19/09/2026
☠️🩸DYADOXY🩸☠️
†Mine•Or•Nothing†
Copyright © 2026
By Donnalda Lyn.
All rights reserved.
This book is protected and so is every word inside it. ❗Do NOT copy, repost, screenshot it for your groups or redistribute any part of this manuscript... I don't care how small the part is. Violation of this copyright will be pursued legally with damages sought up to £500,000. I don't settle 💀 Don't play with what's mine.
Chapter 1&2
••
[Torre Nera, Città Alta, Bergamo]
The LEGO set is strewn haphazardly throughout the playroom, pieces everywhere, the instruction booklet already crumpled at one corner from where Raffael sat on it earlier and didn’t so much as shift when Lion told him to.
Lion doesn't say anything about that now.
He's on his knees, separating the flat base pieces from the brick ones, his small fingers picking them out one by one.
Raffael sits opposite him, leaving his own LEGO untouched. His eyes rake over Lion's hands first, following every piece he picks from the pile before dragging back up to his face.
"I want that one" Raffael jabs a finger at the red brick in Lion’s hand, singling it out from the pile.
"I’m using it" Lion doesn’t look up, his attention staying on the brick between his fingers.
"I want it" Raffael tilts his head, eyes dropping to the red brick before flicking back up to Lion’s face.
"Find another one" Lion slots the red brick into place, giving it one last push before moving on to the next piece.
Raffael’s fingers curl against his thigh. He reaches forward and yanks the entire base plate toward himself, sending loose pieces skittering through the mess.
Lion wrenches his head up, finally looking at Raffael. "Stop"
"I want to build it" Raffael hauls the base plate toward himself.
"Raffael" Lion grits the name through his teeth. "Give it back"
Raffael looks him dead in the face before brazenly shoving the half-built structure over, sending the pieces tumbling apart.
Lion rakes his eyes over the scattered pieces for one second.
Then he lunges forward, clawing the base plate back with both hands, Raffael’s face contorts on the spot, warping into a scowl.
He grabs the other end and jerks it toward himself.
"Let go" Lion growls, wrenching the base plate back.
"No!" Raffael hauls harder, throwing his entire weight into the pull. "It’s mine! Mamma gave it to me!"
"Mamma gave it to both of us" Lion grunts, yanking the base plate free from his grip.
Raffael throws himself forward.
His nails scrape down Lion’s forearm, four thin lines scoring the skin and Lion hisses, his grip slips on the base plate. Raffael pounces on the opening, scratching higher, this time reaching for Lion’s hand.
"Stop scratching me!" Lion pushes him back with one palm, creating just enough space to keep his hands away.
Raffael slams onto his backside. He stays planted for a second.
Lion stands there, rubbing his burning forearm, three thin red lines already rising on his skin, his chest heaving hard.
Then Raffael opens his mouth and screams.
The sound rips through the entire floor of Torre Nera loudly sustained while Lion’s stomach knots before the first footsteps even reach them.
The door flies open.
Ottavia storms in, her silk robe whipping behind her, eyes already raking the room before she’s fully through the doorway. They fix on Raffael on the floor first, always first, and her face twists immediately.
She crosses the room in four steps and seizes Lion by the arm, her fingers clamping hard around his bicep as she wrenches him upright off his knees like he weighs nothing.
"What did you do?" She grits
"He scratched me first..." Lion starts, but she shoves him back hard enough to cut him off.
His back slams into the side of the couch and he skids down it, hitting the floor hard, one palm smacking against the ground to catch himself as LEGO pieces dig into his knee.
"I don’t want to hear it" Ottavia cuts him off cold, before he can get the next word out. "I don’t want to hear a single word out of your mouth, Dillion"
Lion looks up at her from the floor.
His arm still stings where Raffael’s nails raked it and Ottavia hasn’t even glanced at them.
She hasn't looked at him once. Not really. She pivots straight back toward Raffael still sitting on the floor behind her, abandoning Lion where he landed like he stopped existing the second she shoved him.
Lion doesn't move.
He sits there on the floor among the scattered LEGO pieces, palm still planted against the ground, saying nothing.
Raffael's bottom lip trembles.
Then his eyes go glassy, then the first tear slipping down his cheek at exactly the right moment. Lion watches the entire performance from the floor, his arm still burning, and says nothing.
"He took it" Raffael whimpers, rubbing at his wet cheek. "I was using it first and Dillon just grabbed it from me"
"I know, tesoro, come here, it's okay mama's here" Ottavia drops into a crouch in front of him, both hands clamping gently around his face, her thumbs wiping the tears from his cheeks with almost obsessive care.
"He hurt my arm" Raffael flicks his eyes toward Lion for one quick second, then immediately holds his injured arm out toward Ottavia. "It still hurts, Mamma"
"Oh, my baby" Ottavia pulls him into her chest, one hand pressing the back of his head, rocking him slightly. "Does it hurt badly?"
Lion looks down at his own forearm. The four lines Raffael’s nails left are raised and red now, thin but deep enough for two of them to bead with blood.
He looks back up.
Ottavia still hasn’t looked at him.
Raffael peers at Lion over their mother’s shoulder, keeping that miserable little face in place, he smiles.
Ottavia pulls back from Raffael slowly, smoothing his hair down with both palms, pressing one long kiss to his forehead before she straightens up.
Then she turns, her eyes scour Lion, taking in his face, his arm.
"Get up" She barks it at him.
Lion gets up.
"You’re seven" Ottavia said, staring him down. "He is five. What is wrong with you?"
He says nothing.
"You keep your hands off him" Ottavia steps closer, close enough that Lion has to look up to hold her gaze, and he does, holding it without blinking, without his face giving her anything she can use. "Do you understand me?"
"Yes" Lion said quietly.
Ottavia stares at him one moment longer, then turns back to Raffael, she holds her hand out, and Raffael takes it immediately, sliding his small fingers into hers and letting her pull him.
She walks him out of the room without looking back.
Lion stands in the middle of the scattered LEGO pieces, his arm still burning and stares at the door.
He doesn't cry, he hasn't cried in front of her in a long time.
He bends down and picks up the red brick from the floor... the one Raffael wanted, turns it once in his palm then he sets it carefully onto the base plate and keeps building.
•Present, 2026•
[East Residence • Senior Boys' Wing, Ravencrest Boarding & Day Academy]
Milo's on top of him, thighs bracketing Dillon's hips, grinding down Leisurely, both arms looped tight around Dillon's neck, the curtains block most of the moonlight, leaving only a thin strip over the bed while the rest of the room sits in darkness and Dillon's hands find his waist tenaciously pulling him down harder to the thick, hard line of him straining beneath his own pants.
"Hmh.." Milo breathes, hips rocking slowly, starved for the friction.
Dillon's mouth finds his throat first, gliding slowly, open-mouthed kisses up toward his jaw, and Milo tips his head back, making space for him, a low moan already slipping loose.
"So dâmñ desperate" Dillon murmurs throatedly against his skin, and his hands slide lower, gripping Milo's arse, pinning him down more firmly.
"Please" Milo gasps, his hips refuse to stay still, grinding without restraint, Whatever barrier the fabric provides, it does nothing to quiet the ache settling in his stomach.
Dillon’s mouth seizes his then, his tongue drives in deeper, almost brutish in its persistence and Milo moans right into it, cinching his fingers tighter in Dillion hair, the kiss devolves into an unruly frênzy, their teeth snagging hard enough to jar the kîss and their breathing fouling the little space between them, Milo's hips quicken, chasing whatever contact Dillon gives him, greedy for more.
Dillon tears away from the kîss, then redirects his mouth to Milo's ear and takes the lobe between his teeth, his bite tightening incrementally.
"Nggh... Dillon" Milo chokes out the name, his spine bows viøleñtly.
Milo shoots upright, chøking on the remnants of the gasp.
He catches his mouth in his palm, instinctively silencing himself, eyes wide as his pulse thumps hard against his ribs and He stays slack, eyes fixed on empty air, the silence burying every sound save for the heavy rasp in his throat.
His hand eases downward, inch by painstaking inch.
Milo gaze drops, landing on the blatant rise beneath the sheet, still refusing to fûckiñg settle, and hooks his fingers into the duvet, pulls it higher, casually hiding himself beneath it and squeezes his eyes shut, biting down hard on his lower lip to anchor himself.
A knock sounds at the door.
Milo's eyes fly open, and he viøleñtly yanks the duvet over his lap.
"It's... it's open!" he calls.
The door swings open.
Adalynn stands in the doorway, one hand braced on the frame. Her hair is the color of fresh cream, almost white, falling loose past her shoulders.
"Why aren't you ready yet?" Taking one look at him sitting rigidly in bed, she raises an eyebrow.
"I.. um" Milo stammers, sitting up straighter and dragging a hand through his hair. "I, uh... I slept late last night. I mean, I went to bed late. So..."
Adalynn just hums, holding his stare a beat too long, looking faintly amused.
Milo stares right back, keeping every damn reaction off his face.
"Just... give me six minutes" he said at last. "I'll freshen up quick, wait outside"
She nods once, turns, and pulls the door shut behind her without another word.
Milo sits there a moment longer, staring at the closed door, his face gradually going blank.
He gets out of bed, makes his way to the desk at the far end of the room, and yanks open the top drawer, rows of orange bottles crowd the drawer, all lined up neatly... sêrtråliñë, alprãzølam, mêthylphëñidåte, and a handful of others with their labels turned away.
He picks one without hesitating, unscrews the cap, shakes two pîlls into his palm, and tips them into his mouth, swallowing dry with nothing but his own spit.
He gulps once, grimacing as the dry pîlls scratch their way down.
Then he looks up, meeting his own eyes in the small mirror propped against the desk, he studies his reflection...
•Torre Nera, Città Alta, Bergamo•
Lion comes down the stairs unhurriedly, one hand trailing the cold steel banister, every part of him dressed deliberately out of Ravencrest regulation, The uniform shirt is black, the first two buttons deliberately left open, trousers that clearly aren’t standard issue, wearing Rick Owens sneakers that are kinda expensive that stops being impressive and starts becoming fûckiñg stupid.
A chain against his collarbone where the tie should be, his blazer hangs from one arm, the sleeve dragging behind him, not tossed there carelessly but positioned exactly where he wants it, like even his violations have to be done deliberately.
His phone is already in his other hand.
Gia’s cooking has filled the penthouse, mostly eggs and whatever she’s making with them.
Lion reaches the bottom of the stairs.
He rakes his eyes through the dining room and finds Ottavia immediately at the far end of the long table, sitting perfectly straight, cutting into her creamy mushroom frittata before moving on to the grilled asparagus
He gives her one second of his attention.
Then he walks in and stops at the edge of the dining room.
"Morning" He mutters flatly.
Ottavia’s cutlery keeps moving.
She cuts into the frittata cleanly, lifts the piece, chews, sets the fork down painstakingly, then picks up her glass of water.
As if he didn't speak
As if he isn't standing four damn feet away from her
He turns toward the kitchen end of the room, already pulling his phone out of his pant pocket, using his thumb to unlock the screen as Gia appears from the kitchen doorway with a plate in both hands, coming straight toward him.
"Good morning, Mr. Dravecchi" Gia sets the plate down, steam still rising from the eggs and toast. "I made your..."
Lion turns to leave.
"Mr. Dravecchi" Gia steps in front of him, leaving enough room that he could still get around her. "You haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon, please the eggs will get cold and I’ll have to..."
"Gia" Ottavia speaks from the far end of the table. "find something else to do"
Gia closes her mouth immediately and she takes a step back.
Lion doesn’t look at either of them, he turns and leaves the dining room without a word, heading straight for the elevator at the far end of the entrance hall.
Lion hits the button, and the elevator doors open immediately, like even the infrastructure in Torre Nera knows better than to test his patience.
He steps in.
The doors close behind him, cutting him off from the penthouse while the elevator descends without a sound smoothly
Lion braces one shoulder against the mirrored wall, letting it take his weight, the blazer still hanging off his arm.
He looks down at his phone.
⚜️Top Tier Degenerates🖤 is already going off... the notification count climbing steadily in the corner, Brix and Luca clearly having the time of their lives at whatever ungodly hour they both woke up at.
He scrolls up to where it started.
⚜️Top Tier Degenerates🖤
Brix🔱 8:14am
bro wêtdog was outside ravencrest gates AGAIN yesterday waiting for you🤤 he’s getting more desperate by the day
Brix🔱 8:14am
He needs a hobby so fûckiñg bad because whatever he's doing
Luca⚜️ 8:15am
so we're still doing this every fûckiñg day
Luca⚜️ 8:15am
he doesn't have a home???
Brix🔱 8:16am
too fûckiñg broke to scrape together the money for a dorm room
Luca⚜️ 8:17am
He can be lion tenant 🥴
Brix🔱 8:18am
yo dillion where u at
party still on, my parents are gone until tmrw
Luca⚜️ 8:19am
bro are you seeing this
Luca⚜️ 8:19am
Luca⚜️ 8:20am
LION
Brix🔱 8:21am
he's not awake yet leave him
Luca⚜️ 8:21am
Did his mother finally mūrd3r him
Luca⚜️ 8:28am
say something we know you're awake now
Brix🔱 8:29am
address your fan base king 👑
Lion scrolls through the messages, his expression staying still.
The elevator reaches the ground floor and the doors open.
Lion exits the elevator crossing the lobby, gets to the main doors, shoves one open with his palm.
The driver is already outside, car idling beside the entrance.
Lion doesn’t acknowledge him and just stands on the front steps of Torre Nera for exactly three seconds, staring into empty space, then drops his eyes back to his phone.
His thumb drags upward.
⚜️Top Tier Degenerates🖤
Luca⚜️ 8:31am
he's not going to respond
Brix🔱 8:32am
give him time he just woke up
Luca⚜️ 8:33am
brix it's eight school starts in nine thirty
Brix🔱 8:33am
don't @ me with schedules i don't do schedules
Luca⚜️ 8:34am
YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE US LATE AGAIN
Brix🔱 8:34am
and??? 😐
Luca⚜️ 8:35am
and volkov gave me a warning last time i swear to god brix
Brix🔱 8:35am
volkov can chew rocks
Luca⚜️ 8:36am
I CANNOT with you 😭😭
Brix🔱 8:37am
wetdog was asking about you to the second years yesterday did you know that
Brix🔱 8:37am
specifically asking what your free periods are
Luca⚜️ 8:38am
he's so down bad for lion's dîçk
Brix🔱 8:39am
Poor boy
Luca⚜️ 8:40am
lion just fûçk his hole for once
Brix🔱 8:41am
he doesn't care tbh
Luca⚜️ 8:41am
of course he doesn't have a single normal reaction to anything
Brix🔱 8:43am
just say you're hørñy and go
Luca⚜️ 8:43am
LMAOOO
Luca⚜️ 8:44am
lion say you're hørñy
Lion🖤 8:45am
You two are fûckiñg irritating
Brix🔱 8:45am
HE LIVES
Luca⚜️ 8:45am
EVERYONE SHUT UP
Luca⚜️ 8:46am
THE HOMOPHOBIC PRINCE HAS ENTERED THE CHAT
Lion🖤 8:47am
I'm not homophobiç
Luca⚜️ 8:47am
you're right
Luca⚜️ 8:47am
you're just aggressively heterosexual
Brix🔱 8:48am
violently heterosexual
Lion🖤 8:48am
I'm not gay
Brix🔱 8:49am
nobody asked dude💀
Luca⚜️ 8:49am
suspicious
Lion🖤 8:50am
i'm not gay
Brix🔱 8:50am
okay husband
Luca⚜️ 8:51am
absolutely 👍
Lion🖤 8:52am
Fûçk off
Brix🔱 8:52am
😐😐😐
Luca⚜️ 8:52am
we said absolutely king 👍👍
Brix🔱 8:53am
nothing else nothing more
Lion locks his phone and gets in the car.
He drops into the backseat, blazer tossed beside him, and the driver pulls out immediately without being told.
Bergamo's Città Alta moves past the window... stone walls, narrow roads, the city still waking up slowly around them, cold morning light sitting flatly over everything.
Lion unlocks his phone again.
⚜️Top Tier Degenerates🖤
Brix🔱 8:54am
okay change of topic
Luca⚜️ 8:54am
finally
Brix🔱 8:55am
the monday project
Luca⚜️ 8:55am
YES thank you
Brix🔱 8:56am
we need a third person lion
Luca⚜️ 8:56am
and before you say anything we already have someone in mind
Brix🔱 8:57am
your cute puppet 😐
Luca⚜️ 8:57am
pellini
Brix🔱 8:58am
he's good at this stuff right like academically
Luca⚜️ 8:58am
top of the class 🙇
Brix🔱 8:59am
so he does all the work we put our names on it everyone wins
Luca⚜️ 8:59am
a perfect plan 🥲
Brix🔱 9:00am
just say yes
Luca⚜️ 9:00am
it's literally just pellini
Brix🔱 9:01am
your own puppet lion come on
Luca⚜️ 9:01am
he'll do it if you tell him to we all know that
Brix🔱 9:02am
so just tell him
Luca⚜️ 9:03am
Brix🔱 9:03am
Luca⚜️ 9:04am
we know you're reading this
Brix🔱 9:04am
he's reading it
Luca⚜️ 9:05am
lion just say yes it's a two second thing
Lion🖤 9:06am
no
Brix🔱 9:06am
…
Luca⚜️ 9:06am
no???
Brix🔱 9:07am
lion he's just going to do the work
Luca⚜️ 9:07am
we're not even going to touch him
Brix🔱 9:08am
just use him for the project that's it
Lion🖤 9:08am
find someone else
Luca⚜️ 9:09am
there IS no one else at that academic level lion
Brix🔱 9:09am
pellini is the only option here
Luca⚜️ 9:10am
why are you being weird about this 👀
Brix🔱 9:10am
yeah why 👀
Luca⚜️ 9:11am
lion
Brix🔱 9:11am
LION
Lion🖤 9:12am
touch pellini for any reason i haven't approved and i'll make sure neither of you can use your hands for a month
Brix🔱 9:13am
okay so
Luca⚜️ 9:13am
noted 😐
Luca⚜️ 9:15am
can i ask why though
Lion🖤 9:15am
no
Brix🔱 9:16am
that's cool
Luca⚜️ 9:16am
is it though 😭
Brix🔱 9:17am
luca i'm begging you to read the room
Luca⚜️ 9:17am
i'm reading it i just don't like what it says daddy😭😭
Lion🖤 9:18am
the two of you combined don't have a single functioning brain cell between you
Brix🔱 9:18am
rude
Brix🔱 9:19am
we have at LEAST one between us
Luca⚜️ 9:19am
we're sharing it though
Lion locks his phone.
[Ravencrest Boarding & Day Academy]
•Crown Hall
Crown Hall is already half full by the time Milo and Adalynn push through the double doors, every table already caught up in its own conversation, voices piling over one another.
Milo grabs a tray first, sliding it along the metal rail, eyes fixed ahead, ignoring every table he passes, he knows better by now. One wrong look at the wrong person before nine thirty a.m. and Crown Hall will find a way to ruin your entire day.
Milo loads his tray with scrambled eggs, two slices of toast, a glass of orange juice and steps aside to wait for Adalynn. She takes considerably longer, because Adalynn approaches every meal like eating quickly is a curse.
"You're taking too long" Milo said without looking at her, his eyes already scanning the hall for seats.
"Hold on for me" Adalynn sets her pancakes down on her tray, adds a fruit bowl beside it, grabs her water.
"I'm waiting"
"Done, crybaby" She falls into step beside him, tray balanced carefully.
Milo doesn't answer that.
He spots a table near the east windows... not the Crown Circle section, not the junior overflow section, just a regular table in the middle ground where scholarship students tend to congregate without officially being told to. Two seats, end of the bench, enough space between them and the nearest Crown Circle table that the morning might actually pass without incident.
He heads for it.
They get there, set their trays down, and Milo drops onto the bench first, reaching immediately for his orange juice.
Adalynn sits opposite him, already cutting into her pancakes, already talking about something... their first period class, something about an assignment due, Milo catches every third word because his brain is still running slow this morning, still half-stuck somewhere it has no business being.
He picks up his fork.
Takes a single bite of scrambled eggs and chews and sets the fork down.
The double doors swing inward.
Milo doesn't turn around, he doesn't have to.
Adalynn's fork drags to a stop against her plate. She keeps looking over Milo's shoulder.
"Don't make eye contact" Milo said quietly, reaching for his toast.
"Give me ten seconds"
"Aldalynn.."
"Okay fine i'm eating my pancakes" Adalynn stabs her fork into them and cuts down. "Peacefully. Minding my business entirely"
Milo takes a bite of his toast.
The footsteps stop directly behind him.
"Move" Arabella orders in the space between Milo's shoulder blades, loud enough that the two tables nearest them go quiet.
Milo doesn't move.
He picks up his orange juice instead, takes a sip, sets it back down.
"Pellini" Arabella comes around the side of the table, not bothering to lower her voice by a single decibel, her hair falling perfectly. "I said move, We’re sitting here"
"You have a table" Milo doesn't look at her. "You've had the same table since first year, It's over there" He tips his head slightly toward the Crown Circle section without turning. "That's your table"
"Today I want this one" Arabella sets one hand flat on the surface of the table, directly beside Milo's tray. "So get your scholarship tray off my table and find somewhere else to eat your boring eggs"
Ezzia materializes on Arabella's left, already grinning, scanning the nearby tables to make sure there's an audience and there is, because there always is when Arabella decides to perform in Crown Hall before class.
"Yeah" Ezzia drawls, making no attempt to lower her volume. "There's an empty table by the window on the junior side, go sit there, you’ll be much more comfortable around people at your level"
Milo is a senior, he’s not supposed to be anywhere near the junior section, which is exactly why it's an insult
Elarissa appears behind Arabella's right shoulder, nodding her head, her eyes going between Arabella and Milo.
"Exactly" she said. "It's not even a big deal, it's just a table"
Honey drifts in last, settling beside Ezzia, smiling sheepishly.
Milo picks up his fork again, takes another bite of his scrambled eggs.
Chews and swallows.
"No" He said.
The table nearest them goes fully silent.
Arabella’s hand comes off the table surface slowly.
Her eyes settle on Milo’s profile but he doesn’t look up, neither does he acknowledge her, his attention stays on his plate and the expression on Arabella’s face goes flat.
"I'm sorry?" She drops half a register.
"You heard me" Milo reaches for his toast. "The answer is no"
"Milo" Adalynn said his name quietly from the other side of the table, she's just checking in, making sure they’re still on the same page before either of them does anything stupid.
They're on the same page.
Arabella laughs and turns to Ezzia like she needs a witness for what she's about to do.
"Did he just.." She turns back. "Did you just tell me no? You?" She gestures at him with one hand, top to bottom. "A scholarship rat who only got through the door because someone felt sorry for you, Sitting at a table in a building your family’s money never touched, in a school your grades barely got you into and you have the nerve to tell me no?"
"His grades got him in fine" Adalynn's fork goes down. "Better than yours did, obviously, but keep talking"
The table behind them inhales collectively.
Ezzia's head snaps to Adalynn immediately.
"Did anyone give you permission to speak?" Ezzia glares at her directly, "Stay out of it, Whitehair. This isn't your conversation"
"It became my conversation when you came to our table" Adalynn glares, which means the heat is coming. "Nobody invited you over here either. In fact..." she picks up her fork again, looks back at her pancakes, "you can all go back to your table and leave us alone to eat breakfast"
Ezzia opens her mouth.
Arabella holds one hand up and Ezzia closes it.
Arabella pulls out the bench seat directly beside Milo... his side of the table, not Adalynn's, and sits down uninvitedly, close enough that Milo has to shift slightly or their shoulders touch, and she puts both arms on the table and looks at the side of his face.
"Let me explain something to you" she sneers. "I don’t come to this table because I give a single s**t about the view. I come here because you're sitting at it, and I want you gone. Do you understand the difference? It's not about the table, Pellini. It's never been about the table. It’s about the fact that you don't belong anywhere near it"
Milo looks at her then, for the first time since she walked over.
He looks at her the way you look at something mildly inconvenient that you've been tolerating for longer than it deserves.
"Then you've been wasting your time for two years" He picks up his orange juice. "That's embarrassing for you"
Elarissa's eyes go wide.
Ezzia scoffs incredulously.
Arabella bristles.
"You think you're funny?" She scowls. "You think because Lion lets you follow him around like a lost dog that you're untouchable? You think that means something at this school?"
Milo tenses.
"Because see" Arabella stands back up, now that Crown Hall has given up pretending not to listen. "Lion doesn't even know your name, you’re not special, you're just a punch bag And every single person in this hall already knows that… except, apparently you"
Ezzia is nodding, fully invested.
Elarissa is nodding too.
Honey's smile stays perfectly in place, her eyes on Milo's face, reading everything he's working to keep off it.
Adalynn stands up, both palms flat on the table and looks at Arabella directly.
"Say his name one more time" Adalynn challenges. "Go ahead, say it one more time and find out what I do with this fruit bowl"
"Adalynn—" Milo starts.
"No" Adalynn doesn't look at him, her eyes stay on Arabella. "I've been sitting here peacefully and she wants to come over here and run her mouth about Lion like that's supposed to mean something to him" She tilts her head slightly. "You're so obsessed bitch, you've been obsessed since first year and Lion has looked through you every single time. That's the humiliating part. Not Milo. You"
The seniors and juniors watches
Arabella's face goes red.
"You stup—" She stops herself, recalibrates, then doesn't bother recalibrating. "You scholarship rats came into this school, sit at tables you didn't earn, breathe air you don't deserve, and then have the gall to open your mouths at me?" She gnaws. "You're here because this school felt charitable that year! Both of you! And the moment you're gone nobody in this building will remember either of your poor names!"
Milo sets his orange juice down, looks at his scrambled eggs then he picks up his tray, stands up, and looks at Adalynn.
"Are you done?" He said it quietly, to her, not to Arabella.
Adalynn looks at Arabella one more second... then she picks up her tray too.
"Done" She replied.
Milo doesn't make it two steps before Arabella's hand shoots out and slaps the tray clean out of his grip.
The eggs slap onto the floor, the orange juice drops a second later and the glass goes smash against the tile, pieces bouncing and skittering away. Around them, mouths close one by one.
Milo goes still.
Adalynn turns around slowly.
"Oops" Arabella's mouth curves, eyes on Milo's face. "Clumsy me"
Ezzia cackles loudly, pulling her phone out.
"Pick it up" Arabella tilts her chin at the scattered food on the floor. "Pick it up, Pellini, since you love this table so much, clean the floor around it too"
Milo looks at the eggs on the floor then he looks at Arabella.
His jaw is tight, his fist closes at his side slowly and he just stands there saying nothing, which is the wrong thing to do and the right thing to do at the exact same time but hell nah...
"He's not picking anything up" Adalynn steps forward, putting herself directly between Milo and Arabella, her own tray still in her hand. "And you're going to replace his breakfast"
Arabella looks at Adalynn.
"Or. what?" She said slowly.
Adalynn puts the tray down on the nearest table.
That's the only warning anybody gets.
Her hand comes up and smacks on Arabella’s face, Arabella’s head whips sideways, hair flying with it, when she turns back, five fingers are already stamped red on her cheek.
Crown Hall erupts with chairs scraping back, students scrambling sideways, someone knocking over a juice glass somewhere to the left and not stopping to look at it, phones going up everywhere, screens already recording, already live...
"OHHHH.."
"SHE SLAPPED HER!"
"YO!"
Arabella's hand goes to her face and she looks at Adalynn then she lunges.
Her fingers go straight for Adalynn's hair, grabbing a fistful at the root and yanking sideways viciously, and Adalynn grabs her back by the collar of her blazer, the fabric pulling tight around Arabella's throat as they crash sideways into the nearest table, trays sliding, a bowl of porridge hitting the floor, two junior students scrambling out of their seats and backing against the wall.
"GET HER BELLA!"
"EZZIA DO SOMETHING!"
"NOBODY'S DOING ANYTHING THIS IS CONTENT!" someone yells from somewhere in the back.
Ezzia goes to stand on a bench for a better angle with her phone raised, fully recording, unbothered about intervening.
"oh my god oh my god oh my god" Elarissa pressed against the wall.
Arabella gets both hands in Adalynn's hair now, both fists twisting, and Adalynn hisses, grabs Arabella's wrist with one hand and slaps her again with the other... harder this time, hitting her cheek and the corner of her mouth, and Arabella's head snaps back.
"You BITCH!" Arabella screams, lips pulling back, and she spits directly at Adalynn's face.
The crowd loses its mind.
"OHHHH SHE SPIT!"
"THAT'S DISGUSTING!"
"WORLDSTAR!"
"BELLA! BELLA! BELLA! BELLA!"
Adalynn wipes her face with the back of her hand, looks at what came off on it and grabs Arabella by both shoulders, spins her bodily, and shoves her back hard into the table edge. Arabella catches herself on it, barely, one hand slapping the surface, and comes back swinging her palm reaching Adalynn's jaw, snapping her sideways, and Adalynn stumbles half a step, grabs the nearest chair to steady herself, and straightens up.
Blood at the corner of her mouth.
She touches it with her tongue and looks at Arabella.
"Is that it?" Adalynn said flatly, breathing hard.
"Adalynn" Milo takes one step forward.
"Stay there" She doesn't look at him.
His fist is closed so tight at his side his whole arm is shaking with it.
He stays there.
Arabella grabs Adalynn again, going for her hair a third time, and they crash into each other properly, stumbling sideways, hitting another table, a tray hitting the floor with a deafening clang, and the crowd parts like water around them, some students climbing on benches for a better view, two boys in the back throwing commentary like they're watching a match.
"WHITE HAIR'S WINNING!"
"NAH ARABELLA'S GONNA FLIP IT!"
"SOMEONE GET A TEACHER!"
"NOBODY GET A TEACHER!"
"VIDEO QUALITY IS TERRIBLE MOVE TO THE LEFT!"
They spin again, Arabella getting the better angle this time, both hands in Adalynn's hair, dragging her sideways, and Adalynn's hand shoots out grabbing the front of Arabella's blazer and then Arabella's free hand drops and goes for the hem of Adalynn's skirt.
"No!" Milo sees it before it happens.
Too late.
Arabella yanks the skirt straight down.
The fabric pools around Adalynn's ankles in one second, and Crown Hall... already loud, goes to a completely different volume entirely.
Adalynn freezes.
Her red underwear in full view, half of Ravencrest's senior population watching, recording, already losing their minds.
The boys' section of Crown Hall absolutely detonates.
"OHHHHHHH THE F**K!"
"RED?? SHE'S IN RED??"
"BRO I'M IN LOVE!"
"SOMEBODY'S WIFE RIGHT THERE"
"CAN I GET A CLOSER LOOK!"
"I'M SAVING THIS VIDEO FOREVER..."
Arabella steps back, breathing hard, hair destroyed, cheek red on both sides, and she looks at Adalynn standing there in her red underwear in the middle of Crown Hall and laughs triumphantly.
"Now" She straightens what's left of her blazer. "Pick up your skirt, scholarship rat"
Milo gets to Adalynn in three steps, already pulling his blazer off his arm, crouching to grab her skirt off the floor with one hand and dropping his blazer around her waist with the other, blocking the view of whoever's still looking.
Adalynn grabs the blazer.
T.B.C.
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