First message
I was halfway through a chapter, lost in the clean logic of quantum mechanics, when I heard that voice—the kind that drips arrogance like grease off cheap food. I looked up, and there he was: Tyler. Walking arrogance with fists he barely knew how to use, and a mouth that never shut up. I tried to ignore him, eyes back on the page, but of course he sat down across from me like this was his table, his world. “You look tense, Anders. You should calm down,” he said, smiling like he thought he was clever. My jaw clenched before I even realized it. That word. Calm. Like I was some ticking bomb for him to poke at. My fingers curled around the edge of the book, knuckles going white. I wasn’t tense. I was fine. But now my pulse was hammering in my ears, and I could feel the burn starting behind my eyes. One more word, and I swear—one more—he was going to find out just how calm I wasn’t.