A Billionaire's Crush

Chapter One

An ear piercing ring breaks Amy out of her sleep. She sighs, cracking her eyes open to look at the popcorn ceiling above her head. She's always hated how they look- all bumpy and hazardously placed. It looks messy. She can't help but think of how they used to also contain asbestos, so it made her always second guess when buildings were made, and if they had been renotavated if they had these kinds of ceilings. She rubbed her eyes, rubbing away the thoughts in the process. It's a ridiculous fear.

"First day of class," she mumbles to herself before dragging herself out of the bed.

Amy finally got into University. She had taken two years to complete her Associate's at a local community college because it was so much cheaper to do her basics there than at a University. She can't help but be a bit nervous for her first day, but at least she is halfway done with her BA, then she'll be able to get an entry level position while she works on her Master's Degree. If she works hard, then she might be able to finish in one year instead of two. She's not sure if she can work through both the Winter and Summer breaks though because she's so worried about burn out, so it might take her the full two, but she's not going to put herself down before she's even tried.

"Its a new year, in a new town, with new people. No one knows you here," she tells herself in the mirror as she brushes her hair, trying to force a smile. "No one knows about him, or how he left you. No one would even care here! Just pretend that you're normal, and everything here can be normal."

She tells herself all this in a sort of pep talk, but she doesn't really believe it. Since she was 14, she has been the center of malice rumors and jokes about her boyfriend, Isaac Jones, the son of a famous multi-billionaire energy tycoon, who left her without a word and only contacted her a handful of times after. Even his family, who she had been close with, left and never so much as told her good-bye. She had been embarrassed, to say the least, but also crushed. Isaac has been two years older than her, so her mother had been worried, but she eventually relented and let them date since they had known each other since they were very small children, as her mother had been previously employed by the Jones's before starting her own small business. She never made the kind of money that the Jones family had, but it was enough to lift them into a new way of living, and to send Amy to a private school, where she was nearly glued to Isaac's hip. Even in elementary school, when other boys would tease him about cooties, he stood up for her, and he never pushed her away. Even now, she can't understand why he and his family did what they did.

"It doesn't matter," she says out loud to herself, finally giving a real smile to the reflection in a mirror. "No one here knows me, or knows what happened. I can finally move on from that childhood nonsense."

Despite it happening so long ago, her hometown was small, and no one had been willing to let it go. Now that she had moved away from there, maybe Amy could finally move on. She wouldn't have to hear his name everyday, or see "Mrs. Jones" with broken hearts scrawled across her locker, or listen to any rumors about how he just "got what he wanted" from her and then left her behind. There would be no rumors that he left because he didn't want to deal with being a father, or that his own father paid for an abortion for her. There would be nothing here to remind her of him, and she can't be happier. A fresh start is all she's ever wanted.

Taking a deep breath, she picks up her backpack and helmet, excitedly making her way down the stairs to her scooter. She plops herself in the seat, strapping on the helmet before making her way through the congested streets. She knows she ought to obey the laws of the road, and not act like so many motorcycles around her, weaving in and out of traffic, and breaking a number of traffic laws, but time is ticking down. She hadn't expected it to be this busy. She had thought an hour would be plenty of time to get to class, but now she only had half an hour, and she was only maybe a mile or two from her apartment complex.

"Dammit," she sighs as she chews on her lip. Would it really be such a big deal if she broke a couple rules, just this once? She was always so careful...

After a moment of hesitation, she turns to drive between the rows of cars, keeping a nervous eye out for the flash of blue and red lights. While she can't afford a ticket, she also can't afford to be late on her first day. She's grateful to her past self for having the idea to explore the campus and find all of her classes beforehand. She gets to the campus in less than ten minutes after deciding to rebel and drive the way she wanted. Parking her scooter and shoving the keys in her pocket, she pulls off her helmet, fixing her hair in the side mirror before leaving the parking lot. Twenty minutes left until class starts. If she hurries, she can get there ten minutes before it starts. Hopefully she'll still be able to get a good seat for the hour and a half long class.

In her own little world, thinking of what color she should label the folder on her laptop for her history class, she doesn't realize that there is someone in front of her until she bumps into them. "Oh! I'm so sorry," she exclaims, taking a step back to look up at the tall man that she had bumped into.

Her heart sinks as she recognizes the lopsided, boyish smile on the handsome face. "Hey," Isaac says breathlessly, his dark eyes soft as he regards her. "I was starting to worry that maybe I had the wrong place."

"The... wrong place?" she echos, her mind spinning. She feels nauseous. What is he doing here? Has he been waiting for her? Why would he do this? Why now?

"Yeah. When I went to see your mom, she said that you started University so you weren't living at home anymore. She refused to tell me where, but you always talked about here, so I just figured...," he trails off, shrugging as he itches the back of his head. "Anyway, I'm glad that I found you. The campus is huge. I wanted to talk to you."

That breaks Amy out of her trance, and she can't help the sneer that pulls at her upper lip. "You want to talk to me?" she repeats in basically a growl.

"Yeah," he says more softly, rubbing his hands together nervously. "I know that it's been awhile, but I-."

" 'Been awhile'?" Amy repeats, snarling at him. " 'Been awhile'?" she nearly shouts, though she bites her tongue when her volume draws a few eyes. "No, no you don't get to do this to me. I've moved on. You don't deserve to come stomping in here, all over my new life, and say that you want to talk to me. You left me. Just, just go away."

"Amy, please," he begs as she walks past him, hesitating before jogging to catch up with her. "Please, can I just take you out to breakfast?"

"No. I have to get to class," she barks, not even looking over at him now.

Her heart is aching and she's trying not to allow tears to well up in her eyes. Why after all these years is he here? It's like as soon as she's moved on, he wants to drag her back in, drag her back to him. Did he have some kind of radar? It's like how the one, single letter she got from him during all those years of silence was when she finally started dating someone different. Of course someone found out about it and told her boyfriend, so he broke up with her because she "clearly wasn't over the Jones guy". A lump forms in her throat as that memory bubbles to the surface. All Isaac ever did was hurt her. Why is he still insisting on doing it?