I see her name before I hear it.
   "Valentina Monroe and Thalia Robinson," Ms. Anya says, too calm for what she's just done.
   There's a pause—one of those thick, heavy silences. The kind that hums with electricity. The kind you could cut with a knife.
   I could feel all the color drain from my face. Then she turned around to face me, mockingly smirking at me.
   "Fuck. You." My mouth returned the smirk.
   "You. Wish." All she said before turning her head back around before I could even say anything, causing her to get the last word.
   "Nope," I mutter loudly.
   "Excuse me?" Ms. Anya tilts her head, ever the queen of passive-aggressive.
   "No thank you. Pick someone else."
    The class snickers. I hear a fake gasp—probably Na-Yeon being dramatic in support. I don't care. I am not spending the next few with her. 
   Kim held my hand as I groaned, putting my head down as I tried my best not to explode into thin air, but now that I say that, exploding into thin air doesn't sound bad right now.
   "Enough," Ms. Anya says, clapping her hands once. 
   "You two are working together. Final. I expect a three-minute presentation and a full photo series by the end of the month. Consider this... a creative challenge."
   Creative challenge, my ass.
   The class went on, but the urge to jump out of a window got bigger and bigger with each passing minute.
   Then my teacher said the last 10 minutes of class we'd get with our partners to do an icebreaker with one another and we would describe our partner in 3 words.
   I griped into Kim's dress as I begged for her to stay. "Kim, please, I beg of you! Please," I say and she rolls her eyes at me. 
   "Val, put on your big girl panties please, and let go. You know if I could I would stay, but I can't. I'm positive you'll survive."
   I let go.
   She smiled and kissed me on the cheek.
   I watched as she got up, walking two steps away to the desk in front of me as the devil herself sat down next to me.
   "Let's get this over with," the devil says.
   We used to sit side by side like this. In art camp. Before she disappeared for two years and came back with sharper eyeliner and even sharper words. Before she made it her life's mission to ruin mine.
   And now? Now we're a photography duo. One lens. Two girls who would rather walk barefoot across Legos than spend time together.
   "Let's get something straight," I say, not looking at her. "You do your half. I do mine. No talking. No bonding. No—"
   "—feelings?" she cuts in, smirking. "Scared of catching any?"
   I turn and look her dead in the eye.
   "You are quite a pain in the ass, Thalia, like how do you even live with yourself? Sadly, I can't do anything about you being my partner, so you'll come over to my house so that way we can get this project started because if I'm around for one more second, I'll go insane."
   We argued the entire class period and insulted each other, but I was grateful to hear the bell bring as I grabbed my bag quickly and shoved Thaila with it.
   For Thaila, she lit a fuse under me, and I hate that she could easily set me off. One person shouldn't affect you like this. 
   Kim followed after me out of the class as she joked about how that went well to lighten the mood but that did not work very well as I was still ticked off 
   "I swear I'm going to choke her out" I said to my best friend as we walked to the student parking.
   "I hope you guys realize that this hate is misguided and you both have a lot of sexual tension between the two of you."
   I felt the slight beat of my heart quicken by Na-Yeon words. That will and never happen between us, I hate her and she hates me that's just how it goes...nothing more nothing less.
   "Please don't say crap like that, I might actually die from heart attack at the thought of ever being romantic with Thaila."
   She just laughed. "Sure. Just let me know when one of you confesses, so I can say I told you so."
   We got into the car and made our over to my house as Kim was also meeting up with Genevieve for maybe a project and no project-related things. "I'll talk to you later!" I said as I got out of the car and made my way into my house. The house smelled amazing. "I'm home, momma!"
   I yelled as I walked to the kitchen, smiling to see she was cooking loads of stuff; I gave her a hug smiling as she looked stressed out I didn't want to bother her too much so I made my way upstairs to my room and sat down my bedroom the ground and made my way to my bathroom to start the shower as I walked into my room smiling to see cherry was on my bed.
   She was my cat, and she was the most adorable cat ever. I walked up to her and gave her some head scratches as she purred in delight.
   "Ugh, you are the cutest thing ever it's sicking! I love you." I say, giving her kisses before getting back up, and I walk into my bathroom to take a shower.
   I got changed into some shorts and a cropped shirt as I currently drying my hair. When I heard my phone ping, I got a message from Thaila wondering why she was even messaging me, and to my surprise, she said she was coming over.
   "Bro, what the fuck? No!" I say as I begin to text back telling her no she can't just come over, but she left me on read and I screamed.. literally.
   I groaned as I didn't want her to come over. The last thing I wanted was here in my house, to goodness' sake.
   I knew that she was coming over for the project but I wanted to work on it outside my home, and maybe I'm being dramatic, but I didn't want her in my house because my mom loves her.
   Both of our parents were in the same high school and college so me and we grew up together before her mom moved when she was younger and then came back during middle school.
   It sounds petty, but I've never stopped resenting her for it—we were best friends, and she left without even saying goodbye. Then she came back in middle school and acted like she didn't even know me. That's when the hate really started

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑫𝑶𝑵𝑬
⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
AUTHORS NOTE
Thank you so much for reading the first chapter!! I hope you all enjoyed it 🤍
I'm excited about this book and I always love a good hate-to-love 온라인카지노게임, and I just really love these characters so much!!
Also, my Pinterest is in my bio if you want the aesthetic for the book!!
Pinterest - r0maticstar0