Chapter Text
PART I
MARCH
Harriet is feeling a little sick these days, she gets tired easily, loses concentration quickly, and her skin is extra sensitive. Maybe it’s the university life, but Harriet has been used to stress all her life. She has never had a rest day; she’s always on the go. Her pre-med studies, coupled with the upcoming MCAT, has been her goal for so long, she barely remembers when she actually started working towards it. So, she doesn’t know where this extra fatigue is coming from. But alas, one must get through the day regardless of their problems.
Maybe today is just an off day. Which is visible as she stands in front of Professor Turner, a pain in her ass. You give a guy a blowjob once, and they expect it from you every single day onwards. Bastards.
As he grabs her elbow harshly, she jumps back in irritation and anger. And at the same time, she hears someone yell out, “Hey!”. This makes the professor jump back, as if someone electrocuted him. Harriet turns towards the voice, and finds that it was Ben Cobalts.
“Bitch,” Professor Turner whisper-sneers to Harriet, and turns towards the exit. Breathing hard, Harriet watches him leave. Good riddance.
Shaking away her anger and frustration, she rights her bag on her shoulder, and glares at Ben. Wanting to curse at him, at all of the world, she barely stops herself and utters a brief “Thanks.”
“What was that?” Ben responds. Of course he wants to know more. Harriet internally rolls her eyes.
“Professor Turner. He teaches Molecular Biology of Life. Luna and I took him last semester.”
“No, I mean what was that? Why was he grabbing your arm like that?” Ben says, ever so nosy.
“He’s a fuckwad, that’s why.” Which is not a lie. He is a dick.
Noticing Donnelly, Luna’s boyfriend, behind Ben she greets him, “Hey. How’s Luna?”
“Sparkly, as always.” That seems about right. Luna was always glittery and shimmering. Literally. But also, she did have this energy around her. Harriet’s grateful that she’s doing fine though, after the kidnapping.
“Can we rewind?” Ben interrupts, running a hand through his hair. “Why is he a fuckwad? What’d he do?”
She scowls. “What are you Scooby Doo?”
Shrugging, he says, “I don’t know. Is this a mystery that needs to be solved, Harriet Fisher?”
Yes, a mystery. But not one that needs to be solved. Especially by Ben Cobalt, or the bodyguard standing next to him. “No mystery here, sorry to break your heart. Turner just got the wrong impression after we made an agreement. You do realize your brother Tom hates me..?”
“You’ve already told me that.” Has she? She must have forgotten. Though they have only conversed a total of two times. So… No idea. But, It’s a wound to her, the way his brother rejected her. Plus, what even happened to the famous Cobalt loyalty?
“Just jogging your memory. Pretty sure you’ll be disinvited to the next Cobalt soiree.”
“That’s actually impossible,” he responds. “I could piss off every sibling, and they’d still invite me and try to hold some elaborate family intervention.”
Cute. Lucky. “Ruthless love. But from where I’m standing, Cobalts don’t like strangers or interlopers or me.” Especially Harriet. Think Tom has a grudge with her. Which she does too. But she can be the bigger person when she has to.
“I can be friends with who I want.” Harriet’s brows shoot up. Friends? Since when were they friends?
“Since when are we friends?” Harriet asks. “I’ve run into you twice . I’ve said less than a hundred words to you. You realize that’s a low bar for friendship, right?” She knows Ben Cobalt is the social butterfly, the one who probably has hundreds of friends. But if all his friendships are like this supposed one, then.. Well, he needs to raise his standards.
“Is this your way of telling me to raise my standards?” Bingo.
“Yes.” Duh.
He tips his head in thought. “Alright then, let’s start over. You’re officially my only friend.”
Harriet glares at him. What is he on? “That’s not what I meant.” Realizing this conversation has taken a very wrong turn, far away from its original purpose, she sighs and caves in. “Look, it’s not a big deal, dude. I gave Turner a blow job in exchange for a favor, and now he wants more than one blowie, so I'm fending off an ugly hammerhead shark.”
Ben goes silent, Harriet is pretty sure she can hear a fly buzz around here.
Not being able to stand the silence, she raises her brows. “Say something, Friend.”
“What favor is worth blowing a hammerhead shark?” He glares at the exit door, like he wishes Professor Turner could come back and he can probably, evident from his hand twitching, punch him.
Now that… Harriet glances at Donnelly. All Professor Turner had to do was give Luna the resources to cover her work, while she went through the trauma of the kidnapping. All he had to do was give her some time to complete her missing work. Yet, he was a dick, as mentioned before. So, Harriet resorted to other ways. She really wanted to help Luna. She couldn’t imagine the pain she must have been going through. But telling that..
Ben, connecting the dots, asks her. “This is about Luna?”
Speaking quickly, she pleads with Donnelly to not tell Luna a word about this. “She didn’t ask me to make the deal. I did this on my own accord because I felt bad she had to miss labs. And after everything that happened with the kidnapping… I thought Turner was being a cruel piece of shit by not allowing her to finish the course off-campus. “
“You did that for Luna?” Donnelly says.
Wincing and tensing up, she mumbles, “I don’t know.” She shouldn’t have said anything. “Again, not a big deal. Meant nothing. And I've given blow jobs for less. It’s not like I got naked for that guy.”
“Small blessings,” Donnelly says lightly, making Harriet relax.
But Ben’s jaw tenses up. “He should be reported,” he says.
“Do whatever you want. Just leave my name out of it. I have too much to lose. Maybe you don’t understand that…” She doesn’t want to get on the wrong side of someone. She needs to get through university, get good grades and study for the MCAT. She can’t fail a course. She needs to be perfect.
Ben nods. “I won’t mention your name. But if he’s still a problem-”
“He won’t be when the semester ends,” Harriet interrupts. “I’m out of this place in May. I’ve been accepted into the honors program at Manhattan Valley University. It’s the hardest program to get into on the East Coast because they offer full rides. Too good to pass up.”
“Over Ivy?”
“Yeah, MVU has a great pre-med program, among other things. I’m honestly shocked you chose Penn over it.” Harriet thought he’d go to New York, like all his brothers did. But, he’s the outlier.
“Why?”
“Philly. You’re the only Cobalt boy here.”
“I’d never go to college in New York,” Ben says, tensing up. Harriet wonders what’s the story here. Does he and his brothers not get along? She thought Cobalts were all about blood being thicker than water and family comes first ? She would have asked him, but sensing that the conversation has dragged on too long, she turns to leave.
“Gotcha, Well… have fun here, Friend.” Harriet slaps Ben’s shoulder, and leaves the lab quickly. She feels idiotic. But they are friends. Slapping a friend's shoulders is totally normal. Right. Plus, Harriet doesn’t really have the time to be embarrassed. She’s totally nonchalant. She has other things to focus on. Other more important things. Like why is her skin itching?
She’s stopped though, when Ben calls after her. Spinning on her heels, she watches him jog and stop right in front of her. This makes her look all the way up, stretching her neck. What the fuck. She hates him.
“Take my number. In case you need security. It’s a package deal with me. So if you’re uncomfortable on campus, I can come to you with my bodyguard, at least until May.”
“How would that work? They’re hired to protect you , not me.”
Donnelly chimes in and says that it can actually work. And Harriet just can’t pass along this opportunity. Too many douchebags trouble her everyday. She’d like to spend the last 2 months in UPenn in peace.
“You know what.. Fuck it, I’m not prideful enough to turn away backup.”
Ben smiles down at Harriet. His smile is a little crooked, a little boyish. It makes her lips turn upward too, which she quickly smooths. What the fuck.
Exchanging numbers, Ben says goodbye to her. “See you around, Fisher.”
“See you, Birthday Boy.”
Ben blinks, taken aback. Shit, he must think she stalked her. Quickly trying to clear out the misunderstanding, she says, “I didn’t stalk you exactly. I was doing my homework on Tom a while back for the drummer audition.” Squeezing her fingers together, she continues, “Your page was pretty small. Where are all the accolades?”
He smiles, and she wants to too. “Siblings took them all.”
Harriet mimes tears with her fists, lips rising into a smile again . Frowning and waving at him, she departs briskly. She doesn’t know the meaning of this, but she doesn’t want to explore more. Reminding herself that she’s out of here in May, she walks farther away from him.
The day isn’t so bad after all. Only, her fatigue is back and she wants nothing more than to lie on her bed and sleep. Which surprises Harriet, since she has always had trouble sleeping. Confused, she puts this information in the back of her mind and makes her way towards her next class.