After Darcy’s iconic rejection of Karl’s advances, it took the group at least an hour to stop laughing at him. He laughed it off too, Quinn observed, but he was probably upset deep down. Quinn had excused himself to an empty area in the campus so he could listen to Darcy’s voice mail. After about fifteen minutes of replaying it, Quinn finally decided to text her back.

“Thanks, Darcy’s sis.” Sent 19:50

“Is it okay if I do as she says?” Sent 19:50

His text was seen, and his heart beat impatiently. She was definitely going to say no, but he couldn’t help but have a little hope for a different answer. Darcy was typing something.

Shockingly, what he received was not a text at all, but a picture of Darcy’s back, apparently taken by her sister. Her hair was braided beautifully. It looked so smooth to touch.

“This is still her sister. I told her m gonna take a pic of her hair with her phone because mine has a shitty camera.” Sent 19:51

“Don’t tell her I sent you this.” Sent 19:51

Seeing her messages being deleted, he quickly saved Darcy’s picture, and thought about how grateful he felt towards this little girl. Then, Quinn came to the sudden realization that for her to be this helpful meant that Darcy must have told her sister about his feelings for her. In that case, when she told him ‘good luck,’ could he be conceited enough to think he had a chance?

“You got a girlfriend or something?” Karl’s sudden voice reminded him of how impossible that was. There was no way Darcy would be romantically interested in him, not after what he put her through.

“Just a girl I am into.” He locked his phone and put it back into his pocket.

“Damn, it seems a lot has changed in the two months I was gone. Quinn, the ultimate player, having one girl he’s into.” Karl was holding a beer in his hand and a cigarette between his lips. Quinn smiled in response.

“Is her pussy that good?”

It took Quinn a massive amount of self-restraint to not bash Karl’s skull against a tree.

“Don’t be a dick.” He retorted, trying to keep his voice as stoic as ever.

“Me, a dick? You’re the one who slept with whoever asked. So, yes I am going to assume that whoever this chick is, for her to be able to get you this whipped, she must have a_”

“Yeah yeah, whatever man.”

“You’ve changed, Quinn.” Karl’s eyes were observant and strict.

“So have you.” Quinn replied. Karl smiled.

That night, Darcy did not read a detective story before going to bed. She had a lot to think about: Karl’s awkward advances, Quinn’s interjection in the phone call, Cecilia’s words... She fell asleep to the thought of her telling him about her feelings.

The following morning, Darcy woke up feeling refreshed. She would go back to the campus today, and promised her dejected family to come back the following weekend. She loved how close they had become. Once back to her dorm room, she decided to have a cleanup. She did her laundry, and wiped the floor. She changed her bed sheets too. It was midday by the time she was done. She had also taken a shower so she wouldn’t feel like the only dirty thing left in the room. She sat facing her mirror, drying her hair with a towel. Her fingers hesitantly found their way to her wet hair. She recalled Cecilia’s tips as she braided it slowly. Liking the result, she gave her reflection a satisfied smile, then stood up to get dressed. Before she removed her bathrobe, however, she had the horrifyingly familiar impression that she was being watched. Her hazel eyes automatically turned towards the window.

Cautiously, she walked in its direction, and looked into it intensely. Very far away, she could almost see a silhouette standing in her room’s direction. Heart racing in horror, she reached out for her phone without moving from her spot. She had memorized the pathing by heart, and did not need to look at the screen to reach Quinn’s number. She dialed it, eyes still wide and fixed at the silhouette outside.

“Hello? Is this Darcy’s sister?” His voice was faint as the phone was away from her ears. With her thumb she pressed the loudspeaker option.

“No. It’s me. Where are you right now?”

“Oh hey,” he sounded warm and somewhat surprised, “in my room. Is everything okay?”

“No. I think I am being watched again.” Quinn was silent for a moment. Darcy continued:

“Outside... outside my window, there’s someone standing. I can’t see who they are, but I can tell they’re looking this way.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? This fucking psychopath...” Quinn seemed to have understood exactly what she was talking about. Her eyebrow stiffly twitched in confusion.

“Listen, you’re in your room, right? Stay there. Don’t move from the window, and don’t hang up. I am coming, okay? Let me know if he moves or anything.” Darcy muttered a faint ‘okay,’ and tightened her grip around the phone, as though it were Quinn’s hand. The figure watching her turned away and began walking in the opposite direction.

“T-they’re moving!” she said with urgency. “They’re moving away!”

“Which direction?” Quinn’s voice was accompanied by the sound of his rushing footsteps.

“The opposite direction from my room... I think towards the boys’ dorms. Maybe you’ll come across each other.”

There was silence from Quinn’s side. She could only hear his footsteps, then the sound of the phone being muffled. She guessed he hid it somewhere.

“Oh, hey Karl.”

Darcy gasped. Quinn knew how urgent the situation was. So for him to take the time to stop and place the phone somewhere unseen could only mean that he had met with the first suspect, Karl.

“Yo, Quinn. Where are you heading?” Karl’s voice was distant. The fact that there were now two silhouettes outside confirmed her suspicions: Quinn wanted to tell her that it was Karl.

“Gonna meet with a friend. What about you?”

“Felt bored, so I thought I’d take a walk outside.”

“Let me guess, looking for Darcy?” She perfectly understood what Quinn was doing. He was trying to help her see why he had warned her that day, why he had told Karl to leave her alone. He was trying to make Karl admit it himself.

“You got me there...” The latter confessed. “I don’t know, man. I think she hates me.”

“Well, you are being really creepy. And I don’t just mean your sudden call yesterday. Like bro how do you even know all that shit about her? She told me that she didn’t even publish her new novel EGG yet.”

It’s E.G.G, Darcy mentally corrected. Not a freaking egg. Who would name a detective novel as ‘egg’?

“You mean E.G.G?” Karl replied: “I saw her scribbling down the title one day.”

“Exactly man. Don’t do that. That’s stalking.”

The most terrifying part was that Darcy never wrote down the novel’s title in her notebook, and had never shared it with anyone at that time either. So how could he have known?

“You do you and I’ll do me, bro. Anyway, I’ll get going now.”

“Creep.” Quinn retorted.

Then Darcy heard footsteps again. From the window, she saw one silhouette vanish, which she assumed was Karl’s, and another slowly appear. Soon, she recognized it as Quinn, and all of the horror seemed to evaporate from her body. She fell to her knees, breathing heavily, leaning her head on her arms which she rested on the window pane.

“Are you alright?” Quinn’s gentle voice calmed her down. Her breathing slowed. In a few minutes, he was knocking at her door.

“It’s me.” He said reassuringly, and she heard him speak from both the door and the phone. Hanging up, she slowly got up, and walked towards the door. She opened it but did not look at him. She was feeling extremely unsettled. Why was this happening to her? Why always her? Facing her hazel eyes was Quinn’s chest. She leaned her head against him and felt him freeze under her touch.

“Can... Can I hold you?” His voice sounded so close and so desperate. She mumbled a yes, and surrendered herself to his engulfing embrace.