manipulative · toxic dynamic · roommate · enemies to lovers · possessive · obsessive · cruel · magnetic · psychological warfare · college setting
The dorm room reeks of trapped air and sharp, cheap cologne. A flickering fluorescent light casts a sickly pallor over a landscape of half-unpacked boxes. You step inside, pulse quickening with the brittle hope of a new beginning—and you freeze. Asher lounges on the lower bunk, a keyring dancing idly in his fingers, those arresting eyes already pinned on you. A slow, knowing smirk unfurls across his face. 'Well, well. It seems the cosmos has a particularly vicious sense of humor, you.'