My future depended on this moment. This was it. As I slowly opened the door I closed my eyes and tried to slow my breathing. I will admit I have never done anything like this before. I bit my lip. But I needed to do this, I needed to find him. I needed to find Jesse.

Quickly surveying the science building’s rooftop, I could tell there was a lunch break between some of the health and science students. That would mean he should be having a break right now. I quickly glanced around the rooftop. I could see many students scattered around. Some students were busily typing on their laptops, ignoring their surroundings while others were lounging around and basking in the sun. I could other students practice a strange dance routine. Well, it looked like they were dancing…

I shook my head and turned away. And there he was. The moment I saw him, it was as if the heavens cleared the clouds and beams of light shone on him. I swear, I could hear the angels chorus the song ‘hallelujah’ and I had that strong gut feeling. From that, I just knew it was him. I knew it.

Time to get to business. I began to make my way towards him, the atmosphere became intense and heavy. In the corner of my eye I could see dust particles drift pass the scene. Upon seeing my arrival, I would imagine mothers quickly rushed their children inside and only the brave men dared to stand and watch in the sidelines. It was like one of those standoff scenes from those cowboy movies. Like from that movie ‘the Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ that Terry religiously watches every Tuesday night; except my opponent wasn’t glaring with malicious intent at me – he was casually leaning on the rails, back facing me, watching the traffic and was probably eating a homemade sandwich his mum made him. This was intense.

I slowly inhaled. Five hundred dollars. Five freaking hundred dollars. This guy was worth five hundred dollars. In cash. I couldn’t believe Jade Mengel was paying me five hundred dollars for this guy. I could feel my fingers itch at the thought of the money. Damn, have I ever earned that much in less than ten minutes? I think not. Just the thought of receiving, holding, flicking through those five one hundred notes (or perhaps ten fifty notes?) prompt adrenalin to rush through my veins. I could feel it start to kick in. I found him and I needed to get this started.

“You!”

No response. This guy continued eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Damn. What an opponent.

“Hey, you!”

Sighing, he slowly turned around, resting both arms on the railing. He blankly stared at me before giving me an unimpressed look, “May I help you?”

It was this moment I was most nervous of. Although I had prepared myself for this, I knew I would still suck. But I had to do it anyway. Client’s orders were absolute.

“You are below the lowest life form,” I slowly stated, trying to exude venom to seep into every word, “Filthy scum. You’re lower than dirt and you bring shame to bacteria! Even your own mother doesn’t love you! Go poo in the ocean!”

Tilting his head back, he took another bite of his homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich and blinked at me. Unfazed, but at the same time, amused.

I glared at him, waiting for his response. I already knew I sucked at insults. Go ahead and laugh. I’m waiting for your mockery. But I didn’t need him laughing right now – I needed to look scary, damn it. And this guy’s bored and condescending response wasn’t doing anything good for me.

I scoffed and shook my head at him. I had to bring my insults up, or ‘bring my game up’ as Candice would say. “Subtlety is wasted on you. I’m telling you to go kill yourself while you’re still young and have something to live for!”

With that, I hurled towards him and gave him my signature right hook, which he immediately dodged in a maddeningly nonchalant fashion. He stared at me.

People started gathering around, the bolder ones cheering on. The shameless ones got out their phones. “A fight scene? We must record it and put it on Youtube! Maybe he’ll get his ass kicked by the girl!”

I smirked to myself. Although I missed, the look he gave me was priceless. He looked stunned. I could feel his brown eyes bore into me – he was stupefied. Impressive, wasn’t I? I could hear myself gloat. I couldn’t help but mentally laugh. This was easy. Too bloody easy.

Alright, Jesse, time to finish this. One of a woman’s dangerous weapons, besides her tongue or the heel of her five inch Jimmy Choo’s, was her hand – a slap. I remembered Jade Mengel giving me specific instructions for this task. ‘Now Agnes,’ she would say, ‘after you insult him and emotionally abuse him, and after you literally kick his ass, I want you to do something. I want you to give him the mother of all fucking bitch slaps. Make him feel like complete and utter shit. Tell him… tell him that’s the price of fucking twelve other sluts while saying me he loved me! Tell him he if he fucking loved me, he wouldn’t fucking hurt me! Tell him he fucking lied to me! Tell him he – ’ I also remembered Jade had a tendency to ramble on. I had to cut my memory there.

I took a deep breath. To be honest, I never really slapped a guy, or anyone, for that matter. Also, since Laura – or anyone – wouldn’t let me practice on them, well, this was my first time. So I was a bit nervous. I tried to do what they do in movies, and focused all my energy into my hand. Feeling somewhat confident, I drew my hand back, readying for the final blow, to give him the hardest, sharpest, loudest slap that could possibly break every bone in his face.

SLAP!

“Fuck you, Jesse Hawkinson!”

The crowd cheered at the victory. I had now officially kicked Jesse Hawkinson’s ass in public. It was time to collect my prize. To say I enjoyed the liberating feeling of publicly kicking his ass would be a lie.

Stumbling to the ground, he instantly turned to me. He was frowning and rubbing his cheek. I could see a faint outline of what looked like my hand slowly appear on his face. I smiled to myself. I guess I did give a pretty good slap, if I do say so myself. Customer satisfaction guaranteed, right there.

“…The fuck…”

I scoffed at him one more time before turning to leave. “‘I love you’? Bullshit. ‘You’re the only girl for me’? My ass. ‘She’s just a friend’? Lies.” 

I felt someone suddenly grab my hand. Tsk, there goes my cool exit. I slowly turned around. “What now?”

Jesse pulled me closer to him as he struggled to stand up. “Who the hell…”

Huh? ‘Who?’ I stumbled forward and blinked at him. “What? Don’t tell me you’re ashamed of your own self.”

“You…”

Suddenly, the door swung open. “Stop!”

A collective gasp was heard and everyone’s head immediately turned to the newcomer. The dramatic entrance was by my friend, Laura. “N-no! Agnes! Stop!” Laura cried as she ran up to me, huffing. She leaned on me as she tried to catch her breath. “That… th-that isn’t… that isn’t Jesse!”

My mouth dropped and I immediately swat his hands away and took a step back. “What…?”

“I said,” the guy began as I ever-so-slowly turned towards him, suddenly feeling this ominous aura surround him, “who the fuck is ‘Jesse Hastingson’?!”

I just stared at him. What? What do you mean ‘who the eff is Jesse Hastingson’? It was Hawkinson damn it. How can he not be Jesse Hawkinson?! Unless…

“Yo-yo-you…” I shook my head as I tried to voice my thoughts, my inner fear.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

“Do I look like Jesse Harkings?” The peanut butter and jelly sandwich eater’s voice was low and dangerous.

Well, yeah, no. Okay, okay. Looking at this guy seriously now, maybe this guy didn’t really look like the Jesse Hawkinson Jade Mengel described him to be. No, instead this guy had an ugly messy brown mane instead of ‘tussled, golden locks’. He had boringly brown eyes, not the ‘dreamy, baby blue eyes’. I would say his tone was more of a honey bronze and he didn’t quite have that ‘smooth ivory skin’ and, well, I didn’t think under his clothes he had any ‘chiseled features that would make Adonis jealous’. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute!

I gawked at this guy, letting realisation slowly dawn onto me. I swallowed nervously. Shit.

This guy was not Jesse Hawkinson.