Chapter 1
ONE
VIX - PRESENT
Bang bang, bang, a loud rap on the neighbouring door startles me from my sleep.
I reach for a pillow and pull it over my head, attempting to block out the socialization going on in the dorm hallways.
Not today, Satan. Today is not the day to be woken by the inevitable life roaming about on the other side of these paper-thin walls.
Do I wake up like a cranky bitch every morning?
Yes, but in my defence, my life has been nothing short of a shit show lately, one fucking day after another.
I saunter over to my floor-length mirror in the middle of the shared room.
It’s freshman weekend, and everyone is getting settled on campus.
Moving in, meeting roommates, building a social life.
You know, things that normal university students do.
My side of the room has a few boxes I haven’t unpacked yet, including an open suitcase I’ve been rummaging through on the floor since arriving yesterday.
The other side of the room is still empty. No roommate yet.
Standing in front of the mirror, I give myself a once-over.
I’m heavily tattooed, and I know that I come off as intimidating when people first see me, but my bark is way worse than my bite.
With my raven black hair, grey-blue eyes and my all black everything fashion choices, I had never fit in with the girls in my hometown, and the guys…
well, they were boys. Childish, immature, and more concerned with who they can convince to blow them at a party on Saturday night than they were with anything else.
I throw my long, wavy hair in a ponytail and strip off my sleep shorts and tank top, replacing them with a pair of black leggings and my Sleep Token crop T-shirt.
I top off my look with a pair of black ankle boots.
A touch of mascara, and some lip balm, and I’m good to go.
Grabbing my phone, I head for the door, deciding that if I’m going to survive this year, living on this campus, I should at least know where they make an orgasmic cup of coffee.
Scavenging the campus grounds, I look for my basic need for survival in a cup, but come up short in every direction within walking distance.
This can’t be happening. To some, it wouldn’t be a big deal having to march their way to the dining hall to get a cup of coffee.
But me? I’ll go Lorelai Gilmore on someone’s ass if I haven’t had a fresh cup of Joe the moment I open my eyes.
Opening the doors to the dining hall, I swipe my meal card, taking in the new faces I’ll be seeing over the next few semesters.
The hall is large, dimly lit, and has an elegance to it despite being designed like a cafeteria for rich people.
I make my way to the coffee station, gathering four to-go cups, filling each one to the brim with my scalding hot addiction, and grab a tray to fill with little milk cups and sugar packets.
The smell itself has me panting like a feral animal.
Picking up my tray, I feel triumphant. I take a deep breath and close my eyes, inhaling the hot, liquid comfort I’m holding.
Balancing my victory in my hands, I turn my body too confidently for what I’m carrying in my not-so-stable grip and collide with a tall, hard body, spilling my steaming hot coffee all over the stranger, myself, and the floor.
Nice one, Vix.
My cheeks burn red as I try to hold back the tears that are threatening to escape my eyes over something so minor. Yay for anxiety. Realization hits me that I’m standing there staring at the mess I’ve made on the floor.
Speak, you idiot.
“I’m so sorry—I didn’t see you th—” My boots lose traction, and I slip in the coffee. I’m about to hit the floor when the stranger’s arm reaches out and wraps around my waist, gripping my hip with his hand, hoisting me back onto my feet like I weigh nothing more than a feather.
I need to get myself together. I will not die from embarrassment at the hands of a stranger.
Straightening myself out, I take a deep breath and lift my chin.
A tall, dirty-blond, tattooed god stands above me with a good foot of height over my measly 5’4”.
The deepest blue eyes I have ever seen stare back at me, and he looks all too pleased with my self-sabotaging.
He’s smiling. I might just die from embarrassment after all.
Every part of him looks like trouble. Beautiful and magnetic, like a storm so intense you feel the danger just by being anywhere in its vicinity, but you can’t look away from its beauty. He’s everything I need to stay far, far away from.
“Let me get you more coffee, wouldn’t want to keep that many caffeine-deprived people waiting,” he jokes while reaching behind me at the coffee bar and begins filling new cups. He grabs a stack of napkins and hands me half while we both crouch down and cover the floor drenched in my disaster.
“They were all mine. This seems to be the only place on campus I can find that has my reason for waking up in the morning.” He nods his head, a smirk still splayed across his face.
“Do you find my struggles amusing?” I ask him, and his eyes snap to mine, smirk deepening the corners of his mouth.
“Are you always this cranky first thing in the morning?” His voice is deep and gruff, its sound rumbling through my insides.
“No, I’m also cranky at noon, in the evening, and I’m a special kind of bitchy after midnight.”
His smirk now grows into a full jaw-dropping smile, “Noted. Would you like some help bringing these coffees back to your dorm, Gremlin?”
He thinks he’s being cute.
He is.
“I think I can manage on my own, thanks though.” I give him a wink and turn on my heel, heading back to my room to hide myself away and forget this mortifying interaction. I hear him chuckle behind me as I walk away.
“I’ll be seeing you, Gremlin.”
The walk back to my dorm room is a lot easier to manage now that I have fuel running through my veins. I even smile at a few people I pass along the way when they say good morning to me. Do I say it back to them? No, let’s not push it.
When I reach my hallway, I can hear voices coming from behind my bedroom door. I carefully turn the doorknob, stealthily trying to catch my intruders in the act, when I open the door to see three people on my roommate’s side of the room turn their heads simultaneously in my direction.
I freeze.
“Uh, hi…” I’m a deer caught in the headlights. Setting down my coffee tray, I take a deep breath and turn to face my new roommate.
“You must be Vix! I’ve been dying to meet you!
” A bubbly girl with ashy blonde hair and eyes so green they put emeralds to shame bounces over to me with arms wide open.
Before I can tell her that I’m not a hugger, she has her arms wrapped around me, hugging me like we’ve been best friends our whole lives.
“I’m Leah, but everyone just calls me Lee. These are my parents, Tori and John.”
They reach out one after another to shake my hand.
“You’re going to have your hands full having this one as a roommate this year. Good luck to ya!” John chuckles, pointing with his thumb over to his daughter. He playfully nudges her with his elbow, and she smiles at him big and bright, like she believes her dad hung the moon.
It’s cute how corny he is. He’s here for moral support, like a dad who actually cares.
I wonder what that’s like.
Tori stands silently, hugging herself, seeking comfort on a day when her daughter, a mirror of her own being, is starting her journey into the big, bad world. I give her a soft smile, reassuring her that everything will be okay.
I may have never had a father to carry the weight of the world for me, to chase off boys from sneaking in my window at night, to bring me ice cream before dinner or tell me that he’s proud of the young woman I’ve become. I had my mom, though, and she was all of that and more.
I snap out of my thoughts of home at the sound of Leah’s voice filling the small space.
“Don’t listen to him.” She waves him off.
“Crazy old man doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
We’re going to be such good friends.” Her smile is infectious.
I can’t help but feel my own smile trying to crack through the surface.
Her energy is contagious. For once in my life, I hope that she’s right. We’re going to be such good friends.