stop you from making the trip. I’m so sorry you trekked all the way up here for nothing.”
“Right,” I said, beyond embarrassed. These college students were probably wondering what was wrong with me. “It’s just that I kind of… lost my phone.” It was like I’d just said something unspeakable—there was a collective gasp, and I could feel all the heads in the room, with the exception of Brad’s, whip over to me. “I mean, I know where it is,” I added quickly. “It’s just that it’s on the subway tracks at Bryant Park. And a train kind of… ran over it.”
The girl holding Brad—Alyssa—was staring at me in horror. “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “And I’ve heard Archie’s a cappella group.”
“Wot!” Archie sputtered.
“God, I’m sorry,” Mateo said. “Are you… okay?”
Their horrified expressions were, paradoxically, making me feel better about the whole thing—like I wasn’t crazy for being this shaken up about losing my phone. “I’ll be okay,” I said, almost starting to believe it. “Thanks, though.”
“So tell me what happened,” Mateo said, gesturing to me, then Brad on the couch. “You got locked out of Mallory’s apartment?”
I took a breath to explain when three text messages sounded, one right after the other. Mateo, Archie, and Alyssa all pulled out their phones and then looked at each other, eyes wide. “It’s on the move,” Alyssa said, her voice a low whisper.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I watched everyone in this suite jump to their feet and start running around.
“It’s the Raptor,” Mateo called, as he ran toward one of the bedrooms. “That’s what we call our RA.”
“Why?” I called, though I wasn’t sure who exactly I was talking to, as all of them were now moving triple-time and nobody was in the common room for more than a few seconds before disappearing into one of the bedrooms again, bongs and beer and armfuls of scented candles appearing and then disappearing a second later. Brad was watching everyone move back and forth, and I crossed to the couch where Alyssa had left him and sat down next to him. Maybe seeing something of mine that he hadn’t shed all over yet, Brad immediately climbed onto my lap and gave himself a good shake. “Thanks for that,” I whispered to him.
“We call him that because he’s the worst,” Alyssa said, stopping and shaking her head.
“Truly,” Archie agreed, hurrying through the common room. “He’s had it out for us all year for no good reason.”
“Well,” Mateo said, passing through carrying a tequila bottle, “there was the whole thing with the fires.”
“Fires, plural?” I asked, but Alyssa waved this away.
“We put them out, didn’t we?”
“And the thing where Chester lived here for a month,” Mateo added. “There was that.”
“Yes, wasn’t that fun,” Archie muttered as he returned to the common room and looked around. “Are we sorted? Contraband hidden?”
“I think we’re good,” Mateo said with a nod, just as there was a double knock on the door.
“Dog,” Alyssa said in a strangled voice, and everyone looked over at Brad.
“Oh hell,” Archie said, his whole body seeming to sink.
“RA spot inspection,” came a voice from the other side of the door. “Either open the door or I will open it in thirty seconds.”
“Um…,” Mateo said, looking around wildly for a place to hide a small, fluffy dog.
“Is it illegal to have dogs in the dorm?” I whispered, even though it seemed, from the looks on everyone’s faces, that the answer was clearly yes.
“If it’s like a service animal, or emotional support,” Archie said, just as the doorknob started to turn. “But clearly he’s not. I’m knocked for six here.” Everyone stared at him. “Cricket!” he said, sounding exasperated. “How many times must we go through this?”
The door swung open, and an annoyed-looking guy, who seemed a little bit older than everyone else in the Brandenburg Suite, stepped in and looked around. “RA spot inspection,” he said, adjusting his round-framed glasses.
“You said that already,” Mateo said, taking two big steps so that he was standing directly in front of me. And while I appreciated the gesture, we weren’t in a cartoon—he wasn’t going to be able to block me from view.
“I am required to make my presence known before entering a room,” the RA said, his tone pompous.
“Like, just when you’re on duty?” Alyssa asked. “Or all the time?”
“Maybe don’t antagonize the person who can get us kicked off campus,” Archie said to her in