Chapter 1The Boyfriend Auction

My roommate, Cassie, was the ultimate player.

She was currently dating five different guys online. Since they all happened to ask her out on a first date for the exact same evening, she was terrified of being exposed. To solve her dilemma, she decided to hold a boyfriend auction right in our dorm room.

The other four girls in our room happily bought up one guy each.

But when it was my turn, Cassie’s face twisted into a mocking sneer.

"Bridget, you’re hideous and dirt-poor. Shoving a man toward you would be a crime against humanity."

"The only way you’ll ever get a taste of a man is if you hang around the dark corners of the campus track field at midnight."

By telling me to go to the track field at night, she was mocking me, implying that only under the pitch-black cover of darkness would a man be blind enough to look at me.

Unfortunately, I didn't catch her underlying meaning. Instead, I stood up and asked in a small, tentative voice:

"Can I buy the last one?"

...

Cassie was a master of scheduling.

She juggled five online relationships simultaneously, her face glued to her screen all day, sweet-talking them one by one through voice calls late into the night.

One minute she’d be sweet-talking Boyfriend A into carrying her to a higher rank in an online game, and the next she’d be sending a breathless, baby-voiced voice note to Boyfriend B, whining that she was craving boba.

My bunkmate, Becca, watched this daily show with a mix of awe and deep envy. "Cassie really has all the luck," she sighed. "Managing five guys at once? She's single-handedly meeting the relationship quota for our entire floor."

"What if all five of them ask to meet up on the exact same day?" I couldn't help but ask.

Cassie poked her head out from behind her bed curtains, giving me a dismissive smirk. "I'm not an idiot, Bridget. I'd never let that happen. If you have so much free time to worry about me, why don't you go jog on the track tonight? Who knows, maybe some blind fool will bump into you in the dark."

"Why the track at night?" Becca asked, genuinely confused.

Only a cruel snicker from Cassie answered her. The others caught on instantly, their lips curling into nasty, quiet smirks.

A familiar, sharp ache bloomed in my chest.

I was born with dull, dark skin and heavy monolids. Growing up in grinding poverty meant years of hard labor in the fields, leaving my stature stunted. When she told me to run at night, she was mocking me, saying that only under the cover of pitch-black darkness would a man be blind enough to look at me.

I silently climbed back onto my bunk and drew my curtains shut, sealing out their malice. The curtain was a tattered, hand-me-down piece left behind by a graduating senior. I had smuggled it back to our room while the dorm mother wasn't looking.

But none of us could have guessed that my idle question would turn into a prophecy.

A few days later, Cassie was pacing the room in a frenzy, her fingers flying across her phone screen. In a fit of rage, she slammed her phone onto the desk.

The sound made my stomach sink. That phone cost nearly a thousand dollars, equivalent to months of my living expenses.

Sensing my gaze, her face twisted in fury. She stormed over to my bunk, hauled me down, and slapped me across the face twice, hard.

My ears rang, and my head spun from the sheer force of it.

The commotion drew the others, but they didn't care about the red welts swelling on my cheeks. They only cared about why Cassie was so angry.

"It's all this peasant's fault!" Cassie snarled, pointing a shaking finger at me. "Her jinx of a mouth actually worked! Every single one of my guys demanded to meet in person tomorrow night. They won't take no for an answer. They said if I don't show up, we're over!"

She was too blinded by rage to notice the brief, satisfying glints of schadenfreude passing over the others' faces.

"Oh, what a nightmare," Valerie murmured. She was the prettiest girl in our dorm, crowned the department's beauty queen, but she was also incredibly green with envy. She hated how many handsome guys Cassie juggled. Watching Cassie face a total romantic collapse was probably the highlight of her month. "I guess you'll just have to make a choice and dump the rest."

But Cassie didn't look defeated. Instead, she fell quiet, her lips curling into a secretive, chilling smile.

"Do you guys want boyfriends? I'm offering a sister discount."

And just like that, a boyfriend auction began in our cramped room. I, the girl who had just been slapped for absolutely nothing, was instantly forgotten.