Chapter 1
Amethyst’s POV
Being a girl, my very first wish, once every month, is to get rid of my uterus. I got my period at the end of a two hour lecture and I had to rush to the washroom. Thankfully, Tessa, my best friend, had a napkin in her bag. Because if I had stained my favorite white placket shirt, I would’ve lost it.
I push open the door and enter the lecture hall. We’d been given an assignment. I knew second year in Stanton University would be brutal but this? It took me two days of lab work and an all-nighter to finish it up and it’s not even a month into the third semester. Roy strictly wanted it to be handwritten, to prove that we haven’t gotten ‘lazy’ over the break. God forbid.
But halfway up my seat, my steps falter.
Standing at the edge of my desk is the absolute bane of my existence, his folder on my desk.
Ugh. Even just glance of him makes me want to rip my hair out of my scalp.
This has been the whole vibe of this semester, ever since he claimed the seat behind mine. Or I claimed the one in front of him. No idea.
We’d been at each other’s throat since the first sem, but the seating arrangement has unleashed a war.
But it’s not his presence that makes my blood pressure spike. It’s the fact that he has my pen between his lips. My absolute favorite, dual-tip brush pen, marked with a ring of gold washi tape around the fine-liner cap. It’s expensive and I only use it for calligraphy in my assignments.
Before I can fully process, he tilts his head and pops the cap off with his teeth.
“Gavin!!”
The sharp bark of his name catches him off guard and his head snaps towards me. Time literally slows down as the uncapped, oversaturated brush tip slips from his fingers, tumbling onto my desk.
I sprint up the last few stairs, shove him aside and snatch the pen off the desk before it can roll and do any more damage.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” I snap, as I look down at my open folder beside his.
“...the fuck?” he mutters, behind me.
The ruined pen is the absolute least of my problems. The black ink bleeds into the paper, scoring a fat, fatal streak through the center-to-corner of my cover layout, butchering my cover page.
Fuck me.
I flip through the pages and-one... two... three...It bled through three pages.
Oh dear Lord.
Just in time, Tessa catches up behind me with a good, loud gasp, drawing the attention of a few others. “Shit! Amy, what happened?”
Hearing her panic makes me see red.
Gavin fucking Calloway. I am going to kill you.
I whip around to glare at the living, walking cause of my misery, jabbing a finger at my folder. “Look at what you did!”
He blinks, then takes a look at my ruined project, then back at me. There’s a tiny smudge of black ink sitting at the corner of his bottom lip.
“My bad,” he says, his voice flat. “Your voice caught me off guard.”
“My voice?” I stare at him, incredulous.
“Yeah. Why were you screaming my name?”
“Oh I don’t know, I thought I saw a six-foot-something stealing my stuff,” I scoff, sarcastically. “What were you even doing here?”
“I didn’t have a fine-liner on me, and yours was sitting right there.” He reaches past me, casually grabbing his folder off the corner of my desk. “It’s really not that deep.”
“Oh it is that deep.” I glare at him.
“Tell him it was an accident. He’s grading the concept, not a smudge.”
“′Tell him it was an accident.′ Presentation matters, Gavin. Anyone else would let it go, he doesn’t and you know it.” I snap, stepping closer because the sheer indifference in his face is making me lose it.
He pauses, his eyes narrowing just a fraction as he holds my glare.
“I said it was an accident, Belrose. Stop acting like I did it on purpose.” And just like that, he steps past me to his seat.
I huff in disbelief. Is he for real?
The heavy thud of Professor Roy’s briefcase hitting the podium echoes through the tiered lecture hall, cutting off any chance I have of a comeback.
“Alright, settle down,” Professor Roy announces, his voice echoing across the concrete rows.
I take my seat beside Tessa and my heart drops as I look down at my desk. The black blotch has stopped expanding but the damage is done.
Roy doesn’t even look up as he adjusts his glasses and opens his roster. “I hope you brought your assignments since I gave you two extra days to get it done. I’ll be collecting them row by row.”
“And like I already said,” Roy adds, his sharp eyes scanning the room, pulling no punches. “No extensions, no excuses. If you do not submit your work today, you get a zero for the assignment and it will affect your GPA.”
Cherry on top. Exactly what I wanted for myself.
Beside me, Tessa gives me a panicked look. “Amy... what are you going to do?”
I sigh. “..something is better than nothing, right? At least I won’t get a zero. Maybe.”
Why did it have to happen in Professor Roy’s class? He is the most terrifying man on earth, and the solace I just gave myself? Yeah, it doesn’t work in his class.
The professor calls out row by row and the students start handing in their work.
When it’s our row, Tessa and I walk down together and she submits it before me. The professor doesn’t say anything, just gives a brief ‘✔️’ next to her name on the roster and that’s it.
Then, it’s my turn.
I can hear my own heartbeat ringing, loud and fast as I hand out my folder. Roy takes a brief look at it, then at my face and then back down. He turns the pages and sees the ink has bled into the next two pages too.
All of this, in nerve-wrecking silence.
My heart’s about to explode when he finally mutters, “Well done, Amethyst.” And I catch the sarcasm almost immediately.
“No, professor,” I stammer, my face burning as a few people in the front row crane their necks to see. “It was an accident. Someone else-”
“Alright. Go take your seat.”
I shut my mouth immediately. But before I turn to my seat, I see him put a ‘-’ next to my name on the list.
I am so screwed.
I turn around and force my legs to climb back up the stairs. As I climb up to the fifth row, I can’t help but look up. Gavin is back to writing, eyes down cast. The faint smudge of black ink still paints his lower lip, and I want nothing more than to punch his jaw.
The professor’s voice cut in. “Miller and Calloway, you’re next. Quick.”
...
Turns out, I was right.
By noon, two days later, the inevitable notification drops.
Tess and I are sitting on our respective beds in our dorm room when both of our phones buzz at the same second. I take a deep breath before opening the students app.
Scrolling down the PDF list, my breath catches in my throat when my eyes hit my name.
Amethyst Belrose: C+
A C-plus. A literal C-fucking-plus.
I stare at the screen, the bright white glare of my phone suddenly blurring. I have never gotten a C in my entire life. Completely tanked because of an asshole.
“Oh my god, Amy!” Tessa suddenly squeals, jumping up from her mattress, her face completely lit up. “I got a B! I actually got a B! Did Roy show mercy on yours?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, as I scroll through the PDF, looking for his result while answering Tessa at the same time, “Roy doesn’t do mercy, Tess. You know-”
Right there, at the very top of the list, is a perfect score.
Gavin Calloway: A
He got an A.
The guy who ruined my work in a single second got a perfect grade, while I’m sitting here holding a C+ that is going to haunt my GPA for the rest of the semester.
I realise I’ve gone silent when Tess glances over at me, her excitement instantly dying down when she sees my expression. “Amy...? What did you get?”
“C+”
“A what!?”
“Exactly.” I toss my phone away to finally look at her with a heavy sigh, dropping my head back onto my pillow. “..a C+. Pfft!”
Tessa drops onto the edge of my mattress, her jaw practically hitting the floor. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. But guess who got an A.”
"Gavin Calloway.”
We groan out his name in annoyance at the same damn time.
“Of course he did.”
I sit up again, leaning against the headboard, “But can you believe it? He tanked my work and topped the fucking class! I bet he did it on purpose.”
“He’s an asshole.” she adds.
I mimic his gravelly voice, ”‘I said it was an accident, Belrose.’ I wanted to choke him. How can someone be so irritating?.”
“...what else can you expect from a dick.”
“A limp dick.” I throw in, my voice deadpan.
“Exactly!” Tessa bursts out in a short laugh, before she stares down blankly at me and widening her eyes into some creepy expression. “He looks at you like this. ‘Belrose this. Belrose that.’"
“Stop, what the hell is that face?” I snort, a real, ugly laugh finally breaking through my misery.
I smack her arm, but she remains in-character, still holding the dead-eyed stare.
I continue, throwing my hands. “But honestly, yeah! He acts like he did me a favor or something. I wanted to punch that prick!”
“I would have been worried if you didn’t feel that way.” she adds with a wry grin, shaking her head.
“Right?” A remnant laugh slips out of me as I gaze up at the ceiling.
It’s funny. It’s stupid, and it doesn’t change my terrible grade, but hearing Tessa trash his entire existence makes the burning humiliation feel a little less.
I lift my head to look at her, wiping a tear from the corner of my eye. “I hate him so much.”
“I hate him too,” Tess smiles, sliding closer, next to me on my bed. “Anyways, you’re going to fuck him up next time. Yeah?”
“He left me no choice.”
