Chapter 2

Our college was an art college.

All of us in the dorm were dance majors. Except Lucy, the rest of us were locals, living just a short ride from home.

We'd crossed paths plenty of times at city competitions, shared a few words, and got to know each other along the way.

With Lucy out of the room, I leaned in and whispered, "Seriously, trying to convince someone to break up in real life is begging for disaster.

"What if she dumps him, gets back together, and blames us for it? How are we supposed to handle her boyfriend coming after us?

"Just look at the dude. He's so jacked. He could flatten all three of us with one swing."

Whitney shrank back, looking freaked out. "No way. We've got laws nowadays."

That was exactly what I used to believe in my previous life.

I added, "You only get one shot at life. We'd better respect other people's fate.

"If we've got time to worry about her, why not worry about ourselves? Professor Williams's class is no joke. I don't want to fail my finals."

None of us really knew Lucy all that well.

When I said that bullshit to her last time, she didn't even argue back. It was obvious she was totally love-struck.

If we didn't make the first move, Lucy rarely spoke to us.

Other than class, she was always out on dates. Sometimes she wouldn't even come back to the dorm.

Even though we were just roommates, when she asked us to cover for her during dorm checks, we still agreed.

But one day, Lucy showed up with bruises and scrapes all over her body.

Whitney's face went pale with worry.

Whitney had always had the softest heart.

She always found ways to help. Getting her friends to keep an eye out for Lucy, dragging her to part-time jobs, and quietly slipping her extra cash.

Even when Lucy needed money for an abortion, Whitney didn't even blink and handed over 3 thousand right away.

Now, seeing all those bruises on Lucy, Whitney's heart ached all over again.

Before she could say anything, I stopped her.

I stepped in front of Whitney and took Lucy's hand, my voice gentle but serious. "Lucy, maybe you should try to stay in more often. What if something bad happens to you outside the campus at night?"

Lucy looked genuinely surprised by my words, and before she could say anything, tears started streaming down her face.

Whitney and the others heard me and jumped in, agreeing with me right away.

I kept it blunt. "If you get into trouble off-campus, we, the ones covering for you, will all be on the hook. For everyone's sake..."

Before I could even finish, Lucy was already in tears and rushed out of the room.

She ran off, sobbing and yelling, "I just knew it. You all think you're better than me because I'm poor.

"You're all city folks. Of course you'd gang up and leave me on my own."

She dashed through the hall, and people started coming out to catch the show.

Whitney was always thin-skinned; her face flushed, and she snapped back, "When did we ever freeze her out?"

The whole rumor about us isolating Lucy got our academic advisor's attention.

She called us all in to have a talk.

Even then, Whitney and Sherry kept quiet—they never mentioned Lucy staying out at night.

I remembered how, in my previous life, Lucy unlocked our dorm room. It wasn't until after I died and became a ghost that the whole ugly truth finally hit me.

Henry climbed a tree outside the building, reached all the way up to the third floor, and snuck right into our room.

Lucy swore that she hadn't opened the door, insisting the lock was broken and said we couldn't even lock it if we wanted to.

Yeah, our lock was busted, but we could still deadbolt it on the inside, and we made damn sure to do that every single night.

This time, there was no way I'd let someone like her stay in our dorm again.

I said, "Miss, we seriously weren't picking on Lucy. She barely ever comes back to the dorm, and we almost never see her, so we literally never get the chance to bully her.

"I'm the dorm rep, so I wanted her to stay in the dorm. I didn't want to cover for her anymore, but I had no idea she'd flip it and claim we were trying to cut her off."

After I finished talking, Sherry and Whitney didn't say a word the whole way back to the dorm.

Since the three of us covered up for her and didn't come clean to the advisor, we all ended up getting punished.

Letting them get punished this time was my way of showing that helping people always came with a price.