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After this morning, I’m determined not to give the asshole another reason to yell at me.
XVI
Tori
According to the schedules that Dr. Wright gave me, Syn, Royal and Gemini are all in class for the next two hours—which is when I need to head over to the dining hall anyway.
So I hurried back from my Mass Comm class with the intention of using these two hours to clean—aka snoop—just in case anyone comes back…
Syn has given me no specifics when it comes to cleaning. I’ve not been given a particular order to work through rooms, daily or weekly requirements, nor any other kind of deadline as to when things must be completed by. Not that I particularly care, nor do I have any intention of doing anything more than the bare minimum for their entitled asses, but for now, it does give me some flexibility as to where to start.
Which is upstairs, with a dustpan and broom—even if I actually wanted to do a good job, I’m not about to use something that could stop me from hearing anyone come home.
Plus, it would be more satisfying to vacuum while they’re home.
Penny tells me that the three of them have the highest grades in their year. Technically, attendance makes up a small percentage of that, and each class does have mandatory attendance. But last semester, Syn had me doing one of their midterm assignments, so if they can cheat on an assignment, I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow be able to get perfect attendance while never actually attending a class.
I wait fifteen minutes past the class’s start time, wiping down various paintings, ornaments, and surfaces in the hallway before I feel it’s safe to head upstairs.
Denali House is big.
Back before we lost everything, I lived in a brownstone in the Upper East Side. The little I know about real estate is that the house we had was probably worth at least three times the amount this one was, just because of the location, but Denali House is much bigger than ours even though it only has one extra bedroom.
I carry the broom and dustpan up the stairs, but before I start exploring, I stop and glance back at the front door. From up here, the entrance hall seems even bigger, and even though it’s not really something I should be concerned about, I can’t help but wonder how that Moran guy manages to clean this whole place by himself. That alone has to be a full-time job.
But there’s no way I can imagine Syn even knowing where I got this broom from, much less how to use it.
Even we had a housekeeper, and I’d never done a chore in my life until mom and I had moved to Jersey and I realized nothing would get clean unless I did it.
Time is ticking away, and I don’t have any left to spare for wondering if, under normal circumstances, these three boys would help clean the house.
Of the seven doors up here, I know the first on the right is Gemini’s room. Although I’ve not heard any sounds come from upstairs while I’ve been waiting, I walk over to his door and knock firmly, waiting only a second before I open it.
Unlike last time, Gemini isn’t in his room. Because his curtains are drawn and the only light is coming from behind me, I turn on the main light.
Gemini is a twenty-one-year-old senior, but his room is as messy as a stereotypical teenager. Aside from his unmade bed, the only surface that doesn’t have either dirty clothes, trash, or stacks of books littered over it is his desk. There’s a strange smell in his room, and I’m willing to bet that somewhere, something is decaying.
There are two doors inside Gemini’s room, and both are open. One leads to his walk-in closet, which is as chaotic as the bedroom, and the other is to an en suite. I can see the tiled floor beneath discarded towels, but I make no step towards it to see what his bathroom is like.
If I ever get around to cleaning this room, I want to be wearing a hazmat suit.
I switch the light off and back out of the room, closing the door behind me. Then I walk to the next door. Like before, I knock before entering.
Of the seven doors, I know which rooms belong to both Gemini and Syn, but not Royal. This room is empty—a guest bedroom. Seeing the super king bed and matching dark wood furniture, cream and duck egg blue soft furnishings, and daylight streaming through the large windows sends irritation rippling through me as I think of the bare room Syn has sentenced me to in the basement.
Leaving the door open, I set the broom and dustpan down, and quickly walk through the room, pulling open all the drawers and doors. The layout is similar to Gemini’s bedroom, so I assume Gemini’s en suite has a large walk-in shower as well. Even though there’s no one living in this bedroom, there’s barely any dust and the room doesn’t even smell musty.
Grabbing the dustpan and broom, I move onto the next. Where the previous room was a duck egg blue to complement the cream, this one has gold trimmings. Similar furniture arranged like the other, as if prepared for an open house viewing. And like the other room, there’s nothing in the drawers or cabinets.
I’m willing to bet every last cent to my name—which is probably less than how much just one of the rugs is worth—that the interior designer was told only guys would live in this house, and they had no budget restrictions. My gut tells me every piece of furniture is a handcrafted original, some pieces probably as old as the house, yet there’s something incredibly modern feeling about the place.
I’ve still not been in every room on the first floor, never mind all the bedrooms, but I’ve not seen anything that looks even vaguely feminine in this building. Although there is no Greek system on campus, and once you’re here, it’s pretty apparent who is a member of the Elite, the closest thing to an official list of members are the faces of the presidents hung on the walls of Denali House. Every one of them is male.
“Does that make me the first female to live here?” I ask the empty room.
I don’t get a reply, but it feels like my voice has disturbed something because a shiver runs down my spine. There’s something about this room that doesn’t feel… right.
Turning on the spot, I look at every wall, in every nook and cranny. I don’t know if I’m actually expecting the ghost of JP to walk through the wall, or a sign to magically appear, but there’s nothing here to confirm the weird feeling I have.
