RILEY

I FEEL LIKE SOMEONE OUT OF AN ACTION MOVIE.

The all black outfit really sells it. I'm wearing high waisted black pants, black turtleneck and a long sleeve leather coat along with my favorite sturdy boots. Outside should be much cooler than before so I'm not taking any chances.

I'm pulling my stretchy headband against my hair when Asher messages me that he got the ID, keys and Jade's room number from Samantha. He doesn't say it like that, more like in code but I know exactly what he means so I type perfect and send it. He responds fast telling me that he's outside and I grab my backpack, tossing my phone inside while I head for the front door. We had split after seeing Samantha and now we're meeting again.

The moment I enter the almost empty parking lot, I spot Asher between two white lines on the pavement. He's wearing all black too. From afar, he looks physically intimidating. His tall and toned upper body was covered with a hooded jacket. Other than the sound of my boots on the ground, the parking lot is eerily silent. Asher turns around when I assume he hears my footsteps approaching, his hand reaching his beanie that covers his ears. "Hey,"He acknowledges my presence.

"Hi." I stop walking. "Are you sure you want to risk it? I can go alone." I'm double checking.

"I'm going with you,"Asher finalizes like it's no big deal. "You're stuck with me Riley. Deal with it."

"Okay." I chirp, dealing with it. I head for the direction of campus. Asher jogs towards me and falls in line, I notice that he's walking on my left where he's closer to the asphalt where cars could turn. I'm closer to the grass. What a gentleman.

Our long strides allow us to end up at Bennett Hall in a few minutes. I glance at the campus library near the residence hall and it's a ghost village. There's no one around. Asher pulls out an ID—Samantha's— and scans it on the electronic access control. The light turns green and the door unlocks. He lets me enter first and then he follows behind.

The fluorescent lights shine over our heads and I continue my footsteps to the old ugly rug I come in contact with. The walls are plain and white and small plants are situated in every corner. The warmth of the building hugs me since it's a different temperature from outside but I'm not here to feel warm. I'm here for business.

"This way." Asher says which reminds me that he's been here before. He must be if he was what he said he was with Samantha so he knows where and how to get around here.

Slowly, I feel myself getting jealous at the thought. Jealous that he's kissed others like he kissed me in the bathroom by the sink. I shouldn't feel this way so I force the feeling down. I should be focused on getting to Jade's dorm and nothing else.

He leads the way to the elevator and it dings shortly after I arrive there, standing on the rug that stretches across the floors. There's no way to tell where it begins or ends. I don't ask where we're going, Asher seems to know according to what the RA told him. When we get on and off the elevator which takes around one minute, we're welcomed into a narrow deserted hallway with doors on both sides. Asher's walking ahead so I follow closely by his side. I lift my head slightly just to look at his face and from his side profile I can see how concentrated he is. It's kinda cute how into this he is.

He stops in front of a broad brown door with markers and a white board connected to it. I see Jade's name written in cursive along with another name that I don't recognize—Nicole. I'm assuming that's the roommate. Asher unlocks the door with the key that he retrieved from his jacket's pocket.

I enter the room and he walks in after me, closing the door. "This is it."

Darkness swallows both of us.

Pulling my backpack open, I grab my flashlight and flick it on. Asher does the same.

We can't risk turning on the room lights.

My bright LED light navigates my path. Every turn and movement of my hand, it highlights the areas of the room. There's pictures on the walls and fairy lights that are currently off. It's a girly dorm and I expect that from Jade Driscoll. She gives off that vibe in class, with her preppy outfits, the girl always wears something with a goddamn collar. But she's fake. She's fake as hell. It's a cover up for the dirty person that she is. The room is clean and organized, every single thing looks in place.

There's stuffed animals on one of the beds. Books neatly placed on the desk. The clothes in the closet appear colorful. Whoever this roommate is must be similar to Jade because there's no way in hell everything looks this similar.

I turn to Asher, my partner in crime tonight. "Where would you hide something you stole?" Then I laugh because he probably can't answer that. "Sorry you've never committed a crime. That's a question for me."

It's a joke and I hope it's funny in such a serious situation. Not that I've ever stolen anything, I would simply never despite doing other stuff like sneaking out as a teen. Taking something that didn't belong to me would make me feel icky. The furthest I've gone to stealing was taking my mother's cigarettes because I couldn't purchase them on my own at fourteen and fifteen. That was it.

"Yeah, you should know you're the criminal here," Asher teases but then he points at the desk in our view to answer my question. "I would say to the desk there or under the mattress. Where do criminals hide their shit?"

There's not much here to search, the furniture is pretty basic so he's gotta be right.

"Contrary to popular belief, I've never stolen anything," I chuckle. My mom's cigarettes don't count. "I think you're right. I'll check the draw and you check under the mattress? If there's nothing then there must be a hole or a safe or something else."

Asher nods, stepping towards one of the beds.

I take the opportunity to march to the desk in the corner. My flashlight is my only source of light here when I pull the draw open. I'm pushing my fingers against staples, pens and sticky notes. I stumble upon a book that looks like a planner. I grab it and flip the pages. Yup. A planner. It's Jade's. Did she write down that she'd steal from my sketchbook? Or was that an impulsive act?

Couldn't be.

She's stolen before according to Samantha, the RA/ex fling/old friend.

I put the book aside and continue moving through the draw.

There's a booklet underneath the pens and everything else. I pull it out, the pens falling to the bottom of the draw to fill the space. Turning the flashlight to the booklet, I flip it open and a page slides out onto the floor. Somehow my heart picks up pace because this could be it. The evidence. My ripped page finally reunited with me.

Stooping to the floor I'm met with the back of the page and a wave of disappointment follows. It looks nothing like my sketchbook pages. This was printed.

"Holy shit." I whisper when I see what's on the page. I turn around to find Asher and he's staring back at me, one hand lifting the bed that he's working on. "It's an essay. With the original owner. This must be who Samantha was talking about."

Penelope Woods.

My eyes shift to the date on the page. She copied the essay this year.

"Wait,"I start skimming through the booklet again for Jade's version of the essay. "Holy shit. Check this out."Of course she left hers in the booklet too. I place both essays side by side on the desk and a laugh escapes my throat. This is unbelievable and funny. Jade isn't smart. At all. I don't know why she would do something this dumb seriously.

Asher leaves whatever he's doing and joins me, looking over the essays and I'm grateful for another pair of eyes.

"If she left this to hang then your sketchbook page must be somewhere around here too." Asher concludes, his LED light merges with mine on the pages. "She didn't change much from the original essay. How did she get away with this?"

I shrug my shoulders. "No idea. She's been off the hook twice," at least according to Samantha. " so she continues to do this but she's messing with the wrong fucking girl."

Jade Driscoll doesn't know who I really am.

"Damn right. We're not leaving until we find what we're looking for." He declares, examining the pages before us. "Jade didn't even try to hide it. Didn't even try hard."

"Right? She's not a smart criminal." I agree.

You know what? I'm glad Jade isn't smart. She couldn't possibly have an above average IQ if she's copying from everyone. It's great that she's leaving the evidence out. It makes my job of finding her wrong doings easier.

I fish for my phone, unlock it and click on the camera. I don't know who Penelope Woods is but this is proof that Jade's done this before and this might help my case if I don't find anything else then I'm happy to have found this.

Asher's light remains on the essays so I take a picture of both of them side by side and individually.

"Did you find anything under the bed?" I probe, returning the essays to their places or so I hope and then I push the draw shut.

Asher shakes his head. "Nothing that's important. I'll check the other bed."

He walks in the direction and I scan the room. There's no safe in the closet or anything like that. The LED light from my flashlight pierces the back of Asher's head. His arms are lifting the bed, well, one of his arm. He doesn't need help to do the heavy lifting. Instead of looking anywhere else, I pop by to help him look underneath the mattress.

There's a bunch of stuff to pull through.

Despite the room appearing neat at first glance, under the mattress is a completely different story.

What is all this stuff?

I lean over to pick up a bright blue plastic bag and that's when I hear it. Someone in the hallway. I glance at Asher just to make sure I'm not making this up. He hears something too, right?

Footsteps approach outside the door. I know it's not Jade because according to her Instagram, she's in Vermont right now. It must be her roommate... Nicole. Or maybe it's someone about to pass this room. The thing is, I'm not taking any chances.

"I thought Samantha said the roommate will be at the bar tonight." I whisper to Asher.

He puts an index finger to his pink lips and takes my hand in his. My hand graces the silver rings on his fingers.

I can't describe the way my heart feels. It's pounding violently against my chest. Normally I wouldn't care in this situation but I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for so I cannot show myself which means we have to hide.

Something jingles outside the door. I'm certain it's the sound of keys. Shit. Shit. Shit.

It's being inserted on the other side of this door.

Asher turns off his flashlight and I do the same. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. There's no door on the stupid closet so it's not like we can hide there. Could Asher even fit inside the closet with me if there was a door?

The next thing I feel is myself being pulled. I can barely see, Asher's going lower onto the floor. "We're rolling under the bed." He whispers and I almost didn't hear him.

In a swift movement, his body disappears under one of the beds.

I don't have time to think, I follow his lead.

The door creaks open just in time for my feet to vanish under the bed or... so I hope. Then the lights turn on.

——-
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Double update weekend? Yes I did cut it off here, forgive me but I had to

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