Page 110 of Ink & Ambition

“You fuckers can do whatever you want. I’m going to Margot’s for dinner.”

“You coming back for the party tonight? Last one of the semester” Keith asks as we pull up to the house. I idle outside, not even putting the car in park, anxious to see her now that I’m so much closer.

I shake my head. “Probably not. Gonna be a bit busy.”

Kai laughs. “We’ll be sure to display your balls on a very special place on the mantle. After Margot releases them, of course.”

Before I can smack him in the back of the head, Kai and Keith leave the car, laughter following in their wake.

I couldn’t care less what these assholes thought of me and my relationship with Margot. I’m finally happy and there’s nothing that can bring me down.

As soon as she opens the apartment door, Margot is hoisted up into my arms. She giggles as I kiss the crap out of her, latching herself around my hips and neck.

“Hi, there,” she breaths against me, a grin forming on her face.

“Hey, sunshine. Got dinner plans?”

“Nope, I’ve been working on my ASL final.” I put her down and she falters back a step, like a baby fawn walking on freshly grown legs. When she backs up, I finally get a good look at her.

“What’s all over your face?”

Margot narrows her eyes then looks down to examine her hands, noticing red and blue painted across her fingertips, matching the scattered smudges on her cheeks. “Oh. Ink,” she laughs, licking an un-inked finger and wiping the stains from her face. She doesn’t get it all but I don’t tell her, she looks adorable.

“Are you ready for a break? We can order something. Whatever you want.”

Margot’s face shifts for the briefest moment and I catch a glimpse of hesitation before she schools her features back into delight.

“Yeah, I can break for a little. Let me just check my portal one more time. My investigative journalism final paper grade should be up by now,” Margot says as we walk into her bedroom. “It was the earliest one I submitted this week.” Margot sits at her laptop, pulling up her online student portal to check her grades for the umpteenth time, I’m sure. I settle onto her bed, making myself comfortable.

She types for a few minutes and I’m about to pull up my food delivery app when a small gasp escapes her lips.

“I got a C,” she barely whispers.

I shift up on my elbows. “Ah, shit, sunshine. Maybe you can ask for extra credit?”

“You don’t understand.” Margot hasn’t turned around to look at me. Her eyes are glued to the screen. “I don’t get C’s. I get A’s. I get A’s because A’s help me keep my scholarship. I don’t get A’s, I don’t keep my scholarship. I don’t graduate on time.” Margot stands and starts pacing the room.

“Woah, slow down. It’s one C.”

“It’s more than one C, Alex. It’s one C and a missed article for the newspaper. Next it’ll be a missed class. Then I’ll lose the internship contest. Then—”

“Sunshine, slow down,” I jump up and grip her shoulders but she immediately pushes me off, still not looking me in the eye. Not looking at anything, really. Her blue eyes glazed over.

“I can’t afford to mess this up, Alex.”

“I understand that. But this isn’t the end of the world.”

Margot turns her head and finally looks at me. “Maybe not to you. You don’t even care about your grades. Or college at all, really. I don’t have the luxury of coasting through life like you do.”

The dig hits me square in the chest.

I’ve never been shy about my family having money but I’ve certainly never flaunted it, especially not with Margot. She knows more than anyone that I’ve got no choice in my future. She can go out into the world and do whatever she wants while I’m being pushed through a Prescott Cars shaped door.

I know she doesn’t mean what she’s saying. She’s taking her frustrations out on me.

“Everything was going fine. I was on track. I was reaching my goals. And then, you—”

“Margot, what?”

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