The Wrong Kind of Right

Chapter3

Chapter 3: Uninvited Company

Sophie read the message four times before she finally set the phone down, as though putting distance between herself and the screen might somehow change the words waiting there.

Stay away from Nathaniel Calloway.

She had known him for exactly one day. One conversation in a lecture hall, one accidental almost collision in a parking lot, one easy walk across campus that had lasted no more than fifteen minutes. None of it should have been enough to earn her an anonymous threat from a stranger who clearly knew far more about her schedule than any stranger reasonably should.

Priya, sprawled across her bed with a textbook she was very obviously not reading, noticed the shift in Sophie’s expression immediately.

“Okay, what happened,” Priya said, sitting upright. “You have your serious face on.”

“I don’t have a serious face.”

“You absolutely have a serious face. It’s different from your normal face. Your eyebrows do this thing.”

Sophie hesitated, then handed over her phone without a word. Priya read the message twice, her usual playful energy draining from her expression.

“Okay, that’s creepy,” Priya said slowly. “That’s genuinely creepy.”

“I know.”

“Who would even send that?”

“I have no idea.”

Priya handed the phone back, her brow furrowed in thought. “Maybe it’s some jealous girl thing. Nathaniel Calloway probably has an army of people who think they own the rights to him.”

Sophie considered that. It made a strange kind of sense, given how many heads had turned in the dining hall earlier, given the way that one striking blonde had watched him with unmistakable interest. Still, something about the message felt too calculated to be simple jealousy. Too immediate. Too well timed.

“Maybe,” Sophie said, though she did not entirely believe it herself.

The rest of the evening passed in a haze of unfinished reading assignments and half hearted attempts at focus. Sophie’s mind kept circling back to the message, turning it over and over until the words had lost all their shape and meaning, replaced by a simmering unease she could not quite shake.

The next morning brought clear skies and the kind of crisp autumn air that usually would have lifted her mood instantly. Instead, Sophie found herself glancing over her shoulder more than once on the walk to class, half expecting to catch sight of whoever had sent the message the night before.

Nobody stood out. Nobody looked suspicious. The campus moved exactly as it had the day before, full of students rushing between buildings, utterly indifferent to the small storm brewing quietly inside her chest.

Her economics class passed without incident, though she noticed Nate’s now familiar entrance a few minutes after the lecture began, followed by the same quiet ripple of whispers that seemed to trail him everywhere. This time, she did not turn to look. She kept her eyes fixed firmly on her notebook, determined not to give the anonymous sender any further reason to notice her.

It did not work particularly well.

By the time class ended, she felt his presence beside her desk before she even looked up.

“You’re avoiding me,” Nate said, an easy smile tugging at his mouth.

“I’m not avoiding you.”

“You didn’t look at me once during the entire lecture.”

“I was taking notes.”

“You wrote exactly three sentences in fifty minutes. I counted.”

Sophie glanced up, startled. “You were watching me instead of paying attention?”

“Multitasking,” he said, unbothered. “I’m very talented.”

Despite the tension still coiled tightly in her chest, Sophie felt the corner of her mouth twitch upward. “That’s concerning.”

“Only a little.”

They walked out of the lecture hall together, falling into the same easy rhythm from the day before, though Sophie found herself holding something back this time, the anonymous message sitting heavily at the back of her mind.

“You seem distracted,” Nate observed as they crossed the courtyard.

“Long night.”

“Anything interesting happen?”

Sophie hesitated, weighing whether to mention the message at all. Something about his tone, careful and a little too casual, made her wonder if he already suspected something. In the end, she decided against it, not ready to hand over information she barely understood herself.

“Just a lot of reading,” she said instead.

Nate studied her for a moment longer than necessary, as though he could sense the lie sitting just beneath her words, though he did not push further.

“Lunch?” he asked instead. “I promise not to almost run you over this time.”

“Tempting offer.”

“I’m full of them.”

Before Sophie could answer, a group of students called out to him from across the courtyard, and with an apologetic glance her way, Nate excused himself to join them. Sophie watched him go, the strange knot of unease returning in his absence.

The dining hall felt louder than usual by the time she arrived, crowded with students eager to escape the midday heat. Sophie found Priya already seated near the windows, waving enthusiastically the moment she spotted her.

“Sit, sit,” Priya said, patting the seat beside her. “I have gossip.”

“Please tell me it’s not more Calloway gossip.”

“It’s slightly Calloway adjacent gossip.”

Sophie groaned, sliding into the seat regardless.

“So apparently,” Priya continued, lowering her voice conspiratorially, “there’s this whole rumor about the Calloway family and some old scandal. Nobody really knows the details, but it’s definitely a thing people whisper about.”

“What kind of scandal?”

“Nobody actually knows. That’s the fun part. Everyone just agrees something happened, years ago, involving the family, and nobody talks about specifics.”

Sophie’s mind immediately jumped to the anonymous message from the night before. If there truly was some hidden history surrounding Nate’s family, perhaps the warning had less to do with jealousy and more to do with something buried far deeper.

Before she could ask Priya to elaborate, a shadow fell across their table.

Sophie looked up to find Nate standing there, tray in hand, an easy smile already forming.

“Mind if I join?”

Priya’s eyes went comically wide. Sophie kicked her under the table before she could say anything embarrassing.

“Sure,” Sophie said, gesturing to the empty seat across from her.

Nate sat down without hesitation, entirely unbothered by the way half the dining hall seemed to notice the moment he did. Priya, for her part, looked seconds away from combusting with excitement, though she managed to keep herself composed, mostly.

“So,” Nate said, glancing between them, “what were we interrupting?”

“Nothing important,” Sophie said quickly.

“Just some gossip,” Priya added at the exact same time, earning a sharp look from Sophie.

Nate’s expression flickered, something unreadable passing behind his eyes. “Gossip about what?”

“Just campus stuff,” Sophie said, hoping to steer the conversation elsewhere. “Nothing worth repeating.”

He studied her for a long moment, clearly aware there was more to the story than she was letting on, though he let it go with a small nod.

The conversation drifted from there, lighter topics filling the space, Priya inserting herself enthusiastically into every exchange with a series of increasingly ridiculous questions about Nate’s favorite classes, his opinion on the campus food, and whether he had ever actually driven the black car himself or if it belonged to someone more responsible.

“I drive it myself,” Nate said, mock offended. “I’m a very safe driver.”

“You almost hit Sophie.”

“That was one time.”

“It was yesterday.”

Sophie laughed despite herself, the tension from earlier easing slightly under the warmth of the conversation. For a moment, everything felt easy again, uncomplicated in a way that made the anonymous message feel almost distant.

Then a new voice cut cleanly through the noise.

“Nate.”

The atmosphere at the table shifted instantly. Sophie looked up to find the same striking blonde from the day before standing beside them, her smile polished and pleasant in a way that did not quite reach her eyes.

“Camille,” Nate said, his tone noticeably cooler than it had been moments earlier. “I didn’t know you were back on campus.”

“Clearly.” Camille’s gaze flicked briefly toward Sophie, assessing, before returning to Nate. “We need to talk. It’s important.”

“Can it wait?”

“Not really.”

The tension between them stretched uncomfortably, thick enough that Priya suddenly became very interested in her lunch tray. Sophie shifted in her seat, feeling distinctly like she had stumbled into a conversation she was never meant to witness.

Finally, Nate sighed, standing reluctantly. “I’ll see you both later.”

His eyes lingered on Sophie for a moment before he followed Camille away from the table, the two of them disappearing into the crowd, heads bent close together in quiet, urgent conversation.

Priya let out a low whistle. “Okay. What was that?”

“I have no idea.”

“That was not a friendly conversation face.”

“I noticed.”

Priya leaned forward, lowering her voice again. “You don’t think that’s the scandal girl, do you?”

Sophie frowned, watching the space where Nate and Camille had disappeared. Something about the exchange had felt heavier than simple tension between old friends, something rooted in history she knew nothing about.

Her phone buzzed suddenly, cutting through her thoughts.

Sophie’s stomach dropped the moment she saw the notification.

Unknown number.

Another message.

With trembling fingers, she opened it, half expecting another warning similar to the last one. Instead, an image loaded onto her screen, and the moment it did, every ounce of warmth from the afternoon evaporated instantly.

The photograph showed her and Nate, sitting together in the lecture hall the day before, caught mid conversation from an angle that made it clear the photo had been taken from somewhere across the room, without either of t

hem noticing.

Beneath the image, a single line of text appeared.

Someone is always watching.