Ice & Prejudice

Chapter 14

Nik's POV:

As I leaned against the wall outside Victoria's statistics classroom, my eyes were glued to the stream of students trickling out. I kept checking my phone, hoping to hide how impatient I was. Almost 10:30. She should be out any minute.

I saw her before she saw me—Victoria Winters, looking far too refreshed for someone who'd just walked out of a stats class. Her hair was perfectly in place, and she had this weird glow about her, like she'd actually slept and wasn't stressed out about anything. The sight of it twisted something in my gut, and I could feel my irritation simmering.

She breezed past me without a glance, and I had to push off the wall to catch up. "Oh, look who finally decided school's important," I said, sarcasm dripping from my voice. She kept walking, not even bothering to acknowledge my presence. I wasn't used to that—people didn't just ignore me. I pushed on, matching her pace. "Must've been a pretty wild weekend for you to just disappear like that."

Still nothing. She moved through the crowd with purpose, and I couldn't help but notice she was a good head shorter than me, which only made it easier to tower over her as I trailed beside her like an annoying shadow.

"So, did you have fun on your little trip to New York City?" I tried again, my tone taking on an edge. "Must've been one hell of a trip if you couldn't even spare an hour to tutor me."

She didn't respond, didn't even glance in my direction. It was like she had mastered the art of tuning me out, and it was driving me insane. I felt a twinge of frustration, which quickly turned into irritation. No, more than irritation. Jealousy? Nahhh.

"Seriously, Winters, you just left, no explanation, nothing," I continued, my words coming out sharper than I intended. "Didn't even bother to tell me you were skipping town. Not to mention how you blocked my number. I mean, really? What are you, in high school or something?"

She still wasn't biting, just kept walking, eyes forward. It was like she was daring me to keep going, and damn it, I couldn't back down now.

"What, your boyfriend needed you that badly?" I shot, my voice thick with sarcasm. "Had to drop everything and run to New York because, what, he couldn't handle the weekend without you?"

Nothing. Just that same calm, almost serene expression on her face, like she knew something I didn't. And that made it worse. My thoughts were racing, grasping at any excuse to keep talking, to poke and prod until she finally reacted. The idea of her spending time with that guy—Benjamin, or whatever—was gnawing at me, and I couldn't even figure out why. Not that I'd admit it was jealousy, though. There had to be another reason.

"You know, you could've at least given me a heads-up," I pressed on, trying to sound like I was only concerned about our so-called study sessions. "Or is it too much to ask for you to be a little responsible? It's not like we don't have exams coming up, but hey, maybe hanging out with your boyfriend in the city is more important than passing stats. What's his name again? Benjamin Monroe? Seriously, Winters? You seriously ran off for that?"

I was grasping at straws now, rambling, and I knew it, but I couldn't stop. It was like I needed her to admit something, to justify how she had just ditched everything for this guy. My mind was spinning with all these reasons why it was so wrong, why it bugged me so much, and I couldn't shut up.

"And another thing," I added, barely giving her time to breathe, "who just blocks someone's number because they're too busy hooking up with their boyfriend? That's not how adults handle things, you know. It's actually pretty immature. We could've figured out another time to meet, but no, you just decided to vanish and block me like I'm some kind of creep. You know, maybe you should be spending your time studying instead of gallivanting around with your model boyfriend in the middle of the semester. Some of us actually care about our grades."