Chapter 73 Dorm Secrets

Chapter 73 Dorm Secrets

Val's POV

I HAD known Tasha for less than a month, which meant I was probably the least qualified person on campus to comment on her friendships.

Unfortunately, that had never stopped me from having opinions before. Besides, people revealed a lot when they thought nobody was paying attention.

And I paid attention for a living. Well, not technically. But if there had been an Olympic event for noticing things other people missed, I was reasonably confident I could have won a medal.

The first thing I noticed about Tasha was that she trusted too easily. Not with personal secrets. Not immediately.

But once someone earned a place in her life, she gave them the benefit of the doubt far longer than most people would.

It was one of the things I liked about her. It was also one of the things that worried me.

I was thinking about exactly that as I pushed open the door to her dorm suite on Wednesday evening.

The smell of instant noodles immediately greeted me.

"Please tell me that's not dinner."

Tasha looked up from her desk and frowned. "It absolutely is dinner."

"That's tragic."

She rolled her eyes. "You say that every time."

"And every time I'm correct."

I tossed my backpack onto the nearest chair before dropping onto the empty couch. Across the room, Tasha's roommate looked up from her laptop.

Lila smiled politely. "Hi, Val."

"Still alive?"

Lila blinked. "Yes?"

"Good."

Tasha groaned. "One day you're going to learn how normal conversations work."

"I doubt it."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

A laugh escaped me. The conversation felt easy and comfortable. The kind of friendship that formed naturally.

For a while, nothing unusual happened.

Tasha continued working on whatever engineering project had consumed her attention for the past three days. I flipped through class notes. Lila typed quietly on her laptop.

Everything appeared perfectly normal.

At least until Tasha's phone rang. She glanced at the screen. Immediately, her expression softened.

"Tasha," I said.

She looked up. "Who is it?"

The corners of her mouth twitched. "It's Old Man Reyes."

"That's significantly less interesting than my theory."

"What theory?"

"I assumed it was one of your emotionally complicated men."

Tasha threw a pen at me. I caught it. Shaking her head, she stood and stepped out onto the small balcony to answer the call.

The moment the door closed behind her, the room became quieter. I wasn't sure why the feeling bothered me until I glanced toward Lila.

She was staring at the balcony. As though she were waiting for something. The moment she noticed me looking, her attention snapped back to her laptop.

The movement was quick. I frowned slightly. Then dismissed it. People were allowed to be curious. Especially when their roommate disappeared in the middle of a conversation.

A few minutes later, Tasha returned. The evening continued. Nothing happened.

Or at least that's what I told myself.

The problem was that once I noticed something, I had a difficult time un-noticing it. Over the next several days, small details began collecting in the back of my mind.

Individually, they meant nothing. Together, they started feeling strange.

Lila asked a lot of questions. More questions than most people would.

At first, I assumed she was simply interested in Tasha's life.

Friends did that. But eventually the pattern became difficult to ignore.

"Are you meeting Primo tonight?"

"Did Carlos say anything during practice?"

"Are you going back to Monaco this weekend?"

"Did Engineer Pablo respond yet?"

The questions never sounded suspicious. They sounded casual. Which was probably why nobody thought twice about answering them.

Nobody except me.

I started paying attention. Not because I distrusted Lila. Because something felt off.

The feeling grew stronger three days later.

Tasha and I were leaving the engineering building after class when she suddenly remembered she'd left her notebook inside.

"I'll be right back," she said.

"I'll believe that when I see it."

She laughed and disappeared back inside. That left me standing alone outside the building. Or so I thought.

A few yards away, Lila was sitting on a bench. Her phone was in her hand. Normally, I wouldn't have looked twice. Then I noticed how quickly she started typing. Her fingers moved rapidly across the screen.

Nothing unusual about that. Except for what happened next.

She glanced around. The way people did when they wanted to make sure nobody was watching.

My eyebrows lifted. Now that was interesting. Before I could get a better look, Tasha returned.

Lila slipped her phone into her pocket so quickly that I almost missed the movement.

"Took you long enough," I said.

Tasha groaned. "It was two minutes."

As we started walking, I glanced back once. Lila was watching us leave. The expression on her face was unreadable. The image stayed with me longer than it should have.

That night, I found myself replaying the moment. People sent messages every day. People checked their surroundings all the time. None of that meant anything by itself.

And yet… I couldn't shake the feeling.

The next morning only made it worse. I arrived at the cafeteria earlier than usual and spotted Tasha sitting with Luigi.

The two of them were laughing about something. What caught my attention wasn't Tasha. It wasn't Luigi either.

It was Lila.

She wasn't sitting with them. She was sitting three tables away. Looking at her phone. Again. As I approached, she quickly typed something.

A few seconds later, her expression changed. Then she put her phone away. Ten minutes later, Bianca Laurent walked into the cafeteria.

My steps slowed. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it wasn't.

The problem was that I was starting to see too many coincidences.

By the end of the week, the uncomfortable feeling had evolved into genuine suspicion.

Friday evening, I found myself back in Tasha's dorm suite. She was studying. Lila was sitting at her desk. Everything looked completely normal.

Then Tasha left to grab something from the vending machines downstairs. The moment the door closed, Lila reached for her phone.

She unlocked it immediately and began typing.

I watched from the couch. Lila didn't notice.

A few seconds later, she hit send. Then she smiled. As though she had completed a task. The moment she looked up, the expression vanished.

I looked away before she caught me watching.

When Tasha returned several minutes later, Lila acted exactly the same as always. As I watched them talk, a knot slowly formed in my stomach.

Because  since arriving at Vanguard, I found myself wondering whether Tasha's biggest problem wasn't Bianca Laurent.

Maybe her biggest problem was someone much closer. Someone she trusted.

Someone living right inside her dorm room.