“Your question is…Hegemony or Cooperation: Is Global Stability Best Maintained Through a Dominant Superpower or a Multipolar World?" he claps his hands. “Go. Discuss,”
I glance down to my little vixen and smile as she shifts to turn around. I am in row four which means her row and my row are now working together for the next couple of days.
I smile as she registers that same little thought, then groans and rolls her eyes like a little brat. I like it.
“Why don’t you come and sit up here with me?” I question with a smirk. “I can squish up to make room on the bench. Or you could sit in my lap?”
“I’m good thanks,” Her brow furrows in disgust as she grabs her things then makes her way down to the only other girl on her row. The brunette looks like a lost little mouse, shifting nervously as Ruella introduces herself. I don’t even recognise the other girl which isn’t uncommon of me. I only talk to the people I need to, there is no point in taking up brain space on those who don’t matter or enhance my life.
We all shuffle about until we are close enough to discuss, but just like the beginning of the class, my attention is on the girl trying to pretend I don’t exist.
“How long have you been here?” She asks the brunette.
“This will be my fifth year,” The girl replies timidly, then she clears her throat. “I had to re-sit a year,” Her cheeks redden before staring towards her hands.
“That will probably be me too,” Ruella laughs and the rasp of it sends a zap straight into my chest where it warms. I shake off the feeling. I might want her screaming my name as she writhes beneath me, but that’s all. I have more important things to worry about and empires to run.
I stay silent as the group around me argues back and forth about the best way to maintain global stability. Ruella doesn’t input but she keeps asking questions to the brunette and the St. Andrews lad to the other side of her. His floppy blonde hair falls onto his forehead covering thick bushy brows. He is a similar height to me, but his build is slightly thinner, still toned but doesn’t have the same bulk. After a few morequestions I watch as the blonde whispers something in her ear and Ruella laughs totally carefree and it catches everyone’s attention.
“That doesn’t sound like part of a discussion, Miss?” Mr. Chapman interrupts from the front. Ruella stiffens and clamps her hands together on her lap.
“Griffith,” She replies while a slight redness raises onto her neck.
His eyes linger a little too long for my liking. “See me after class Miss Griffith,”
She nods and looks away.
“I’m so sorry” the blonde next to her whispers. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble,”
“It’s okay. I’m used to it,” She smiles but there is a sadness there that wasn’t there before. It makes me want to ask her if she is okay, but then I remember I want to break her not be the thing to hold her together.
“I’ll wait for you, and we can go grab lunch. Yeah?” he questions her and then shifts to the brunette on the other side. “You too?” she looks shocked to be invited but nods with a smile.
“Yeah, that sounds nice. Thanks” Ruella answers, locking sight with me. One brow arches slowly, and I catch the slight tightening of her fingers in her lap. I flash her a wide grin, the kind that shows off teeth and the dimple I know has made girls blush more times than I can count. But she doesn’t flinch. She just tilts her head, studying me like she’s reading a puzzle, one she’s certain she can solve.
I don’t like it. Not nearly as much as her bratty defiance from earlier. This is different. Calculated. Like she wants to peel me open and see what’s underneath.
For the first time in my life, I feel... exposed. Unsettled. And worse, I’m the one who looks away first.
Shit. What is it about this girl that throws me so off balance, yet makes me feel more alive than I’ve felt in years?
I spend the rest of the class pointedly ignoring her. Eyes forward. Walls up. I tell myself she’s nothing but trouble, and I’ve got more than enough of that in my life already.
Still, when the bell rings and students begin to drift out for lunch, I hang back near the Lecture Hall. In case she needs me.
It’s not about her. It’s Chapman I don’t trust. That’s all.
It has nothing to do with the strange pull I feel around her. Or the way she looks like the kind of girl who screams dirty money and danger. The last girl like that nearly ruined me.
I shake the thought from my head and lean back into the alcove a little past the door. The St. Andrews transfer and the quiet brunette are chatting a little further down the corridor, blissfully unaware I’m here. Ruella will be too.
Not unless she needs me.
***
RUELLA
My lecturer taps away at his laptop as I make my way down the steps toward his desk. He’s... unexpectedly attractive, far younger than I imagined a professor could be. Every girl in the room had their attention locked on him, lips parted, attention fixed like he was some kind of God.
