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I was losing the heart to carry on with my original plan. She was struggling. I don't know how I could tell, but she struggled.
Chapter eight
A Dash of the Past
Tabitha
After Bruce was done speaking with me, I was left to my own thoughts. I still couldn't get over the feeling that I had met him somewhere before. The only person that came to mind however could not be Bruce.
There were similarities between the both of them, but I found it hard to believe that they could be the same person. I mean, Bruce was well-built, had better charisma and a high degree of arrogance. The person I had in mind was a nerd. Then again, in his defense, all science students, me included, are nerds. But there was just something about him. It was kind of similar to how Bruce made me feel whenever he told me not to speak in a certain way.
****
Nine years ago…
“I said I'm not getting married to Shawn.” I put my foot down.
“I don't get it. His father is rich,” Father said.
“And so is mine,” I reminded him.
“Rich is supposed to get with Rich, to make the bride’s family's wealth even richer,” Even his words sounded void of reasoning.
“I can't believe you would be willing to sell off your daughter just like that.” I shook my head in disbelief. “Is that why you transferred me out of my former university and into Maryland?”
“Listen, you see it in romance novels all the time,” he explained. “It's called forced proximity. Keep the both of you close enough, and boom! Love.”
As much as I wanted to call him ‘a sick twisted bastard’, he was still my father. So, I refrained from using such foul words.I still called him that in my mind, though. As per Father's wishes, I relocated to Maryland, leaving my old university behind. Getting in was fine, thanks to Father's connections. Shawn knew better than to approach me, but he did anyway.
He was so smitten that he went out of his way to get my heart and attention. Of course, I found his attempts pitiful. The only men I was interested in were the stronger ones physically because as science students, most were mentally weak.
But I've already shared that story.This was about the strange man I met. Or who met me, rather. I first saw him on his way to check results with Shawn. As he was a friend of Shawn, I wanted to avoid him, but then he called me out.
“Hey, Tabitha, aren’t you going to check where you placed?” he asked.
“Why would I feel the need to do that?” I asked without sparing him a glance as I continued my way, “The outcome should be obvious. You should be able to tell what position I’d be in.”
It was the first time either of us had spoken to each other. I had my walls up completely because I felt he would be the same kind of breed as Shawn.
“Don’t you think that was a bit rude?” the stranger asked.
“Dude, let it go,” Shawn said.
I stopped walking, stared at the both of them from the top of their head to their feet, and scoffed, continuing my day.
“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“I don’t think we should check the rankings anymore,” Shawn advised.
“Because of some arrogant little girl?” he asked, holding back the urge to laugh at the ordeal.
“Maybe, yes,” Shawn answered with a serious expression, “Trust me, you don’t want to be her rival.”
Exactly. You do not want to be my rival. As children, my siblings and I were raised to make sure that people feared our names if they heard we were on the opposite team. I didn't come to university to make allies. There were no issues with passing the courses as they were very cheap as compared to what I was used to. But one time, I saw the name, Philbert Johan, consecutively come close to beating my scores.
For the first time in forever, I was excited. I had rarely burned the midnight candle, but I had a reason to. I kept on making sure that he was never able to reach me.This was before I even met Jane, so I felt like I had the proper friend or a rival, although we never spoke after our first encounter.
“Good morning, Miss Hill,” a voice greeted.
