Ink & Ambition (Campus Love #1)

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Margot

“This place is disgusting,” I grunt.

Flashing lights and deafening music assault my senses the minute we walk back into the house from the backyard. The bottom of my shoe sticks to the floor and it takes more effort than it should to pull myself free.

“Disgustingly beautiful. Where else will you see people lined up to do a keg stand? It’s a magnificent display of humanity,” my roommate, Sydney responds.

A cold wet line of sticky amber liquid creeps down my arm as a drink is spilled above me. “Truly glorious,” I deadpan. Sydney grabs a napkin from the nearest table and starts wiping the beer off my shoulder but I take it from her hand to do it myself. “Seriously, can we go now? I promised an hour. It’s been an hour.”

“Not yet,” she replies, taking the wet towel and throwing it on the floor, just adding to the grime and filth. “We have to find Danika first.”

“Yeah, that keg stand line? I think I found her.” I point in the direction of the chaos and spot our other roommate in the midst of a gymnastic feat she is in no way qualified to do.

“Ah, shit,” Sydney mutters and we both shove our way through the crowd surrounding Danika. A tall, muscular boy in a homemade muscle tee holds up our friend and keeps her steady as she chugs the beer flowing from the tap.

“Twenty-nine, thirty!” The crowd cheers, and Danika is placed gently on her feet as if she’s floating down from a cloud, Mary Poppins style.

“Thanks, gorgeous,” Danika winks at the boy who held her up and whose eyes cannot willingly leave hers. “Hey, ladies!” She grins as we come into focus for her.

“Ready to go, Dani?” I ask, not hiding the desperation in my voice.

“Just a sec. I got one more piece of business to take care of.” Danika turns around and grabs the neck of the boy who was holding her up. He responds immediately, pulling her back up into his arms and locking their lips together. While she sucks his face, I look around the room one last time, knowing this will take some time.

Somehow, I got away with not having to go to any parties during our first two years of college but Danika practically begged Sydney and me to come out with her more this year. And while this is certainly the last place on Earth I’d like to be right now, knowing that it made my best friend happy is reward enough–for now.

Danika and the boy break apart with a loud lip smack that I can’t help but physically recoil at. “Thanks for the assist,” she says as he sets her on her feet again, this time with much more reluctance.

If I wasn’t completely used to this behavior from her, my jaw would be on the floor but instead I’m checking my watch and wondering when she’ll finally be ready to leave.

“Okay, ready!” Danika cheers, pulling herself away from the boy and pushing between us, linking our arms and guiding us to the exit. Sydney and I crane our necks to give each other a knowing look behind Dani’s back as we move toward the door.

“Did you have fun?” Sydney asks, the sweetness in her voice never wavering. She genuinely wants to know if Dani had a good time tonight. Whereas, having known Danika since I was five, I couldn’t care less if she enjoyed herself. She knows we only came with her because of our pact. And in exchange for us going to parties with her, Danika has promised to give us free health checks as soon as she becomes a real-life doctor.

Dani rests her head on sweet Sydney’s shoulder. “The best time, Syd. What about you?”

I open my mouth to respond but am cut immediately off.

“Not you, nerd. I know you didn’t have a good time. I’m asking Sydney.”

Giving her a dig in the ribs, I don’t even need to respond because she’s absolutely right. There’s nothing I detest more than wasting my time standing around a crowded frat house watching hundreds of drunken, half-naked people fall all over each other.

But Sydney smiles. “I had a great time.”

Just as we separate to single-file out the door, a loud commotion sounds behind us. Suddenly, I’m jolted forward as a huge weight hits my back.

“What did I fucking tell you would happen if I ever saw you in my house again.” A loud, deep voice growls close to my ear. When I turn around to face the chaos, I see a guy laying on the floor at my feet and a huge man, the owner of the voice, towering over him. I know I’ve seen his face before but I can’t pinpoint exactly where I know him from. Clearly he’s a Tomlin University student but I don’t think I’ve seen him in any of my classes. Maybe he’s an athlete? Not that I keep up much with sports but my job on the school newspaper keeps me pretty up to date on the happenings on campus. Maybe I wrote a story about him once?

The entire room has paused as if this is the event they are all waiting for. Eyes are glued to the mess directly in front of me and I feel Danika shimmy up beside me to get her own eye-witness account.

“Alex, man, listen–” The poor guy can’t get another word out before he’s being picked up by the front of his shirt like a rag doll and thrown back on the floor.

Alex? Hm, not ringing a bell. Probably for the best, this guy seems like trouble. Throwing someone out of a party? What right does he have to do that? I cringe at the insane display of toxic masculinity happening right before my eyes.

“Clearly you’re having trouble with your ears,” Alex says, his voice deadly. “Or you’re just not listening. So, let me make this abundantly clear.”

Abundantly? I wouldn’t expect a brute like him to have such an extensive vocabulary. I chuckle at his use of the word, which draws the crazed man’s eyes directly to me. My eyes widen while his narrow. He glances around me for a split second before grunting.

“You mind moving a little to the left, sunshine?” He says.

Looking to my left and then to my right, I come up empty before settling my gaze back at him. Is he talking to me?

Alex lets out a sound that could almost be described as laughter along with a smile that certainly doesn’t fit the demeanor he was just portraying mere seconds ago. “Yes, you.” He nods his head toward the direction he wants me to go.

Hesitantly shifting away from the doorway, I watch as Alex bends back down, grabs the boy by the shirt and throws him out the door and onto the dewy grass beyond. He grunts loudly in my ear before bringing himself back up to tower over me and the rest of the crowd.

“And that’s the last warning,” he yells to the roughed-up guy. Immediately the noise of the party starts up again, as if the last thirty seconds didn’t happen.

I hear the gruff voice in my ear. “Sorry for the shove,” Alex says, looking down at me from his impressive height. Gazing up at him, my eyes connect with his deep brown, almost black irises. I can’t tell if this is his natural eye color or if his pupils are completely dilated from the adrenaline of what he just did.

Pursing my lips, I give a curt nod before attempting my exit again. If I didn’t already hate this party, that violent scene certainly didn’t help. Before I can take another step, a rough hand reaches out and grabs my wrist, stopping me from leaving.

“Are you okay?” Alex says. “He didn’t hit you in the head or anything, right? No permanent brain damage?”

This guy just picked up a whole human, tossed him out the door without any regard for his well-being and is now wondering if I’m okay? Is he out of his mind?

Raising my eyebrows, I shake my head as I reply. “Nope. All brain cells still intact…not that I could say the same for you.” I mutter that last part but it’s louder than I thought, causing Sydney to gasp and Danika to giggle with glee.

Alex narrows his eyes, tilting his head a little to show his confusion. “Excuse me?” Oops, guess he heard me too. I should apologize but I find myself not feeling the least bit sorry.

I think spending so much time in a place I didn’t want to be coupled with being spilled on has caused me to toe the line on an emotional meltdown. And seeing the way this orge treated that other guy tipped me right over the edge.

“Who do you think you are treating people like that?”

Pulling himself to his full, still impressive, height, he asserts, “I’m the president of this frat.”

“And that makes you god?”

He leans down so he’s whispering in my ear, “In some circles.”

I pull my head back in disgust. First he shoves into me, then he has the audacity to try and flirt? His eyes twinkle as his gaze reaches mine again and I’m sure he’s ignoring the disdain in my glare. While I’m no pushover, I’ve never been this outwardly rude to somebody, especially someone I don’t even know. Danika has been training me to be assertive like her for years but it’s hardly stuck.

“And who are you, anyway? I’ve never seen you here before.”

We’re standing directly in the doorway now, blocking anyone from entering or exiting–a situation made apparent when two drunk girls stumble into us, pushing me out the door and shoving Alex back inside.

Perfect. Without another word, I swing around, grabbing Sydney and Danika’s arms and bringing them on either side of me. I hear the faint sound of Alex yelling something from the doorway but I can’t make it out.

“Margot, what the hell was that?” Dani asks with pride in her voice.

I sigh. “All I know is, I’m never going to another frat party.”

The overhead light flickers as I flip the switch.

“We really need to change that bulb,” I remind Danika who shrugs as she kicks off her shoes. Our apartment is small but it works for the three of us. The entryway houses our impossibly long shoe rack, which is mostly overtaken by Danika’s sneaker collection. Our coats are lined one by one along the wall, just waiting for fall to turn into winter. With the warmer weather this September, we haven’t needed them just yet.

“Any pizza left over?” Sydney asks as we make our way into the kitchen. Danika collapses on the sofa nearby and I already know she’s going to fall asleep there.

Shaking my head, I open the fridge. “We finished it before we left. But there’s…” I search through the empty refrigerator to find something of sustenance. “Grapes?”

“Pass,” Sydney sighs. “Sleep it is, then. Night, ladies.”

“Night,” I reply, draping a blanket over Danika’s sleeping form. Her bedroom is only steps away from the couch–all of ours are–yet she always manages to make herself at home wherever she is.

Making quick work of brushing my teeth and cleaning my face, I head into my bedroom to finally pick up where I left off with my syllabus readings. While this first week of class was mainly introductory, it did give me the schedules for assignments and tests for the semester and I’ve been working non-stop on whatever I can to get ahead of the game.

The first two weeks of coursework for “Investigating Journalism” and “Journalistic Inquiry: The Written Word” are already done. I am so excited to truly start my journalism major courses this year that I might’ve gotten a little ahead of myself, but I didn’t mind. From what I heard from my colleagues on the newspaper, junior year is the best in terms of true journalistic content learning. I can’t wait to jump in and hit the pavement, as they say.

I wish I could take only journalism classes for the rest of my time at Tomlin University but alas, my advisor informed me that I needed to take three electives this year. In my haste to finish my course schedule on time and not get closed out of any of my core classes, I picked the first three electives I saw: Public Speaking, American Sign Language, and Psychology.

ASL and Psychology I can handle but Public Speaking? I am absolutely dreading it. I pull the syllabus up on my laptop and stare at the first assignment due on Monday.

“Prepare a one-to-two minute speech about something that scares you,” I read aloud. Does this class count?

What scares me? Doing my taxes. Calling customer service lines. Dating. Ugh. I shut my computer and push it away from me on the bed. This will be tomorrow’s problem, I decide and curl up under the covers to finally get some much needed shut eye.