Chapter Text
“Fuck you, Noceda.”
The woman let out an obnoxious hum, her lips curled in an infuriating smirk as she walked by. “What’s wrong?”
“You bumped into me on purpose!” Amelia snapped. In front of her stood Lucia Noceda, wearing her stupid beanie over her messy sidetails and donning her ugly green jacket. The absolute bane of Amelia Blight’s existence.
Lucia’s smile faltered. “I didn’t,” she argued, and honestly, she could’ve been telling the truth. But Amelia didn’t care, because she was having a bad day and she hadn’t an ounce of patience left in her veins. Grunting, she walked past Lucia, making sure to shove her shoulder in a way to get back at her.
She’s not even sure where their hatred or petty fights for each other even started, but any time they saw each other in Literature Theory, or in the dining hall, or anywhere else around campus, it always divulged into some sort of altercation. Always. And while Amelia typically appeared aloof, Lucia made her blood boil like it was being cooked under a million suns.
One of the most notable moments, in her opinion, was when she’d accidentally left her spiked bracelet at her desk in the lecture hall. And Lucia, being the absolute ass that she was, took it.
Well, she did it to give it back to Amelia, in her defense.
But it still pissed Amelia off, because she was certain that Lucia was using it as an excuse to get her attention and tease her for leaving it behind – and when Lucia had acted all overly innocent about it, mockingly batting her eyelashes, Amelia knew she was right.
“So you were just waltzing around with it?” Amelia had snapped, snatching it from her hand. “Couldn’t have just left it on my desk or something?”
Lucia shrugged, and she had given what was likely the stupidest lopsided grin that’s ever been formed. She liked seeing Amelia get worked up over this, no doubt. When Amelia shot her narrowed eyes, she held her hands up in defense. “I just did you a favor. You would’ve been, like, demanding everyone to look for it otherwise.”
Then, Lucia paused, the smile on her face getting wider as she reminisced over that scenario. “Actually, that’s really funny to imagine.”
That hit a nerve. Amelia’s vision flickered upwards to that hat Lucia always wore, and a small idea rose to her mind. “Well,” she began, her lips quirking upwards, “Why don’t I hold onto something of yours as a favor, too?”
Then, in a swift motion, Amelia had grabbed the beanie right off of her head and stormed off before the other girl could even protest. She didn’t give that thing back until the next day, in which she plopped it on Lucia’s desk and ignored the teasing grin she received. Amelia had to admit, the beanie was soft and comfortable, and even had a twinge of lemony scent that she couldn’t help but like. Still an eyesore, though.
Another time was when they were paired up to work with each other for some Literature Theory assignment, and Lucia was absolutely insistent on focusing on the romance element of the text they needed to analyze. In all honesty, Amelia found it a bit interesting too; but she was not about to create an entire essay about the ‘intricacies of forbidden love’ and submit it to their professor. So, naturally, this dilemma led into multiple arguments, many of which did nothing to help Amelia’s burning dislike for the other girl. Mainly because Lucia kept treating this as though the professionalism of the essay didn’t really matter much, but their grades were on the line, so it was absolutely more important than whatever Lucia wanted to yap about.
One day, they bumped into each other on the way to the dining hall, and Lucia tapped on her shoulder to get her attention. At first, Amelia was going to simply ignore her and continue walking, until Lucia added a “it’s about the project.”
“If this is about changing the topic to the ‘forbidden romance,’ then no, we’re not doing it,” Amelia said curtly.
“C’mon! A fun topic’ll get you to lighten up more,” Lucia protested.
Amelia scrunched her nose. “I don’t need ‘lightening up.’”
The other girl let out an amused huff. “You literally act like an angry, hissing cat all the time. I think you kinda do need it.”
That comparison didn’t even deserve a response, in Amelia’s opinion, so she scoffed and walked past her.
She’d gone to the bathroom to wash her frustrated flush away, because she was always red when she was mad (something Lucia found ‘hilarious’ to comment on all the time), and she couldn’t bear walking into the dining hall like that. After splashing cold, bitter water onto her face, she combed her fingers through her hair.
“Asshole,” she muttered.
She was not like some ‘hissing cat'. She wasn’t even mad half the time. Again, most people found her to be mellowed out, maybe a bit cold. But certainly not angry. It was just Lucia that made her feel that way.
Well, maybe Amelia had some built up, general frustrations that she ended up projecting onto her – but that was besides the point.
By the time she finished cleaning up, she left the bathroom and searched over for her regular friend group. Stoically, she sat down onto the table they were at, calm and composed (externally, at least) as though nothing happened at all. Skara gave her a small wave, though the rest seemed to be preoccupied with whatever Boscha was saying.
Amelia silently listened to the petty gossip of her friend group, pulling out her phone to scroll through a bunch of random social media posts. Boscha was complaining about some loser who’d accidentally looked at her the wrong way in her apartment complex, and Amy and Kat were dramatically gasping as though it were some horrific action. Skara sent a smile in Amelia’s direction, one that said she found it just as silly as Amelia did.
She let out an inaudible sigh, shifting her attention to the table a few feet away from them. Lucia seemed to be messing around with her friends, laughing at some random joke between the three of them, playfully flicking peas in each other’s directions. Amelia rolled her eyes, diverting her focus to her food. There was no reason for her to put any energy into watching someone who annoyed her to her core, no matter how mad she was from a few minutes ago.
Almost on cue, Skara cleared her throat to catch Amelia’s attention, and gestured in Lucia’s direction.
“Y’know that girl you’re always fighting with over there? Lucia?” Skara asked, waving her fork in the air. “I heard she started dating this popular guy.”
Amelia’s spoon stilled.
‘Dating.’
What?
At first, she’d assumed Skara was joking, but the girl showed zero indication of such a thing. Amelia didn’t know what it was, or why she’d even care at all, but it had caught her attention — something she didn’t show on her face. “Who?”
“Nevareth,” Boscha cut in. “The really annoying one. He’s always acting all heroic and shit.”
Amelia pursed her lips, dipping her utensil back into the soup bowl. She pointedly ignored the suddenly heavy feeling in her stomach. “Sounds like they’re perfect for each other.”
She never noticed him before, really. But now that she was actually paying attention to whoever else was coming by Lucia’s desk, she actually got a look at this supposed boyfriend a few days later before the Literature Theory lecture.
He was the type of guy a lot of women deemed attractive — except Amelia, who found him quite ugly, really. He had a toned build, always had his jet-black hair slicked back, and wore an eyepatch on days he was participating in a Theatre play, no matter the character. Amelia could recognize that Lucia was way above his league looks-wise; but again, that was simply her opinion, as many people apparently saw him as the ‘epitome of handsomeness.’
Over the next few weeks, Amelia began to get irritated at hearing them be all lovey-dovey in class, though she felt incredibly fixated on observing them regardless. Nevareth was the dramatic type: every Tuesday, he’d show up with some large giftbag and shove it in Lucia’s face, who’d laugh and graciously take it with a flush. Wednesday, he’d greet her with some cringe pickup line and a chaste kiss. On Fridays, he’d offer to take her to dinner and pay all the expenses, loudly announcing with a poster as though he was asking her to prom. Amelia had half a mind to tell him to shut up, as nobody in the lecture hall cared about him and his girlfriend’s “grand” date, but she always decided against it.
Lucia had almost completely stopped bothering Amelia because of her devotion to this relationship, and it was like a sort of whiplash. Now, instead of bumping into the woman and arguing over it after class, Amelia just trailed after Boscha while scrolling on her phone.
She huffed, listening to the lighthearted laughter from the couple going the other way.
Well, at least she isn’t pestering me anymore.
It’s not like that fact bothered her.
Not in the slightest.