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“All of them.” The man sounds sullen on the other end of the line.
“All right,” I say hesitantly. “When would you want to start?”
He sighs and I hear papers rustling in the background. “Immediately. My parents are on me to do well.”
I actually contemplate turning him down. It seems he might be a little much for me to handle and I have a bad feeling about this. But he seals the deal with his next words.
“I’ll pay you anything you want. All the other tutors on the list are full and I really could use the help.” It sounds like he is choking on the words, clearly not used to asking for any kind of assistance.
“Fine.” I sigh. “Send me an email with your class schedule and I will let you know when I can meet you.”
“Great.”
He doesn’t wait for me to say anything else before disconnecting the call. I don’t know what the heck I just signed up for, but I have a feeling this was a bad idea. Instead of dwelling on something I don’t have all the facts on, I find Ellen, get my money, and walk back to campus.
When I finally reach my dorm, I almost turn around and leave but it’s already dark and I’m cold. Hunching my shoulders and making myself as small as possible, I hope the group of women sitting on the hood of a black convertible don’t see me.
“Look, it’s the little mouse,” Amber Perez mocks loudly. “Where are you off to, Little Mouse?”
I don’t reply, knowing she doesn’t really care. She always does this. Tries to pull me into a conversation only so she can degrade me in front of an audience. My father used to work for her father until he got addicted to the product he was supposed to sell. I grew up with Amber, hell, we even used to be friends, but now I’m just another person for her to look down on.
I quicken my steps in the hope that I can make it inside the dorm before anything else happens. But my luck has never been that good. Someone shoves me from behind and I go sprawling across the tarmac, my knees and hands scraping across the hard surface. My ribs protest the way I am bent over and I fight back tears. I don’t dare cry out and draw attention to what is happening—that would only make it worse.
A set of powder-pink stilettos appear in my blurry line of vision, and I slowly lift my gaze until I see Amber’s face. She sneers down at me before pushing at me with the toe of her shoe like I’m a piece of garbage.
“Don’t you think it’s time to go back to your trailer park, Little Mouse? You know you don’t belong here.”
She doesn’t wait for me to reply before she stalks off with her friends, laughing at my expense.
Chapter Four
Matthias Delgado
“Will you just stop bitching about this already? I’m not going to change my mind.”
I glare at my girlfriend, Amber, in the passenger seat of my brand-new Mustang. I’m done hearing about the fucking fall dance she wants me to attend with her. Fuck knows why I continue to put up with her shit.
“Matty,” she whines.
The tires screech as I slam on the brakes. Motorists around me honk and curse as the traffic adjusts and flows around me.
“Don’t push me, Amber. And don’t you dare call me that.”
The threat is clear in my words, venom dripping from every word.
“Thalia does.”
“Fuck my life,” I groan as I stomp on the accelerator, going way too fast. I need to get to Birchleigh so I can pretend to care about my classes and get rid of this fucking female.
“My mother,” I emphasize the word, “can call me whatever she wants. She raised me, she earned the right.”
“Stepmother.”
“Just because your mother died and your stepmother is a cunt, doesn’t give you the right to look down on everyone. Grow the fuck up.”
I’m out of the parked car and striding across campus before she can even formulate a reply. I’m so fucking tired of this bullshit. But it’s not like I really have a choice in the matter. Amber and I will be married someday. It’s not that I love her, I can barely even stand her, but it’s best for business. Her father is one of my father’s allies—now that they stopped competing—and uniting the families through marriage will make us even more powerful.
“Sorry,” a female voice mumbles when I walk into her as we both try to enter the Intro to Biology class that has already started.
