Match Made in Hell

I hate Logan Hernández.

So. Freaking. Much.

I didn’t get how one person could be so annoying! How was it possible to develop killer instincts every time I was in close proximity with the moron?

Right now, with every ounce of strength in my body, I wanted to kill him. The sight of my locker only helped to fuel my rage. What had I done to him to make him hate me so much in the first place? I mean, I know what he did to make me hate him but as far as I know, I’ve only reciprocated his stupid pranks back to him.

This time, though, he’d gone too far.

Next to me, Aimee whistled while Darren chuckled. “Damn,” Aimee muttered, no doubt wondering the same thing as me. “He went all out, didn’t he?”

“That’s an understatement,” Darren added, then leaned forward to sniff the weird looking liquid. “What on earth is that? I smell broccoli and… is that cabbage juice?”

I sighed, falling back on the locker next to mine. “I’m going to kill him. I will.”

“That’s if you don’t get into trouble first,” Aimee muttered, her eyes darting from left and right. “Principal Donna incoming.”

Shit. My brain went into a frenzy and it only took me a few seconds to realize that there was no running from this. Unless I was Wonder Woman or something, there was no way I would be able to clean up the mess before Principal Donna reached me. I was screwed.

“Yeah, you’re on your own, sugar.” Darren swung his backpack on one shoulder, turned on his heel and walked away. Aimee mumbled a low ‘sorry’ before she followed suit.

And then there was one. I really needed new best friends.

With her blond hair firmly packed in a tight bun in the middle of her head, it was a wonder Principal Donna was able to even move her head at all. Her dress was clean-cut as usual, hugging her long frame and she wore her usual black flats with a low wedge. Her face was devoid of makeup, not even powder could be found on her skin.

“Lexi Hale,” Principal Donna’s deep voice thundered. “I see two weeks of detention did nothing to change your delinquent ways.”

I almost rolled my eyes before I remembered I was already in more trouble than I knew how to deal with. “Principal Donna, I know how this looks but I assure you, it wasn’t me.”

Her thin lips pursed in a straight line. “So, someone dropped from the sky and smeared this…” Her eyes narrowed as she studied the green liquid that covered my entire locker. Seriously, it looked like the Hulk threw up. "...stuff on your locker."

“It was Logan Hernandez.” I know it seemed like I was shifting blame but I really wasn’t. No one else could have done this. I was sure of it.

Principal Donna sighed, obviously tired of me. “You will clean this up before first period’s over, Miss Hale, or I’ll have you suspended for defacing school property.”

I nodded, my anger rising as she walked away. Principal Donna was a pragmatic woman and therefore believed in proof. The few times I’d been able to prove that idiot was behind my misfortunes, she’d believed me. Times like this, when I had nothing to show as proof, she didn’t. And words could not describe how much it vexed me.

In fact, words could not describe how much I hated Logan.

He was the bane of my existence and I was on a mission to end his.

Dropping my bag on the floor, I headed to the janitor’s closet to borrow some cleaning materials. Now, the main reason I was angry about this entire thing was because Logan’s plan was to humiliate me. What better way to do that than to make me clean up Hulk vomit in front of the entire school? He knew my locker was situated in the main hallway and all the students would pass by here on their way to class.

The snickers and snide comments did nothing to deflate my anger. Me, the smartest girl at Cambridge High, cleaning up vomit or whatever the hell it was that Logan had smeared all over my locker. I would never hear the end of this.

Oh, my revenge would definitely come, and it would be swift and cold.

I opened my locket because somehow, the green liquid had managed to seep through the small holes and onto my books. Seriously, what the hell was this?

“Looking like you’re in your element there. If school doesn’t work out, you could always consider cleaning up vomit as a profession.”

My eyes snapped up to meet Logan’s teasing emerald orbs. I knew it. I knew he was behind this, the little shit.

“I hate you so much,” I spat at him.

He puckered his lips. “The feeling’s mutual, sweet stuff.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Or what?” He smirked. “You’ll vomit all over me like you did your locker?”

Snickers rose around me, darkening my already burning cheeks even further. I didn’t know why I even bothered talking with him. He was an asshole and he’d always be one.

“You know as well as I do that you did this,” I let out through gritted teeth, fisting my hands because I was this close to reaching out and strangling him.

He took a step forward, challenge in his eyes. “Prove it.”

Maybe it was the fact that he invaded my space so I could smell his perfume or it was the fact that his being so close made me lose my focus, but I stepped back. “I don’t care if it’s a crime, I will kill you.”

He chuckled. “Good thing I know you’re scared of prison then.”

He walked off, leaving me there to seethe and breathe like a raging bull. It was no secret that Logan Hernández and I were sworn enemies. It was the usual cliché, which was probably why I found it extremely annoying. The most popular guy and the smartest girl at school, mortal enemies.

All things considering, this was a normal day between Logan and me. If we weren’t playing pranks on each other, we were plotting some sort of plan that usually resulted in the other party getting into trouble. I don’t know exactly when it became our ‘thing’—ew, no. I didn’t have a ‘thing’ with that airhead. I refused to have anything with him.

He irritated me to no point and I prayed fervently for the day when he’d take a walk and never come back.

Seeing him made my blood boil. He was right; I was terrified of prison, which was probably a good thing because if looks could kill, he would have been ten feet under.

Let’s just say I had a good reason to hate Logan Hernández and it was not just because he played stupid pranks on me all the time.

“Everybody’s talking about it, you know,” Darren said, stuffing his face full with a bowl of chicken soup.

It was lunch time and we were at the cafeteria. Left to me, I’d eat in the girl’s toilet. I’d heard enough stupid comments to last me a lifetime. Logan had really overdone himself. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t ignore the stares and giggles that surrounded me.

I sighed at Darren, asking even though I knew what he was talking about. “Talking about what?”

“How you’re the school’s new janitor,” Aimee said before they both burst out laughing.

“Whose side are you both on?” I asked.

They sobered up almost instantly. “Yours, of course. But you have to admit, it was a funny sight,” Darren added, downing the last of his soup.

I frowned at them. “Just shut up and help me plan my revenge.”

“Uh uh.” Darren shook his head, raising his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “No can do, sugar. Last time I got involved in one of your pranks, I got caught in the crossfire and had to shave off my hair. I’m not interested.”

I almost laughed as the memory of Darren stuck with glue in his hair resurfaced. In my defense, I hadn’t known Logan would get back at me and my friends. Usually, I was the only recipient of his pranks. Ever since then, Aimee and Darren had washed their hands off pranking Logan with me.

Shame.

“Still,” I whined, puckering my lips together in what I hoped was a cute pout, “you saw what he did to me this morning, how he embarrassed me. I deserve to get back at him, don’t I?”

Aimee rolled her eyes at me. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have snuck into the boys’ locker room and stolen his clothes while he was in the shower.”

That made me burst out laughing. Oh, his face had been hilarious. How stupid he had looked stark naked with his hands covering his junk as he ran through the school hallway, his butt on display. I’d laughed so hard my stomach still hurt. It was all the entire school could talk about for days.

“Come on,” I wheezed, “yhat was genius.”

Darren snorted. “Well, he got back at you and that was also genius.”

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly, mentally deciding that if they wouldn’t help me, then I’d do it myself.

Speaking of the devil, Logan chose that exact moment to stroll into the cafeteria like he owned the place. To me, Logan wasn’t all that. Sure, he could pass for handsome to some people, what with the dark hair that rested on his head and framed his face like a lion’s mane and that straight nose that could probably cut through glass.

His jawline was sharp, his cheekbones high. His eyes were as dark as emeralds and his lower lip was pink and plump compared to his upper line which wasn’t as full. He had the body of an athlete which he was since he played baseball and as captain of the baseball team, it wasn’t surprising that he was also the most popular guy at school.

If he hadn’t been such as asshole, I might probably have had a thing for him. But like the reasonable person I was, I didn’t have ‘things’ for airheads. And I would rather walk on hot charcoal than have a crush on Logan Hernández.

Behind him, his dumbass crew followed. I swear, they were all equally as annoying as Logan was. They laughed the loudest when Logan played his stupid pranks on me and cheered him on the hardest to play more stupid pranks on me. And they never let me forget the embarrassment.

You know what they say: behind every dumb bitch is a pack of dumber bitches cheering them on.

Okay, nobody says that, but you catch my drift.

Another thing that disgusted me about the entire situation was how girls swarm towards Logan. Seriously, I didn’t see it. What did they see in him? He was annoying and irritating and whenever I saw that stupid smirk of his, I just wanted to smack him square in the face. Besides, he changed girlfriends like he was changing underwear. Gross.

I immediately froze when my eyes connected with his. Why was he looking at me like that? I wanted to remove my gaze but I couldn’t. It felt strangely like something was holding me down in place.

Then he was walking towards our table with that glint in his eyes, his goons following behind. My heart began to beat faster. Why was my heart beating fast? It was Logan, for God’s sake. It was freaking Logan, my sworn enemy.

When he got close enough, that annoying smirk immediately appeared. “Looking good there, Hale.”

I didn’t fail to notice how quiet the cafeteria had gone. I had no doubt they were waiting, eager to see what the next round of my war with Logan entailed. Even Aimee and Darren had stopped eating and had their eyes darting between Logan and I.

I frowned at hm, suddenly extremely annoyed. “What’s it to you, Hernández?” I drew out his name, just because I could. If he thought he was going to rile me up this time, he had another thing coming.

That stupid smirk again.

Logan made a sound at the back of his throat. “Just wanted to know how you were doing. I mean, last time I saw you, you’d vomited up a storm on your locker.” My breath was heavy as the entire cafeteria burst out in laughter. Logan was obviously feeding on the attention because he continued shamelessly. “Just wanted to make sure you were eating right. Wouldn’t want you to barf your insides out.”

It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did because like I said, this was a normal day in school for me but something somewhere tore at me. It wasn’t enough that he’d embarrassed me earlier in front of the entire school, now he was here to finish the job?

“Are you done?” I asked him after the laughter subsided. “You can go now.”

It was unlike me, conceding defeat and Logan knew it. It was probably the reason his eyes narrowed at my words.

“Why, Hale? Tired of me? No energy to pretend you don’t like me today?”

“The only thing I don’t like about you is that constant inhaling and exhaling habit you have.” There was a wave of ‘ooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’.

Logan chuckled, pinching the bridge of his straight nose. “That’s your problem. Not mine.”

I gave him a fake smile. “Exactly, now wander away while I deal with it.” I shooed him off with a dismissive wave of my hand and he knew as much as I did that, I’d gotten the last say. After a few seconds and a glare, he walked off with his crew of airheads.

The smile on my face dropped and air flew out of my nostrils like I was a raging bull. No one made me feel as angry and furious as he did. In the years we’ve known each other, he’d made it his life mission to drive me crazy and boy, was it working.

I really, really didn’t like Logan and, one of these days, I was going to kill him.