Chapter 2

Knock, knock, knock!

The door rattled.

After Mia called out a casual "Come in!", two girls walked in arm-in-arm. They greeted Chloe with breathless excitement and immediately began scanning our dorm room.

The second their eyes landed on the cheese sticks on Chloe's desk and the designer bag sitting on Wendy's, they gasped.

"Shut up, it's actually real!"

Mia, being the ultimate extrovert, popped her head out from her bed.

"What's real?"

"The bag, duh! God, I wish I had a roommate like this."

"Haha, totally! But wait, how did you guys know Emma..."

"Do you want to try some cheese sticks? They're really good!"

Chloe cut Mia off with breathless urgency, shoving the snacks straight into their hands.

Mia blinked, looking completely dazed by the sudden interruption. Only I knew that those girls had come over because they saw that deleted post before it went down.

I watched Chloe desperately trying to keep her cool, then looked around the room she had decorated so nicely. Whatever. She wasn't entirely useless, and besides, the post was already gone.

I chimed in to help smooth the conversation over, backing Chloe up to redirect the girls' attention out the door.

Once she finally managed to see them out, Chloe let out a massive sigh of relief.

Then she glanced down at the time on her screen, gasped dramatically, and reached straight for the main switch, plunging the entire room into pitch-black darkness.

"Nine-thirty! Beauty sleep time, ladies. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight," Wendy answered quietly from her desk, clicking on her little reading lamp. Mia turned on her phone's flashlight, looked like she wanted to protest, but ultimately sighed, drew her privacy curtain, and muted her phone game.

Smack!

A sharp, loud bang jolted me awake.

I blinked blearily through the haze of sleep, squinting at the harsh light bleeding through the fabric of my curtains.

"It's four in the morning, Chloe. What are you doing?"

Mia's voice floated over, pitched low with obvious restraint.

"Time to wake up, silly!"

"Chloe, did you mess up the schedule? Freshman Orientation Week doesn't even start until eight-thirty," Wendy said, poking her head out.

"Waking up early is amazing for your health."

"Can you at least keep it down?"

I sat up, fighting down the burning irritation rising in my throat.

"Of course! Totally will!"

Two minutes later, the bathroom erupted with the sound of rushing water, blasting endlessly. I endured it until she finally stepped out, then forced myself to ask her nicely again.

"Got it, Emma! Go back to sleep!"

What followed immediately was the incessant clicking and snapping of makeup compacts, paired with the rapid-fire clack-clack-clack of fingers slamming onto a desk.

Classic. The girl was completely polite on the surface, but refused to change a damn thing.

By morning, the three of us dragged ourselves out of bed with faint purple circles bruised under our eyes.

Chloe, looking manicured from head to toe, gasped in horror when she turned to look at us.

She instantly grabbed an expensive-looking eye cream from her vanity and held it out.

"Oh no! Why does your skin look so wrecked? See, this is why I told you guys to get your beauty sleep!"

"Chloe... do you think, maybe, it's because you were making a ton of noise this morning?"

Wendy didn't take the cream. She hesitated for a second before blurting it out.

"Wait, really? I'm so sorry! I'm just so used to early mornings, and honestly, I thought I was being super quiet. I'll be way more careful from now on."

"Here, put some of this on first. It works miracles!"

Chloe looked so completely devastated and apologetic that the sharp rebuke sitting on the tip of my tongue died right there.

Later that afternoon, a new video popped up on my feed:

A Day in the Life of a Bougie Aesthetic College Girl!

5:00 AM: Wake up.

5:10 AM: Morning routine—stamping cute floral cleaning gel into the toilet bowl for that fresh morning dopamine boost.

5:20 AM: Skincare, brushing teeth, and a natural, glowy soft-glam look.

5:50 AM: Roomies are still sound asleep! Using my silent infrared projected keyboard to study quietly.

Unbelievable.

Watching Chloe's video, my jaw practically hit the floor.