Chapter 1

After picking up meals for my roommate for an entire month, she handed me a crisp ten-dollar bill.

"Babe, aren't you on a diet? Keep doing it next month. Walking back and forth to the dining hall is great cardio."

"Technically, since I saved you gym membership fees, you should be paying me. But I'm generous, so keep the ten bucks as a tip."

I stared at her in disbelief, furious. "I fronted over a thousand dollars for your food this month! You give me ten bucks, and I'm supposed to thank you?"

"Wouldn't you have to pay for the gym anyway?" She rolled her eyes.

"Now you get free workouts, and I even handed you ten bucks. You made a killing."

I ignored her. But the next day, she texted me again:

"Sent you my lunch order. Hurry up at noon."

When I returned to the dorm empty-handed, she glared at me. "Where's my food?"

"I asked around," I said coldly. "The dining hall doesn't do tabs."

Mia froze, as if she couldn't comprehend my words. Her mouth hung open, eyes wide.

"What did you say?"

I set my backpack down, leaned back against my chair, and repeated:

"The dining hall doesn't do tabs. You want me to get you food, but you don't pay. The cafeteria staff said no."

"I never said I wouldn't pay!" She bolted upright in bed, her voice rising an octave.

"Didn't I give you ten dollars?"

"Ten. Dollars." I bit out every syllable, pulling the crumpled bill from my pocket and waving it in her face.

"Mia, you had me pick up thirty-seven meals last month. At fifteen bucks each, that's five hundred and fifty-five. On weekends, you had me get barbecue and takeout, adding up to over four hundred. That's a total of one thousand and thirty dollars. Did you pay a single dime of that?"

Her face flushed red, her lips trembling.

"And now you hand me ten bucks, claiming you saved me gym fees?"

I let out a cold laugh, slapping the bill onto her desk.

"Keep your ten bucks. I don't need it. But you owe me that thousand dollars, and you're paying it back."

"Elena, are you insane?!"

Mia swung her legs off the bed, her slippers slapping loudly against the floor.

"Why didn't you mention money when you agreed to grab my food? Now you're counting pennies and keeping score? What is wrong with you?"

"I only agreed to help because you claimed your leg was injured."

I looked down at her completely uninjured legs.

"Your leg healed ages ago, didn't it? I saw you jogging on the track yesterday."

She flinched, instinctively pulling her feet back, then lifted her chin defiantly.

"So what? I'm busy. Can't I just not have time? What's wrong with roommates helping each other out? Do you really have to be so petty?"

"Helping each other?"

I crossed my arms and stared her down. "What have you done for me this past month? You won't even take out your own trash—I dump it every single time. Last week when I had a 101-degree fever and asked you for a glass of water, you said you were in the middle of a game and had no time. You call that mutual help?"

Mia opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water.

"Y-You're just stingy!" she sputtered, her eyes welling with tears as her voice cracked.

"It's just a thousand bucks! Is it really that big of a deal? It's not like your family is broke!"

I almost laughed out of sheer fury.

Whether my family had money or not had nothing to do with the thousand dollars I fronted for her.

That was my monthly allowance from my parents. It was my money for food and living expenses.

Why should I fund her lifestyle just because she was too lazy to get out of bed?

"Pay me back." I was done wasting my breath. I held out my hand and spoke firmly.

Mia stared at my outstretched hand and took a step back. "I don't have the money."

"You just bought a pair of twelve-hundred-dollar sneakers last weekend."

"That money was from my mom!"

"Then ask your mom to pay this thousand, too."

"Elena, that's enough!"

She shrieked so loudly that the adjacent dorms could hear.

"Stop pushing me! It's just a thousand dollars! Do you have to corner me like this? It's not like I wasn't going to pay you back! Why are you hounding me?"

She cried and screamed, causing a scene that echoed down the entire floor.

Doors clicked open next door, and soft footsteps hurried into the corridor.

Noticing the audience gathering outside, Mia grew bolder. Wiping away tears, she sobbed:

"I never thought you were this kind of person. Turning on your roommate over a few hundred bucks. We live together! Did you really have to do this?"

Her voice grew louder and more venomous.

In her version of events, I was a petty, calculating villain, and she was the helpless victim.