Obsessed with the Heartbreaker: An MM College Romance, page 1
Rina Damen
Obsessed with the Heartbreaker
Copyright © 2023 by Rina Damen
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Rina Damen asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
First edition
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Epilogue
Craving more?
About Rina Damen
Chapter 1
Antony
Calling me the most boring guy in this college wouldn’t be straying too far from the truth. I, Antony Andino, was the definition of straight-laced hard-working good student, even if my best friends were too nice to tell me to my face. Three rules were my constant companions in college: get straight-As, don’t even think about dating, and don’t mess around.
They were simple, practical, and went straight to the point. They were the guiding compass that kept my life on track and my goals at the forefront of my mind.
So yeah, you could say I was boring.
But I was fine with it. I liked my life that way. It was predictable and as orderly as life in a chaotic universe could be.
And then, there was Henry Campbell. Well-known as the Heartbreaker, the unofficial college King, and the most charming asshole to ever live.
Unlike me, there were few people that didn’t know about him. He was popular to a fault, with his shoulder-length light-chestnut hair that shone in the sun, dark eyes that captivated his prey without fail, and he walked around campus like he owned it. Like the world was his oyster.
And maybe that wasn’t far from the truth.
Because people called him ‘Heartbreaker’ for a reason. People wanted to be him or do him, but very few got to have him, and no one got to own him. Henry Campbell was as unknowable as the wind, and people liked him even more that way. Getting emotionally stomped on by him was an honor. Being the center of his attention even for an hour was like a ten-year blessing.
So what did he have to do with me?
Well. Once upon a time, I used to call him a friend. We were neighbors. But not the ones who did the tense nod across the street when they saw each other. We were the sort to hang out for hours, laying down side by side in the grass, speaking quietly to one another, sharing secrets.
We were friends.
And then we weren’t.
Seeing how different we were, you could say it was just how things were supposed to be, but it didn’t take away the fact that Henry had been a sore spot for me for three years. I was still working on getting over the sudden loss of our friendship, but I was almost there. I was almost free.
Then he had to ruin it.
Because three weeks ago, while I was in the library of all places, I found out he was obsessed with me.
And once I knew, I couldn’t un-know it.
The stinging truth of it couldn’t be unseen. It was burnt into my chest, into my brain, in the very core of my being. It left me reeling, thinking about it as I stared at my dorm ceiling at night. It made my heart threaten to beat out of my chest every time I caught sight of him across campus.
It happened in a day just like any other. At this point, the library was my unofficial second home, as a surprise to no one, and I had a spot that I considered to be mine. I had a certain way to set my workspace around me and a routine that was both predictable and practical. Nothing about me was screaming for attention, and people’s gazes usually glossed over me, uninterested, as they looked for a suitable spot to study.
I had basically become an extra piece of furniture in this place, and yet I hadn’t been able to miss the insistent press of someone’s eyes on me.
It was a bit unnerving, at first. People had always told me I was quite perceptive, annoyingly so at times, so of course, I felt the prickling in my neck every time this person watched me. I felt their eyes on me as I wrote my notes, as I secretly snacked (such a rebel), and as I stared out the window right beside me, resting my eyes but not my ever-working brain.
It was nothing to worry about. They would get bored of me eventually. Once they realized they were watching the same old movie again and again, they would move on and it would be forgotten like it had never happened.
But one day, I caught the scent.
Fruity shampoo. Delicious, expensive, and so fucking nostalgic, it made my heart squeeze inside my chest.
It was the scent of Henry’s hair.
I’d thought I was dreaming it. That I’d really started going mad and somehow made up his scent in the last place he would be. Because, God, was I really so desperate that I would imagine the Heartbreaker watching me like a creep in between bookshelves?
And yet my madness was disproven once I caught him quietly talking to someone right outside the library. Talking about me. Henry had pulled away one of the guys in my study group and asked something that I couldn’t quite catch, but I’d definitely caught my name.
It was completely nonsensical. Why would he be asking about me? Why now, after several years of pretending I didn’t exist, of avoiding every joint dinner from his family and mine?
Why me?
Even more astonishing than the fact that he’d been interrogating someone about me, was the fact that, before they parted, he’d bribed the guy. He freaking bribed him in exchange for the promise that he wouldn’t say a peep to anyone about it.
It was insane. It sounded insane.
And yet I’d seen it.
To say I was dumbfounded was an understatement. Shock and confusion created a cocktail inside me that couldn’t hide the stupid hope blooming in my chest. The quiet thought that maybe, just maybe, not all was lost and he still thought of me. That he still cared.
It only grew as it kept happening. The prickling feeling, the side of my face warming under his dark brown gaze. I’d come to even look forward to catching even the smallest whiff of his scent, of fruity shampoo, and I became almost as obsessed with him as he was with me.
Several times I’d been tempted to catch him in the act, but I hadn’t. I was not only boring, I was also a coward, and more than that, I knew it shouldn’t change anything. He was him, and I was me. We belonged in opposite sides of the room.
Then the day of the boxing match came, and the game changed.
It was a charity competition. Several guys from our college’s boxing club would be participating. There would be no real winners or losers today, but the excitement in the crowd was palpable. We were here to see amateurs go at each other, and I wasn’t really a fan of the sport, but my best friend’s soon-to-be-boyfriend was participating, so none of us could miss it.
Scott, with his blond hair and perfect looks, was known as the college Prince. My best friend had always been the perfect ‘good boy’ sort, not to mention extremely popular and well-liked, so the fact that he was now seeing the guy known as the bad boy, was nothing short of shocking.
Theirs was a long story, one for another time, but what mattered was that me and Eliot, the third in our friendship triad, were here to support Scott as he watched his special someone fight and most likely win.
While Scott squirmed beside me, eager to see his pseudo-boyfriend, Eliot was letting out a long string of sassy commentary about how hot it was to see guys hit on each other.
He was telling all of this to none other than his boyfriend, which made me suddenly realize I was the group’s official third-wheel—or double third-wheel.
Whatever.
But I didn’t mind. Really. Why would I care? I had best friends I loved and who loved me. They weren’t going to dump me anytime soon just because they were in relationships. And, as I said, I didn’t do dating. Not while I was in college, and probably not for a long while after. My career would take precedence and I was fine with it.
It was fine.
Even if, sometimes, Henry’s face appeared in my mind when I thought about things like thi s. Even if it made me wonder what it would be like to have him here with me. Even if it made my stomach knot and my throat close with grief.
It was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. I’d get over it eventually, and—
My inner pep talk was interrupted by my ringing phone.
And I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
‘Henry’ flashed on the screen, bright and insistent like the weight of his eyes on me.
He was calling me.
Henry was calling me.
I dazedly stared at my phone, not knowing if this was real or if I was imagining it.
Because the thing was, I wasn’t supposed to know he was calling me. I shouldn’t have his phone number. As neighbors, we’d never needed it, and after we stopped being friends, we’d needed it even less.
So what was it that brought me to ask Scott’s boxer boyfriend for Henry’s number just a few weeks ago?
Momentary madness, that was for sure.
None of that mattered, though, because the fact was that my phone was ringing, and it had probably been too long already, and what if he hung up—
I picked up the call.
“Did no one ever tell you not to pick up the phone from strange numbers?”
The honeyed rasp of his voice had an immediate effect on me, making my skin tingle with awareness. The world suddenly became small and it was only me and my phone that existed.
Me, and the Heartbreaker on the other side of the line.
My heartbeat was loud in my ears as I asked, “Who is this?”
Really, Antony?
I was lame. The lamest of the lame.
I wanted to find a ditch and hide inside it.
Henry was silent on the other end of the line for a long beat, but before my heart burst out of my chest from the panic, the Heartbreaker spoke again.
“If you want to save your best friend’s boyfriend, you’ll meet me outside in two minutes. Don’t be late.”
The line went dead.
What?
I stared at my phone in confusion, hoping it would give me answers—but obviously, it didn’t have any.
My best friend’s boyfriend…?
“Ant, is something wrong?”
I slowly came back to the present moment to the sight of Eliot staring worriedly at me, dark brows furrowed. “What’s that look for? Did something happen?”
Thank God he didn’t see the name on it.
I didn’t have time to think. No time to waste.
“No, I— It’s all good. I think I’ll go out for a bit.”
Telling him about Henry was out of the question. He knew that we’d been friends, but I’d never told him, or anyone, why things ended. He and Scott were already getting suspicious about it, given the tension between us every time we somehow crossed paths, and it was a matter of time before they asked, which I couldn’t handle right now.
Eliot squinted at me, blue eyes prying for information I wasn’t willing to reveal just yet, but he let me be.
“Don’t be too long, or you’ll miss Travis’ triumphant match.” Travis was Scott’s boyfriend.
Who I was pretty sure was the subject of Henry’s call.
Fuck.
Not wasting any more time, I made my way through the crowd as quickly as I could. The chatter merged into an unintelligible buzz as my mind worked, and it didn’t abate even when I managed to step outside.
Several people were around, but none of them were Henry. I walked around the building, thinking I might have gone out through the wrong exit. What if he couldn’t see me? What if he’d left?
My heart was thudding in my chest, nervous with anticipation, when out of nowhere, a hand pulled me and shoved me against a wall.
It didn’t hurt. The shock had probably been his point, not to mention the privacy this shaded side of the building provided, shielding us from prying eyes, but none of that mattered because it was Henry in front of me.
My Henry.
It had been a very long time since I’d stood this close to him, his strong body only inches away from me. He’d been in my head for so long, it now felt like a fever dream to have the real thing here. Flesh and bone. Muscle and man.
Dark brown eyes staring me down.
My throat threatened to close up with emotion, but I tried my best to swallow it down.
“You came,” he said.
“You told me to come.”
“What if I’d been a psycho?” His eyebrow raised in a perfect arch, a similar expression to the one he had always used with his conquests.
Not that I’d been looking.
I cleared my throat. “Glad you weren’t.”
A humorless smile stretched his lips. “I guess it’s still up for debate.”
“No, it isn’t.”
The smile disappeared.
My heart rate sped up.
No matter what had happened between us, no part of me could think badly of him. I’d sometimes hated him, cursed him for how torn on the inside he’d made me feel, but thinking he was a bad guy?
Never.
Henry’s light chestnut hair reached a little under his collarbones. Slightly shorter than he used to have it. It moved with the early spring breeze while the weight of secrets shared and words unspoken made the air thick between us.
Henry’s nostrils flared but he didn’t acknowledge my answer. “I’m here to offer you a deal.”
My eyebrows rose.
“In—” Henry took out his phone to look at the time. “Five minutes, Scott’s boyfriend will get in trouble. A lot of trouble. But you can stop it.”
“I can?” Nothing made sense to me right now. This was the longest conversation I’d had with Henry in three years.
And of all people, it had to be about Travis?
I was a little bitter.
“Well, I can,” Henry corrected, an evil smirk growing on his face. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. “I have proof of his innocence, but I won’t show it unless you tell me to.”
This was favor for a favor. That much I could understand.
But why me?
“So do it,” I still said, playing dumb.
Whether he was talking about career-ending trouble or stolen-a-pack-of-gum trouble was anyone’s guess. It probably wasn’t the latter, but what did I know?
Henry gave me a look. “Don’t play dumb with me, Andino. It won’t work.”
The sound of my surname on his lips made a pang of hurt resound in my chest, reminding me of all that was lost. “You’re the one not being forthcoming, not me.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, which left barely an inch between us.
His glance downwards told me he was as aware of it as I was.
Henry cleared his throat.“I have conditions.”
Of course, he did.“Which are?”
His sharp gaze pinned me in place. “Every annoying task I ask you to do—laundry, fetching coffee, or handing me a glass of water in the middle of the night if I don’t feel like getting up—you’re going to do it. You will come when I call for three months.”
I stared at him.
When he didn’t break into a laugh, like this was some sort of sick prank, I said, “You want me to come in the middle of the night to give you a glass of water?”
Was it just me, or did this sound ridiculous?
There had to be a catch.
“It’s an example. But you will do it if you want me to show my proof.” Henry waved his phone in front of me, like he was dangling a carrot in front of my eyes.
We might not have been talking for three years, but my knowledge of him hadn’t gone away. My awareness of him had been strong as ever, even through a distance. I had observed him, picked up facts and news about him, from both college gossip and from his parents, who were still my mother’s neighbors, and done some good old sniffing around of my own.
Henry had to have a reason to be making this stupid request.
Because no part of me believed that he wouldn’t have shown the proof of innocence anyway, whether I was involved or not.
He was counting on me thinking he was the asshole everyone else thought him to be. The secret King, the wicked Heartbreaker.
But he didn’t know I knew he liked to spy on me in the library.
That as much as he pretended to care nothing for me, he cared enough to stalk me. Because as much as Henry might hate me, he was also obsessed with me.
And that changed everything.
For so long, I’d thought he was indifferent to me, I’d thought he hated me, but this little discovery had brought a sick wave of longing that I shouldn’t have felt in the first place, not when we couldn’t be more different, not when our…friendship had always been meant to crash and burn eventually.
