Maya didn’t look up from the notebook on her desk as her pen drew across the page, another equation filling her mind with complete and total focus on the numbers in front of her.
“I’m tutoring Carter Vance,” she said, underlining her final answer with a practiced flourish as she spoke.
Her voice held none of the weight it would have carried if she’d announced something as serious as the weather for the next day.
Her roommate, Olivia, stared at her for the span of several long seconds before managing to find her voice again.
“…You’re doing what?” she asked, her eyes widening so quickly that Maya almost laughed at the reaction.
“I’m helping Carter Vance pass physics,” Maya repeated, flipping to a clean page in her notebook as she spoke, evidently trying to do her best to ensure that the news was no more momentous than it needed to be.
Olivia blinked several times in rapid succession before leaning forward from Maya’s bed, her elbows digging into her knees.
“You’re actually serious?” she asked, studying Maya’s face intently; she was searching for something in the expression that would confirm that her roommate was simply joking and trying to find some measure of amusement by making a huge deal out of this.
“Yes,” Maya answered simply, continuing the careful sorting of her papers into neat little piles, showing no outward sign of concern.
“But you don’t even like him,” Olivia said, crossing her arms over her chest as she took another long moment to consider it.
Maya merely shrugged lightly and set her pen atop the open notebook, finally raising her eyes to meet Olivia’s.
“I don’t hate him either,” she said.
“That isn’t what I meant,” Olivia said, narrowing her eyes with suspicion.
“You definitely don’t like him and, honestly, everyone on campus knows it by now.”
Maya didn’t speak for a moment, tapping the tip of her pen against the desk as she considered how much — or how little — she wanted to say.
“I seriously don’t understand you sometimes,” Olivia continued, shaking her head in exasperation.
“Almost every girl at Briarwood would jump at the chance to spend even five minutes alone with Carter Vance, and somehow you’re the one on the entire campus who is completely unaffected by him.”
Maya sighed quietly.
“You already know why I’m on the cheer team,” she said, giving Olivia a meaningful look.
Olivia tilted her head, considering it for a moment.
“Because it’s fun?” she guessed, managing to give Maya an uncertain smile.
Maya simply raised one eyebrow.
“…Right. Definitely not because it’s fun,” Olivia said with a laugh.
“I’m doing it because I need the recommendation letter from Professor Bennett,” Maya explained, her tone even and unwavering.
Everything she had worked for this semester came down to that one goal, and she simply would not let it slip away because of one difficult, unmotivated student.
As Olivia listened more carefully this time, some of her usual teasing wore off, her expression softening just slightly.
“So our teacher really asked you to help him?” she asked, resting her chin thoughtfully in her hand.
“Yes,” Maya said, giving a small nod in response.
“Professor Hale believes that Carter still has time to turn his grades around before the semester ends, assuming he actually puts in the effort.”
“And Carter just happens to be part of the arrangement?” Olivia asked.
“Exactly,” Maya said, picking up the water bottle at the edge of her desk and taking a slow, unhurried drink.
“Besides, I’m being paid fifteen thousand dollars a week for this, so the money certainly doesn’t hurt either.”
Olivia nearly choked on the drink she had just taken, coughing hard enough that she had to set the glass down.
” Fifteen thousand dollars.
A week?” she repeated, staring at Maya as though she had suddenly discovered that she was royalty.
Maya nodded casually, as if that amount of money wasn’t ridiculous to begin with.
“…That is insane,” Olivia muttered,
A small smile threatened to appear on Maya’s lips before her phone started vibrating against the desk.
She looked down at the name on the screen immediately.
Carter Vance.
Maya frowned slightly as she opened the message.
Carter: You can come to my place tomorrow for the first session.
There was no greeting attached to it, no explanation — none of the courtesy of a question mark anywhere in the sentence.
It was simply a statement delivered exactly the way Carter seemed to do everything with total and unbothered confidence that the answer would already be yes.
Before Maya could respond, Olivia got up and leaned across the desk, and snatched the phone right out of her hand, reading the message with wide eyes.
“Hey!” Maya protested, trying to get her phone back.
Olivia’s expression was one of absolute delight, her lips parted as she let out an exaggerated squeal.
“Yes!” she shouted, bouncing up and down in her chair.
“You’re actually going to his house!”
Maya blinked twice, thoroughly confused by the excitement in her roommate’s tone.
“Why are you so excited about this?” she asked, finally managing to retrieve her phone.
“Because this sounds like the opening scene to every romance movie ever,” Olivia said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Do you have any idea how much potential this has?”
“There is absolutely no potential,” Maya said, typing a short message as she spoke.
“It’s tutoring. That’s the only reason I’m going, and that’s the only reason it will ever be.”
” Mhm,” Olivia said, giving her a knowing smile that Maya chose to ignore.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Maya said.
She grabbed her phone from Olivia.
“I’m just saying that strange things tend to happen when two people spend a lot of time together,” Olivia teased.
“They won’t happen to me,” Maya responded confidently.
“We’ll see,” Olivia said with a laugh.
The following afternoon felt like it dragged more than Maya would have expected.
It wasn’t nerves; it was simply that she disliked entering situations that she couldn’t predict in advance and, evidently, Carter Vance was very good at creating those situations.
By the time she arrived at his neighborhood, the sun had already started to set, the horizon painted with colors of the spectrum.
She adjusted the strap of her bag, climbed the front steps, and knocked twice.
Only a few seconds passed before the door opened.
A tall young Boy with sandy black hair and a welcoming smile greeted her.
“You’re Maya. I’m Ethan Carter’s roommate.”
“Nice to meet you!” Maya greeted.
“I know who you are anyway; he’s upstairs in his room. Last door on your right; you can’t miss it.”
“Thank you.”
The house surprised her.
She had expected loud music and chaos, but instead it was comfortable, lived-in, messy, even.
It was, in its own way, welcoming.
Maya climbed the stairs without wasting time, reminding herself that she was only here for one reason.
She knocked.
No answer.
She knocked again.
Still nothing.
After a moment, she turned the handle and pushed the door open….
…..and instantly wished she hadn’t.
The air hit her first: thick, humid, heavy with the unmistakable musk of sex.
Sweat and skin and something darker, saltier.
Carter’s head snapped toward her, eyes wide, panic flashing across his face for half a second before the rest of the room registered.
Tangled sheets half-slid off the mattress.
Clothes strewn across the floor: his jeans, a lacy bra, a pair of panties still damp and twisted.
And the company.
A girl on her back beneath him with her lavender hair in the right side of her face, legs still spread, thighs glistening, one knee hooked high over his hip.
Carter was half-rising, cock still hard and slick, shiny with come and her wetness, the thick length bobbing as he moved.
A faint string of cum stretched from the tip to the soft lips of the girl’s cunt before breaking.
“Maya, wait!”
She didn’t say anything.
Couldn’t.
Heat flooded her face, her chest, pooling between her own legs in a treacherous pulse.
Her nipples tightened against her bra, sudden and aching.
She saw everything in one searing glance: the flush on Carter’s chest, the way his abs flexed, the wet sheen on the insides of the other girl’s thighs, the way her pussy looked freshly fucked, swollen and messy.
The scent of it wrapped around Maya like a hand sliding under her skirt.
She stepped back, quietly closed the door, and walked away.
No questions.
No hesitation.
She had no interest in answers she didn’t want.
By the time she reached the front door, she could already hear hurried footsteps behind her.
She stepped outside into the cool evening air.
She was not jealous, she told herself.
She wasn’t heartbroken; she was annoyed.
Carter couldn’t even remember a tutoring session he had requested less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Wait!” he called out.
She ignored him and kept walking, not slowing down at all.