It was strange because the teacher wasn’t someone he’d seen before. He was too young and too attractive to be working in a public school like theirs. The man next to Aria must’ve been a substitute for one of the classes, and by the way they were talking, it looked as if they were old friends.
Why did he stomach feel gross about it?
The guy might look good for a substitute teacher, but he had nothing on him.
The nerd had thick black-rimmed glasses that covered half his face, and his eyes weren’t anything special. Unlike his own vivid green and Aria’s coffee-colored irises, this guy only had basic brown eyes.
He wasn’t even that tall either, and the guy was definitely shorter than Adrian. Besides, his hair wasn’t even all that. Maybe it had some natural blond highlights but—
“What the f*ck? Adrian what are you doing?!” Aria looked at him as if he had just killed someone before she rushed over to the teacher.
“Are you alright?” she asked in concern.
It took him a moment to register what exactly he just did; and once he had, Adrian couldn’t describe the overwhelming amount of guilt and dread that pooled into his gut.
He just shoved a guy into a row of lockers with a force great enough for him to almost bowl through a group of freshmen.
How was he going to get out of this one?
Thankfully, Nick assessed the situation in an instant. “Oh sh*t, I’m so sorry Adrian. I didn’t think I pushed you that hard.”
Adrian was quick on the uptake. “I’m really sorry, are you guys alright?”
Before the guy could reply, Aria did it for him, “What the hell was that for?”
“I—”
“Someone could’ve gotten seriously hurt, like what the f*ck?” she fired again.
“I’m fine,” the teacher said as he tried to stop Aria’s unrelenting anger.
“Fine? Fine? You literally hit the lockers!”
“It’s fine, I’m okay, really—”
Nick then stepped up. “It’s my fault. I’m really sorry, I pushed Adrian a little too hard and he bumped into you, sir.”
“Nick, what were you thinking?” Aria redirected her anger to him. “You could’ve really hurt someone!”
“It’s fine, really.” The substitute teacher tried to deescalate the situation.
“I’m really sorry, sir.” Nick continued to do damage control.
Adrian wasn’t sure whether to include himself into the conversation in order to seem less suspicious or not.
“We should go to the nurse’s office and get you checked for a concussion or something.” Aria looked at the sub.
The teacher evaluated himself before he agreed, “That might be good.”
“Sorry for the accident, really,” Adrian decided it was now time to be a little more vocal. “Do you need us to help you to the nurse’s office?”
“I should be fine, but thank you for the offer.”
“Well, it was nice to meet you Mr. . . .”
“Ruso. Mr. Ruso.”
“Again . . .” Nick was laying it on thick. “I’m really sorry about that. Honest to God.”
“Don’t worry about it, I remember doing things like this in high school too.” Adrian internally cursed because Mr. Sub seemed like a cool guy. “Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“Of course, will do, have a good day Mr. Ruso. Aria.” Nick already slung an arm over Adrian’s shoulder and started to usher them away.
Even though he was really thankful for Nick and his quick thinking, Adrian couldn’t help but feel irritated at the fact that Mr. Sub and Aria were closer than he anticipated.
Obviously, these feelings weren’t friendship anymore. They were going beyond that. He was getting closer and closer to the point of no return.
Adrian already felt done for the day.
***
As it turns out, Aria still wasn’t happy that Adrian had “accidentally” bumped into Mr. Sub, but then again, what did he expect?
He wasn’t sure.
While Nick and Leila were sitting on the counter island in his kitchen, they discussed all the hypothetical futures of what could happen. It was a scary thought, especially considering that all the accidents and all the coincidences lately.
It was a lot of crazy to think about, but at the same time, they weren’t the front-runners of this problem. They wouldn’t be the real problem-solvers. Sure, they might be able to help, but they had less resources to work with than those on the council, so their solutions were probably subpar in comparison.
Nevertheless, the debate between the problem-solvers and the leave-it-to-the-experts continued.
“That doesn’t change the fact that we know nothing. We don’t know where they are, what they want, or why. Our only hints are the victims,” Nick tried to reason out.
“Most of them were humans and nons,” Leila added. “Don’t you think there’s a reason why?”
“Because they’re easy targets.”
“Exactly! That’s why we have to think of a way to protect—”
“Leila, we can’t just do anything. We’ll get in trouble.”
“Yeah, but at least nons have some self-defense capability.”
Adrian could only nod in agreement.
“Okay, fine. But what can we do?”
That was the question they had all wanted to know.
“This is so stupid,” Adrian groaned after a few minutes.
Leila sounded indignant. “What do you mean? People are getting hurt—”
“I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it.” He frowned. “I just didn’t think any of it would get this complicated this quick.”
“You shouldn’t have expected it to be a cakewalk.”
“I know, but still . . .”
The honesty in Adrian’s words must’ve struck something within the other two. This wasn’t at all what they imagined their young adult life to be like either. They just wanted to be able to live freely without constraint and without the responsibilities that they weren’t technically ready for. Still, it could never be forgotten. The not-so-subtle hints of their futures was
