The Girl in the Hoodie is Mine

Amber’s POV: 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Just as I was about to leave for campus, my father’s voice thundered through the hallway again. I could practically feel the walls shake from his anger. Ugh. What now?

I sighed, mentally preparing myself for yet another lecture. As I made my way to his study, heels clicking against the pristine marble floors, I caught sight of one of the maids who quickly looked away, her face pinched with worry. Everyone knew when my father was in a bad mood, and the whole household braced for impact. I couldn’t help but wonder what had him worked up this time—after all, wasn’t the morning’s fiasco mess enough?

When I finally entered his study, he was standing behind his desk, scrolling through his phone, jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might crack. I didn’t need to ask to know what he was looking at. The video. The very video I thought would have faded by now, just another flash-in-the-pan scandal. But apparently, it was doing the exact opposite.

"Amber." He spat my name, not even bothering to look up. "The video has gone viral. It’s all over the internet, all over social media—every news outlet is covering it. The Prescott family name is being dragged through the mud, and it’s all because of you."

I swallowed hard, feeling a wave of frustration and panic flood me. Viral? Great. Just great. Now the entire country was gawking at my "little mishap" with the Kings. Everywhere I will go, people would be whispering about how I’d humiliated Jason King in front of the entire social elite. It was one thing to deal with a few snide comments from people at the party, but now... every single person I knew would have seen that footage.

"Well?" he demanded, snapping me out of my thoughts. "What are you planning to do about it?"

I bit back a retort, knowing that sarcasm wouldn’t do me any favors right now. I crossed my arms and took a breath, thinking quickly. "Obviously, I won’t be going to campus today," I said with a defiant edge in my voice. "There’s no way I’m subjecting myself to the snickering and staring. Those vultures will be all over me."

For a moment, he looked at me with something close to understanding, or at least acceptance. "Fine. Stay out of the public eye today. But I expect you to handle this properly. The longer this drags on, the worse it will be for all of us."

I could feel the anger simmering under my skin. This wasn’t just about Jason, the video, or even the Kings. This was about everyone turning on me, every person who’d once envied me now waiting for me to fall. I wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction.

"Don’t worry, Father," I replied, forcing my voice to sound cool and controlled. "I’ll take care of it."

The Kings had pulled out of the deal.

The thought buzzed in my mind like a furious wasp, prickling with a dread I wasn’t used to feeling. My father was livid. No, livid didn’t even begin to cover it. He was seething with an intensity that made the entire household tiptoe around him like he was a ticking time bomb. And all because of me. Because I’d had a little fun at that gala, because I’d thought a harmless prank would be no big deal.

But of course, nothing involving the Kings was ever a "harmless prank." They were as close to royalty as it got around here. And Jason? He wasn’t just any rich guy—he was the prized heir to their empire, the very definition of untouchable. But I had touched him, all right, in the most humiliating way possible. I’d dragged his name into a scandal, splashed his image across tabloids, and created a ripple of humiliation that had spread to his family—and therefore, to mine.

My father’s voice was cold as he fixed me with that unforgiving glare of his. "The Kings have canceled every single business deal they had with us, Amber. Every. Single. One. Do you know what that means?"

I swallowed, trying to keep my expression calm. "I didn’t mean to embarrass Jason," I muttered, "I was just trying to mess with that girl he was with. It wasn’t supposed to—"

He cut me off with a scathing look. "Intentions don’t matter here, Amber. The damage is done. You humiliated Jason King in front of the entire social elite, and the Kings don’t take well to public humiliation. Do you understand what you’ve cost us?"

I could feel the weight of his words pressing down on me, the magnitude of what I’d done finally sinking in. The Kings had pulled out of business with the Prescotts’. This wasn’t just a minor scandal; it was a full-on catastrophe for my father’s company, his reputation, everything he’d built.

"But... Jason," I stammered, my mind spinning. "Has he... seen the footage?"

"Of course he has." My father’s tone was practically dripping with disdain. "And I can assure you, he’s not pleased. Neither is his family. As of now, any hope we had of you securing a relationship with him is hanging by a thread."

The weight of those words hit me hard. My father’s ambition had always been to strengthen our family’s influence, and in his eyes, an alliance with the Kings was the pinnacle of success. Jason and I were supposed to be the power couple. It was practically a given in his mind that I would become Jason’s fiancée one day—an ideal arrangement, as far as he was concerned, that would benefit both families. But now, that vision was crumbling, slipping through my fingers all because of my reckless actions.

I clenched my fists, anger simmering inside me—not just at myself, but that bitch, that smug girl Jason had been with. This was all her fault. If she hadn’t been so insufferably perfect, if she hadn’t tried to waltz into our world and act like she belonged, I wouldn’t have been tempted to humiliate her in the first place. She’d ruined everything.

My father’s gaze softened slightly, though his tone was still icy. "Amber, you’ve put us in an impossible position. The Kings want nothing to do with us now. But you still have a chance, a slim one, to fix this. If you can somehow get Jason to forgive you and consider a relationship with you on your own terms..."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, so now it’s on me to get Jason to want me, just like that? No business arrangements, no family deals—just me, charming him like a desperate little damsel?"

"Exactly," my father replied, unflinching. "If you want to salvage this, you’ll have to make him see you as someone he wants to be with. You’re clever, Amber. Use that to your advantage. Appeal to him. Make him believe that this was a mistake, that you didn’t intend to embarrass him."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The truth was, I wasn’t exactly used to winning people over with "charm." My methods were usually a bit more... direct. But if that’s what it took to fix this mess, then I had no choice.

As I walked back to my room, my mind raced with plans. How could I make Jason see me in a new light? He was furious with me now, but maybe there was a way to turn that around, to make him see that what had happened at the gala wasn’t as serious as it seemed.

But another thought gnawed at the back of my mind—what if he wasn’t interested? What if he couldn’t be persuaded to forgive me?

As I returned to my room, I grabbed my phone, already planning my next steps.