The Grade That Broke Us

On the grading sheet our advisor sent out, my boyfriend—the TA—gave me the lowest score in the whole group. My labmates all told me not to read into it.

Miles was hard on everyone, they said. But I'd seen it with my own eyes: he gave Kayla the highest score.

Kayla had messed up her experiments three times, and he hadn't even gotten angry. He'd stayed up a whole night with her, too.

Chapter 1 I was standing there spacing out with a reagent bottle in my hand when Miles came back from inspecting the lab next door.

He was in his white lab coat, silver wirerimmed glasses perched on his nose, his eyes as cool and detached as ever.

He saw us huddled together chattering away and frowned, clearly displeased.

At the sight of him, my labmates scattered back to their experiments, afraid of getting chewed out by the most senior PhD student in the group.

Before they went, they still made a point of warning me. "Tessa, you have to keep your temper. Whatever you do, don't fight with Miles!

Or even our advisor won't be able to protect you." Miles had always been exacting, with himself and with everyone else, and he hated nothing more than personal feelings getting mixed up in work, so we'd never made our relationship public.

My labmates thought Miles and I were just two people who happened to be in the same lab, which was why they were kind enough to warn me.

And they weren't exaggerating, because Miles really did have that kind of power. Miles was our advisor's most capable student.

By the end of his master's, he'd coauthored five papers in respected journals and shared first authorship on one Nature paper—work that had helped our advisor build his case for promotion from associate professor to full professor.

After that he went on to his PhD and became a TA at the university. He hadn't even graduated yet and job offers were already pouring in. There was no telling how far he'd go.

Every time our advisor saw him, it was like seeing his own son. He all but worshiped him.

So if anyone in the lab actually got into a fight with him, they'd be the only one who paid for it. After all, the last person who crossed Miles had been forced out of the program.

I listened and nodded. "Okay.

I won't fight with him." From the second Miles showed up in the lab, my labmates were already fearing for their own skins, terrified that their tyrant of a senior student would find something wrong with their experiments.

Miles walked in stonefaced and went through everyone's procedures and results, one by one. "Fine. Procedure's good, data's good.

Clean your reagent bottles and you can go." The labmates who heard they could leave let out a huge breath of relief.

Afraid that every extra minute meant extra danger, they washed their bottles and got out of there fast. People trickled out until only one group was left, and I was in it.

But I wasn't even on this group's experiment today.

I'd only come to the lab to wait for Miles to get off work, and I'd brought bubble tea for the labmates I was close with while I was at it.

Something had come up and Kayla had skipped out on the experiment, so her group was short a person, and they'd pulled me in to record their data.

Miles looked at our group's data, and his brows instantly drew tight. "Who ran this group's experiment?

A basic data error like this, and nobody caught it?" Chapter 2 His voice was icecold. His gaze swept over every member of the group and finally landed squarely on me.

The data sheet was right next to me. He'd convicted me almost instantly. The labmate beside me saw it and hurriedly picked up the sheet to defend me. "Miles, it wasn't Tessa.

She came in today to—" But Miles cut her off midsentence, irritated. "Did I ask you to speak?" Then Miles narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixing on my hand. "Tessa Beaumont, is that how you hold a reagent bottle? "Did no one teach you how to run an experiment?

Or did you leave your brain at home when you came to class?" I stared at him, stunned.

In the twentyplus years we'd known each other, this was the first time he'd ever torn into me like this. Our parents were friends. Miles and I had grown up together.

His family were all researchers, and he'd probably inherited the genes, because he'd been a genius since he was little.

He skipped grades in elementary school, skipped grades in high school, and after college he went right on through grad school, all the way to a PhD.

My family was in business, and I really had no gift for studying. My grades had always been mediocre. But Miles had zero tolerance for stupid people.

I was afraid he'd look down on me and stop wanting to play with me, so every day I studied late into the night, grinding through practice problems even when I was crying.

It broke my parents' hearts to watch. They told me to study if I could, and if I couldn't, to just come home and inherit the family fortune of over a hundred million dollars.

There was no need to put myself through all that. But I was going to stand beside Miles, because I liked him. I thought the gap between us had gotten a lot smaller.

After all, I'd made it into grad school on my own effort, under the same advisor as him, and he'd agreed to be with me.

But now, hearing him insult me with my own ears, my heart felt like it had been wrung, and there was an ache in my chest I couldn't name.

Last time, Kayla had made a mistake that nearly set the lab on fire, and he hadn't said a single harsh word to her, let alone called her stupid.

All I'd done was pass someone a reagent bottle. Since when was there a correct way to hold one for that?

But he just looked at me coldly, waiting for me to admit my mistake in front of everyone. It was humiliating. "Miles, this was Kayla's job.

Tessa only helped because we dragged her in." The labmate beside me couldn't take it anymore and suddenly spoke up, breaking the standoff.

Contradicting a senior student in public might earn her some quiet payback later, but she didn't care, because this had nothing to do with me in the first place.

She took hold of my wrist. She was not going to let me be falsely accused. She was not going to let me feel like no one had my back.

Miles paused slightly at that, his brows drawing together almost imperceptibly. He looked at me questioningly, and his eyes weren't as icy as they'd been a moment ago.

One person made the first move, and everyone else jumped in at once. "Miles, even if you won't let us talk, we're saying it anyway!

Kayla went off to her driving lesson without asking for time off. Our group was short, so Tessa helped us out." "Yeah, Tessa didn't do anything.

If the data's wrong, that's on Kayla for skipping. What does it have to do with Tessa?" They'd been fed up for a long time with Kayla skipping and dumping her work on other people.

They hadn't wanted to make things ugly before, but now there was nothing left to hide.

Miles was silent for a long time after that, a lingering regret in his eyes. "I didn't get the facts straight today.

I'll talk to Kayla about her situation. "You've all been at it for hours.

Go ahead and call it a day, or the dining hall will close soon." Just as everyone was quietly pleased that someone had seen justice done, Miles's gaze landed on me. "Tessa Beaumont, stay behind." Everyone froze, with no idea what was going on.

Chapter 3 Then Miles spoke, cool and detached. "The lab isn't a playground.

Once you're in here, there's no such thing as 'just helping.' Every single step follows the rules. "Tessa Beaumont held the reagent bottle wrong.

She doesn't leave today until every reagent bottle is washed." I looked up at him in shock, but he turned his head away, unwilling to spare me even a glance from the corner of his eye.

My labmates weren't having it.

Just as they were all fired up to stand up for me, Miles coldly tossed out a threat. "Anyone who helps Tessa Beaumont today doesn't need to come to the lab tomorrow." No one had imagined things would go this far.

For a moment they were all stunned. I knew this was just Miles forcing me to back down. So what, wash a few hundred reagent bottles? Fine. I'd wash them.

I looked at him and spoke calmly. "Okay, Donovan. It's my fault. I'll wash them." But even though I'd agreed, Miles wasn't any happier for it.

He paused, then turned and left the lab. My labmates refused to leave, no matter what. "We're so sorry, Tessa.

If it weren't for us, you wouldn't have gotten yelled at by Miles." Then every one of them insisted on staying to wash bottles with me. "They can't punish all of us.

With this many of us, Miles can't kick us all out, right?" "Right. Worst case, we finish and leave first, and you leave after.

Miles can't watch us forever." And just like that, they rolled up their sleeves and started scrubbing reagent bottles like crazy. I didn't try to talk them out of it again.

I picked up the bottles and patiently washed them one by one. My labmates pretended the reagent bottles were Kayla and cursed her as they scrubbed. "This is all that Kayla's fault.

If it weren't for her, none of this mess would've happened!" "I've never seen such a bitch in my life. Getting her driver's license is no excuse to blow off experiments.

Who does she think she is, dumping her work on us?" "And what makes it worse is she skips and Miles doesn't even get mad.

It's so unfair!" Then someone suddenly started gossiping. "Hey, you guys don't think Miles is dating Kayla, do you?

At that group dinner last time, I think the charm on Miles's backpack was from his girlfriend. Somebody tried to touch it and he wouldn't let them." "For real?

I can't even imagine what Mr. IceCold Miles is like in a relationship." "I heard someone ran into them once. Miles seemed pretty in love with his girlfriend.

I think he'd made her mad, so he had her pinned against a wall, kissing her. Nobody got a good look at the girl's face, though." Was he really in love?

I suddenly thought of the charm they'd mentioned. Miles didn't seem to keep it on his bag anymore. In its place was a different cartoon plush charm.

I remembered asking him back then why he'd suddenly switched to a new doll.

He'd visibly panicked for a second, then finally said he'd bought it because he felt sorry for the little girl selling them.

It wasn't until later, when I saw the same cartoon doll on Kayla's bag, that it finally hit me: things between them had changed a long time ago.

So had things between Miles and me quietly changed a long time ago, too? Everyone was so into the gossip that no one noticed me zoning out. The reagent bottles went fast.

Only a dozen or so were left. Just as they wanted to push through and finish them all, I stopped them. "You guys go on back. I'll wash the rest.

Otherwise if Miles sees, he'll think I'm slacking off, and I'll probably get yelled at again." Everyone hesitated. By any measure, they couldn't just leave me there alone.

But if they stayed and Miles actually saw, I might get punished again. Chapter 4 "Go on, there's only a dozen or so left.

I'll be quick." They came over reluctantly and hugged me. "Sorry, babe.

We'll head back and order takeout, and we'll all eat together tonight." I nodded and pushed them out the door. Once they were all gone, the smile dropped from my face.

In that moment, I couldn't keep up the act anymore. I bit down hard on my lip and cried silently in the empty lab. This wasn't how I'd pictured our first anniversary.

I was supposed to be at a beautiful restaurant, eating a beautiful meal, and at the end holding flowers and taking beautiful pictures. Not here alone, washing bottles.

Had I been wrong from the very beginning? Maybe he'd never agreed to be with me because he loved me. He'd just felt sorry for me after watching me chase him for over twenty years.

I washed the last bottle. My wrists ached and my feet had gone numb from standing. I stumbled over to switch off the lab lights and locked the door.

There were a few missed calls on my phone, all from the restaurant, probably asking when we'd get there. I checked the time. This late, the restaurant must have closed already.

There was no point calling back to explain. The science building had long since emptied out.

On a normal night, I'd have been hiding behind Miles, scared of ghosts, and he'd have given a helpless little laugh. "What ghosts? We're chemists.

We know those things are just the effects of substances mixing together. "If you ask me, the only thing spooking this place is one little scaredycat.

Okay, okay, don't be scared." But now I was strangely calm, dragging my exhausted body one step at a time out of the dark building.

It wasn't until I reached the entrance that I saw a tall, straight figure standing under the overhang.

I didn't know if he'd just come down, or if he'd been waiting here a long time. When he saw me coming, he instinctively stepped forward to take my bag. "You must be hungry.

Let me take you to get something to eat." He was a completely different person from the man in the lab that afternoon. Even the way he looked at me was gentle.

But I instinctively dodged him and took a step back. "Rachel and the others ordered takeout. I'll just eat with them. "The reagent bottles are all washed.

If there's nothing else, Donovan, I'll be going." He froze slightly. In the dark his eyes were bright, fixed on the wrist I'd pulled out of his reach.

He seemed a little stunned, unwilling to believe I'd actually dodged him. I didn't want to stick around. I was too tired.

All I wanted was to get back to the apartment, eat something, and sleep. Just then a labmate texted that the takeout had arrived and asked why I wasn't back yet. [I'm done.

Heading back now.] I kept replying as I walked out.

The instant I stepped around him, Miles grabbed my wrist and pulled me into his arms. "Tessa, are you still mad at me?" He held me, his voice forlorn.

My labmates' intel hadn't been wrong. The time they'd seen really had been Miles making up with me.

Every time we fought, cold as he was on the surface, he'd still coax me around in private. That time the fight had been a bad one.

I wouldn't listen to anything he said, so he just pinned me in a dark corner and kissed me senseless, and somewhere in all that kissing my anger melted away.

Seeing me turn my head and ignore him, Miles lowered his eyes to my lips and leaned down to kiss me. Only this time, I shoved him away