Chapter 1

At 11:00 pm, my roommate, Lily Carter, clutches her stomach and begs me to cover for her during the nightly dorm inspection.

"Jamie, my cramps are killing me. Just mark my attendance record so I can run to a clinic and get some medicine."

I'm about to check off her name when blood-red comments suddenly flash across my vision.

"Idiot! Check your wallet. She already stole your driver's license."

"She's sneaking out to meet Mr. Miller at a hotel, and they're checking in under your name!"

"Tomorrow morning, his furious wife is going to storm onto campus and accuse you of sleeping with her husband in front of everyone!"

When Lily sees me hesitate, her eyes fill with tears. "We're going to be roommates for the next four years. You seriously can't do this one little thing for me?"

I close the attendance sheet and look her straight in the eye.

"If you're really in that much pain, I'll call an ambulance."

I pause and add, "Or I can call Ms. Dawson right now and have her take you to the hospital herself."

Chapter 1

The helpless look on my roommate Lily Carter's face froze instantly.

She stared at me, clearly not expecting that answer.

"Jamie Lane, what is wrong with you?" She kept her voice low, but there was no hiding the irritation in it. "I'm just going to a walk-in clinic to get some ibuprofen. Why would you call an ambulance? Are you trying to get our advisor involved?"

I slipped the attendance sheet back into my backpack and zipped it shut. "Campus housing rules require residents to notify the dorm staff before leaving campus overnight."

I met her eyes. "You're saying your cramps are so bad that you need to leave campus in the middle of the night. If it's that serious, I'm not taking responsibility for letting you walk out of here alone. And if something happens to you after you leave, who's going to answer for it?"

Lily clenched her jaw. Tears immediately welled in her eyes.

"Do you have any idea what time it is? If you call Ms. Dawson now, she's going to lose it! Just check my name off the sheet. Nobody's going to know. Jamie, you always act like such a goody-two-shoes. How can you be this heartless when I actually need your help?"

Still crying, she reached for my backpack. "Give me the sheet. I'll check myself off!"

I slapped her hand away.

The sharp smack echoed through the room.

Lily yelped and jerked her hand back, staring at me in disbelief. "You hit me?"

"I'm teaching you to keep your hands to yourself," I said coldly.

Just then, the bathroom door opened.

Our other roommate, Sophie Reed, walked out with a sheet mask still on her face. "What is going on out here? It's the middle of the night. Some of us are trying to sleep."

Lily immediately rushed over as if she'd finally found a source of support and grabbed Sophie's arm.

"Sophie, tell me if I'm being unreasonable here. My cramps are killing me, so I wanted to run to a clinic and get some medicine. All I asked Jamie to do was cover for me during the room check.

"But not only did she refuse, she also threatened to call an ambulance and drag Ms. Dawson into it!"

Lily thrust out the hand I'd slapped. "And she hit me!"

Sophie peeled off her face mask, and her expression immediately changed. She looked me up and down before giving an irritated scoff.

"Seriously, Jamie? That's a little much, don't you think? We're roommates. What's wrong with helping each other out once in a while? You're just the floor rep. It's not like they handed you a badge and made you campus police. Don't let it go to your head."

With someone finally taking her side, Lily immediately found her confidence again. "Exactly! Keep acting like this, and I'll get everyone on the floor to vote you out tomorrow."

I looked at the two of them and almost laughed.

They really had no idea what was coming.

The comments popped up one after another.

"Don't give in! She's trying to guilt-trip you!"

"Her phone has buzzed three times already. Mr. Miller is outside losing his mind waiting for her."

"The second you mark her as present, you're screwed. By tomorrow morning, when the whole campus will find out about the affair, you'll be the one who falsified the room check to help cover it up."

I folded my arms and stared Lily down.

"Save the guilt trip. You want roommates to help each other? Fine. You said you're going to a clinic, right? Which clinic? Who's the doctor on duty? What are they going to give you for the pain?"

I pulled out my phone. "Since I'm the floor rep and apparently take my responsibilities way too seriously, why don't I call the clinic right now? We can get a doctor on video and have them check you out before you even leave."

Lily faltered. "I… I haven't been there yet. How am I supposed to know which doctor is working?"

"Then how did you know the clinic was still seeing patients?" I shot back. "It's 11:00 pm. Which clinic in Brookhaven is even open this late?"

Sophie frowned. "Why does it matter which one is open? Jamie, are you seriously interrogating her over this?"

"Interrogating her?" I laughed.

I walked up to Lily and took a pointed look at her face.

She was wearing a full face of makeup, right down to the false lashes.

"You're supposedly in so much pain you're about to pass out, but you still had time to put on your best red lipstick?"

My gaze dropped to her feet. "And you're barely able to stand, but you're heading to the clinic in three-inch heels?"

Lily took a step back, one hand flying to cover her mouth. Her eyes darted away. "I… I put this on earlier. I went out this afternoon and forgot to take my makeup off!"

Chapter 2

"Jamie, stop making things up! Fine, I'm not going anywhere. Happy now? I'll just stay here and suffer all night!"

Lily spun around and started climbing into bed.

But I wasn't about to let her end the conversation that easily.

I caught the back of her shirt and pulled her away.

"Let me go! Are you crazy?" Lily shrieked.

I ignored her and went straight to my desk, yanking open the bottom drawer.

Those comments had put me on edge.

If they were right, Lily's plan tonight went a lot further than tricking me into marking her present.

I pulled out my wallet and opened it.

My credit cards, debit card, and student ID were exactly where they should be—but not my driver's license.

The slot where I always kept it was empty.

My stomach dropped.

I knew it.

I turned and fixed Lily with a hard stare. "Where's my driver's license?"

Something flickered across Lily's face.

It vanished almost immediately, but I'd already seen it.

"What driver's license? How would I know where you put it?" Lily immediately went on the defensive. "Don't accuse me of stealing just because you can't keep track of your own stuff!"

I held up my wallet, the empty slot clearly visible, and walked toward her. "I had it with me at the library this afternoon, and I put it straight back in my wallet.

"After dinner, you were the only person who came into our room. Now my license is missing, and suddenly you're desperate to sneak off campus in the middle of the night."

I stared straight at her. "Lily, what exactly were you planning to do with my driver's license?"

Her face flushed bright red, and her voice shot up. "Jamie, that's nonsense! Why would I steal your stupid license? Stop blaming me for every little thing that goes wrong!"

Sophie hurried over and stepped between us. "Jamie, are you seriously this paranoid? You lose something, and your first reaction is to accuse Lily of stealing it? You owe her an apology. And if you don't give her one right now, we're taking this to the RA."

"Taking it to the RA?" I laughed. "Works for me."

I dialed 911.

"If neither of you know anything about it, then I'm calling the police. My ID is missing. Someone could use it to open accounts in my name, check into a hotel, or commit fraud. I'm not taking that risk. I'm filing a police report tonight, and they can come down here and figure out who took it."

My thumb hovered over the call button.

The innocent expression Lily had been clinging to disappeared. Her face went white.

She lunged at me. "Don't!"

She grabbed my hand, digging her nails painfully into my skin.

"What is wrong with you? It's a driver's license! Why are you calling the cops over something this stupid?"

I ripped my hand out of her grip, my expression turning icy. "If you didn't take it, why are you so desperate to stop me?"

Lily was breathing hard now, her eyes red with panic. "I… I just remembered! I borrowed your license this afternoon to make a copy. I needed an ID for a research competition. I think I put it in my bag and forgot to give it back!"

The excuse came out in a nervous, stumbling rush.

"You borrowed my license? When exactly did that happen? Because I don't remember giving you permission."

"I… I asked you through the bathroom door while you were taking a shower. You probably didn't hear me."

The comments went wild.

"You 'probably didn't hear'? She straight up stole it!"

"Unbelievable. She's really going to keep lying until she has nowhere left to run."

"Make her give it back! She can't, because Mr. Miller already took it to the hotel front desk to check in!"

I held out my hand. "If it's in your bag, give it back to me right now."

Lily froze. Her fingers fidgeted near the opening of her bag, but she made no move to reach inside.

"I… I can't find it right now. Maybe I left it at the copy shop. I'll go look for it tomorrow, okay?"

Her embarrassment quickly turned to anger, as if speaking louder could somehow make her story more convincing. "Jamie, why can't you just let this go? It's one stupid driver's license! Do you seriously have to make my life miserable over it?"

I shook my head. "Lily, do you have any idea how much trouble you can get into for stealing and using someone else's ID?"

Lily's lips trembled.

Before she could come up with another excuse, the door to the room next door swung open.

Several girls poked their heads into the hallway, drawn out by all the shouting.

"What's going on?"

"Why is everyone yelling this late?"

Sophie immediately seized the opportunity and raised her voice so everyone could hear.

"You guys need to see this! Jamie's completely abusing her position as floor rep! Lily has horrible cramps and just wanted to go get some medicine.

"Jamie refused to cover for her, and now she can't find her own stuff, so she's accusing Lily of being a thief! How is someone like that supposed to be our floor rep?"

Whispers quickly spread through the growing crowd outside our door.

"Jamie's taking this way too seriously."

"Seriously. Lily's always been generous with everyone. Why would she steal anything?"

"It's the middle of the night. Can't Jamie just drop it?"

As the murmurs grew louder, I caught the smug little smile tugging at the corners of Lily's mouth.

She thought she'd won.

She thought she could just get enough people on her side and make me look unreasonable, and sooner or later I'd cave just to make the whole thing go away.

Too bad she'd picked the wrong person to mess with.

Chapter 3

I ignored the whispers and judgmental looks coming from the hallway.

Instead, I opened my contacts and found Ms. Karina Dawson's number.

Then I called her and put the phone on speaker.

After the second ring, Lily suddenly realized what I was doing. "Jamie, what are you doing?"

She lunged for my phone, but I sidestepped her and shoved a chair into her path with my foot.

"Ouch!" Lily stumbled straight into it.

The call connected.

"Hello? Jamie?" Ms. Dawson's groggy voice came through the speaker. "Do you know what time it is? What's wrong?"

The entire hallway went silent.

The girls who'd been craning their necks through the doorway immediately backed away, suddenly much less interested in offering their opinions.

Even Sophie took a nervous step back.

Lily had ended up on the floor after running into the chair. Her face was ashen now, and she was frantically trying to catch my eye. She pressed her palms together, silently begging me to stop.

"Sorry for waking you, Ms. Dawson," I said calmly. "But there are two urgent situations I need to report."

"First, my roommate, Lily Carter, says her cramps are so severe that she's close to passing out and needs to leave campus immediately for medical treatment.

"I don't have the authority to approve her leaving this late, and I'm not comfortable taking responsibility for her safety once she's off campus. Could you please come over and arrange for someone to take her to the ER?"

"She's lying!" Lily shrieked, trying to keep her voice down even as she scrambled toward me.

She reached for my face, apparently hoping to cover my mouth. "I'm fine! I don't need to go anywhere!"

Ms. Dawson sounded wide awake now. "What's going on over there? Who's yelling?"

There was a brief pause before her voice sharpened.

"Lily? If you're in that much pain, why are you refusing medical care and causing a scene in the dorm?"

I continued in the same measured tone, "There's a second issue, and this one is more serious. My driver's license disappeared from my room. Lily just admitted that she took it without my permission, and now she either can't or won't give it back.

"At this point, I'm treating it as theft. I'd like you to come to the dorm and deal with this immediately. If we can't resolve it through the school, I'll contact campus security and file a police report."

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line.

Theft in a college dorm wasn't something the administration could simply brush aside. Once a formal complaint was made, it could turn into a serious disciplinary case.

"Jamie, stay calm and don't call the police yet," Ms. Dawson said quickly. "Keep everyone there. I'm on my way."

The call ended.

I slipped my phone into my pocket and looked down at Lily, who was still sitting on the floor.

"There's no need to wait until tomorrow anymore." I pulled out a chair. "We're settling this tonight."

Lily was trembling all over. She jabbed a finger at me and finally dropped all pretense of innocence.

"Jamie, you bitch! Are you seriously trying to ruin my life over this? Fine! I took your license! So what? It's not like I stole your money!"

Sophie jumped in. "Jamie, this has gone way too far. It's an ID, for god's sake. Did you really have to wake Ms. Dawson up and turn this into some huge disciplinary thing? We're all living together. How are things supposed to work after this?"

I sat down and crossed my legs. "If we can't live together, one of us can move. I'm not sharing a room with someone who thinks stealing is no big deal."

Just then, a phone began vibrating urgently inside Lily's pocket.

In the dead silence of the room, the sound seemed impossibly loud.

Lily stiffened and clapped a hand over her pocket.

Another wave of comments flashed past.

"Here we go! Mr. Miller's getting impatient!"

"He's asking why she isn't there yet. He already paid for the hotel room."

"Get her phone! This is where it gets good!"

My eyes settled on her pocket.

"Why don't you answer it, Lily?" I asked coolly. "It's pretty late for someone to be calling you this many times. Who's so desperate to reach you?"

"N-none of your business!" Her words came out in a stammer. Beads of sweat were already forming along her hairline.

The phone kept vibrating.

A few of the girls who'd retreated earlier had crept back into the hallway, curiosity getting the better of them. Now everyone was watching Lily.

"What's wrong?" I pressed. "Is that the clinic calling to remind you to pick up your medicine?"

Lily kept one hand clamped over her pocket as she backed away from me.

"I'll… I'll just put it on silent!"

She hurriedly pulled out her phone and fumbled for the button to dismiss the call.

The instant the screen lit up, I moved.

I lunged forward, caught Lily by the wrist, and twisted her arm just enough to make her lose her grip.

She cried out, and the phone slipped from her hand.

It hit the floor face up, the bright screen impossible to miss in the dim room.

A message notification filled the lock screen.

And because Lily had her message previews on, every word was right there for anyone to see—including Ms. Dawson.

She had just arrived at our doorway, slightly out of breath and looking ready to tear into all of us for causing such a scene.

Then she followed my gaze to the phone on the floor.

The anger vanished from her face.

The message was from a contact Lily had saved as "Big Daddy Mr. Miller".

"What's taking you so long? Room 302 at the Briarwood Inn. I've been waiting for you."