Page 5 of Study Buddies

All four of us walked up to the front porch, and Jayden knocked. He was just about to knock again when the porch light came on, and the inner door opened.

A man in his late twenties stood behind the screen, staring at us in surprise. Then he spotted Tori, and his face lit up. Oh man, he definitely had it bad for her. I couldn't say I blamed him, but there was something about the way he was watching her I didn't like.

“Um, hi.” Tori's voice was slightly unsteady. “I think I left my journal here. My friends were nice enough to drive me over.”

Todd gave us half a glance and then pushed the screen door open. “Come in.” His words were directed at Tori, but we all followed her in.

The living room was sparse, but with newer furniture than mine. There was a dining table, a sofa, a couple of armchairs, and a sliding glass door leading out back. Tori headed that way.

“I think I left it out on the porch.”

Todd’s hand clamped around her arm, and she jerked like she'd been burned. A sharp breath slipped from her lips.

“I put it in your bedroom for when you came back,” he said.

This guy definitely still had a thing for her and didn't seem to realize she wanted nothing to do with him.

“I'll show you where it is,” he said, and Tori’s face paled.

“I'll go,” I spoke up. “I know what it looks like.”

Tori shot me a grateful look and shook out of Todd's grip. I exchanged a glance with Jayden, but he and Roger were already on the move, stepping between Tori and her former roommate.

“Nice house,” Jayden said. “How long have you lived here?”

Tori led me down the hall, and while it wasn't a long distance, her steps grew slower. I felt the urge to take her hand again. Maybe if I hadn’t spent the majority of my time worrying about my grade point average last year, we’d be closer. And the kind of friends who could do that.

She pushed open the bedroom door cautiously, as if it might bite, and stepped into a room with a full-size bed, a bookshelf, a dresser, and a desk. Her pink journal was on the top of the dresser. She looked relieved to see it, and she grabbed it and hugged it to her chest like a long-lost friend.

“Do you want to look around and see if you left anything else here?”

“I probably should,” she said. “I packed up pretty quickly.”

I nodded with understanding. She checked the closet and came out with a sweatshirt and a couple of empty hangers.

“These are mine,” she said.

I smiled. “I didn’t suspect you of stealing. And even if you did, it kind of looks like that guy deserves it.”

She gave me a faint smile before looking around the rest of the room.

“Anything under the bed?” I asked.

“I don't think so, but...”

I knelt and lifted the dust ruffle so I could see under the bed. A moment later, I straightened up, holding out a pair of lavender slippers to her. But Tori wasn't looking at me. She was staring at the bookcase, and I saw a shelf near the top where it seemed she had kept her books, judging by the shapes in the dust. Her fingers curled so tightly around the journal that her knuckles paled. She wasn’t breathing. I moved closer. “What is it?”

She lifted a shaky finger and gestured to the shelf. “That's where I found the camera.” Her voice was brittle, and so quiet I could barely hear.

“What camera?” I asked, confused.

“The one he put right here.”

Her meaning hit me like a ton of bricks. Her roommate had planted acamerain her room? A camera. Pointed at her bed. That fucking asshole.

I put my arm around her shoulder, something I never would have dared to do under any other circumstance.

“God, I'm sorry, Tori. I can’t even imagine how you must’ve felt when you found it. Do you want to contact the police?”

---