Chapter 31 Friend, Enemy, Or? (1/2)

Laz could feel this girl in the same way that he knew she could feel him. He didn't know what it was, but it was there. Laz didn't realize it with Joey until Joey came home and was in a somewhat close proximity to him.

At the time, he thought it was his imagination or just the signal of danger because of the situation. Now, he knew he was wrong.

Although the smile lasted for only a minute, Laz understood that there was something inside of both of them that alerted them of each other. If Laz hadn't encountered Joey first, he might have thought it was love at first or something foolish like that.

Although they only interacted for a brief minute, Tommy seemed to have caught this momentary exchange. Despite it being only a smile, he suddenly felt angry. 'Who was this kid to try to take what I decided on,' he thought to himself.

Although he hadn't said a word to her, Tommy had already claimed the new girl as something for himself. Even though he was young, he had already had many girls and women. Apparently, it was in his upbringing. He also wasn't the only one who noticed.

”Oh, that's interesting. I wonder if they already knew each other?” Annie asked having noticed the smile and noticed Tommy's somewhat twisted expression.

”Who cares. I always get what I want.”

”You should be more careful. You don't know anything about this girl. On top of that, she isn't like one of these backwater sluts who just wants a rich guy. Or wants money.” Jesse's comment did little to wake Tommy up.

Tommy had always been obsessed with pretty girls, hence why Jesse tried to remind this friend of his. Despite his lavish behavior, he was generally a good guy. At least as far as Jesse was concerned.

”Tommy gets the girls he wants Jesse, he's always been like that,” Annie added, just putting more fuel on the fire.

”He didn't get you, did he?” Jesse laughed, mocking her. Annie didn't reply and turned to face forward, as though interested in what the teacher was saying.

”What? Really?” Jesse turned over to fave Tommy. ”You too, huh?” Tommy just smiled back and didn't say anything, confirming the question.

Although Annie didn't say anything at this point, she mumbled under her breath, ”I was just wondering if either of you were worth it. But sadly, neither of you really did much for me.”

Both Tommy and Jesse had black lines on their faces at that comment but decided not to say anything more. Although people perceived women as being slutty for having slept with more than one guy, it also gave the woman power over the guys in different ways. For a girl like Annie who had money and power due to her parents, she could find more than one way to humiliate the two if she wanted.

Girls mature faster than guys. It's something that has been said and proven for a long time. Even though Tommy was use to getting his way with women, he was still at the age that he was unsure of himself. And Jesse, although he acted tough and felt like the leader of the group, would still fold under pressure from Annie.

Laz might have heard their conversation in the same way that he could hear whatever was going on in the classroom, but he didn't pay it much mind. Although he had experience fighting Joey, that didn't mean he thought he should go out and challenge every one that he met that was like him. He wasn't trying to be the king of the world or something.

The only question he had was what was this girl's thoughts? Did she know about these special people? Had she made the connection between the news, Yggdrasil and the ”Chosen” popping up all over the place?

He didn't look at her again though. No matter how interested he might be, he knew that it was better not to reveal himself too much. If she had something to say, she would find him. If she didn't, she would avoid him. This was the first time he met someone else like him who hasn't tried to kill him so he felt it was best to be passive at this moment.

The less she knew, the better off he was. Depending on her actions, he would then figure out if she was a friend, enemy, or other. It wasn't worth thinking about otherwise.

This wasn't Laz adopting his trademark air attitude, this was more like a strategic wait and see. He had things to do on his end like visit his Grandpa Bill, work with Grandpa and Uncle Chu and try to figure out something to tell his own grandpa about Joey leaving. There was also this mystery cousin of Tony's that was going to contact him. Just thinking about that situation was enough to give Laz a headache. He didn't need more on top of it.

'Since when did I become so busy?' Laz couldn't help but ask himself.

The day progressed on from there with Laz ignoring Malene and Malene not paying attention to Laz. Although they had a few classes together, they each did their own thing, which for Laz was nothing.

Malene seemed to blend in pretty quickly. Since she was a new student from someplace like New York City, others couldn't help but be curious about her.