Chapter 34: Chapter 34

I stared dumbfounded at the closed office door hoping Mr. Holden would come out with the cuff keys, unlock them and say it was all a joke and I could go back to class without worrying about my grades but all I had were hopes. That office door never swung open once in the 3 minutes it took me to stare in disbelief.

Then I felt the tug on my wrist. I shot Andre a sour look.

“Don’t give me that look,” he said putting his other unbound hand up in the air. “I was not the one who suggested this punishment.” He held up our cuffed hands.

“You know I’m beginning to think you wanted this to happen!”

He had the guts to look innocent. Putting his free hand on his chest he gasped like he was hurt by my words. “Would I ever do something like that?”

“Obviously, I know you too well, this is the kind of thing you’ll like.”

“You know me too well uhn?” he asked. “What am I thinking right now?” he asked, his eyes dropping to my lips suddenly. I tore my gaze from his.

I searched around for a distraction and found the other duster still on the slab and I grabbed it. Tugging sharply on the cuffs I pulled Andre to the first side slab and started cleaning it quickly. I felt his eyes on me for a long time, my throat felt tight under his gaze and my skin prickled with anticipation. I mean come on this is a guy who has pushed me against a wall and kissed me and I loved it.

After a while, however, he started to wipe at the cool surface with his duster. I released a sigh of relief and we cleaned in silence.

For almost 10 minutes we worked in silence and I began to think that Mr. Holden was probably peeping through the keyhole, watching how we were getting along. We were almost halfway done and I must say I am surprised Siobhan hasn’t burst in yet wondering why neither of us has returned to class. Right now we were supposed to have Maths class but thanks to our childish banter we still have five more slabs to do and there are still those test tubes to wash.

And it wasn't easy doing all of these with one hand while the other is cuffed painfully to someone else.

Once, Andre jerked at the cuffs as he cleaned the slab and I jerked right back in revenge. He didn’t say anything but my body was attuned to his eyes on my body, my face, and my neck. He was probably wondering why I was jerking harder than him. Serves him right if it hurts him.

When we were done with the slabs we made our way to the sink. Andre walked faster, jerking the cuff as he swung his hand.

“Do you mind?!” I finally shot out.

He looked back genuinely curious to know why I had stopped walking.

As if.

I know he swung his hands on purpose to get me to talk since I gave him the silent treatment after his question.

“What?” he asked.

“Oh don’t act like you don’t know, you’ve been pulling on the cuffs to get me to talk.”

“Sure, it's not because I’m eager to hurry up and get back to class or anything, it’s because I want to listen to more words roll off your acidic tongue.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Somehow I get the impression that you enjoy this, enjoy having me tied up to you because you are obsessed with me and you can’t get enough of me.”

He stared at me for a second then choked out a burst of laughter.

“Oh laugh all you want,” I rolled my eyes. “You love this back-and-forth thing going on between us because you are a secret sadomasochist.”.

He raised his brows. “That’s a huge word for you,” he came closer and leaned down to be leveled with me. “But I think the word you’re looking for is masochism and that describes you. Now if you don’t mind, contrary to popular opinion, which means yours by the way, I am not looking forward to staying tied up to you all day until tomorrow especially since you never have anything nice to say to me. You seem to have forgotten that you just insulted me in the presence of 20 students. I am choosing to overlook that, don't push your luck.” His eyes were cold as he jerked the cuff to make me move.

I jerked back with all my strength hoping the sharp ridges of the cuff hurt him but he didn’t show the slightest sign of pain and that made me mad.

“I can’t have anything nice to say to you, Rios because we are not friends. I am not your friend and you and not mine.”

“You are damn right,” he bit out through clenched teeth and jerked the cuff again. This time I felt a sharp pain in my wrist. It hurt so bad that tears rose in my eyes but I didn’t want him to see them so I bit hard on my cheeks hoping my tears would go away.

“Oh yeah?” I said eventually when I was sure my tears were contained. “So you finally agree we can never be friends? Not even for Siobhan’s sake. Took you long enough…”

“Because friends don’t kiss!” he yelled whirling around to tower over me again. I took a step back, my heart stopping for a second before picking up speedily again. He saw my reaction and looked away at the closed office door before thrusting his hand in his hair and releasing a heavy sigh. “Friends don’t kiss and enjoy it the way we do, they don’t banter and exchange caustic words for the fun of it as we do. You like it, I like it. You enjoy our scathing words exchange because you like to see how far you can go to make me hate you. Well, congratulations because you are succeeding. But don’t push your luck. You’ve gone too far this time. I hate these cuffs as much as you do so let’s just get today over with and go our separate ways tomorrow.”

This time when he tugged I didn’t have the willpower to pull back, not because I was stunned by what he said. In fact, every word he said made me angrier by the second because somewhere in my mind filled with a mixture of rage and hate for him I knew he was right. Partially right.

Without a word to him, I tugged harder at the cuff and pushed past him to walk in front so that I reached the sink faster and once there I started to wash and rinse out the test tubes, ramming them sharply in their racks. It's a miracle they didn't break. He joined me, he too said nothing. He washed with as much vigor as I did.

My eyes burned with stupid tears, I don't even know where they came from. But I couldn't contain them so I bent my head and let my hair fall forward to hide the tears falling down my cheeks.