Chapter Sixteen- Friends

I stood there for a moment after Madden walked away, her words settling into my chest like stones.

I don't own napkins. It was there when I got there.

If Madden hadn't left the napkin, then who had?

Someone had placed it on that table, knowing I would find it. Knowing I would assume it was from her. Knowing I would go to the lake.

Someone had wanted me there.

I pulled out my phone and typed a quick message to Detective Cross: Madden didn't leave the napkin. Someone else did.

Her response came a minute later: Be careful. Someone is playing games with you.

Someone was playing games. But I was done being a pawn.

The rest of the day passed slowly.

I went to class. I took notes. I sat through a lecture on Victorian literature that I couldn't focus on. Ashley passed me a note with a drawing of a cat wearing a hat. I drew a mustache on it and passed it back. She made it a routine anytime we were in the same class. She snorted loudly, and the professor glared at us.

After class, Myles was waiting for me in front of the humanities building

“Finally, how was class?"

“Could be better.”

Come on. I'm buying you lunch."

"You already bought me coffee this morning."

"So? You need to eat."

He didn't wait for an answer. He just started walking toward the dining hall, and I followed. Because somehow, without meaning to, I'd started following him a lot.

Lunch was chaotic.

Ashley had saved a table near the windows, surrounded by what looked like half the contents of her backpack. Madden was there too, picking at a salad, her cast resting on the table like a paperweight.

"You're late," Ashley said.

"You're early." I retorted with a smile and say down.

Myles sat across from me. He'd gotten a burger and fries, and he pushed the fries toward the center of the table, an unspoken invitation. Ashley grabbed a handful. Madden took one. I took none.

"Nova," Myles said. "Eat."

"I’m fine.”

“No you are not.” He took a handful of fries and tried to feed it to me. “Here,have it, here comes the Choo- choo train.”

“Myles stop, I am fine."

And he kept waving it in my face.

Ashley cleared her throat and she and Madden snickered.

“You didn’t try to feed us, Myles.” Madden teased.

I smiled and took the fries from him.

He grinned from ear to ear.

---

The afternoon was cloudy, the kind of gray that made everything feel softer, quieter. Ashley had a study group. Madden had a doctor's appointment for her cast. Myles had nothing, or so he said.

"You could study," I suggested.

"I could. But I won't."

We walked to the library together, found a table in the back corner, and sat in comfortable silence. He pretended to read a textbook. I pretended to take notes. But mostly, we just existed in the same space, breathing the same air, not needing to fill the quiet with words.

At 4 PM, my phone buzzed.

Detective Cross: I looked into the napkin. No prints. No trace. Whoever left it knew what they were doing.

I typed back: So what now?

Her response came faster this time: You keep building trust with your friends. The truth will come out. It always does.

Friends. She called them my friends.

I looked across the table at Myles, who had given up on pretending to read and was now scrolling through his phone. He caught me looking and raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"The thing where you look at me like you're trying to solve a puzzle." He set down his phone. "Am I a puzzle, Nova?"

"Everyone's a puzzle."

"And have you solved me yet?"

I held his gaze. "Not yet."

He smiled. It reached his eyes this time. "Good. I'd hate to be predictable."

---

Dinner was pizza in Myles's dorm room.

Ashley had insisted. "We need a change of scenery," she'd announced. "The dining hall is depressing."

"All dining halls are depressing," Madden said.

"This one is extra depressing."

So we gathered on Myles's floor, sitting on pillows and sleeping bags, passing around a box of pepperoni pizza that was already half-gone by the time I got a slice. His roommate was there too..a guy named Derek who said hello, grabbed a slice, and disappeared into his room.

"He's shy," Myles explained.

"He's dreamy…I mean smart," Ashley countered.

“Of course you did.” Myles teased, and we all laughed,

"Avoiding people is the key to happiness." She added creasing her face.

"Then Nova must be the happiest person here," Madden said.

I looked up. "Excuse me?"

"You avoid everyone," Madden said. "Except us."

“Maybe it IS the key to happiness.”

---

The night ended the way it always ended now.

Ashley fell asleep on someone's shoulder. Madden walked back to her dorm first, waving over her shoulder. Myles walked me to the door of my building, his hands in his pockets, his breath fogging in the cold air.

"Thank you Myles.”

“Yeah, no issues.”

He turned to leave, then stopped. "Nova?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for today. For... I don't know. Being there."

“Thank you too…I honestly didn’t think I was going to make uhm…people to talk to.”

“People to talk to?” He raised an eyebrow

“Yeah, you guys.”

“So we are not friends?”

“I’ve never had friends, I just…”

“…So let me be your first.” He cut me off and extended his hands for a handshake.

Something in me didn’t think it was a good idea making friends with the person likely responsible for killing my sister and something in me knew I could trust Myles at least.

“Friends.” I said taking his hands.

Then he finally turned and left.

I stared at his body built back shadow until I couldn’t see it anymore No wonder Alice fell for him. I frowned when I caught myself smiling.

The room was dark when I got upstairs.

Ashley was already in bed, her breathing soft and even. I sat on my mattress and pulled out the napkin again.

Be at the lake tonight at 11pm.

The words stared back at me, smudged and faded. Someone had written this. Someone had wanted me to come.

Someone who wasn't Madden.

I thought about the list on my phone. Madden. Myles. Ashley. Professor Vance. Helena Vance. Caleb from Psych class. Natalie Vasquez.

And now someone else. Someone whose name I didn't even know.

I folded the napkin and tucked it back under my pillow.

Tomorrow, I will start paying closer attention. To everyone. To everything.

Because somewhere in this campus, hidden in plain sight, was the person who left that napkin.

And I was going to find them.

I lay back on my bed and stared at the ceiling. The familiar water stain looked back at me..

I closed my eyes.

But sleep didn't come.

Because underneath my pillow, where the napkin was hidden, my fingers brushed against something else.

A photograph.

Not the one from the break-in. A new one.

I sat up fast, my heart pounding. I pulled it out and turned on my phone's flashlight.

It was me. Asleep. In this room. On this bed.

Taken from the doorway.

The timestamp on the back read: 3:47 AM. Last night.

While I was sleeping. While Ashley was sleeping. Someone had been standing in our doorway, watching us sleep.

And on the back, in the same red substance, the same uneven letters:

Sweet dreams.

I dropped the photograph like it had burned me.

The door was locked. The window was closed. The fire escape was empty.

Someone had been inside our room.

And I hadn't woken up.

I hadn't heard a thing.