What If? - A NYU College Series
Author's Note - I haven't posted in forever, but I came up with this series idea. There are no characters from any shows. Just original characters (introducing Malia Vale and Julian Brooks) So if you see this, feel free to give it a try! Thanks for reading!
The man at the far end of the subway car was singing. Not wellânot even closeâbut with the kind of reckless abandon that suggested he either didnât care who heard him or genuinely believed he sounded good. His voice cracked on a high note, something vaguely resembling a sea shanty, and Malia Vale resisted the urge to clap sarcastically. Instead, she tucked her earbuds in tighter and slouched lower in her seat, the strap of her bag digging into her shoulder.
Sheâd chosen the seat deliberately, sandwiched between a woman buried in a romance novel and a guy who smelled like fry bread and motor oil. Safe. Unremarkable. Exactly how she wanted to be on her first day at NYUâinvisible until she decided otherwise. The acceptance letter had been a full ride, sure, but Malia knew the game. Business majors here werenât just students; they were competitors, sharks whoâd sniff out weakness before her ass even hit the lecture hall seat.
The subway lurched to a stop, and Malia stood before the doors fully opened, slipping out behind a tourist family weighed down by oversized backpacks. Outside, the city hit her like a wallâhonking cabs, the sharp tang of pretzel carts, and the low hum of a thousand conversations she wasnât part of. Perfect. She adjusted her sunglasses and strode forward, her boots clicking against the pavement in a rhythm that said donât fuck with me without her having to say a word.
The business building loomed ahead, all sleek glass and self-importance. Malia paused at the steps, rolling her shoulders back. Sheâd dressed carefullyâblack slacks, a fitted blazer, and a shirt just sheer enough to be interesting without crossing into try-hard. The trick was to look like you belonged without looking like you cared. Sheâd mastered that by seventeen.
The lecture hall smelled like stale coffee and ambition, the kind of place where futures were either made or broken before lunch. Malia scanned the rows, noting the clusters of polo-shirted guys already laughing too loud, their voices bouncing off the vaulted ceiling like a bad stock tip. She smirked, veering left toward an empty seat near the backâuntil someoneâs elbow knocked into her shoulder, sending her stumbling sideways.
âEasy there, killer.â The voice was dry, unhurried. Malia turned to see a guyâtall, broad-shouldered, stupid sunglasses perched on his headâholding out a half-eaten bagel like a peace offering. His other hand cradled a Starbucks cup, the lid slightly askew. âYou look like youâre about to murder someone. Might want to dial it back before the FBI shows up.â
Malia blinked. Most guys either ignored her or tried way too hard to impress her. This one just⊠didnât seem to care. âIâm practicing my resting bitch face,â she said flatly. âItâs a survival tactic.â
âJulian.â He took a bite of his bagel, chewing thoughtfully before nodding toward the seat beside him. âAnd FYI, itâs working. The finance bros over there are already terrified.â
Malia hesitated, glancing at the empty seat Julian had nodded toward. It was prime real estateâfar enough from the professorâs podium to avoid direct eye contact, but close enough to the aisle for a quick escape if needed. The fact that heâd offered it so casually, like he wasnât even registering the unspoken territorial warfare of lecture hall seating, threw her off. Most guys wouldâve either manspreaded into both spots or tried to âaccidentallyâ brush her knee. Julian just took another bite of his bagel.
âFine,â she muttered, sliding into the seat and dropping her bag between them like a barrier. âBut if you start mansplaining Keynesian economics, Iâm throwing your coffee at the wall.â
Julian snorted, nearly choking on his bagel. âKeynes was a hack,â he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. âAlso, thatâs a venti caramel macchiato. Youâd be doing me a favor.â
From the front row, one of the polo-shirted finance bros twisted around, grinning like heâd just overheard the funniest inside joke. âBrooks, you sitting with her now?â he stage-whispered, nudging his friend. âDid you lose a bet or something?â
Julian didnât even glance up. He flipped the guy off with his free hand, the one not holding his coffee, and took a slow, deliberate sip. âDamn, Henderson,â he said, voice dripping with faux sympathy. âDid your dad finally cut you off? Is that why youâre so obsessed with my seating choices?â
Malia arched a brow, half expecting him to backpedalâapologize to his bros, make some weak joke at her expense. But Julian just leaned back in his seat, stretching his legs out under the desk like he owned the place. The finance bros muttered something she couldnât catch, but they turned back around fast enough.
âYouâre gonna get demoted from their dick-measuring club,â Malia said, unzipping her bag just to have something to do with her hands.
âOh no,â Julian deadpanned. âAnyway.â He tilted his head toward the front of the room, where the professorâa wiry woman with a shock of gray hair and a glare that could curdle milkâwas tapping her pen against the podium. âYou might want to take notes. Dr. Lewiston fails people for breathing wrong.â
Maliaâs pen hovered over her notebook, but she wasnât writing. Instead, she was watching Julian out of the corner of her eye as he scribbled something down with the kind of focus usually reserved for defusing bombs. His handwriting was surprisingly neatâannoyingly soâand he didnât even glance up when Dr. Lewiston launched into a tirade about âthe moral bankruptcy of late-stage capitalism.â
âYouâre staring,â Julian murmured, still writing. âIf youâre waiting for me to morph into a misogynistic cryptobro, youâll be disappointed. Iâm just here for the free coffee in the alumni lounge.â
Malia scoffed, but the corner of her mouth twitched. âI was not staring. I wasââ
ââEvaluating whether Iâm secretly a villain in a rom-com?â Julian capped his pen with a quiet click. âSpoiler: Iâm not. I just donât like people who treat undergrad like a fraternity pledge.â
Malia had planned to ignore Julian for the entire lectureâplanned to scribble notes with the precision of a courtroom stenographer and leave the second the professor dismissed them. But halfway through Dr. Lewistonâs rant about corporate greed, Julian slid his notebook toward her. In the margin, next to a surprisingly detailed doodle of the professor as a pirate, heâd written: Bet you $5 she starts quoting Marx before the hourâs up.
Malia pressed her lips together. Sheâd seen this move beforeâthe performative ally, the guy who thought feminism was a party trick he could trot out to impress women. But Julian wasnât even looking at her; he was lazily spinning his pen between his fingers, his attention flicking between the lecture and the window, like heâd already forgotten the bet existed.
She snatched his pen and scrawled beneath his words: Make it $10 and youâre on.
Julianâs eyebrows shot up when he saw her response, but before he could reply, Dr. Lewiston slammed her textbook shut with a crack that made half the class jump. âAnd that,â she announced, âis why Marx argued that capitalism is inherently unsustainable. Any questions?â
Julian didnât even hesitate. He slid a crumpled ten-dollar bill across the desk toward Malia, his expression so smug it shouldâve been illegal. âTold you,â he mouthed, and Malia had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She pocketed the money with a flourish, then flipped to a fresh page in her notebook just to hide the fact that her fingers were twitching with something dangerously close to amusement.
The lecture droned on, but Malia found herself stealing glances at Julianâs notes instead of her own. His margins were littered with absurd doodlesâDr. Lewiston as a pirate, yes, but also the finance bros as seagulls fighting over a single french fry, and a surprisingly accurate sketch of the Starbucks logo with fangs. It was ridiculous. It was also, annoyingly, kind of good.
When the class finally ended, Malia shoved her things into her bag with deliberate speed, half-expecting Julian to linger like guys usually didâsome half-baked excuse about âstudying togetherâ or a transparent offer to âwalk her to her next class.â But Julian just stood, stretched, and dumped his empty coffee cup into the trash with a lazy flick of his wrist. âLater, Vale,â he said over his shoulder, already halfway up the aisle.
Malia blinked. That was it? No awkward small talk, no performative concern about her âgetting home safeâ? Justâlater? She opened her mouth, then closed it. This wasnât how this was supposed to go. She was the one who walked away first. Always.
The words later, Vale bounced around her skull like a stray bullet as Malia watched Julian disappear into the sea of students flooding the lecture hall exits. Her fingers tightened around the strap of her bagâshe shouldâve been relieved. This was exactly what sheâd wanted: no fuss, no fake niceties, no thinly veiled attempts at flirting. So why did her stomach twist like sheâd missed a step on the subway stairs?
Outside, the afternoon sun glared off the pavement, turning puddles from yesterdayâs rain into blinding mirrors. Malia veered left toward the library, her boots scuffing against concrete. She had three hours before her next class, and sheâd planned to spend them buried in a carrel, memorizing supply chain logistics like they were sacred texts.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!! :))