Page 8 of Vexatious Queen

Oh crap.

“Um…” I felt my face turning red. Damn Nash. Damn hormones made me all stupid. “I’m sorry it won’t happen again.”

He stared at me for a moment and then picked up his glasses, using them to point toward Blake’s empty seat.

“Do you know where Mr. O’Brien is?” I shook my head. “I’m not sure I believe you, but I’m going to let it go. Please speak to him and let him know that if he’s going to start skipping again, we’re going to have an issue.”

“Mr. Sharpe, you may not be aware, but his mum was just killed. Blake is dealing with a lot,” I said, my hackles rising, regardless of whether Blake was here to hear Sharpe’s callous words.

“Be that as it may, this is a school, and I can’t give him marks for absence and unfinished assignments. Please make him aware of the situation, or I will,” Sharpe said, picking up his pen and focusing on the papers again.

Annoyed and fuming, I stood there for an extra minute trying to hold in what I really wanted to say. Which, at the moment, was not very nice.

“Was there something else?” Sharpe didn’t look up, and I wasn’t sure being his TA was so great after all.

“No.”

Turning, I only got two strides away before he called my name.

“Ren?”

When I looked back, he was holding out my quiz. I grabbed the paper, but he didn’t let go. My face gave nothing away, but all I wanted to do was jump across the desk and strangle the arrogant ass.

He finally released it, then silently pointed to the cup with the topic choices. My teeth ground together as I picked one out and walked away.

It didn’t look like the time alone had solved the issues with Ivy and Zigzag. He was leaning on the desk, going through her bag before swiping her phone.

“Oh, look at how sweet Sabastian is,” Zigzag mocked.

“Give me back my phone, now,” Ivy said, standing and holding out her hand.

Zigzag cleared his throat.

“Why don’t you have a password?” He shook his head at her. “Seriously, it’s the first rule of security. Let me see here. Hey, what are you doing? This class is such a snoozefest. I wish you were here, Guppy.” Zigzag cringed. “Guppy? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Ivy stomped around the desk, everything cute and sweet gone from her face. She looked like she was ready to murder Zigzag.

“It’s because I can’t swim. Now give me back my phone,” she ordered, but he just held it higher in the air.

Groaning, I smacked my quiz down on the desk and hit Zigzag with a glare.

“Give Ivy her phone, or you can find another group,” I said, and then looked at Ivy. “He’s right, put a password on your phone, and not your birthday.”

Zigzag looked at me and then Ivy’s furious face before rolling his eyes.

“Fine, the messages were boring anyway. Who the hell wants disgustingly sweet messages like that? All it means is that he has shit he’s trying to hide and wants to distract you with this romantic crap.”

Zigzag held out the phone to Ivy, and she swiped it from his hand.

“I’ll have you know that Sabastian and I are great, and he doesn’t have anything to hide.”

Zigzag snorted. “Sure, keep believing that.”

The bell rang, and Zigzag grabbed his backpack before sauntering away.

“Our topic is the psychology of social media use,” I called after him.

“Whatever,” he said, and disappeared.