12. Topher
Blackvale was the best job post I could have asked for. No more getting summoned to some crap ass back road when I was trying to have a wine and wank to my favorite TV show. The others were jealous because they kept having to pause Bridgerton to do a job.
It could get monotonous, but I deserved that after all the work I’d put into this. I got bored a lot and fucked with the students sometimes, but as long as everything worked out in the end, I had free rein. And I only fucked with the insufferable arseholes.
I’d been watching the new girl, even if she didn’t know it. I’d never be so obvious as the Immortal Nightmare boys. Staring in the middle of the dining hall was amateur stalking. Those idiots were going to have a restraining order before they could say Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Or pissing blood. That girl’s boots looked like she meant business.
I couldn’t play an instrument, do ballet, or create any type of art, but I was multi-talented in my own way.
I could stalk multiple people at once. Most of the people who were getting ready to graduate and sign contracts were minding their business.
They didn’t care about a new student getting favors.
None of them needed to worry about that. This school was all about scratching backs. Some of them hated her. A bunch of them were going to judge her harshly no matter how talented she was because they were jealous. Others were looking into things they shouldn’t.
The new girl was one of them. She was pretty. I’ll bet she watched true crime documentaries to relax at night. If she wasn’t completely off limits, it would probably be nice to watch them with her because I did that too sometimes.
She was going to be trouble. I watched them to figure out their weaknesses before I approached.
Most of the students here had the same weakness.
They wanted to make art full time, but a lot of them wanted the fame and adoration too.
All the students here had the talent to keep the lights on, but they wanted more.
I didn’t think the new girl was thirsty like that. If anyone played this wrong, she’d bounce with zero regrets. She was a runner. Which meant I didn’t just have to manage my behavior. I was going to have to make sure other people behaved too.
I stood in the dark corner of her bedroom and watched her sleep. Her friend seemed like a lot of fun, but I was glad she was leaving in the morning. The dorm rooms here were singles now, but they didn’t use to be.
This place used to be packed with students before they started cutting funding to the arts and telling their kids going into the arts meant they would die broke…because they cut funding to the arts.
Faustus was a pompous arse, and I tried to avoid him, but I was going to have to warn him she was planning to pay him a visit. I’d been following her and listening since she stepped through the front doors. She had every right to march in there and ask questions.
If that wanker said the wrong thing, she was going to run, and I needed to remind him he wasn’t really in charge here.
And that I’d be watching the whole conversation to make sure he didn’t.