swivels in Tyson's direction.
Their eyes meet.
"Sold! For three thousand dollars!" People cheer wildly. Tyson feels his pulse in his throat. "Will the winner please join us on the stage? Ma'am, you just won yourself a neat hookup with none other than Kai Hiwatari. Remember, we're doing this for a good cause, ladies."
It's the perfect moment. Tyson takes the chance. "Whore" he mouths at him. Kai's foot, which he'd propped against the wall, thuds as he straightens in response.
Tyson can't linger and savour his little victory because Kenny needs his help. "Come on," he urges his friend, putting his arm around his shoulders for added support. "Let's go."
He holds Kai's gaze as he leads Kenny out of the house. A childish instinct takes over him when he sees him staring at him with quiet rage and realizes all his attention is on him. He jabs his middle finger in the air. "Up yours" he says, the finger pumping. "Up. Yours."
Kai turns back around, almost rolling his eyes at Tyson.
He thinks he's so high and mighty. The fucking idiot.
Tyson chews him out in his head as they step out into the cool night. He inhales deeply, most of the tension that came with being inside a small space with a large number of people leaving him immediately.
"I'm going to throw up," Kenny gives a second's warning before he runs to the grass on the side and lurches out everything he had inside of him. Tyson swallows the bile that rises at the sight of the nasty orange colour of the puke, and rubs his friend's back as he heaves it all out. "There you go, buddy. That's it."
A hand slips around his collar, and he is suddenly yanked by his shirt. The smell of expensive cologne surrounds him. "Who do you think you're calling a whore?" a low voice asks in his ear.
Tyson knows who that disembodied voice belongs to. He tries to pry his stupid hand off of his shirt but the grip is strong. He twist his neck to look up at him. Finds his heady gaze and stupid mouth.
"You," he says to him, nudging his face in closer. "I called you a whore."
That stupid smirk pulls at his lips again. Stupid stupid. Everything about him is stupid. "Funny" Kai replies. "Since your girl's the one who jumped at the first chance to lose her virginity to someone she met a week ago."
Tyson sees red. He wrenches out of his hold, and grabs the collars of his shirt. "I'm going to kill you."
"Tyson" he hears Kenny call faintly. He turns with instant concern, his fingers loosening.
His friend stands there, looking fragile and tipsy. Like he is about to pass out any moment. "I don't feel so good," he says in a small voice.
Tyson abandons Kai's shirt and rushes to carry his friend, guiding his arm around his shoulders again. He stops to say to Kai, in case he gets the wrong idea: "Consider yourself lucky."
He's amused. "You fight like a little boy," he jabs in return.
Tyson is tempted to go over and rip his head off his neck. I am a kendo black belt, he wants to scream, but Kenny starts to feel heavy. And he also worries it might be a bit too juvenile.
So he slowly turns on his heel while glaring daggers at him. Just you wait.
"Come on" he says to Kenny, dragging his weight with him as they walk down the driveway. People are still partying around them. Some are puking in the grass. Good. Ruin the green grass. Make it turn a nasty orange. He's not satisfied. There's this incomplete energy inside of him. He needs to do something.
He yells the first insult that comes to his mind over his shoulder at Kai, who hasn't gone back into the house yet.
"You have a small dick," he says, loud enough for everyone to hear. He can't read his expression though. He's already reached the road. "Finger sized!" he yells again for good measure.
God, it's beneath him. He is never one to body shame someone but he just did it. Kai brings out the worst in him.
He glances over his shoulder as they steer to the right and start down the pavement. He's still there. And he's moving his head like he was wiping off a smile off his face. Kai catches his eyes.
Tyson wants to go back.
Give him a piece of his mind.
Kai yells in return. "You know that because you slept with me?"
Someone gasps. A few turn and cast funny stares.
As if. Tyson is disgusted. "Eww" he screams at the top of his lungs, absolutely sickened, "I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole, you jerk!" The words are so loud they echo in the night.
He doesn't look back. Tyson never sees it but Kai smiles. A small smile. Just a hint of it. But he smiles nonetheless. Ming-Ming watches him, leaning against the banister. She's the gossip monger of the campus.
Kai tilts his head at her. "He's the one with the small dick," he tells her.
Ming-Ming has her phone in hand. She already has her notes opened. "Interesting. And how do you know?"
"I saw it in the gym showers."
"You were looking?" She peers at him over the top of her glasses as her fingers tap away at the screen.
"He flashed it at me," Kai says as he walks back into the party.
Ming-Ming shakes her head. People do this to themselves. She just spreads the news around.
Tyson's jaw drops as he reads the tweet with his name in it.
"TheCampusScoop just updated," announces Eddie. They are chilling at a cozy little cafe with lots of window and ample sunlight.
They sit around a wide table at the front of the shop. The six of them. Michael, Rick, Eddie, Max, Tyson and Rei.
"Tyson, it says you have a small dick."
"That dickhead!" Tyson screams offended, dropping his phone on the table, still staring at the tweet.
"Oh my god" he starts wailing. "There goes my social life." He rests his head on the table. "I'm never going to get a girlfriend again. This tweet will follow me everywhere. I will die alone!"
The guys joke and snicker around him.
"It's alright, Tyson," Max consoles him. "You don't actually have one that is finger-sized. People just think you do. That's not so bad."
"Man, he really did it to me this time."
"He says he flashed it at him in the gym shower," Michael says as he reads the piece again.
"We don't even have a shower at the gym!" Tyson cries helplessly. "This is so ridiculous!"
"What did you do?" asks Rei.
Tyson doesn't hear him. Caught up in his pity party. "We don't even go to the same gym!"
"Hey, Tyson," Eddie demands his attention. "This is good. When you finally get a girlfriend and you show her your dick she'll be expecting it to be small so when she sees it she'll think it's massive."
Tyson had sat back up to listen to this. A laugh startles out of him. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard," he says to the rest of them.
The door to the cafe opens suddenly and there's a stream of black as the Blitzkrieg boys breeze in. Tyson sees Kai and sags in his chair. The latter's eyes come up from the floor and land on him, sitting in the middle of the huge table full of people in the front.
Tyson makes a face at him. Tala coughs. "Small dick ahem," he says into his fist.
A couple more join him.
"Small pee-pee"
"Finger-size"
They pass by their table, their heavy boots and chains clunking. When they settle into a booth by the far corner, Tyson has a clear view of Kai's mug and he grabs a butter knife.
He points it. "Gonna stab the fucker."
"Don't" Rick lowers his arm with a hand on it. The knife touches the table-top.
Michael watches him with an amused expression. "You kinda like the guy, don't you?" he asks, shocking Tyson.
"What?" he cants his head at him.
"You don't seem like you hate him. You've had this slight smile on your face the entire time we were talking about him today, and you didn't seem all that pissed even when the tweet was posted." Mike rocks back and forth in his chair as he assesses him, psychology major coming through. "In fact, you were kind of thrilled, I'd say. By his attention." Tyson blinks at him. Feeling exposed. "You like him. Or rather you like that he's paying attention to you."
It's the same shit. He'd given a slightly modified version of this speech to Hilary a week ago.
Tyson pales and looks across the shop at Kai. Mike was right. He was thrilled. He did like having Kai's attention on him. Tyson remembers the exact moment the shift in his attitude towards Kai had happened. At the party last night. When the auction concluded. There was a lightness about Kai as he'd leaned against the wall. And when his eyes found his. And when he yelled after him in the front yard.
There was an undercurrent of attraction in all of Tyson's exchanges with Kai since he came back to the party for Kenny and saw him standing there aloof. Withdrawn. Away from the rest of his troop.
It's the same shit. The same shit that got Hilary hooked, and numerous other girls as well. He glances over at him now. Kai is leaning back in his chair, saying something to Tala in Russian. His voice is rough. His tone sharp. Face serious. Nothing about him is light.
Tyson had been half playing with him last night, but as he looks at him now he wonders what the hell was wrong with him. There is not a single thing about him that he finds attractive in broad daylight. He's a demon he wants nothing to do with. Tyson looks back at his friends, they've moved on, laughing and conversing casually.
All the humour of the situation bleeds out of him. He sees the blood on Kai's shirt in his mind again. How he hadn't bothered to wash it off after as he stood next to the wall. The blood he'd found on his own bruised knuckles in his bathroom before he went to bed. He remembers Ileana. The girl who had slit her wrists and almost bled herself to death because of Kai.
This is not a game.
Not a movie.
Kai's not someone he can mess with for fun. He's dangerous. He's not the cliched bad boy with the tragic past that all the girls adored. He's fire. And if Tyson plays with him, he'll get burned.