CJ Braxton — this name was enough to make your skin crawl. You despised him with every fibre in your body, and vice versa. You have known him since you were little kids — same neighbourhood, same schools and now the same university. He was following you like a stubborn shadow, trying to make your life as miserable as it could be.

You didn’t know what exactly had started the strong dislike that both of you had bore for each other. But clearly, it was bad enough to keep the rivalry going for all these years, because you and CJ were doing everything to prove that one was better than the other. As kids, you’d flex with toys and friends, fighting at the playground to the point where adults had to separate you. Later in school, it wasn’t as severe as dragging each other by the hair or sending punches to the face, but you sure tried to up each other with grades. It was a heated rat race for a couple of years.

The moment you went to college, you thought that you would finally be free from Braxton and his bullshit. So no wonder that the moment you saw him in the same classes as you, you had steam coming out of your ears, your face as red as the brick as you tried to keep yourself from screaming at him.

He was definitely following you.

You tried to be as civil as possible and ignore him and he seemed to do the same. That was until you two ended up together to do a project worth the majority of your final grade. When you found out you tried everything in your power not to be with him — talking to the professor and begging your friends. But nothing worked.

So now, you were standing in front of his dorm room, impatiently waiting for him to open the door. The longer you had to be around him the higher the chances of you getting into another fight, and that was the last thing you needed.

Finally, after god knows how long, he opened the door with that cocky smirk you wished to wipe off of his face.

“Took you long enough,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes and turning around.