Chapter 42—Distracted

Elara's POV

The classroom door opened and Ravin walked in like he owned the place, and I watched every female head in the room turn to follow him. It was almost mechanical the way it happened, like his presence had gravity and everyone felt the pull of it instantly.

Someone dropped a pen — a girl in the front row actually lost her train of thought mid-sentence talking to her neighbor.

He took his seat two rows ahead of me without looking back, and Nyx leaned over and tapped my arm.

"Your boyfriend has so many admirers," she whispered, and I could hear the amusement in her voice. "Half the junior class would still take him home if he asked."

I smiled, and I couldn't help it because there was something deeply satisfying about knowing that the boy everyone was staring at was mine. He didn't look at any of them. He didn't acknowledge the attention at all.

Hw just sat there like he was completely unaware of the effect he was having, which somehow made it worse in the best way possible.

It was a performance, of course. He knew exactly what he was doing but watching him do it, watching all these girls fall for the same lie he'd been selling at this school for weeks now, felt like the best kind of secret.

Freya was already leaning over to Nyx on her other side, and the two of them started whispering about something I couldn't quite catch, their heads bent together, completely lost in whatever gossip had captured their attention. I caught fragments something about who said what at lunch, something about someone's crush being ridiculous. The usual.

Professor Reid was writing something on the board about cellular respiration and mitochondrial function, and the class had settled into that drowsy mid-morning haze where nobody was really paying attention. Freya was still whispering, Nyx was still listening with her eyes bright with amusement, and I was still watching Ravin try very hard not to look like he knew I was watching him.

Then Professor Reid turned around and looked directly at Freya.

"Miss Vargus," he said, and his voice cut through the classroom like a knife, sharp and sudden. "Since you seem to have so much to say, why don't you repeat what I just said?"

Freya's head snapped up, and for a second I saw the panic flash across her face. Nyx straightened up immediately, her eyes going wide, and several other students who had also been paying zero attention suddenly looked very interested in seeing if Freya was about to get called out hard.

But Freya didn't hesitate. She sat up straight and repeated exactly what Professor Reid had said about mitochondrial function in cellular respiration, the exact scientific terminology, the specific examples he had used, word for word, with the exact inflection and emphasis he had used, it was flawless.

The whole class went quiet.

Professor Reid nodded once, satisfied that he hadn't caught her out, and turned back to the board. Freya sat back down, and I could see her shoulders relax, the tension draining out of her now that she'd cleared that particular hurdle.

I wasn't surprised though. Freya always knew what was happening even when it looked like she wasn't paying attention.

She had this ability to absorb everything that was going on around her while making it look like she was completely checked out.

She was one of the brightest students in this class, maybe in the entire school, and people never seemed to realize it because she was good at making it look easy, at making it look like she was just coasting on charm and confidence when really she was absorbing every word, every concept, every detail that Professor Reid was throwing at us.

Nyx reached over and squeezed her hand, impressed despite trying to hide it, and Freya shot her a look that said don't remind me I just got lucky, but her lips curved up into a smile anyway, the kind of smile that said she knew exactly how smart she was and she was okay with keeping that to herself.

I turned back to my notebook and tried to focus on what Professor Reid was saying about ATP production and energy transfer, but my attention kept drifting back to Ravin, who was still sitting perfectly still in his seat, looking exactly like a student who had never caused a problem in his life, who was just here to learn and be normal and definitely not leading a rogue pack from the shadows.

The rest of the class passed in that weird way classes did when you weren't really paying attention but also weren't getting in trouble for it. Freya took notes and whispered occasionally to Nyx about things that had nothing to do with mitochondrial function. Professor Reid taught like we were all paying attention. Ravin sat there like a statue carved out of stone and mystery.

By the time the bell rang, I had managed to take exactly three sentences of notes that made any kind of sense, and I was already thinking about where I was going to see Ravin next, whether he would find me or if I would have to find him, how long I could go without touching him before I started losing my mind.

Nyx stood up and stretched, and Freya gathered her things, and I followed them out of the classroom trying to look like a normal student and not like someone whose boyfriend had just spent an entire class period sitting ten feet away from her without being able to acknowledge her existence.

"That was close," Freya said as we walked into the hallway, and she didn't sound scared anymore, just amused. "I thought he actually had me for a second."

"You're too smart for Reid," Nyx said. "He knows it too that's why he tries to catch you."

"He's going to actually get me one of these days," Freya said, laughing. "And then I'm going to have to pretend I don't know everything and just coast by on my charm."

"Please don't," Nyx said. "The world needs smart people who actually try."

"I listened to them talk as we walked down the hallway, and Ravin caught up to us. He didn't hesitate, just reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear like it was the most natural thing in the world, his fingers lingering for a moment before he pulled away.

Freya grinned at us. Nyx smiled knowingly.

'See you at lunch,' he said to me, and there was nothing hidden in it, nothing careful. Just him, being with me, right there in front of everyone."