Cassie: Sooo… how's Vermont treating you so far?
Me: I've been here one day, and already? Creepy.
Cassie: SPILL. NOW.
I sent her a few snaps,,, my dorm room, the view outside my window, and one of Piper, hunched over her calculus textbook like a woman possessed. That was the weirdest part. Piper, with her neon-bright personality, rainbow face paint, and a laugh that could wake the dead, didn't strike me as the academic type. And yet, there she was, drowning and scowling at four different textbooks like they'd personally betrayed her, muttering about the universe's cruel joke of not having one universal way to solve a damn equation. She grumbled under her breath while stabbing a highlighter into the pages.
The photo I sent Cassie caught her mid-laugh... strawberry blonde twin pigtails courtesy of Lily, a gray crop top, green shorts, her signature rainbow streaks smeared across her cheeks like war paint. She had one hand slapped over her mouth braces shy, I suspected she probably always did that in photos because of the reflex way she moved before she could process my camera, her other hand flashed a peace sign like she wasn't seconds ago threatening to burn her calculus book.
The tension from earlier... Casimir's weird, lingering presence, the way the air had gone stiff, had evaporated so fast I almost convinced myself I imagined it. Things slid back into normal. Lily painted my nails jet black, then, because she's an artist with a death wish, added silver flames so sharp they looked like they could cut. Professional-grade. When I asked why she went all out, she smirked and dropped the bomb.
Turns out, Lily wasn't just some student. She was the queen bee behind Vermont's biggest gossip machine... blogs, magazines, you name it. And she was reviving a three-year-old trend... girlfriends "claiming" their boyfriends with something personal. Since she and Cassius weren't dating, she went classic: lipstick on his face. With permission, she swore to me as I laughed. He owed her.
I sent Cassie another pic... this time, me and Lily in full glam menace mode. Lily, a vision in baggy pants and her killer platform heels, shades on, looking like she walked straight out of a punk rock editorial. Me? Silver hair shielding my face, mid-application of Lily's lipstick, middle finger up, black nails gleaming. For once, I didn't look like a drowned rat in a photo.
Cassie's response was a voice note... screeching, half excitement, half betrayal. "YOU'RE REPLACING ME!" Cue an hour of me swearing she's my ultimate bestie, followed by two more dissecting every weird, wonderful second of my day.
By the time we wrapped up, night had swallowed the campus. Lily's laptop glow cut through the dark, highlighting her pout. Piper? Out cold, snoring into her calculus homework like it was a pillow.
Then...
A bell.
Not just any bell. A deep, shuddering gong, like something out of a horror movie. The kind that doesn't ring for good news.
My blood froze.
What the hell was that?
There was noise people moving about the whole building and below. Their chatter made it feel like Vermont was waking up from a slumber. Piper fell from her chair, groaning. Waking up from the pain. I and Lily suppressed a giggle.
"Ready, girls?" Lily asked ten minutes later, her voice was sharp, edged with something like anticipation.
I adjusted my boots, the leather creaking softly. "Ready."
Piper, still sporting the twin pigtails Lily had braided into her strawberry-blonde hair, bounced on her toes. "I hope they serve steak," she mused, licking her lips like she was imagining something far more visceral.
Lily smirked, turning the key in our door... Room 333, with a decisive click.
Then, as if summoned by the sound, the door across the hall... Room 334, swung open.
And there she was.
The girl from earlier today. The one who had looked at my mother and Richard smirking like they were insects beneath her heel and declared, "Vermont doesn't need a principal."
Our gazes collided.
Now, she stood framed in the doorway, her heterochromatic eyes... one amber, one silver, locking onto mine with the precision of a sniper's scope. She wore a black sleeveless gown, the fabric clinging to her like a second skin, slit high enough to reveal the lethal curve of her thigh.
Her lips twitched. Not a smile. A challenge.
I didn't have time to react.
One second, she was in the doorway. The next... she was in front of me, moving with the liquid grace of a stalking panther. The air around her thrummed, thick with something electric, something wrong.
Lily lunged between us before I could blink. "Back. Off."
For a heartbeat, none of us moved.
Then she smiled.
It wasn't friendly.
"Lilith," she purred, tilting her head like a predator sizing up prey.
The air between us crackled.
Lily stepped up in front of me, her posture coiled tight. Piper, beside her, lifted her hands... her nails unsheathed like claws, painted with screaming faces, suddenly looked less like polish and more like actual souls trapped in the lacquer. They hissed along with her. The sound wasn't human.
I froze.
The lights above us flickered. Shadows writhed.
Other students in the hallway slowed, their chatter dying mid-sentence.
"Valerie," Lily's head tilted to the sides, her voice a blade wrapped in silk. "What the fuck are you trying to do?"
Piper's hissing intensified, the faces on her nails twisting in silent agony.
Valerie's smile didn't waver. "Just greeting my old friend. And the new girl."
Greeting a friend? Bullshit.
Lily didn't buy it. Neither did I.
She took another step forward, her stance coiled, ready.
"Keep your fangs and claws to yourself," She snapped. "I don't like dog shit all over my roommate."
A beat. Then...
Valerie, for all her poise, retreated. but the threat in her eyes never wavered. "We'll meet again, new girl." Her voice slithered over me. "After all… we're neighbors now."
Hmm...
Piper flipped her off with a grin, as we shoved past. Lily tossed her hair, muttering as she rolled her eyes, "Bitch."
We walked away, the tension dissipating like smoke.
"I don't think that was…" I hesitated, searching for the right word as my pulse hammered.
"Necessary?" Lily snorted as she shot me a look that could flay my skin "Trust me. It was very fucking necessary."