when the third Musketeer was around—oof—no one was safe from the impact of the three.
It was no wonder my private detective had found fan pages on the Internet dedicated to them. It was impossible to Google anything about this private college in this small, midwestern town without tumbling across these boys. I’d avoided it until recently because I’d always been scared of the repercussions. Not knowing anything was better than being informed and having that knowledge held against me at every single turn. It’d been safer to pretend the third and final roommate didn’t exist, even though he was always and forever at the forefront of my mind.
“Mr. Peters called you Ollie. Did you lie about your name just so you could move in here? Are you some kind of stalker? You know there are laws against that, don’t you?” Vernon’s voice was soft and critical. I nervously cleared my throat and lifted a hand to twist one of my gold curls around my finger. It was a nervous habit I’d had since childhood that I couldn’t seem to shake.
“My name is Olivia, but I’ve gone by Ollie since I was little. Mr. Peters has all my legal information. He knew exactly who I was when he agreed to let me move in here. Frankly, I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it. Girl or boy, you were getting a new roommate, regardless. You’re only going to be stuck with me for a year. What’s the big deal?”
Vernon hummed and lifted a finger, which had the nail painted black, to tap his full bottom lip. “It just seems weird. Mr. Peters never objected when we told him to find us a new male roommate. He actually seemed to appreciate that we weren’t looking to change up our dynamic. And how come I’ve never seen you around campus? Even as big as this campus is, our paths were bound to cross at some point. I never forget a face.”
I kept fiddling with my hair as I tried to calm my racing heart. One would think I would be a better liar by now, considering how often I did it. But I wasn’t. My nervous energy always gave me away. I was simply hoping that since he didn’t know me at all, Vernon wouldn’t notice. Just because I knew pretty much everything about these boys didn’t mean they had the first idea who I was or why I was so desperate to get close to them.
I didn’t want to tell him I transferred over the summer with every intention of getting as close as possible to his missing roommate. I didn’t want him to know it felt like a sign from above when I found out their other roommate was leaving, clearing the way for me to insert myself in their lives in the most inescapable way possible. It sounded desperate and creepy because it was.
“I keep to myself mostly.” I was no dummy, but I also wasn’t a savant. I was a couple of years behind all of them in terms of academics. “I transferred recently, so there’s been no time to go out or make friends. I’m not exactly a social butterfly anyway, and I have a part-time job, so I keep busy away from school. It makes total sense that our paths haven’t crossed before. As for remembering my face,” I flashed that fake smile once again, “mine isn’t all that remarkable.”
I was cute, at best. I knew how to work with what I had, for sure, but I was under no illusion that I had some kind of heart-stopping beauty. I did have pretty chocolate-colored eyes. I had strong, sharply angled brows that could look a little villainous if I wasn’t careful about keeping them tamed. I was also blessed with good skin and a great head of hair, but all of it was just a step above average. If you didn’t take into account the pink, slightly jagged scar that started below my left eye and zagged down my cheek until it disappeared underneath my chin, my face was all right. The scar was more memorable than all of my other features combined, and I knew it was what Vernon was referring to when he said he’d never forget my face if he’d seen it around campus.
Vernon didn’t look convinced. However, whatever argument he was going to give died when Harlen made his way back into the living room. The football player didn’t