One year later.....

Nathan Hart mostly wore checkered shirts with trousers and sport shoes. He had brown hair, few strands of which permanently fell across his forehead and he always wore rectangular blue rimmed glasses. He was a nerd, in appearance and otherwise too. A sweet, boy-next-door nerd who always followed every rule and regulation he came across in his life.

So one wouldn't expect such a good, law abiding boy to do any such thing that could get him into a soup. But then he had a friend who was a breathing synonym to Trouble....

Which changed everything.

So yeah, Nathan Hart just had the worst experience of his life.

"He will have it from me today! I'm done being his object of amusement," Nathan muttered under his breath with a deep grudge as he walked in the dorms.

He came across another guy with brown curly hair who was wearing formals and had a grumpy look on his face.

"Hey, Preston, what's up, man?" Nathan greeted the other guy.

"You're lucky that you aren't him 'cause I want to fucking squeeze every molecule out of him," Preston spat in frustration.

"Welcome to the club, bro," sighed Nathan as they continued to walk along the corridors. "What did he do to you this time?"

"Because of him, guess who now has to work with creepy Scott for the next project for office? Drum rolls. It's none other than Me!!"

Nathan's jaw dropped hearing that. "You shouldn't say something as terrible as that!"

"That terrible is my truth," Preston groaned out of self-pity. "My boss told me he'd never intended to partner me with Scott or even have that guy for this project but since I was the one who insisted over phone, he'd agreed. And I'm very sure about who impersonated me and spoke to my boss on call!! And now it's too late to do anything about it. Like always. Anyway, what did he do with you this time?"

Nathan shivered in horror as he remembered the nasty incident that happened with him. "I choose to talk about it only once when I confront him," he shuddered again. "Just want to say that if we have a friend like him, we can easily do without enemies for the next five generations."

"I feel ya, bro," Preston said. "Devon has been extremely disruptive ever since he came here as a freshmen. He scared his poor roommate away. And all the boys in the dorm are afraid of his devious mind."

"He is notorious no doubt but he's brilliant in academics and extra currics," muttered Nathan. "I once saw him challenging the professor's knowledge and get into a debate with him."

"And I heard he's doing amazing as a finance intern in office too," Preston muttered. "Inspite of him being a nuisance, girls are forever after him. Even if he is blunt to them, they don't care at all," he added in a complaining tone.

"I don't know how to deal with him," Nathan sighed.

"Neither do I, dude," said Preston.

***

Devon Parker was doing an analysis report for a class assignment when there came an impatient knock on the door. He could clearly guess who was on the other side.

"Open the door, Parker!!" the voice screeched in frustration from outside the dorm room.

"I'm busy, Preston. Are you alone?" Devon asked calmly.

"No!! Nathan is here too. Open the bloody door!!"

"I needn't then 'cause you already have someone to talk to. Hope you've realized it now," Devon drawled in response.

"I SAID OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, YOU DOUCHE!!!" Preston growled, banging on the door. Nathan sighed.

Devon rolled his eyes. "Fine," he muttered crossing over to open the door and find two grumpy faces looking back at him.

"You guys are disturbing me," said Devon flatly. "I want to work in peace."

"Peace?" Nathan countered. "Seriously, dude? You talkin' about peace? After practically making our lives a chaotic hell??"

"What happened?" Devon pretended to be clueless. But the other two boys didn't fail to notice the mischievous glint in his sea blue eyes.

Nathan and Preston were simultaneously about to fire at him---

"Hold on your guns, gentlemen," Devon interrupted them. "One at a time. I won't be able to understand a thing if both of you speak together," he added sounding like a teacher who was disciplining third grade kids.

That irked Preston all the more but all these months had taught him to have a herculean hold on his patience while dealing with Devon Parker.

To Nathan he said, "Since I'm a senior in this college while you're a junior, you go first."

"And I'm a sophomore, so make it quick," taunted Devon impatiently.

Nathan pulled out a note from his bag and showed it to Devon. "I want a bloody explanation for this," he frowned hard at the younger boy. "How did this note get into some Lisa girl's assignment file?"

The note read:

Flash me, baby

From Nathan ;)

Devon smirked. "Pretty neat, bro. Isn't it good that you get to slip such notes into the assignments given to you for correction by the professors?"

Nathan narrowed his eyes into slits at him. "You are the one who slipped this note in her file after I was done with corrections!! I know it was you. When I was reading a book at the library, this girl comes from nowhere and pulls me behind a book shelf and—and f-flashes me," Nathan shuddered in extreme embarrassment recounting his horror. "The librarian caught us and I-I was taken to the dean who-who blasted at me for the note and warned me against such indisciplinary acts. I'd beg him to not take away my on campus job!"

Nathan ended his tale gloomily. He couldn't bear the fact that a well behaved boy like him had to face such a terrible consequence.

Devon smiled a lopsided smile. "The girl surely could have chosen a better place to flash you," he shrugged, acting nonchalant.

That pissed Nathan off. "I got into trouble without any fault of mine. Because of you. Don't you bloody want to say something, for example a word that also happens to be a popular Justin Bieber song??!!"

"What do you mean?" smirked Devon, enjoying himself thoroughly.

Before Nathan could scream at him in boiling frustration, Preston spoke, "I wanna tell you something, man," he looked at the bespectacled nerd. "You're so fucking lucky that you got flashed by Lisa! She's so damn hot!" To Devon he said, "Why the hell didn't you play this prank on me dammit???!"

"Can you just stop talking about it, Preston?" flinched Nathan, feeling mortified to no ends. "You were lucky you didn't have to go through all of it."

"You got to be kidding me, man," he scoffed in response. "You're so terribly shy of girls that you'd rather have sex with a ghost than talk to a chick."

Devon snickered hearing that. Nathan glared at the older boy.

"And now my turn," Preston shot a cold look at Devon. " I've to work with Scott on a campus project for the next three weeks!! Why? Because you want to entertain yourself by watching me deal with that creep everyday."

Devon smiled slyly.

"That Scott! He fucking talks to nonliving things as though they are humans! He talks to the floor, the walls, the desk and even his shirt!" Preston gulped in fear. "Like I grabbed a pen to write something and he rebuked me saying it's very rude to use a pen just like that. I need to ask it and if it refuses, I got to flirt and seduce the pen to get its approval." Preston felt his skin crawl as he said that.

Nathan flinched too remembering his own nasty encounters with Scott. But Devon remained unbothered and just smirked.

"Aren't you fucking gonna say something, Devon??!" Preston demanded

"Well, all the best?" came the cheeky response.

Preston clenched his fists tight as he spoke bitterly "It's foolish of me to think that you'd apologize for what you've done. Because you've fucking treated everyone like props to amuse yourself. You don't care about anybody except yourself."

Preston walked out through the door.

With poker faced expressions, Devon turned to the bespectacled junior, "Do you want to say something too? Make it quick 'cause I've work."

"You've got to stop what you're doing," said Nathan grimly. "Everyone here fears you. Which is wrong. I know you're not a sadist. There's something out there that is compelling you to be this difficult. I want to help, Devon. If you're in pain, you must tell me. I don't want to believe what you show to the world. I want to know what's going on within you."

"I'm fine," he said in a guarded tone, looking elsewhere.

"That's the answer you give me whenever I've tried to get you to open up."

Devon faced him with orbs blazing with fury and pain. "You wanna know how I am on the inside? I'll show you."

Nathan watched anxiously as Devon took long strides to the desk. He grabbed the glass of water harshly and smashed it on the floor in anger.

Nathan was shocked to get a glimpse of Devon's dark temper. He had seldom seen him so furious. Did he play nasty pranks on others to vent out all his anger, frustration and pain...?

"This is exactly how I'm inside," spat Devon, looking at the infinite shards of glass lying all over the floor. "Broken."

"You've got to accept the truth and move on, bro," said Nathan gravely. "You can't run away forever.."

Devon chuckled bitterly. He found dealing with pain and emptiness much better than the thought of moving on. From her.

"I can't. Never," he said, clenching his jaws hard.

****

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And have you checked out Chapter 10 of Short Term Girlfriend yet? It's as it's first most interesting point ;)