Efia was in the lecture hall the morning before William. Meaning he had to push past her to get into his seat, his warmth was an annoyingly unwelcome strain on her makeup- if she started sweating then even setting spray wouldn't save her. It was Friday and she had no time to do makeup later that night before going to her best friend's party. Abigail Willoughby had been Efia's greatest friend since they were old enough to understand the concept, rich but not spoilt, she was the sweetest person Efia knew. She had literally bought her 30 jumbo packs of sausages when she went through her breakup and that's all she wanted to eat.
She woke up early so she could lay out her outfit for that night on her bed in her dorm before going to her lecture, but it didn't really matter the amount of sleep she missed out on--this was one of her more useless lectures, meaning she could take a pleasant 1 hour and 15 minute long nap as he professor rambled on.
William had been invited to that party too, and as he sat down next to Efia, duly noting that their suits matched, he wondered if that was when he should properly try to be friendly with her. He had to know her secret; he could literally see how sleepy she was right now, she was going to nap through this whole lecture and yet still get 98/100 on a test about this subject matter, whilst he would have to bust his back to get the same score.
Everyone else started filing into the hall as their ancient professor hobbled his way into the room. William let out a little laugh at the old man's resilience; there was now ay he got paid enough for this.
Efia has stretched her hands out on the table and Williams couldn't help but notice her sharp pink nails--they were the acrylic type his mother adored. He felt his face twist into a scowl as he took Efia's hand to inspect her nails.
Efia snatched her hand back and looked him up and down like he had some sort of skin disease before dramatically wiping her hand on her smart blue blazer, "What exactly do you think you're doing, willy?"
"How do you write with those stupid things glued to your nails? You look like an angry cat." William folded his arms over his chest, his blue sweater vest doing very little to hide the muscle built from a consistent gym schedule. Efia sniggered at him, leaning her cheek against her hand.
"Why don't you just say it? You think I look ghetto don't you? Classic racist white boy." Efia frowned, trying to get a rise out of William with her usual baiting. It was quite funny to misinterpret little things he did just to see him riled up.
"Don't put words in my mouth, Little Miss Nyamekye," He leaned in closer, "If I thought that or even wanted to say it, I would've said it. I'm not scared of you."
"Scared? No. Jealous?" Efia let a smile creep on her face as William's eyebrows furrowed, "Evidently."
They were now so close that William could get a whiff of Efia's perfume, there were hints of vanilla and cinnamon in it that made his mind fuzzy. Fuck. Why does she have to smell so good?
Efia took in a breath of what had to be expensive cologne on William's neck, it had a strong minty base and she found herself getting a bit bitter; of course he's rich enough to spend money on crap like fancy cologne. He probably imports it straight from France. Brat.
"Excuse me, miss." William's best friend, Harry, politely shuffled past Efia and plonked down next to William. The two young men did their usual handshake before William turned to Efia, snorting.
"Try to stay awake for once, you can't let everyone keep seeing how lazy you are." He poked her arm like an irritating child.
"No can do, willy." Efia purred, eyes drooping, "Listening in lectures is for losers stuck in 2nd place."
Williams scowled deeply before facing Harry properly. Harry's father was the owner of the biggest gas company in Britain-- "Bluewaste", he was absolutely loaded, and his rolex and spotless shoes were a testament to that. His combed brown hair hung down on his face like a halo, over his large glasses. He looked geeky, and he was, in all honesty.
"Harry...ditch those glasses, mate. You look like a nonce." William sighed deeply, fidgeting with his silver ring again. It was his family's heirloom, he was attached to it in a weird way as if it was a member of his family too.
"What?" Harry fumed, not willing to get lashed by his bestfriend so early in the morning, "You didn't even ask me how my day was yesterday and you're already insulting me?"
"Who insulted you? I'm trying to help." William whisper hissed as the lecture began. Last week when they got drunk William's limo, Harry had been spluttering that he had no luck with girls and he was going to die alone-- something that clearly could be fixed if Harry thought a little before dressing in the morning.
"Not all of us want every girl ever slobbering on our dick." Harry was a blushing idiot sometimes, cause that's exactly what he'd been crying about. William rolled his eyes and decided to drop it and actually listen to this lecture. The international coal mining laws may be interesting to know.
---
William tapped Effie's shoulder at the end of the lecture, not wanting her to get locked into the hall by unsuspecting cleaners. She didn't budge.
He yanked on her hair, which immediately woke her up. She placed her hand to where her head hurt and turned to William with nothing short of fury in her eyes.
"Don't you ever, in your life, touch my weave again. You're actually a white demon, did you know that?" Efia couldn't believe Williams had laid his hands on her 28 inch brazillian bundles. She could feel her blood boiling.
William put his hands up in mock surrender, little offended but amused all at once, "Woah, let's all calm down a little. If it's that serious I could just buy you some more."
"It's not about money. It's about respect." Efia began gathering her stuff, wishing for the day to already be over so she could go to Abigail's party already and escape this grinning asshat with annoyingly pretty hair. And eyes.
"Fine, I'm sorry. I was just waking you up. I didn't touch your hair specifically because....y'know, I just wanted to give you a shock enough to wake you up." William shifted in his seat as he began to stand up with his stuff in tow, Harry was scrambling his stuff together behind William and the taller blonde didn't know how to really phrase this exact apology. He was usually good with words, but not at this exact moment, apparently.
"Because I'm y'know," Efia mocked him by repeating his words back to him slowly, before letting out a scoff, "Just don't do it again or we will fist fight. I don't care how muscular you are."
William blinked rapidly before bursting out in a loud laugh, which Harry joined in on; Efia could not be serious with that threat. She'd be like a gentle breeze brushing against William's left arse cheek.
"I bet you would! How about we fight right now, come on." William knew he had to try and be nicer to Efia to find out how she got her grades but it was too easy to verbally spar with her...it was so natural.
"No." Eifa simply said, rolling her eyes. She stood up and sauntered off, leaving behind a cloud of perfume that William murmured about angrily.
"Fist fight...yoooo that's so crazy." Harry wiped tears out of his eyes--- some things were too golden to not get a secondary comment on.
"Did you hear her call me 'white demon'? How did she even come up with that?" William had been silenced in the moment by how intense Eifa's eyes had been, but now that he thought of it, it was absolutely insane that she had called him that so effortlessly. Everything about her is so... effortless.
"Don't know...guess she really hates you, mate." Harry patted Williams shoulder sympathetically.
---
After all her lectures, Efia decided to try on multiple different outfits, just for fun. The one she had laid out was cute, but the other option was delicious; a maroon lace v-neck long sleeve dress that stopped a perfect length above her knee. Efia's breasts were small enough for her to not have to wear a bra in it but big enough for them to fill out the dress. It was a tad bit much for winter, but it would be hot inside Abi's house; the girl had invited as many people as possible to the party that she was holding just because her parents were in Dubai.
Hilariously, Abi was right there with her, letting her paid house help set up the party.
"Ohhhhh," The ginger girl clapped her hands seeing Effie's lace dress hugging her curves, "Wear that! Please! It's so sexy. Oh and add the hoop earrings! You know the one's with the ruby studs!" Abigail was a fashionista at heart, and Efia and her had bonded over it multiple times. Abigail's own emerald dress made her ginger curls pop out along with her deep blue eyes.
Efia laughed, applying glittery lipgloss, wanting a less makeup look that night; she only did her eyebrows, put on mascara and said lipgloss, "I want us to be the prettiest girls in the room."
"Cause you're already the smartest." Abigail stood in front of the mirror and began brushing her hair.
"Stop it...ugh, I don't want to think about academics tonight." Efia wanted to drink too much, maybe let a man get a bit handsy with her, go home, facetime her dad, then sleep so hard she drooled. Anything academic was not on her mind tonight.
"Yeah, cause when you think about academics, you think about William Raycroft." Abigail narrowed her eyes and snickered. She had had just about enough of their constant bickering; William and Effie just didn't know how similar they were--- Abigail went golfing with William and his family quite often, and she specifically liked him cause he reminded her of her Efia, her best friend.
"Exactly. And when I think about him, I feel queasy. He's like that mild smell in an old lady's house. You can't get rid of him." Efia snorted, something about Abigail's teasing was making her remember how flabbergasted William was earlier when she got so angry with him.
"You do know he'll be there, right?" Abigail blinked at Effie, who rapidly blinked back.
"He's not the only guy in the world. Anyway...he's not my type. He's literally my first real enemy." Efia thought he was a little handsome, sure, nice jaw, a lot taller than her, blonde locs and the type of green eyes where you wanted to stare into them all night....but he was just too snobbish. Too rich, if that was possible. Like, come on, what's the point of being a billionaire? What did his dad do with all that money?
"Whatever you say, babe." Abigail rolled her eyes, wondering how long it would take William and Efia to figure out that they didn't really hate each other.