Ctrl+Z My Online Ex

I sent my online boyfriend one last text: [I'm not getting into Harvard. Goodbye.] Then I enrolled at MIT and permanently blocked his number.

Fast forward to my freshman year coding lab. The grad student filling in as our TA called my name in front of the whole class. He wore a sharply tailored dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his forearms to reveal tight, lean muscle. Dark, piercing eyes locked onto me through gold-rimmed glasses, a dangerous smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.

"Come up here and solve this. I taught you how to do it before."

I froze.

Are you kidding me?!

Why the hell was my online ex standing in an MIT classroom?!

Chapter 1

Junior year AP classes hit me hard. My grades tanked. I was terrified my MIT dreams were dead.

Desperate, I slid into the DMs of a guy online who went by the username "HarvardReject". I needed a tutor. He was surprisingly sweet and understanding.

[Don't worry. Stick with me, and I guarantee you'll get into Harvard.]

I panicked a little.

[No, no, no. Harvard isn't necessary.]

Honestly, I was just hoping for MIT.

[Tsk. Watch your mouth, little girl. You can insult your own IQ, but don't ever question my abilities.]

[]

Right. Got it. I definitely didn't dare question him. Because the "Harvard Guy" actually knew his stuff.

Under his brutal study regimen, my GPA skyrocketed and stayed there. On my final SAT practice test, I scored a near-perfect 1580. I immediately texted him to brag. He stayed completely unbothered.

[Yeah, that score should be enough for Harvard.]

It was definitely enough. But I didn't want Harvard. MIT had always been the ultimate goal. Still, after spending over a year getting tutored by him, I realized he had this weird, intense obsession with Harvard.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have kept "HarvardReject" as his gaming handle for so long.

If I didn't go to Harvard, would he be disappointed? I stared at the message on my screen and decided to test the waters.

[What if I don't make it into Harvard?]

[Relax. You're definitely getting in.]

He probably thought I was just having pre-SAT jitters and wanted to comfort me. I stared at the screen, my heart picking up pace. Even through the internet, I could feel his unquestionable need for control. It made me feel incredibly safe, yet sent a bizarre, dangerous thrill down my spine.

And just like that, I kept my mouth shut about my MIT dream.

The day before the big exams, he texted me to do my best. He was slammed with his college senior thesis, so he told me to message him once my official scores came out.

The results finally dropped in late June. I scored a 1590. Well high enough for Harvard, and high enough for MIT.

While I was pacing my room trying to decide, my mom got a call from an MIT admissions rep at three in the morning. She basically signed my life away to them right then and there.

Goodbye, Harvard.

Obviously, getting into my dream school was amazing. But thinking about the guy who literally dragged my grades from the gutter made my stomach twist. He pushed me so hard for Harvard. Now that I was an MIT commit, it felt like total betrayal.

While I chewed on my thumbnail, agonizing over how to break the news, his text popped up on my screen.

[Scores are out, right? How did you do?]

Look at that sweet check-in. Guilt clawed at my chest. I clamped down on my jaw, braced myself, and typed out a reply.

[I bombed it. I can't get into Harvard.]

[]

The chat went dead.

Before he could even draft a response, I fired off one last text.

[I'm sorry. Goodbye.]

Then I instantly blocked his number and went offline.

After that, I never heard from him again. Even though it was just some random internet fling, during freshman orientation, walking past the Harvard campus gates, I still found my footsteps slowing to a halt.

Chapter 2

Zoe nudged my shoulder. "What's wrong with you?" she asked, catching the wistful regret and longing on my face.

I sighed. "Once upon a time, I almost went to Harvard."

Zoe just stared at me blankly before dragging me toward the library to fight for a seat. "Hate to break it to you, but literally every MIT student says that when they walk past their campus," she said. "Hurry up, or we won't get a spot."

I rolled my eyes. Such a classic, unpretentious humblebrag.

Sure enough, the library was completely packed.

Zoe let out a dramatic groan. "Are these people psychos? We already made it into MIT, why is everyone still grinding so hard?!"

A quick scan confirmed every chair was taken. There were a few spots left in the vocal study lounge, but after hearing a chaotic mix of foreign languages being aggressively muttered, we decided the silent reading area was sacred.

"Oh, wait! I see a spot. Over there!" Zoe smacked my arm in excitement and instantly darted over to negotiate.

A few seconds later, she waved me over. "Piper, hurry up! We got seats."

I walked over just in time to catch the end of their conversation.

"No problem at all. You guys freshmen?"

"Yeah," Zoe beamed, turning on her ultimate sweet-girl charm.

I slid into my chair quietly, noticing the seat directly across from me was empty, though a textbook claimed the space.

"You can call me Gavin," the guy said. "But I'm a few years ahead of you. I'm a grad student now."

"Wow, that's awesome!" Zoe said.

While I was busy wondering who the stuff across from me belonged to, Zoe had already exchanged numbers with Gavin. Once we settled in, silence fell over the table again. I ducked my head and opened my textbook. Not long after, a shadow fell across my notes.

A tall figure pulled out the chair directly across from me and sat down.

A hushed conversation immediately followed.

"Professor dragged you back to the office?" Gavin whispered.

"Yeah. There was a margin of error in the data. Had to recalculate." The second voice was incredibly deep and gravelly, carrying an undeniable, magnetic authority that sent an electric jolt straight down my spine.

I peeked up from beneath my lashes. A young guy in glasses sat across from me. He had a strong, prominent brow bone, casting a shadow over thick, dark lashes.

Sensing my stare, he lifted his gaze.

The second our eyes locked, it felt like I was being targeted by an aggressively lethal predator.

He possessed a jawline sharp enough to cut glass, and a dark, churning undertow lurked within his deep eyes. He scanned me from head to toe with a suffocating, oppressive presence.

Then, his gaze snagged on the textbook sitting in front of me. One dark eyebrow arched in surprise. "Polymer Materials and Engineering? Is that your major?"

Wait. Was he actually talking to me? I gave a stiff nod.

I'd always been a hardcore STEM kid in high school, and thanks to the Harvard Guy's brutal tutoring regimen, my grades were rock solid. So when I got into MIT, I declared the major without a second thought.

Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but the corner of his mouth ticked upward into a dangerous smirk. "Not bad."

Before I could process that, Gavin chimed in with a friendly grin. "What a coincidence. That's our program too."

Oh. That really was a coincidence. Upperclassmen in my exact department.

"Nice to meet you," I said politely.

The man across from me just gave a low, dismissive grunt, his demeanor instantly turning ice-cold again.

Chapter 3

"Don't mind him, he's always like that," Gavin said.

I forced a polite smile, brushing it off.

My major was notoriously brutal. The coursework was endless and aggressively difficult. Another weekend rolled around, and Zoe and I found ourselves trapped in our dorm room, staring down a demonic physical chemistry problem.

Finally, Zoe let out a dramatic groan, letting her head hit the desk with a thud.

"I literally can't do this anymore. Just kill me now. Why is this so hard?! I've recalculated this formula five times and it's still wrong."

Watching her nervously tug at her hair, I winced in sympathy. But she wasn't wrong. The leap from high school AP classes to MIT's curriculum was a sheer cliff drop.

"Should we just ask someone?" she muttered.

"Ask who?" Her question stumped me.

Going to the professor's office hours felt like walking to the executioner's block. And our classmates? Zoe was literally the state valedictorian for STEM. If she was stuck, we were all doomed.

As I chewed on the end of my pen, a phantom thought crept into my mind.

HarvardReject.

If the Harvard Guy was here, he'd tear through this equation in seconds. But I had ghosted and blocked him! If I had known my college workload was going to physically torture me like this, I wouldn't have been so damn impulsive.

Just then, Zoe shot up from her corpse-like slump across the desk. "Wait. I know who to ask."

"Who?"

"That grad student we met at the library. Gavin! I got his number, remember? He's in our exact program. He'll definitely know how to solve this."

Zoe didn't waste a single second. She snatched up her phone and fired off a text. Less than a minute later, she was yanking me out of my chair.

"Let's go, let's go! He said yes. We're heading over there right now."

Zoe dragged me all the way to the graduate science building.

"They're finishing up a lab session. We just have to wait a second," she whispered.

A few minutes later, the heavy double doors propped open, and people started filtering out. Soon enough, Gavinthe guy who had given up his seat for usstepped into the hallway. Catching sight of us, he waved us inside.

"Are you sure we're allowed in there?" I asked, hesitating at the threshold.

"The actual clean rooms and wet labs are in the back. This front area is just for conferences and write-ups. It's totally fine," Gavin assured us.

Zoe practically sprinted to an empty chair, dragging me with her. She set up her notes right across from Gavin while I sat beside her, listening in. A grad student was a grad student for a reasonhis breakdown of the problem was flawless.

Within minutes, Zoe was nodding enthusiastically, the missing puzzle pieces finally clicking into place.

I opened my mouth to ask a follow-up question, but the heavy laboratory door was shoved open with a loud thud. A towering figure instantly blocked out the harsh fluorescent light from the hallway. He tugged at his tie with one hand, his suit jacket slung casually over his forearm.

A suffocating, dominant aura sucked the air out of the room, demanding silence. It was him. The man from the library who had made my heart flatline.

So his name was Silas.

Silas's dark, predatory gaze swept over Zoe and me.

"Oh, these are the freshmen we ran into at the library," Gavin quickly explained, gesturing to our messy notes. "They got stuck on a P-Chem problem, so I was just walking them through it."

"Hmph." A low, indifferent sound rumbled in his chest. His demeanor was just as freezing and unapproachable as before.

Zoe and I exchanged a quick, loaded glance. The temperature in the room had plummeted, and we both felt the sudden urge to flee.

Zoe hastily gathered her papers and yanked me to my feet. "Well, um, thank you so much for the help, Gavin! We should really get going."

"Anytime. Don't mention it," Gavin smiled, before pausing. "Oh, wait. Actually, our lab is short on two undergraduate research assistants. Are either of you interested?"

Zoe and I both froze in our tracks.

Chapter 4

I instantly caught the hard pull of Silas's brow. He was clearly resistant to the idea. I opened my mouth to decline, but Zoe beat me to it.

"We'd love to! Piper, go swap numbers with him so we can get the details."

Wait, what? Why me? Didn't she literally just get Gavin's number?

Before I could protest, Zoe shoved me in the small of my back, shooting me a frantic, wide-eyed look.

Trapped. I plastered on a stiff smile and shuffled over to where Gavin and Silas stood. Gavin was easygoing, immediately pulling out his phone to share his contact info.

Then came Silas.

Every line of his rigid posture screamed rejection. Just as I expected, when I stepped up to him, he dragged an icy look over me.

His mouth opened, a dismissal clearly resting on his tongue, but then his eyes dropped to the contact profile on my screen.

He froze.

"This is your account?" His brows snapped together as his dark eyes locked onto mine.

"Uh yeah. Why?"

"What's your name?"

"Piper."

The second the word left my mouth, Gavin let out a loud snort of laughter.

Silas shot him a deadly, deadpan glare.

I shifted awkwardly. "You can just call me Piper."

"Where are you from?" Silas demanded.

"Bro, seriously?" Gavin cut in before I could even process the question. "Are you running an FBI background check on the girl?"

Silas didn't even blink. He just stared Gavin down until the older guy threw his hands up in surrender. Then, those dark, intense eyes snapped right back to me. "Answer the question."

"C-Chicago." A shiver ran down my spine. I had to answer. But answering somehow made it so much worse.

He let out a low, dark chuckle and suddenly leaned forward.

His massive, imposing frame invaded my personal space, leaning right over the edge of the table. His deep, piercing gaze felt like a tightening net, pinning me in place with a suffocating, undeniable possessiveness.

My skin crawled. He was actively hostile toward me. He was smiling, sure, but it was a razor-thin, terrifying curve of his lips that absolutely did not reach his eyes.

"Must have scored pretty high on your SATs to end up at MIT," he murmured.

The comment felt insanely loaded. My brain short-circuited trying to find the trap. I just gave a numb, mechanical nod. "I did alright."

Silas smirked again. This time, it looked like sheer, suppressed rage.

But instead of kicking me out, he yanked out his phone and scanned my screen. "Fine. Be at the lab tomorrow after your classes."

Huh?!

I wasn't the only one completely thrown. Gavin's jaw practically hit the floor. "Wait, weren't you just about to"

One freezing look from Silas forced the rest of Gavin's sentence right back down his throat.

And just like that, Zoe and I became lab assistants. We didn't even bother rushing any sororities or joining campus clubs. The lab alone was draining the life out of us. Gavin officially submitted our names to their advising professor.

Two shifts a week, two hours a shift.

Every time we clocked out, Zoe looked like a hollowed-out shell. But I had it infinitely worse.

I hadn't even had the chance to agree with her latest groan of misery when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

[Silas needs me back at the lab. Data error on the last run.]

I peeled myself off my mattress.

Zoe shot me a look of pure pity. "Piper did you accidentally key his car or something? Because why is he exploiting you like this?"

"I literally just met the guy!"

"Then why is he working you to the bone every single day?!"

Once we officially started, I was assigned directly under Silas, while Zoe shadowed Gavin. After surviving our very first shift, Zoe had immediately held a moment of silence for my nonexistent social life. "Gavin told me Silas is an absolute academic psycho. Piper, you're actually doomed."

Over the past few weeks, I had learned exactly how true that was. When Silas got locked into an experiment, the man was an absolute machineno sleep, no food, just ruthless, nonstop grinding.

Chapter 5

I dragged myself back to the science building. Silas was the only one left in the lab. He wore a stark white lab coat and safety goggles, his attention locked onto the whiteboard beside him that was covered in a dense, chaotic scrawl of experimental data.

"Silas," I called out.

He didn't even spare me a glance. He just pointed a sterile, gloved finger at the adjacent blackboard. "I just sent you the file. Recalculate everything."

"Oh."

The data set was massive, requiring endless, mind-numbing repetition. Once I dove into the crunching, I completely lost track of time.

"Are you done?"

"Almost," I admitted honestly, rubbing my strained eyes.

Silas glanced at the clock on the wall. "Where are you stuck?"

"Here." I tapped the board with the tip of my marker.

Silas closed the distance in three long strides, his massive frame caging me in from behind. Without a shred of hesitation, his large, rough palm swallowed my hand gripping the dry-erase marker. His scorching breath ghosted over the shell of my ear as he issued a low, dark command. "Watch."

His absolute, no-nonsense tutoring style inexplicably slammed me with a wave of deja vu. It felt exactly like the Harvard Guy.

Silas tossed the marker onto the tray, pulling back just enough to let me breathe. "Got it?"

"Y-Yeah. I got it."

"Good. It's late. Head back to your dorm. We'll pick this up tomorrow," Silas said, turning away from me.

"Let me just run the numbers one more time, then I'll leave."

Silas paused, halfway out of his lab coat. "The experiment matters, but your health matters more. Go back, get some actual sleep, and come back tomorrow with a functional brain. We're done for tonight."

He hung his coat on the rack and threw a casual, heavy look over his shoulder. "I'm the only one with the keys. Are you asking me to stay here and keep you company?"

"Uh, no! No need."

Only a handful of key faculty had clearance access to the labs. I wasn't about to ask for his keys, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask Silas to babysit me.

We stepped out into the freezing night air. He casually announced he was walking me back to my dorm. I didn't know how to refuse, so I just followed him in utter silence.

The walk back was suffocatingly awkward. I desperately needed to break the ice.

"Um, thanks for earlier."

"Don't mention it."

[]

The conversation was officially dead on arrival. I tried throwing out a few more random topics, but Silas ruthlessly killed every single one of them with one-word answers. Zoe was right. The man was a walking, breathing textbook.

Back in the safety of my dorm, I vented to Zoe.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a second. "Is it possible you just suck at making conversation?"

"Excuse me? My topics were totally fine."

"Piper, your banter is literally painful. Are you this awkward with other guys?"

Other guys? I racked my brain.

Excluding the guys from my high school AP classes, the only other guy I'd ever really talked to was the Harvard Guy. Even though we were just screen names and had never met in person, our conversations flowed effortlessly. The Harvard Guy never let a conversation die. He always fired back with the perfect amount of sass.

Comparing the two, a sudden, sharp pang of missing him hit me. I let out a heavy breath. I wondered how the Harvard Guy was doing now.

Originally, my plan was to meet up with him after the SATs to thank him properly. What if I unblocked him now

The second the thought planted itself in my brain, it spread like absolute wildfire. I agonized over it for days. Finally, I caved. Rationally and emotionally, I owed the guy a massive apology and a proper thank you.

Chapter 6

Without a second thought, I tapped on that familiar profile picture and hit 'Send Friend Request.'

But I waited for hours, and the screen stayed completely dead. My shoulders slumped. He was probably still pissed. Why would he accept a request from the girl who ghosted him?

The bad mood dragged me down all morning. But right after my afternoon lecture let out, my notification bar actually lit up with a new message.

[User has accepted your friend request