The Misread Deadline Chapter 2

I looked up. A girl stood before me, chest heaving with rage, her eyes shooting daggers. I gave her a slow, deliberate once-over.

"And why, exactly, were you waiting for me?"

Janet Thornton’s jaw dropped. "?"

"I was taking pity on you!" she sputtered, her voice incredulous. "No one wants to be your partner for the coming-of-age gala tonight. I was doing you a favor by being your date, and this is the attitude I get?"

The Thorntons and the Sterlings were old family friends. Janet and I were, for all intents and purposes, childhood friends. With her sharp, vibrant beauty, she was one of the most popular girls at school. Our parents had once even floated the idea of an engagement between us.

An idea Janet had publicly and viciously shot down. I still remembered the look of pure disgust on her face, as if she’d been forced to swallow a fly.

"Engaged to him?" she had sneered. "Are you insane? Are you trying to make me puke?"

Her very public rejection had made me the laughingstock of our social circle for a solid year. But her reaction had served its purpose, earning me a cool 100 experience points and completing a third of my mission.

Thinking back, I didn't really want to give her a hard time. But then, a couple of her cronies passing by decided to chime in.

"Yeah, Bruce. Making Miss Thornton wait for you? Who do you think you are?"

"Don't tell me you're still playing hard to get. It's pathetic."

Janet's lips pressed into a thin, hard line. She took a step forward, her voice tight with anger. "Bruce. I'm talking to you!"

I looked up, feigning confusion. "What is it? You're blocking my way to the building."

She laughed, a harsh, humorless sound. "Did you not hear a single word I just said? Aren't you even going to apologize?"

I blinked. "Apologize? To who?" I paused for effect. "To you?"

"Do you really think you deserve one?"

Janet froze, stunned into silence.

"You decided to wait for me, but you never told me," I continued, my voice calm. "What am I, a mind reader? And for the record, I never asked you to be my date. So who exactly is this little drama for? Here, let me get you a tissue. Maybe if you squeeze out a few crocodile tears, it'll be more convincing."

Her two hangers-on jumped to her defense.

"Janet was just trying to be nice because she felt sorry for you! And you throw it back in her face!"

"Why are you being so nasty? You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

I shot them a bored look. "Duh, of course it's on purpose. What's the point of saying it if it isn't nasty?" I looked them up and down. "Did you two share a single brain cell and lose it? As nasty as my words are, the three of you aren't exactly deserving of poetry."

Janet was the first to snap out of it, lunging forward to grab my arm. "Bruce—"

My bodyguard smoothly stepped between us.

I glanced back at her, my voice dripping with condescension. "While I'm feeling generous, you've got five seconds to spit out whatever else you have to say."

But the expression on her face wasn't the fury I expected. It was… confusion. A deep, unsettling bewilderment.

"Bruce, today you're…" she stammered. "Are you sick?"

I’d braced myself for an explosion, a tirade, anything.

But this? This was all she had?

I'd been surrounded by a bunch of amateurs. All this time, I’d seriously overestimated them.