Page 79 of And They Were Roommates

Now that I have it, something feels missing.

My watch strikes five just as I finish my fiftieth blackout poem. The most colossal sigh of my life heaves out of me. I deserve a medal. A crown. I quickly pack up my bag and head to the stacks for STRIP’s next delivery strategy meeting.

When I pull on the thinCupid and Psychebooklet to open the crypt, a mixture of cable-knit sweaters and plaid blazers stands on the left side. Everyone huddles around a tome table wherefairy tales and mythologies rise on the walls. Robby points at a sheet of paper spread before them, but the rest have their backs to me.

Xavier glances over his shoulder. “Just in time!”

Jasper does the same, but he stays silent. Not like I expected anything else after two weeks of separation, but still. Nothing? He can’t even ask if I finished my mixer letters without his help?

Trying to exude my best don’t-care energy, I approach and inspect the paper—a campus map marked up with black ink.

“Thanks again for asking your friend,” Xavier says. “Who is she, by the way?”

The incredibly awkward realization that I never told them who she is, let alone how well Xavier knows her, hits hard.

He’s Xavier, the big and strong. He can take it. “Delilah Miller.”

“What?” Xavier’s whole body jerks, and his foot catches on a book. He slips and falls, landing flat on his ass.

Or not.

I glance at everyone else’s collection of winces and frowns.

“What happened between you two?” I ask, although I’m unsure if I should.

Xavier readjusts his dark bangs so they split evenly across his forehead again. Robby helps him back to his feet. “The distance made me clingy, I guess,” he mutters. “Especially when Delilah’s so independent.”

“Even with the cockblockade in the way?”

“I used STRIP to constantly keep in touch with her. That didn’t scream independent. If I’d understood her, I would’ve let her live without me sometimes.”

Even if romance is illogical, Xavier seems like he learned from it. Unlike another person I know. I’m almost impressed.

“I’m glad she agreed to help us anyway,” Robby says. “We’re currently planning the delivery route. As of now, we’ll stuff the letters into two garbage bags and toss them over the checkout booth for Delilah to grab.”

I snort.

Everyone else blinks. Like that wasn’t a joke.

These are seriously the smartest guys on campus. “Right in front of the new security?”

“The cockblockade is too tall,” Xavier answers, pointing where the wall splits the academies on the campus map. His arm looks even more ripped in his tight knit sweater and next to Robby’s lanky arm. “It’s thirty feet. But the gate? Only twelve.”

“There’re no cameras,” Robby adds, “but it’s easier to be seen by instructors outside rather than in the seclusion of the equestrian center, which is why we’ve never done it this way. Unfortunately, we have no other choice now. We’ll need to distract the guard by splitting into teams. I’m on lookout with Xavier. As for tossing the bags, that’s on you and Jasper.”

“What?” Jasper and I say.

I expect to see my irritated expression on Jasper too, especially when we’ve worked hard at avoiding each other. Instead, though, he looks more uptight than anything else, his shoulders tense in his half-buttoned dress shirt.

Before I can process the reaction, Robby says, “Blaze is the vital piece. Our distraction.”

Blaze shoves his Ring of Ancestral Darkness in Robby’s face, then breaks into the butterfly gesture that he believes is a flame. “Only the Chief Magistrate of the Brotherhood of Ancestral Darkness could ever defeat—”

“Here’s a map.” Over Blaze’s shoulder, Robby hands me asmaller pamphlet version on the table. “You’re right that I don’t trust Blaze. He needs to be watched.”

“I’m talking!” Blaze shouts between us.

Robby clasps me and Jasper on the shoulders like he isn’t there. “That’s your other job, got it? Watch him. Especially with the way he’ll have to distract this guard.”

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