Chapter Seven
A fter a good few hours of exploring the campus with Heather, minus the odd detours we took—how we ended up in the men’s bathroom was beyond me—we found ourselves back in our room getting ready for the mixer.
She went to the bathroom as I pulled up my jeans over my butt. Paired with black Converse and a matching black shirt, I threw my hair back in a low ponytail. I was good to go with a little bit of blush, concealer, and mascara. I had to hold back on my entire face of club makeup; the heat would melt it right off.
She offered her vast collection of high-end perfumes, and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to check them out. Some smelt of lilac and vanilla, and others reminded me of hot summer days in mid-July, eating watermelon or standing in line at one of the many ice cream shops New York City provided. Citrus perfumes were my go-to; she might’ve had the best one I’d ever come across. A little spritz on my body and neck would be perfect, but not before my clumsy hands dropped the cap to the bottle underneath her bed. The sound of it rolling to the back made me get on all fours and mumble profanities, reaching blindly, hoping to catch it before it was too far gone. My fingers touched something, but not the round cap I expected. Instead, my fingers brushed against some type of smooth object. I dragged it out from underneath, surprised to see Heather’s name on the front in black ink.
Why would she have this under the bed?
I opened it to the familiar scarlet card, trailing my fingers along the pattern along the edges, remembering mine and how it felt, and I wondered if the message was the same. Sure enough, written out in that beautiful scrawl was Heather’s invitation to the secret society known as the Order of the Scarlet Quill.
So, why did she hide it under her bed?
And if it was so secretive, then why the fuck did I have one?
Did she know I had one? But her invitation was a secret to me as well. Maybe she had no idea about my status with the Order and we just happened to win the luck of the draw, both receiving one. But what were the odds of us being placed together in the dorms?
“Hey, you ready?” Heather called from outside our room.
Panicked that she might have caught me red-handed with her stuff, I placed everything back the way I found it and hid it under her bed as the door opened behind me.
“What are you doing on the floor?” she questioned.
“I uh… dropped the cap to the perfume,” I admitted, trying to come off nonchalantly.
“Forget it. We’ll find it later.” The nervous tenor in her voice was a red flag that I couldn’t ignore. She didn’t want me to look under her bed, and if she didn’t know about me…
Her eyes flicked back and forth from my face to her bed. “Seriously, Remi. It’s fine. Leave it.”
I got up off the floor, not wanting to push her. “Okay, that’s fine.” I could have told her right then. Told her everything about my invitation, but her nervous demeanor was enough to keep the secret. Enough to find out exactly how important The Order of the Scarlet Quill was.