“Do you know how much trouble I got into? The whole assignment was about behavioral research in dating and sexual activity among teens and youths!”
I narrowed my eyes, “And then to include information about lusting after older figures of authority like, say, teachers and professors. And all the fucking details about seduction and all that bullshit. Can you even call that a fucking assignment?”
Logan broke out laughing, feeling no shame or guilt. He didn’t understand how humiliating it was at the time. The professor had glanced through the paper, and I thought it was my cue to walk away. Only, she’d stopped me, and I saw her frowning as she read the paper in more detail. When she blushed, I knew that was something wrong.
She’d proceeded to ask me to follow her to her office, and explained that while it was a good paper, very well researched, a lot of the details were unnecessary. She couldn’t look me in the eye, and I was sure that she’d been keeping her eye on me ever since and avoided me like crazy, because he wrote my name and not his own as being the writer of the paper. He did set me up for the fall, but I still hated him for it. Crap! Who was I kidding, Logan was like the brother I never had, he was crazy and kept me on my toes.
“Don’t sweat it,” Logan was saying through his chuckles. “You should see her. I swear she has a thing for you, with how much she keeps eyeing you.”
I rolled my eyes. “More like she’s worried someone else would read the paper, and she would get into trouble for inappropriate relations with her students that led to a paper like that. It was like fucking porn, only on paper. I didn’t know you were that skilled.”
He shrugged. “I asked some girl to write it for me. She thought she was writing the summary of a steamy romance novel or something. It was good.”
I folded my arms across my chest, feeling impatience building up in my chest.
“What does any of that have with me being here?” I asked.
“Oh, right! The dare. You’re good with computers, right? So, the dare is you get on there and dig around. Maybe, you can find out the secret about why she’s so stuck up all the time.”
His expression soured a little, and I remembered I wasn’t the only one Sophia had shown disdain for.
I frowned, glancing at the computer. A part of me was seriously tempted. This girl had been a thorn in my side for months. She’d humiliated me publically almost every time we were in the vicinity because I didn’t know how to keep my mouth shut and she had some good comebacks. I’d realized early on I probably wouldn’t win a verbal war with her, but I’d tried it plenty of times, anyway.
Still, I couldn’t just go through her things…
“Go ahead and do it,” Dana said before I could open my mouth to refuse.
“It’s probably the only chance you’re ever going to get if you want to get back at her. She’s always on that thing... She was careless today because she was caught off guard. It doesn’t happen often.”
I’m glad that Dana’s not my roommate. Damn, I thought girls were supposed to be tight. Or maybe Dana’s a lot more into Logan than he realizes and she’d do anything for him.
“See?” Logan added his own two cents. “This is your chance. How many times has she said something to your face, around a bunch of people, that’s left you a laughing stock, huh? I’ll tell you; it’s way more than me.”
I pursed my lips, remembering. The last time, we’d been with a bunch of other guys, and I’d been getting shit from them ever since. They weren’t guys I would ignore, and I’d locked myself in my room, or hidden in the library, for the past couple weeks while I waited for the hype to die down.
“You must be curious,” Dana said, her eyes drifting to the computer. “Even I want to know what she’s been up to, especially recently, because she’s been acting so weird. I could swear there’s something big going on and she’s keeping it a secret from me.”
Something big…
Big enough that I could use it against her?
Fuck, this was too damn tempting. In a moment of impulse, because my curiosity had gotten the better of me, I grabbed the chair and pulled it out from under the desk, taking a seat.
“You know what? You guys are right, so why not? It could be nothing, but if there’s something useful…”
There was a cheer from Logan behind me, but I ignored him. Now that I’d decided to do this, I focused on the task.
Her computer was password protected, so she wasn’t too careless. It would take more than a password to stop me, though. I rifled through my backpack and pulled out my cell and a cable to connect it to the computer. I had a program in it that was good at cracking passwords, and I ran it. Soon I had it unlocked. Next, I opened a different program and ran it, and copied whatever was on it.
I looked through what I was copying as I waited. A lot of it wasn’t anything useful. There were plenty of assignments and practice tests, as well as some document that had nothing to do with school. There was a folder that held pictures; another one held music.
I sighed, already thinking it was a bust. There was absolutely nothing of interest; even her music choices seemed mediocre.
Then, I came across something that made my eyebrows shoot up. A moment later, my jaw dropped, and my eyes blew wide. I grinned, because I had found just the thing I needed.
I fucking got you, Sophia!
Now, let’s see who’s the last man laughing.
Chapter Two
Sophia
“Why are you out here this late?”
I hummed and looked up distractedly. Jennifer, who was in the same class as I, had walked up to me without me noticing, but I was a bit preoccupied at the moment. I smiled at Jennifer, pretending like nothing was wrong.
“Oh, I just felt like stepping out of the room to catch some fresh air, you know? It’s not good to stay cooped up all the time. Besides, we just finished exams, so there’s no need for me to be studying right now.”
I would rather be in my room by myself than be out in a crowd. Even if it wasn’t studying—which I did plenty of, to begin with—I wanted to be in my room. But I just had to have a roommate, and it just had to be Dana.
Dana and I were best friends. We met in our first year at college, and we got along. First, we lived in separate dorms, but we shared the same major, and during one group assignment, we got to know each
other. For the assignment, we depended mostly on each other, and that’s how we became close. She was smart and serious about her studies, exactly my kind of girl. In the end, we requested to be put in the same room together. We had been happy together, more than most campus couples, and I thought it would never change.
So where did it all go wrong?
Ah, that’s right. Logan.
I could feel my face tighten as I thought about Logan.
At some point at the beginning of the semester, Logan had started showing interest in Dana. He showed interest in a lot of women, so it wasn’t any surprise. Even more annoying, was how Dana didn’t seem to want to resist his advances. I tried my best to keep them apart, because Logan’s reputation is far from good, but she didn’t care.
Then she started to change, acting as if I was all jealous about her hooking up with man that couldn’t keep his cock in his pants. That’s the word around campus. I stopped talking about it and since then, I just keep out of their way.
“Sophia.”
I looked up, startled, only to realize I was still talking to Jennifer. I gave her an apologetic smile.
“Sorry. I’m just a little preoccupied.”
“With Dana?” she said with a knowing looking, cocking up an eyebrow.
I winced. Everyone in our dorm knew about our declining relationship. It was a little embarrassing when everyone tried to talk to me about it.
“Um, she’s in the room right now,” I said with an awkward smile. “She’s busy with her own thing.”
“Is it that same guy?” she said.
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders helplessly. I wasn’t the kind of girl to go around gossiping, and while Dana and I weren’t at our best at the moment, I didn’t feel comfortable talking about her behind her back, either.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jennifer said reassuringly. “It’s all new to her right now, but eventually things will work out. She’s putting him ahead of you right now, but it won't be that way for forever.”