Liam pushed through the doors of the Economics building, already fifteen minutes late.
The hallway was quiet, just the muffled sound of lectures behind closed doors.
He found room 207 and slipped inside as quietly as possible.
Professor Hayes was at the whiteboard, drawing supply and demand curves while talking about market equilibrium.
The lecture hall was packed, students scattered across the tiered seats.
Liam's eyes swept the room, looking for a spot.
Then he saw her.
Tasha sat in the third row, arms crossed tight over her chest.
Black leather jacket, white tank top underneath showing just enough cleavage to make his eyes linger.
Her short brown skirt had ridden up her thighs, smooth tan skin on full display.
Dark hair fell past her shoulders in waves.
She was staring straight ahead at the board.
'Holy shit. I didn't know she took this class too.'
A small smile tugged at his lips.
'Perfect. I can apologize for ghosting her text and explain everything.'
Two empty seats sat near her, one right next to her, another three spots away.
Liam moved down the aisle and dropped into the seat right beside her.
Tasha didn't look at him. Didn't even flinch.
'She definitely knows I'm here.'
He pulled out his notebook, trying to look casual.
Professor Hayes kept lecturing about elasticity and consumer behavior, his voice droning on in that way economics professors did.
Liam leaned slightly toward Tasha, keeping his voice low.
"Hey."
Nothing. She didn't move.
He tried again. "Tasha."
Still nothing. She sat there like a statue, eyes forward and completely ignoring him.
'Alright. She's really pissed.'
Liam leaned back in his seat, pretending to focus on the lecture. Hayes was drawing graphs on the board, explaining price ceilings and market shortages.
Twenty minutes crawled by.
Then thirty.
Tasha hadn't moved. Hadn't looked at him once. Her notebook sat open on her desk with no notes written down.
Liam kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. The way her chest rose and fell with each breath. The curve of her thigh where the skirt had ridden up. The tight set of her jaw.
'She's dead set on pretending I don't exist.'
Professor Hayes started wrapping up his lecture, moving into his final points about government intervention in markets.
Liam glanced at the clock. Five minutes left.
'If I don't say something now, I have a feeling she's gonna bolt the second class ends.'
He leaned toward her again, voice low but more urgent this time.
"Tasha, look, I know you're mad, but I can explain..."
"Mr. Carter."
Liam froze.
Professor Hayes stood at the front of the class, marker in hand, staring directly at him. The entire room went quiet.
'Shit.'
"Yes, Professor?"
"Since you seem more interested in conversation than my lecture, perhaps you'd like to answer the first question on today's material." Hayes set the marker down, arms crossing. "Come to the front."
'You've got to be fucking kidding me.'
Liam stood, feeling fifty pairs of eyes on him as he walked down to the front. A few students smirked, some laughed quietly.
Hayes stepped aside, gesturing to the whiteboard where he'd drawn a supply and demand graph with a price ceiling marked below equilibrium.
"Explain what happens when a government imposes a price ceiling below the market equilibrium, Mr. Carter. And be specific."
Liam stared at the graph. His mind actually engaged, pulling the answer from somewhere in the back of his head.
"There's a shortage," he said. "The price ceiling keeps prices artificially low, so quantity demanded increases while quantity supplied decreases. Consumers want more of the product, but producers aren't willing to supply as much at that lower price. The gap between quantity demanded and quantity supplied creates the shortage."
Hayes raised an eyebrow. "And the long-term consequences?"
"Black markets form because people are willing to pay more than the ceiling price. There's rationing, waiting lists. Quality drops because producers cut costs to stay profitable at the capped price. Eventually you get deadweight loss and market inefficiency."
The room stayed quiet. Hayes studied him for a long moment, clearly surprised.
"Impressive, Mr. Carter. It seems you were paying attention after all."
Liam started to move back to his seat.
"However," Hayes added, stopping him, "while I can't punish you for knowing the material, I can address the disruption."
'What now?.'
Hayes scanned the room, then pointed to an empty seat in the front corner, right beside the whiteboard and tucked against the wall. "That seat. Move your things. Consider it a reminder to focus on the lecture instead of your social life."
Liam's jaw tightened. "Professor, that's not..."
"It's not a discussion, Mr. Carter. Move. Now."
Tasha's shoulders visibly relaxed. A small smile played at the corner of her lips.
'Of course she's happy about this.'
Liam walked back up the aisle, grabbed his bag and notebook, and moved to the front corner seat. It was the worst spot in the room, tucked against the wall, right under Hayes's nose, with the entire class behind him now.
He dropped into it, irritation burning in his chest.
Hayes finished his lecture, talking about market failures and externalities. Liam barely heard any of it. From this angle, he couldn't even see Tasha anymore. Just Hayes pacing in front of the board.
The minutes dragged. Liam kept glancing at the clock on the wall. Each tick felt slower than the last.
Finally, Hayes capped his marker and turned to face the class.
"That's all for today," Hayes announced. "Read chapters nine and ten for next class. We'll be discussing monopolies and oligopolies."
The room erupted immediately, chairs scraping, bags zipping, students talking and laughing.
Liam grabbed his stuff and stood, but he was trapped.
The front corner seat meant he had to wait for everyone else to file out first. Students packed the aisle, moving slowly, some stopping to ask Hayes questions, others just chatting with friends and blocking the path.
He could see the door from where he stood. Bodies streamed through it in a steady flow.
'Come on, move.'
A girl stopped right in front of him, digging through her bag for something. Her friend waited beside her, completely oblivious to the fact that they were blocking the entire corner.
"Excuse me," Liam said.
The girl didn't hear him, still searching through her bag.
"Excuse me."
She finally looked up, gave him an annoyed look, then moved, slowly.
Liam squeezed past her and into the aisle, but it was packed. A group of guys stood in the middle, laughing about something, their backpacks creating a wall of fabric and straps.
He pushed through, shouldering past one of them.
"Hey, man, relax," one of them said.
Liam didn't respond. He was scanning the room now, searching for Tasha.
Gone. Her seat was empty.
'Shit.'
He shoved his way to the door, finally breaking free of the crowd, and burst into the hallway.
Students everywhere. Moving in waves toward the exits, their voices echoing off the walls.
Liam's eyes darted left, then right.
There, a flash of black leather jacket near the far end of the hall, just before the corner.
"Tasha!"
She didn't turn. Just kept walking, her pace quick and purposeful.
'She definitely heard me.'
Liam pushed forward, weaving between groups of students. Someone's shoulder bumped his. He didn't care. He kept his eyes locked on that black jacket.
She turned the corner and disappeared.
"Tasha!"
He picked up his pace, nearly jogging now, and rounded the corner just in time to see her push through the double doors at the end of the hall.
Liam broke into a run.
He hit the doors hard, bursting out into the late afternoon sun. The brightness made him squint, his eyes adjusting.
The parking lot stretched out in front of him. Cars scattered across the asphalt, students walking to their vehicles.
And there she was, halfway across the lot already, her dark hair swaying as she moved toward her black Honda Civic.
"Tasha! Just let me explain!"
She didn't slow down. Didn't even glance back.
Liam started after her, his longer strides closing the distance. She was walking fast, but he was faster.
She reached her car and pulled her keys from her jacket pocket. The locks clicked, the lights flashing.
"Tasha, come on!"
She opened the door and tossed her bag into the passenger seat.
Liam was getting closer now. Close enough to see the set of her jaw, the way her hands moved with sharp, angry precision.
She slid into the driver's seat and slammed the door.
The engine roared to life.
Liam was almost there. Just a few more steps.
The Civic lurched backward, tires screeching slightly as she reversed out of the spot fast.
He reached the space just as she shifted into drive, his hand coming up instinctively like he could stop her.
She punched the gas. The car shot forward, tires kicking up a little dust.
Liam stood there in the empty parking spot, watching her taillights as she sped toward the exit.
The sound of her engine faded. Then it was gone.
He just stood there for a moment, hands on his hips, chest rising and falling as he caught his breath.
'Fuck.'
The parking lot felt too quiet now. A few other cars started up in the distance. Someone laughed somewhere behind him.
Liam ran a hand through his hair, staring at the spot where her car had been.
'She really doesn't want to talk to me.'
He pulled out his phone and looked at her contact. His thumb hovered over her name.
'What am I even supposed to say? "Sorry I ghosted you, my mom almost died and then I beat the shit out of some guy"?'
He shoved the phone back in his pocket without texting.
'I'll fix this tonight. At the study group.'
The walk back to his apartment felt twice as long as it should have.