With the first month of classes over, Macy was beginning to get a hang of the whole college thing. She finished her assignments on time, did her readings before lecture, and was pleasantly surprised by the food in the dining hall.

A lot of the students complained about the food, missing the meals their mother prepared back home. Even when Macy's mom had been around, she never cooked, and when the woman left, Macy, Gretchen, and their father typically ordered takeout of some kind. If they didn't order-out, that meant one of the three of them was in the kitchen, and none of them were especially gifted at cooking.

It was a Wednesday evening, and Macy and Tina were seated in the dining hall closest to their dorm building, discussing their latest coursework over meals of Caesar salad and macaroni and cheese. Macy stood up, about to go find something sweet for dessert, when a shadow appeared over their table.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Macy O'Hara."

Stephen Strange took a seat beside Macy, a hamburger and fries on his tray. He smirked at her as she gazed down at him, her eyes daggers.

"Stephen Strange."

Macy's teeth gritted together, and she felt her stomach begin to boil with rage. Out of all the dining options at the university, hell, the city, of course Stephen Strange had to choose the one place she was at.

Strange's friends, Jack and Sam, sat down on the other side of the table, dangerously close to Tina, who watched them with her nose wrinkled.

"You do see that there are plenty of open tables nearby, right?" Macy asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I do," Stephen replied, smirking as he popped a French fry into his mouth.

"So why are you sitting at our table?" Macy asked.

"It's a free country, isn't it?" Strange said. "And I don't believe this table actually belongs to you, O'Hara, unless you happen to be the human embodiment of Columbia University, which, I'm certain, you are not."

Macy rolled her eyes. Was this pre-med buffoon really about to argue legalities with her?

"Whatever. I'm going to get a cookie. I hope you're gone by the time I get back," she said with a glare.

When Macy returned to her seat with a chocolate chip cookie, she was disappointed to see that Stephen Strange was still at her table. In fact, he was somehow taking up more space than he had when she left, and now, there wasn't even a spot for her left at the table.

She frowned as she noticed Tina was laughing, seemingly at something Strange had said.

"Excuse me," Macy said, elbowing Stephen as she pushed her way back to her spot.

"Oh, I'm sorry, O'Hara," he said, moving over. "I thought you were leaving."

Macy scoffed. "I said I was coming back."

He paused for a moment, as if recalling the conversation from the filing cabinet that was his brain. "Oh right, you did. My bad. I clearly had more important things to do than listen to your incessant rambling about cookies," he said, reaching over and stealing a piece of her cookie.

Macy's jaw clenched, and she turned to him with a glare. "I've been here for a month, and somehow, I've already managed to meet the world's most obnoxious person." She turned to Tina, who was watching the exchange with an amused look.

"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing," Strange said, chuckling. He turned his attention away from Macy, looking over at Tina. "Risky business trying the salad. I heard it gave fifty students salmonella last year."

Macy rolled his eyes. Somehow, Stephen knew everything about everything. To make a point, she stabbed an abandoned piece of her own salad with her fork, promptly shoving it into her mouth.

"I try not to concern myself with the salad issues of previous years," Tina said. "Besides, after eating my mom's food all these years, I think I'm immune to salmonella."

Strange chuckled, and just as he was undoubtedly about to spout off some pre-med, know-it-all bullshit about how one didn't grow immune to salmonella, Macy stood up and cleared her throat, stealing his moment.

"I think I'll take the remainder of my cookie to our room, Tina," she said.

"Right," Tina said. "I should really get back to doing my reading." She stood, smirking at the boys that remained at the table. "As always, a pleasure, Stephen Strange..." She turned to Sam and Jack, who were too busy filling their faces to notice that Macy and Tina were leaving. "... Stephen Strange's entourage."

Tina and Macy headed back towards their dorm building, Macy chomping down the rest of her cookie as they walked along the sidewalk.

"Stephen Strange is the world's biggest asshole," she said, licking the last of the melted chocolate off of her fingers.

"He is," Tina nodded in agreement. "But ..."

"But?" Macy repeated, stopping to look at her.

Tina groaned and pulled Macy off the sidewalk, so she wouldn't get trampled by other New Yorkers with places to be.

"Strange is a dick, I agree. But, he's clearly into you," she said, laughing.

Macy felt her face turn red and her lips pressed into a firm line. "He is not into me."

"Are you kidding me?" Tina laughed. "The gross displays of, 'look at me, look at me,' any time the two of you are in the same room. He does things that purposely annoy you, because if you're mad at him, your attention is on him. He seeks your attention, Macy, all the time, whether he realizes it or not."

Macy rolled her eyes. "It's nothing but a rivalry, Tina. Based on his behavior, I would say that Strange hates me as much as I hate him."

"My abuela always said that there is a thin line between love and hate," Tina said, smirking.

"While that may be true, it's not in this case," Macy replied.

Tina laughed. "Jesus, Mace, you don't have to get so defensive. I get that you hate Strange. I'm just saying, I don't think he really hates you. He just craves your attention."

"He craves everyone's attention. He probably didn't get any as a child, and now he's making it everyone's problem," Macy replied. "Maybe he should use all of that money he has to see a therapist."

Tina rolled her eyes and smirked. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

The girls headed back to their dorm room, where Macy sat down at her desk to do homework while Tina grabbed her pack of Marlboro Reds and headed outside for a smoke break.

As Macy did her reading for her Introduction to Political Science class, she couldn't help but think back to Tina's thoughts about Stephen Strange. A smirk crossed her lips as she wondered if her roommate was right. What if Strange did have a crush on Macy? Certainly, she could use that to her advantage. She could become his worst nightmare, the way he was hers. It would be a great topic to tease him about.

Macy filed it away in her own brain filing cabinet, though her memory was nothing like Strange's. She'd eagerly wait to bring it up the next time she saw him. In the meantime, she had sixty pages of a political science textbook to read, so dreaming up ways to smite Steven Strange would have to wait.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

i haven't had much inspiration for this story lately, but this chapter kind of came up out of the blue. sorry it's kind of short, but i hope you enjoyed it! i think this chapter actually gave me a bit more inspiration, so hopefully i'll have more regular updates coming soon.

thanks for reading!

xx,

madi