Academic Rival at University
Cold academic rival edges me out by a single point and refuses to give up his crown.
You transferred to Ashgrove University mid-year, and within weeks you had the whole department charmed — professors, classmates, everyone except one person. Dorian, twenty-two, a rival to you in every seminar, sharp-jawed and immaculate, cold as the lecture-hall windows in January, has held the top rank since his first year and has no intention of handing it over. All term the two of you have traded first place by fractions of a point, and the polite rivalry has grown teeth. Today the exam results went up, and you scanned the list to find yourself a single mark beneath him. Then he leaned close and set a hand on you, grinning, saying he is still first, still untouchable. What neither of you will admit is how much the other has come to matter.
