Chapter 143 Chapter 144

Chapter 143 Chapter 144
Yet, Sebastian kept talking to him, asking him if he wanted to get out of here, if maybe they should watch a movie in the dorm room? Ravi just popped open another beer, taking a swing while allowing Sebastian to stay by his side. 
“What do you say, Ravi?” The redhead’s voice was slightly off-pitch as he tugged the big lad closer. “Put down the beer, and we’ll head out.”
“No.” 
Sebastian's strained smile was sliding off his face, panic replacing the forced facade of calm. He turned around, talking to someone. Ravi didn’t really listen, too busy staring into space as his mind slowly turned to rot.
Across the counter, a couple of seniors were huddled tightly together. The tallest of them, a thin bloke with striped hair hanging down to his shoulders, was glaring at Ravi. His face twisted in a sneer, nose wrinkled, and eyes narrowed. There was another bloke by his side, tugging his shirt and muttering something along the lines of “come off it.”
Ravi took another sip, catching the senior’s eyes. Smudge eyeliner framed his dark pools, giving him a hollow look as he slowly shook his head. Still with those spiteful eyes trained on the rugby lad.
“Do you have a problem?” Ravi flashed his teeth at the senior. There was a counter between them, but Ravi figured he could get around that fairly easily. He gave the dark-haired boy a once-over, noting thin arms sticking out from the sleeves of a band T-shirt, concluding that the senior wouldn’t be a problem. He’d break like a fucking toothpick.
“Yeah, you’re fucking rude.”
“Yeah?” The swell of adrenaline was picking up. Coursing through his veins like a whitewater river. He wanted to feel more, wanted it to overflow, to burn away everything but the carnage. “You’re a fucking rude wanker yourself.”
He flipped Ravi off. Sticking his tongue out while he did it. He had a silver piercing gleaming in the cup of his tongue. This was clearly some scrappy kid thinking he was metal. Ravi could change that, could show him he wasn’t mental at all. He put down his bottle, cracking a fist. 
The senior received the message, eyes widening before he narrowed them anew. Holding his ground like a stubborn mule. His friend kept telling him, “Let’s go.”
“You should listen to your friend, mate .”
“Not your fucking mate. What’s up with the fucking attitude?”
Sebastian was suddenly up in Ravi’s face, tugging harder at his shoulder, pressing his freckled cheek close to Ravi’s. “Ravi, let’s go, alright? We’ll bring some bottles. Let’s just go.”
But the metal kid was still looking at him like he wanted to fight. The problem was that a fight sounded like a real swell idea right now. Ravi didn’t want to sit in a room with Sebastian and tell him his life was fucking over. Didn’t want to hear the redhead assure him that this would pass, that it would get bloody better. It wouldn’t, not really. Sebastian just couldn’t understand that. Because even if Sebastian had grown up scraping by, his family surviving on hand-me-downs, he’d at least had a family. He had at least grown up surrounded by the blazing hot sun. 
He wasn’t like Ravi. He didn’t know that sometimes things did not get better.
They got worse.
“You have an attitude, cunt.” Ravi was smiling at the senior, raising an eyebrow in a come-hither. The eyeliner bloke got real red in the face, biting his lower lip and tightening his fists. When he started making his way around the counter, not even his friend could keep him back. His arms were thin and long – veiny. The bloke must have a death wish walking up to Ravi. 
Sebastian tried to pull him away, holding the raven-haired lad’s arm in an iron grip and tugging as if his life depended on it. Sure, the ground beneath Ravi swayed, almost as if he was on a boat battling the high seas, but it didn’t make him fall. It did not even make him stumble. He shifted his weight, moved with the waves, and remained straight. 
It had been a while since he’d been this drunk, but he still remembered how to navigate the fog surrounding his mind. He jerked his arm loose; the redhead let out a faint yelp behind him.
The senior was almost as tall as Ravi, his hair darker than raven – midnight black. He walked up to him, into the pocket of space surrounding the rugby lad. His back was ramrod straight, his arms relaxed. Ravi just looked at him with hunger. He was going to fuck up the bloke’s face so badly.
He grinned, welcoming the metal kid to his realm.
Ravi didn’t even have to do anything, didn’t have to spit out some garbage about the senior’s mum being a whore or his dad simping. Because the bloke was already fired up. A dark ember glowed in his eyes as he stepped forward, shoving at Ravi’s chest. He could barely feel the push; the senior’s strength was pathetic. 
“You’re a fucking bully. Walking in here, scaring everybody-”
He didn’t have time to say much more. Ravi grabbed a fistful of midnight black hair, moving so fast the senior didn’t have a chance to react. In a swift motion, he slammed the bloke’s head against the countertop, pale-faced loudmouth against hard laminate. The side of his face hit the counter with a dull thud, Ravi’s hand remaining wrapped in hair, pressing down. It made something purr inside his chest, watching the bloke squirm. Suddenly, not all that cocky anymore. 
Ravi leaned down. “You’re the rude one. I was just trying to drink in peace. But you just had to be a cunt and ruin that.”
The bloke gasped, his lips popping open as his hands fitted against the counter, fighting to push against the force holding him down. Ravi watched him flail, panic filling his dark eyes as he realised he couldn’t get up.
“Let go.” His voice was a garbled shriek.
Ravi was so close, his lips almost touched the shell of the metal bloke’s ear. This one pierced as well. “You have a lot of piercings. Maybe I should help you get rid of some?”