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I took my sweet old time returning to my room. The sky turned into dusk, and I decided to hold onto my skateboard and walk back. For some reason, I couldn’t get that guy, Travis, out of my head. Those tattoos, and the easy smile on his lips. He was exactly my type of guy, and also exactly the type of guy that I should steer clear from. Guys like him were never good news.
Never. Trust me, I’d dated a guy just like him, and it didn’t end well.
I passed a few groups of guys as I walked, and I could feel their eyes on me. They were curious, questioning. I’d be the shiny new thing on campus for a while. My mom always made comments about how I should have guys lining the street to date me—I knew it was something my mom said because she was a parent, but here? Here I might actually get a line.
A line of guys. Go figure.
My phone buzzed, and I spotted it was Kelsey before answering it. “Hey,” I said, grinning.
“Don’t hey me,” Kelsey spoke. I could imagine her pacing her tiny dorm room, biting on her fingernails. “You never texted back. The last thing I knew there was a hot tattooed guy hitting on you—”
I chuckled, turning my eyes up to the darkening sky. “He wasn’t hitting on me. He was…actually, I don’t know what he was doing.”
Travis was…drop dead sexy. All those tattoos. I knew he had to have more everywhere else on his body. A guy didn’t just have two sleeves of tats without having some on his back and chest. Maybe even some below the waist…
“Eyeing up the new girl on campus, that’s what,” Kelsey said. “How’s your roommate? I never got any shirtless pics, by the way. Still waiting on those.”
“Oh, so it’s pictures now, is it? I thought you just wanted the one.”
“Don’t be silly. I’d prefer multiple, but if I have to settle, I’ll settle for one. An ab shot, please.”
“You assume my roommate is fit. He could have pudge. You don’t know,” I said. No one looked good leaning over, but Declan hadn’t looked bad. He looked thin and fit. He might very well have abs underneath his dark clothes.
It took Kelsey a minute to ask, “Did he have pudge?”
“No.”
“Of course he didn’t! You’re at a school full of guys, Ash. I bet he’s cute, too. Murphy’s Law would dictate that your roommate be hot, fit, and adorable. The kind of guy that’s off-limits because you’re living together and he’s the dean’s son.”
Yeah, the whole dean’s son thing was the only reason my mom felt comfortable enough to leave me here, I think. It gave Declan some accountability, and whatever reassurance my mom needed to believe I’d be fine here.
When I said nothing, Kelsey asked, “He is cute, isn’t he?”
I felt my face heating up. “Yes,” I muttered, not wanting to think about how cute he was. This was college. This was a university. It wasn’t a time to go boy crazy over every guy that walked by. Kelsey was boy crazy enough for the two of us. I had to work hard here, keep my grades up. Getting distracted by dicks and abs? Might sound like fun, but my mom would never let me hear the end of it.
“Pictures,” Kelsey deadpanned, and I laughed as I hung up the phone. If I didn’t hang up, I didn’t doubt that she’d go on and on about how she needed pictures. Ridiculous, because I knew she’d already scoped out a few guys in her dorm building, and I didn’t demand pictures of them.
I mean, what was I supposed to do? Ask him to close his eyes and snap one real quick? I was smooth, but not that smooth, and apparently not so smooth around him.
I made it back to the dorm building in ten minutes. It took a lot longer to walk across campus than it did to glide. Ninety-nine percent of the parents were gone, the street near the dorm empty, no longer jam-packed with cars and suitcases. I took the stairs up to my floor and went for the key in my pocket. I pulled out the lanyard, but my feet stumbled to a halt when I came across the door to my room. Or, rather, what was attached to the door.
It was small, kept up with tape, but it was impossible to miss. Just a piece of paper with red scribbled onto it. One word was all it said, and I felt my stomach clench as I stepped closer, tearing it off the door.
Murderer.
I glanced both ways down the hall, not seeing anyone else out. Someone must’ve put this up after I left. I had no idea what the paper meant, but I crumbled it up and slid it in my back pocket before walking inside. Declan sat at his desk, headphones on, watching some video on YouTube. He wouldn’t have heard them put it up.
Well, I knew the note wasn’t for me, so it had to be for Declan. Declan seemed depressed, but he didn’t seem like a murderer.
Then again, I didn’t know him that well. He was the dean’s son, so maybe he’d got off on something. Could I Google it? I didn’t want to bring up something that might trigger him. Declan didn’t look like he could handle a lot right now.
It was settled. I’d Google it.
Declan didn’t even look at me when I entered, which was good, I supposed, because I’m sure my face was freaked out. Dean Briggs wouldn’t have made me room with a killer, even if it was his son, right? I mean, in what reality did that make sense?
I plopped on my bed and reached for my phone, going into the search bar. After making sure my location was on to only get local search results, I typed in Hillcrest and murder. Nothing popped up. The area was actually pretty safe, probably because of the rich boys and their families.
That, or they just had the money to cover their crimes up. The possibility made my stomach boil. No one should get away with crime, regardless of how much money they had.
