My Rival Is My Roommate

POV MAYA I dragged my heaviest box across the hardwood floor of Apartment 4B and slammed the front door shut with my foot. Finally. My senior year. No chaotic dorm rooms, no loud roommates, and actual peace to finish my thesis film, graduate, and get the hell out of this city. I let out a long breath, cleaned the sweat off my forehead, and pulled out my phone to text my best friend, Nora. Then my phone buzzed before I could even open the app. It was a link from Nora, followed by twenty unread messages, all filled with ‘MAYA WHAT IS THIS’ and ‘ARE YOU KIDDING ME’. I tapped the link. My stomach dropped straight into my shoes. It was a post from the campus gossip page, uploaded twenty minutes ago. The photo was from the athletic department's charity gala last week. I was standing near the punch bowl, looking furious, while Luca Callahan, the golden boy hockey captain, university messiah, bane of my entire existence, was leaning down, grinning like a menace right into my face. The caption read: ‘Spotted: Golden boy Callahan looking very cozy with indie filmmaker Maya Bennett. Are we looking at campus's newest secret power couple?’ "You've got to be kidding me" I muttered, my face burning. I scrolled down to the comments, hoping to see people shutting it down. Instead, the top comment, verified with a blue checkmark, was from Luca's official account: ‘Guess you'll have to get used to me, Bennett.’ My blood went cold, then boiled over. "I am going to strangle him." I said, looking at the screen. "I am actually going to kill him with my bare hands." Before I could even close the app, the lock on the front door beeped. The door swung open. In walked Luca Callahan. He had a huge black hockey bag over his shoulder, a backward team cap on, a grey hoodie stretched tight over his shoulders. He smelled like cold air, and his stupidly expensive cologne. He stopped in the doorway, dropped his bag on the floor with a thud, and looked straight at me. Not even a flicker of surprise. Just an eyebrow, and that smirk. "Hey, roomie." he said. I stood there frozen, holding my phone like a weapon. "What are you doing here.” "I live here." he said, kicking the door shut behind him. "Well. Starting today." "No No, you don't." I shook my head, my voice rising. "This is a single occupancy suite. I booked this eight months ago." "Yeah, and the housing office sent an email out yesterday morning." Luca said, walking past me into the small living room like he owned the place. "Dorm flooding on the east campus. They paired up the senior suites. You didn't check your email." My throat went dry. I hadn't checked my email. I'd been so busy packing equipment all morning I ignored every notification. "No," I said, my voice tight. "This is a mistake. I'm calling housing right now. There's no way I'm living with you." "Good luck," Luca said, dropping his keys on the counter. "Housing director's out until Monday. Believe me, Bennett, I'm not throwing a party about this either, but we're stuck." He walked toward the master bedroom, the one with the private bathroom and the bigger window that I had already decided was mine. "Hey. Where do you think you're going." I shouted, marching after him. Luca grabbed the door handle and threw his bag inside. "Taking the room." "The hell you are." I shoved past his arm, blocking the doorway. "I got here first. My boxes are literally right there." "And my bag's inside," he said, leaning against the doorframe. He was so ridiculously tall I had to tilt my head back just to glare at his face. "Come on, Bennett. Be realistic. I'm six two. I actually need the extra space." "I don't care if you're seven feet tall. I was here first. "You were here twenty minutes before me," he said, rolling his eyes. "Do we really need to fight over the rooms on day one." "Yes. Because you think you can just walk in here, act like you own the university, and take whatever you want because you hit a rubber puck into a net." Luca's smirk faded, his eyes hard as he leaned down, his face closer to mine. "I don't just hit a puck, Maya. And I'm not asking for the whole apartment. I'm taking the room." "Over my dead body, Callahan." We stood there, chest to chest in the narrow hallway, breathing hard. The tension between us was practically breathing. I refused to blink. I refused to let him see even a second of hesitation. Every single person on this campus bowed down to Luca Callahan, but I'd rather burn the apartment to the ground than let him win this. Luca looked at me for a few seconds. Then he let out a sharp breath, shook his head, and laughed quietly. "Fine." he said stepping back. "Keep the bedroom." I blinked, caught off guard. "Wait. Really." "Yeah. Really." He pointed a finger at me. "But I get the reserved parking space out front. "Deal," I snapped immediately, not wanting to give him time to change his mind. "And one more rule: stay out of my way, because I am definitely not going to let you ruin my life again." Luca raised his eyebrow, an amused smile on his lips. "Again? Still holding a grudge over freshman year, Bennett? It's been three years. You're acting like I shoved you into a locker and locked it” "You did worse" I shouted, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. "You ruined my entire freshman showcase project. You got my film pulled from the festival board and didn't even apologize.,” For a second, Luca's playfulness broke. His jaw tightened, something flickering across his face so fast I almost missed it. He opened his mouth, his eyes suddenly guarded. "Maya, that wasn't…" His phone vibrated in his pocket before he could finish. Luca stopped. He swallowed, then pulled out his phone, and answered it without taking his eyes off mine. "Yeah, Renata?" he said, his voice instantly turning professional. He listened for a few seconds.Then his eyebrow lifted. The corner of his mouth slowly curled into that infuriating, smug little smile. "What?" Luca said, sounding more amused than concerned. "Where was it posted." He lowered the phone and glanced at me, his expression almost... entertained. "What is it.” I asked. "Luca, what happened." He looked down at his phone again. "Well, well, well." "What." He tapped his screen, turning the phone around to show me. "Wow," he said, completely unfazed. "There's a naked picture of us on the internet." I stared at him. He shrugged. "We have a problem," he said, his mouth twitching like he was fighting a laugh. "Someone just leaked another picture of us.”