She laughed, low and alluring. “No. I dodged.” She said, her accent bearing subtle shifts in vowels that made English sound like a second language worn comfortably. Similar to Rowan’s Russian inflections, but different. Older somehow.
“Holy shit, those are some great reflexes,” I gasped, then realized how uncouth I must have sounded to her.
“So I’ve been told.” A hint of amusement glinted in her dark eyes, like I’d missed the punchline. She inhaled, slow and deliberate. “You smell. . .” She paused, tasting the air. “interesting.”
My thighs clenched involuntarily. Why did accents do this to me?
“Um. . . thank you?”
Alice nudged her friend, and even that seemed like an elegant gesture as she shot me an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Natalia can be blunt, but she means well.”
Natalia. The name rolled through my head like smoke, hard to catch and harder to forget.
I moved to the door, held it open for them both. “I’m serious about replacing your blouse, Alice. I feel terrible.”
“Again. . . don’t worry about it.” She waved me off, already moving towards her dresser. “Someone should have warned me.” She gave a pointed look to Natalia, who was examining her manicured nails, clearly ignoring her friend.
“Right. . . listen, I’m heading to class, but I’ll probably be out late tonight. Don’t wait up.”
Alice pulled the ruined blouse over her head, revealing creamy skin against a lace bralette underneath in the same fashion as her friend’s. Delicate. Expensive. Elegant.
I felt like a dumpster fire in my oversized hoodie and sweatpants.
“Perfect timing. Natalia and I are going out anyway.” She smiled, easy and unbothered by her half-dressed state. “Don’t wait on me.” She wasbeing polite. We had never waited on each other, but the gesture was still kind.
“Thanks. I’ll see you two later,” I said, then managed something between a nod and a bow as I turned towards Natalia. Her smile curved, demure and knowing at once.
Total opposite of me. God, why am I so embarrassing?
I fled into the hallway and pulled air back into my lungs as I headed to class. I made a mental note to watch where I was going and stop crashing through this life like an anxious wrecking ball.
The auditorium filled slowly, students trickling in with the desperate energy of people who’d rather be anywhere else. I found a seat mid-section as Professor Wright strolled through the door.
Five-foot-two of controlled chaos wrapped in a sweater that assaulted the concept of color coordination. Striking gray hair caught the overhead lights while his rainbow plaid pants clashed beautifully with the geometric nightmare covering his torso and round wire-frame glasses. Somehow, he made it work.
I typically avoided older men on principle, but his audacity bordered on attractive.
“Students!” His voice boomed, far too large for his frame. “Welcome back to another week of Philosophy 101. I see none of you have fled screaming, which speaks either to your dedication or your masochism.”
He dropped his bag on the desk. Pens clattered out, skittered across the floor in six different directions. He kept talking while crouching to collect them, unbothered by the chaos.
“Today we’re dividing the room. Males on the left, females on the right. Yes, I know! How verybinaryof me, but bear with it for the exercise.”
Murmurs rippled through the auditorium as we shuffled, relocated, and created a physical divide down the center aisle.
“Excellent!” Professor Wright straightened, pens clutched in one fist. “Today’s topic: gendered identity, social behavior, and the structures we build without realizing we’re trapped inside them.” His smile sharpened. “This won’t be a battle. Just an exploration of the walls we can’t see because we’re standing too close.”
The discussion started with basic observations and spiraled quickly. A male student near the front leaned back in his seat, dimples flashing. “Biologically speaking, men are built for providing and protecting. Women for childbearing. There’s a natural order to these things.”
My jaw clenched.Natural order. That had been the same justification Edward used when explaining why some people were born to serve, while others were born tobeserved.
A girl raised her hand, chocolate hair falling across her face. “That assumes biology determines destiny. What about the barriers we’ve constructed? The ones that punish anyone who doesn’t fit the prescribed roles?”
The room shifted. Other students leaned forward, arguments forming.
Professor Wright watched like a conductor before an orchestra, waiting for the right moment to let the music swell.
“But if everyone rejects structure, society falls apart,” a tall boy by the window argued. “Individual freedom is great in theory, but what happens when seven billion people all want different things? Chaos. Collapse.”
