Page 68 of And They Were Roommates

“You’re hiding something.” Which reminds me. “Why didn’t you tell me you have a private room in your aunt’s instructor quarters? Why didn’t you go there when I asked? No—on thefirstday of classes?”

Jasper makes an odd bleating noise. “Well. You see.” He pauses.

“Seriously, Jasper?”

He just bites his lip.

I storm toward the bathroom. “Be that way.”

“Wait—!” He hops off his bed and pulls my wrist back, spinning me around to face him. “Don’t be upset with me.”

I stare at our touching hands, my chest bursting with butterflies. Flu. Bubonic plague. “I’m not upset with you.”

“I mean about what I’m preparing to say.”

“Okay?”

“Over the summer, I may have helped my aunt with administrative stuff. And I may have noticed you requested a singledespite your lack of a payment. Instead of flagging it, I roomed us together. Also, I synced our class schedules.”

One million arrows to the heart.

Yet all I feel is numb. My body can’t feel what my brain knows I should. I slip my hand out of Jasper’s grasp. I step back. “Why did you do that?”

“Do you have any siblings? Cousins?”

“You’re seriously trying to change the subject?”

“I’m not.” He goes to his bed, pulls out a box beneath it, and lifts up a pocket-sized brown-leather notebook. It’s different from his JFG one. I’ve never seen it.

“What is that?” I ask.

He returns, handing me the notebook. “I’ve been searching for someone I met a few years ago with your last name. It’s a unique name, so I hoped you two were related.”

I open the cover and flip through the pages. The daily entries date back to two years ago in smeared handwriting, starting from the June we met. I stop at the middle.

round and round

the carousel of love

we go

spinning, spinning

never catching up

always chasing

you

Slowly, I look up at him. “These are fromLove Is a Broken Party Clown.”

“The first drafts. I’ll be honest, these—” Jasper takes a sharp, almost nervous breath. “These are all about a long-lost love of mine.”

He thinks I have a sibling.

Because he’s looking for me. From two years ago.

More than that. I’m hiswhat?

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