As I fumbled with my key in the lock, there was laughter on the other side of the bedroom door.
At first, I thought maybe Hanna had someone over and wondered if I'd be interrupting something—but by then my key had made a noise and it would've been weird to walk away. Also, this afternoon had turned unusually cold for early April, and I didn't want to spend any longer than I needed to outside in this thin jacket. The warmth of my slightly stuffy dorm room had never been more appealing.
So I reached for the handle and stepped inside.
The laughter dried up quickly, as if it escaped through the open door. But I could still see it etched into Hanna's and Josh's faces from where they were sitting on her bed. Both of them, side by side on one mattress, Josh leaning slightly over her shoulder as they peered at something on her phone screen. Maybe even close enough to touch—although I didn't have time to get a good look before they shifted on the spot.
"Morgan!" came Hanna's shrill cry—suspiciously excitable?—as she threw her hands up in the air. "You're finally here!"
"I am," I said, a little confused. I hadn't been keeping them waiting; if anything, my final class of the day had finished ten or so minutes early. "And so's Josh, which I wasn't expecting. What's the occasion?"
He stood up from Hanna's bed then, making his way over to me and planting a kiss on my lips. It was hard not to analyze his every movement, searching for traces of guilt or shiftiness, and I couldn't tell whether it made me feel better or worse that there weren't any. "Thought I'd stop by and treat you to my face after class," he said smoothly. "But maybe I have stumbled on a real occasion, because it turns out Hanna's celebrating."
Dropping my backpack on my bed, I glanced over. "You are?"
"We finally did it!" she said, waving her phone at me. "Issue six of GXRL officially has more readers than this week's Daily. David Stephenson can suck my dick."
"You're kidding."
"Nope." She shook her head gleefully. "The circulation figures for the print edition are in. For the first time in over a century, the Daily isn't the most-read publication on campus. And that's without even mentioning our record-breaking website stats."
"Oh my God," I said. "That's insane."
And it was true. The Davidson Daily was only a couple of years younger than the university itself, and after securing its position as the main campus newspaper had stayed there ever since. Sure, there were a couple of other niche publications, plus a handful of online-only outlets that tended to fizzle out after a few years, but nothing had ever come close. And certainly none of them had ever set out to rival the Daily. It would've been impossible.
For anyone except Hanna Griffin.
"Right?" she said, almost vibrating with energy. "It was definitely the undercover feature about discrimination in sorority recruitment practices. Frat boy David wouldn't dare write a word about his beloved Greek life that wasn't licking the assholes of everyone involved. Well, he's missing a trick, because I'm telling you: everyone wants to know the kind of shit that goes on behind those fancy doors. People love an exposé."
"You are amazing," I told her. "Seriously. I'm in awe."
She grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you, Morg. I know this magazine has made me a crazy bitch at times, and I've had way too many sleepless nights and emotional breakdowns over the last few months—but this moment seriously makes it all worth it."
"Does David know?"
"Well, I know he's been watching the distribution numbers as closely as I have lately," Hanna said. "But it's been radio silence so far. Which I hope means he's shaking with rage and throwing shit at his office walls as we speak."
I caught her eye and smiled. "I hope that, too."
"Either way, like Josh said, it definitely calls for a celebration. Thank God there's already a giant party happening downtown tonight. And to top it all off, I've already hit the jackpot." She reached under her bed then, fumbling around for a couple of seconds before pulling out two vodka bottles with a flourish. "Ta-da!"
"Where did you get those?"
"My latest recruit on the copy team is a senior," she said. "Turns out she could really use the experience on her resumé, and I could really use the occasional favor from someone who's over twenty-one..."
Even Josh nodded appreciatively. "Nice."
"And I'm manifesting it now: I'm getting absolutely shitfaced tonight," she said, looking from one of us to the other like she was making a promise. "I'm talking paralytic. I don't even wanna know my own name by the time I go to bed tonight."
I turned my nose up. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"No, it's not, but it'll be fun and I'm doing it anyway." She gave me a slightly sheepish look. "Sorry, Morg."
"Sorry won't cut it when I'm the one holding your hair back later."
"Hey, you know me. I can handle my alcohol. When do I ever end up puking?"
I took a second to recall. Then, "That time after prom when you—"
"OK, yeah, you got me," she cut in. "That was pretty messy. But I did buy you a new pair of shoes, and your mom the biggest bunch of flowers I could find, and I also swore it would never happen again. Which it hasn't so far. If anything, I think that night was what gave me my liver of steel. So I'm all good."
"I'm with you," Josh said. "It's not every day you get to celebrate becoming the official biggest publication on campus. If that's not the time to get a little fucked up, when is?"
I turned my head to give him a pointed look; it wasn't like Hanna needed the extra encouragement. She was already on a dangerous course tonight without him egging her on. But Josh was no longer looking in my direction.
"Exactly." Hanna gave a satisfied nod. "I like the way you think."
"And, uh, if you're interested in something a little stronger than those bottles..." He glanced over his shoulder, staring right past me to check whether the door was closed, then dipped into his inside jacket pocket. "Maybe I can help you out."
My eyes locked onto what he was holding. And my stomach dropped.
"Josh," I said. "What the fuck?"
"What?" He met my gaze with a flash of irritation, like my reaction was over the top—like I'd ever before seen him with a tiny plastic bag containing several white pills. "Oh, come on, Morgan, don't look so scandalized."
"Where did you get that?"
"From a friend."
"Who?"
"Does it matter?" he said, a little too sharply. "Jesus, no need for an interrogation. It's from a legitimate source, if that's what you're worried about. No rat poison or any of that other shit in here. It's all good."
"I'm interested," Hanna piped up.
Now she was on the receiving end of my disbelief. "Hanna."
She glanced over, feigning innocence. "What?"
"You can't be serious."
"Why not?" She shrugged. "It's hardly a big deal. Loads of people do it."
"But you don't do it," I pointed out. "And neither do you, Josh—unless you've kept very quiet about it for the last six months."
"Morgan, no offence, but you also freaked out the first time I smoked a tiny bit of weed." I could tell she was trying to come across as pragmatic, with a kind of grimace on her face that said she didn't want to insult me, all while going ahead and doing it anyway. The cutting remark was like a shard of glass through my chest. "And did anything bad happen? No. I mean, apart from me eating my entire emergency stash of peanut butter M&Ms, but I can live with that."
"This isn't a tiny bit of weed, though, is it?"
"No, it's not, but we're also not mainlining heroin," Hanna said, rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm not going to be an asshole and pressure you into doing it if you don't want to. But I get to make my own decisions, okay?"
There followed a beat of silence, because what could I say to that? In quiet desperation, I looked at Josh—but he simply glanced between us, carefully avoiding holding my gaze for too long. I didn't need to ask whether he was planning on doing it tonight. And it was already clear that my disapproval would have absolutely no influence on his decision.
"Okay. Fine," I said, even though it wasn't. "If that's what you want to do, go ahead."
Hanna could read me like a book, which was why her expression softened. "You don't have to worry so much, Morgan," she said. "The risk is on us. And we'll be careful, obviously. We're not stupid."
She was talking like they'd already discussed it, like they were a single unit with their plans and motivations aligned. It was almost hard to believe the first time she'd seen those pills in Josh's hand was just two minutes ago.
That was when he finally piped up.
"She's right, Morg. It's all gonna be fine." He stepped closer to me, tipping my chin upward so I was looking straight at him. "Okay?"
"Okay," I mumbled.
He planted another quick kiss on my lips, light as a feather. I tried to shake off the feeling that he was sealing them shut.
"Anyway, it's gonna be a fun night," he continued. His face had brightened now that I was taken care of, attention quickly drifting elsewhere. "Apparently pretty much the whole apartment block is Davidson students, so no chance of a noise complaint. Even the Greek life kids want in. So if you wanted a place for a celebration, Hanna, you timed it perfectly."
And that was it: they were back in familiar, excitable conversation like this exchange had never happened. I was still in the room, in earshot of every word, but the longer it went on the more their voices seemed to become distorted and muffled—like I was listening to the whole thing from inside a bubble. I didn't say anything, but I wasn't sure they could've heard me anyway. Not to mention all my attention was focused on one thing: the inside pocket of Josh's jacket, where he'd discreetly slipped the bag back into place.
An uneasy, sinking feeling had settled over me.
Somehow, I just knew something bad was going to happen later that night.
And whatever it was, I wasn't sure I had the power to stop it.
--------------------------
We're getting closer... and closer... and closer...
I absolutely LOVED your theories on the last chapter -- so many great ideas! I think some of you could do a better job at writing this story than me, lol. But whether any of those theories are correct, I just have to leave you hanging for a little bit longer...
As always, let's chat in the comments! Any new theories? Or maybe just an impending sense of doom?
Until next time...
- Leigh