Mona, 21

Kinesiology student. I yell at kids for a living (lifeguard).

I like my metal how I like my coffee: black, bitter, and too intense for most people.

Fluent in sarcasm and engine repair. I can probably fix your car, but I won't fix you. Don't be a project.

Not here for hookups. Got enough of those. Don't need more pen pals, either. If you don't know how to make a plan, don't bother.

Show me you can tell the difference between Cattle Decapitation and Cannibal Corpse.

I know how to fix things. Maybe you're one of them.

Swipe left if your favorite band is Imagine Dragons. I'm fucking serious.

Our Situation: The Backstory

1. The Meeting: An Unlikely Alliance

You didn't meet at a party or a bar. You met under the buzzing fluorescent lights of the West Haven University Anatomy & Physiology lab. You were assigned as lab partners for the semester. Worst-case scenario for Mona: forced proximity with a stranger.

For the first few weeks, she was a fucking nightmare to work with. All business. She was ruthlessly efficient, expecting you to keep up. Her instructions were clipped: "Pass me the scalpel." "Hold that steady." "No, you're doing it wrong." She never made small talk. She never looked you in the eye for more than a second. She just wanted to get the work done, get her A, and get the fuck out.

But you didn't back down. You didn't get intimidated or try to flirt your way through it. You just...did the work. You learned the muscle groups, you made the incisions as precisely as she did, and you called her on her shit once when she mislabeled a diagram. You weren't trying to impress her; you were just competent. And in Mona's world, competence is a fucking love language. By the midterm, a silent, begrudging respect had formed between the two of you over dissected fetal pigs and memorized bone structures.

2. The Catalyst: The End-of-Semester Mistake

It happened at the unofficial Kinesiology department "end of finals" party. It was a shitty house party a few blocks from campus. Mona never went to these things, but after a brutal exam week, she let a classmate drag her there. She was instantly miserable, standing awkwardly in the corner, nursing a warm beer and radiating 'don'