Instant Regret by Hazel Parker
Chapter 1
Carly
Oh my god, my head.
I rolled over in bed, my brain feeling as though it might just explode out of my skull, throbbing profusely. There was no doubt it was going to be a hell of a hangover. Running my fingers through my thick blonde hair, I winced at the tangled mess.
But what happened last night?
Letting out a painful groan, I reached for my phone on my nightstand and squinted as I unlocked the screen. I felt like something important was slipping my mind, but the thought disappeared as my eyes flew to my TikTok app in the corner of my home screen—over a thousand notifications?
What the actual hell?
I quickly opened the app, and saw that I was tagged in a video, which wasn’t surprising since my best friend, Paige was basically a TikTok superstar with nearly one hundred thousand followers.
And her college is paid for.
Adjusting the pillows behind my head, I opened the video I was tagged in, expecting to see drunk karaoke or something along those lines. I laughed to myself as the video started with me standing on a chair in the middle of Murphy’s, our favorite bar. However, my heart stopped as the audio picked up.
“My name is Carly Williams, and I am madly in love with Dr. Dean. He is the hottest professor on campus—like super hot.”
My eyes widened at the screen as I held up my drink, the crowd in the bar cheering and applauding for me as I downed the entire thing.
Oh. My. God.
Paige has to delete this.
“This is so stupid,” I groaned out, facepalming myself as I saw the nearly three hundred thousand views. “Why the hell is this so popular?” It literally made no sense. I mean, yeah, it was embarrassing, but what was so great about some drunk girl confessing their love for their super hot business professor? I clicked on the comments, seeing that there was more than I wanted to have to read. The top comment caught my attention immediately.
Don’t be late for class tomorrow. Mad love won’t excuse an absence.
My mouth went completely dry as I saw the username was ldean87. I saw the thousands of likes and comments—all of which were pointing out that this had to be the Dr. Dean that I was referring to. I clicked on the profile of the person who had made the comment, but there was no profile picture or content on the page.
This cannot be happening.
My heart raced as I threw back the covers, my bare feet hitting the cold wood floor. Phone in hand, I marched to my bedroom door and flung it open, heading straight to Paige’s room just down the hall in the two-bedroom apartment we shared. I didn’t even bother to knock and barged right in.
“You have to delete that TikTok video from last night, like now,” I demanded, my voice still groggy with sleep.
My dark-headed best friend rolled over, her incoherent mumbling carrying through room for a few long moments. “What’re you talking about?” she finally asked, her head lifting from the pillow that was muffling her voice. “Like, how do you have this much energy this morning?”
“Uh, the TikTok video that you posted last night about Dr. Dean,” I snapped, folding my arms across my chest. My oversized t-shirt was scrunched up over my arms, making my already-small breasts nearly nonexistent. “And um, did you see the comment on there?”
“I literally have no idea what you’re talking about, Carly.” Paige stretched her arms above her head, her voice still groggy. “I was so wasted—and so were you. Just go back to bed, Carly.”
“Obviously, we were wasted. I know that.” I glanced back down at my phone, seeing that the notifications were still coming. I hadn’t even bothered to scroll through any of the other comments after reading Dr. Dean’s. “We have class in literally thirty minutes, too.”
“I think I’m going to skip,” Paige grunted, rolling back over in bed. “I can stand to have a few more absences—and there’s still the whole semester to go, since we’re only two weeks in.”
“Hell no, you’re not skipping.” I stormed toward her, flipping the covers back. “Dr. Dean commented on that TikTok, and there’s no way that I’m going to class without you—even if I am pissed at you. Besides, it’s our senior year, we need to go to class.”
“I still have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, Carly.” Paige let out a loud groan, slowly sitting up in bed. “Just let me wake up before you keep at me like this. Like, how are you not still hungover AF?”
“I am hungover,” I replied, plopping down on the bed beside her and holding out my phone to the video already pulled up. “I don’t know how you don’t remember that. There’s no way I could upload one of these shitfaced.”
She shrugged, letting out a yawn. “I don’t know. I’ve posted a lot of TikToks, so I think it’s just like second nature now.” Paige played the cringey TikTok, the expression on her face unmoving as she watched it two more times. “This is fucking gold, Carly.”
“No, it’s not,” I argued. “You have to delete it!”
She didn’t say anything, her eyes narrowing as she continued to hold my phone. After a second, her mouth dropped open. “Holy shit... I think he really did comment on it. That’s mental.”
“It’s awful, is what it is,” I groaned, running my fingers through my tangled hair before reaching for my phone. “You have to delete it, please. Like, what am I supposed to do when we go to class today.”
“Uh, well, he’s already seen it,” Paige reasoned, letting me take my phone from her hand. “I mean, I highly doubt anything will come of it. There’s tons of stuff like this on the internet. I don’t think that it’s going to make some huge difference, no offense. It’s funny—and besides, Dr. Dean is hella hot.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re not the one in it.” I shook my head, pushing myself to my feet. My head was throbbing, but the humiliation was much more intense than a mediocre hangover. “You have to take it down, Paige.”
She looked at me, her dark brown eyes filling with amusement instead of understanding. “He probably finds it flattering that some hot student of his is making a grand drunken gesture of love for him—and also, let’s be honest, it’s probably not the first time.”
Even if she had a point, it still infuriated me that she wouldn’t take it down. “You care more about your followers than you do about your best friend,” I snapped before storming right out of her bedroom and back into mine. I slammed the door behind me, letting out a frustrated sigh.
I’ll just have to go to class and deal with it.
Swallowing my pride, I quickly dressed for class, not even bothering to shower. I mean, the whole class wouldn’t be surprised to see me coming as a hot mess if they had seen the TikTok, and considering how worldwide it was gone, I was certain most would’ve viewed it.
And I would have to show up and face the consequences.
My pastel blue t-shirt and shorts were just my normal attire, and I slid on my vans as quickly as I could. Before heading out, I looked at the leftover makeup on my face and spent a few minutes touching it up before pulling my hair up into a messy bun on top of my head.
It’ll be fine. This is what you look like when you go to class every day.
The pep talk in my head didn’t really boost my confidence as I slung my black backpack over my shoulder and headed out of my bedroom. There was no doubt that I was going to be late, but late was better than an absence. I peeked into Paige’s room as I headed down the hallway, grumbling to myself as I saw she had rolled back over and gone back to sleep.
Of course, she can miss class. She makes enough money off TikTok to not even need college.
I shook my head to myself as I bounded out of the apartment and down the street. I loved my best friend, and she was seriously one of the most intelligent women I had ever met—but the anger I felt toward her over not taking down the video trumped all of the respect and admiration.
I would’ve deleted it for her.
My heart pounded as I made my way across the busy campus, full of kids making their way to class or standing around chatting with their friends. Usually, I would’ve felt like I was just like them, but the nerves wouldn’t let me.
Not today.
The building that my business class was in was one of the older ones, and as I walked in, I cringed at the stale musk in the air. As per usual, the elevators were down, and so I trudged up the stairs to the third floor.
Sweating out all the alcohol.
I wiped the moisture from my forehead and pushed through the double doors into the theater-style room. The class I was in had a solid one hundred students, and that was the one thing I had going for me—there was a chance Dr. Dean had no idea who I was anyway.
And I couldn’t decide if that was a good or bad thing.
It was true that I had the biggest crush on him, but I was certain that most of the girls in the class did. He was every bit of six feet tall, built like a gym rat, and his dark brown hair complimented his olive skin tone.
He was the epitome of perfection.
The sound of snickering caught my attention as the door shut behind me, and my eyes whipped around the room.
I’m late.
The room was mostly full, and nearly every single person had turned to look at me, huffing and puffing as I stood there at the top of the stairs.
And then my gaze locked with the tall, dark and handsome professor standing at the front of the class, an eyebrow raised at me.
“How nice of you to join us, Ms. Williams,” his deep, manly voice greeted me, though his tone was less than pleasant.
My cheeks went bright red as I immediately slid into the back row, my eyes falling to my feet as the laughter rattled around the room.
This is the worst thing ever.
“That’s enough, class,” his voice snapped, causing the room to go stark quiet. His ability to command respect was sexy as fuck, and I couldn’t help but peek up at him, his square jaw perfectly shadowed with stubble...
And his dark eyes looking right at me.
My stomach did a backwards flip as I dared myself to hold his gaze, his dark hazel eyes seeming to bore right into me. My body reacted in the most surprising way, and I clenched my thighs as a few more seconds passed before he turned away.
“Today we’re going to discuss marketing strategies,” Dr. Dean said, clearing his throat as he opened up his laptop on the podium. “I think it’s safe to say that social media plays a large role in the business world today—Ms. Williams being a great example of that, seeing as how this classroom is the fullest it’s been all semester.”
The whole class erupted in laughter, and I was suddenly wishing that I had done the same as Paige, sleeping in and taking the absence. This was way worse than I had imagined it would be—it was like a moment out of nightmares...
And I hadn’t even bothered to do my hair.
“Also, Ms. Williams,” Dr. Dean said. “I’d like to speak with you after class, please.”
Ugh. Even better.