The Perks of Being an Asshole [13/?]
Words: 1171
NovaHD
For @jamestheknight, who works far too hard
Warnings: Harassment
For the whole thing, go to my blog and check the ‘highschool au’ tag! <3
---
Monday comes and Aleks finds himself next to James in maths, leaning over occasionally to either help him out, or call him some variety of a “fucking moron”.
James just laughs at him.
“Bet you never thought you’d be having civil conversations with me,” He grins wide and gestures to his still-taped fingers, “Bet you never thought you’d feel bad about breaking about breaking my fingers either, eh, Aleksandr…?”
Aleks rolls his eyes when James stretches out his name, waiting eagerly to hear his last name.
“Marchant,” He says, scrawling an answer down, “Vitalyevich Tchernev-Marchant, if you want to get complicated.”
“Vitaly-?” James pauses, and shakes his head, giving up on the pronunciation, “Yeah, I’ll stick with just Marchant. What kind of fucking devil language is that from anyway?”
“Not a devil language. Russian,” Aleks murmurs as he scans the sheet in front of them, “And you know this is a fucking group activity right? You need to do some of this shit too.”
“Can you speak Russian?” James prods, curiously, dodging Aleks’s request.
“Сволочь.” He scowls, and James raises an eyebrow.
“I don’t appreciate the tone, so I doubt I appreciate the meaning.”
Aleks shrugs. “Swearing in Russian is odd. Now do your fucking half of the sheet, I’m sick of your shit.”
“Whatever you say, Aleksandr Marchant.”
Aleks rolls his eyes, ignores the way his name rolls off of James’s tongue like he’s been saying it his whole life, and wiggles in his seat to glance up at the chalkboard, wedging his pencil just between his teeth as he squints to read Mr. Adams messy scrawl. He notices the distinct lack of working noises coming from James, and spares him a glance.
He’s staring right at him.
Aleksandr sort of freezes a moment, not used to having someone’s eyes so intently on him. But there not quite on his face, there’s slightly lower, directed more so at-
The pencil in his mouth.
He pulls it from between his teeth with an audible click, and turns back to face James, choosing to ignore how James’s attention is suddenly on the paper, while simultaneously fighting off the heat he can feel rising in his cheeks.
“You got some kinda oral fixation or something?” James asks innocently, looking up with a less than innocent smirk.
So much for fighting off that blush, Aleksandr.
“Fuck are you talking about, asshole?” Aleks is quick to redirect his gaze back to the board.
“You always chew on your pens and shit. And your lips. You also used to smoke.”
“Yeah, so what?”
James grins, leans forward and toys with the pencil in Aleks hand, plucking it from his grip as he lowers his voice.
“I’m sure I could think of something better for you to have in your mouth.”
Aleks whips his head around so quickly he thinks he hears his neck crack.
“You can fuck off okay? You can just fuck right off and-”
His snap is cut off by James’s hysterical laughter as he wipes the tears that are beginning to form.
“Oh Aleksandr,” He chokes out between laughs, “You are too easy!”
Aleks chose instead to stare at the tan pants upon his legs, rather than let James bear witness to the fierce redness that was now blooming across his cheeks and nose.
“Сволочь.” He hisses, resting his head against his hand.
---
Kevin nearly chokes to death on his own laughter when Aleks tells him about James’s stupid shenanigans of the day.
“So,” He says with an eyebrow-wiggle, “Did you take him up on his offer?”
Aleks proceeds to mercilessly beat the shit out of him with a nearby dish rag, only pausing when the bell rings to signify the entry of a custom. He recognizes the customer as a regular though, a younger guy named Trevor, and returns to snapping out the dishrag at Kevin’s legs.
“Trevor, man, save me!”
“Nah dude, I’m just here for my coffee. The usual, when you stop getting your ass kicked.”
Trevor chats with Aleks a moment, bringing up his new camera equipment and some new games while he waits for his order, and Aleks chimes in on the odd occasion, threatening Kevin when he calls out from the side.
“Aleks has got a bad boy on the side, Trevor, haven’t you heard?”
Trevor’s eyebrows shot up, a grin placing itself on his face as he prepared to be filled in on whatever high-school experiences Aleks was having. Instead, however, Aleks pushed his cup of coffee into his hands, and chased him outside with the dish rag in hand.
“Don’t ask questions Trevor, he’s crazy!”
He shouted as he ushered the younger man outside, Trevor’s laugh echoing all the way back.
The bell chimes as Aleks closes the door, and scowls at Kevin, who merely laughs and gestures to the back room.
“Hurry up man, you’re on dish duty. Don’t fuckin’ slice yourself up too much.”
---
Aleks thinks he may have the least luck in the world when it comes to dishes. He scalds himself twice with hot water, and knicks his fingers about three times on knives hidden in the water. Kevin tries, and fails miserably to hold back a laugh, but tosses him a packet of Band-Aids, telling him he can take the counter for a second.
They’re just about to close up when it happens.
A man stumbles in the store, in his late-twenties, possibly early-thirties, and reeks of rum. He grins at Aleks, and sidles up to the counter.
“You wouldn’t happen ta’ be for sale, would ya darlin’?”
His slurring voice clips off the end of his words, and not in the stumbling childish way that James’s voice had when he was drunk-dialling Aleks, but in a sleazy, boorish way. Aleks finds himself taking a step back from the counter. He’s dealt with drunk customers before, but there’s something about this guy that frightens him.
“Uh,” He laughs awkwardly, “No, I’m, uh, I’m not.”
The man shakes his head slowly, and tuts his disapproval like that’s the most unacceptable thing he’s heard all day. Aleks can hear Kevin pause in the back room, sink no longer running as he listens in cautiously.
“Maybe, ya should be on the menu.”
Aleks shakes his head, and turns away, pretending to busy himself with wiping down an already clean cup.
“I don’t think so.”
His heartbeat is beginning to kick up, and the vibe this guy is giving off is making him nervous. The guy leans over the counter, towards him, and scowls. Clearly he doesn’t like the idea of Aleks not being available too much.
“Don’t be a fuckin’ prude,” He growls out, and Aleks thanks whatever god there is, because at that moment, the bell tingles to signal the presence of another customer.
“C’mon gorgeous,” the drunk continues anyway, and Aleks flinches at the use James silly nickname for him, “Just one go?”
“Gorgeous?”
And in comes James Wilson, clearly displeased with the use of his nickname.
Well shit.
