Page 85 of Tag

Roxxi flipped her hair. “Like I said last night. We’re wealthy, beautiful, and living on our own. We need every form of protection available when we’re not able to unleash our rabid harem on whoever’s fucking with us. It’s already bad enough that we didn’t have cameras set up. You know I do better with a rifle, but even my dad couldn’t get me cleared to carry one on campus. Admin thought I’d go full Sylvia Plath.”

I stared at her. “I don’t think that metaphor works here.”

“Metaphor? Sanj, I was being literal.” She pressed the fuzzy keychain into my free hand. “Now take it. No arguing. Text the second you two are in the car with the doors locked. You know the drill. Pretend you’re seconds away from being a broadcast special.”

I looked down at the ridiculous but oddly comforting mix of things in my hands. Ryder’s elegant, perfect bouquet in one, and Roxxi’s weaponizedLisa Frankstarter pack in the other.

“I don’t think me or Ari will be kidnapped on our way, but thank you for this.” I actually did appreciate the weapon.

“Come on,” Ari prompted softly. “I have one too. We can tag team anyone who tries anything.”

We split up outside since Cloe’s designated spot was a billion times closer to the building than mine.

Ari walked beside me as we cut across the parking lot. The air had warmed enough to take the edge off the morning chill. I adjusted my grip on the vase, still cradled in one arm, my other hand curling into the sleeve of my sweater where Roxxi’s special keychain was. A few students lingered nearby, meandering toward their own cars in lazy clusters, but something didn’t feel right. Ari slowed, her eyes scanning the lot like she was listening for something only she could hear.

“I don’t like this,” she murmured, pulling her pea jacket tighter. “I feel like we’re being watched. You don’t?”

“I thought I was being paranoid.”

She shook her head. “You’re not.”

We kept walking, a little faster now. “Shit, before I forget. Get in my bag and grab my cell,” I instructed.

She slipped her hand into the side pocket of my satchel, already knowing which zipper to tug.

“You remember the password?” I asked, eyes still watching our surroundings.

“Course I do. It’s a combo of your birthday and Ryder’s. Some things are sacred.”

My lips twitched. “Go to my inbox. There’s a text from a random number, four or five digits. It should be under Ashton’s.”

She scrolled silently beside me, then slowed. “Got it.”

Her expression told me everything, brows pulling together as we neared my car. “They asked why you didn’t wave back? You saw someone?”

I reached the driver’s side of my car and dug around in my bag for my fob. “Yes. Get in.”

She circled to the passenger door, gently taking the vase of flowers from my arms as I slipped behind the wheel. I hit the lock button the second my door shut, just like Roxxi told me to. Then I started to explain. Ari sat quietly, not saying a word while I recounted everything, the figure near the tree, the mask, the wave, and then getting the texts and the fact that they wouldn’t forward.

When I finished, silence hung thick in the car, the heater barely cut through it.

“I have a theory,” Ari started to say after a moment, her voice calm and soft as always. “I’ll tell you at the house. Roxxi and Cloe should hear it too.”

“Okay.”

“It really upsets me that Layla left you today,” she added as I pulled out of my spot.

I sighed, lips pressing together. “I’m not sure what her being there would've changed.”

“You wouldn’t have been alone, Sanjana,” she said firmly. “We didn’t want to leave you in the first place, and then she suggested she’d stay behind with you. Look what happened. No, you weren’t hurt, but I’m sure you would have felt much better had one of us been there, too. When we realized she had shown up without you, Sanj, none of us could react because the guys don’t know what’s happened.”

I didn’t respond right away. I couldn’t say anything to make Layla look better, and I didn’t know how to explain her situation without giving everything away. I kept my eyes on the road, slowing as we approached the nearest parking lot exit. Up ahead,near the bike racks, a guy and a girl stood huddled together, reading something off a faded piece of parchment.

I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if I hadn’t seen at least four floating around already.

“Marked,” Ari said simply. “Those seem to be the main methods of notification.”

“I figured. People have been shoving them away like they didn’t want to be seen holding them.”

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