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“But yours is right,” I sighed. Great, there always had to be something. “I wonder who I talk to about this.” I chewed my lip, suddenly a ball of anxiety.
“There’s an RA guy wandering around somewhere. Maybe start with him. If not, I guess you need to go over to the housing office.” Isabelle pulled a sympathetic face. “It might be pretty busy over there today, though.”
“Yeah, probably. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get it sorted out. Maybe we should exchange numbers, just in case…”
“Sure.” Isabelle gave me a smile. “Come back over here and let me know what happens!”
A tendril of hope broke through the anxiety in my chest.
See, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to make friends, and you’ll have a place to stay. Everything is fine.
Two hours later, my positivity was slipping.
“I don’t understand. I have the confirmation of my place in subsidized housing right here.” I pushed the paper I’d printed out across the desk again.
The housing officer just lifted a shoulder. “But it’s not in my system, honey.”
“But what am I supposed to do?” Panic rang in my tone, and I tried to dial it back, but it was tough.
Lisa, her nametag told me, shook her head and gave a helpless shrug. “There appears to have been a change a few months ago. There was a system update, and maybe something went wonky. Or maybe when your brother transferred, it glitched the system, if you had the same last name,” she muttered, typing away loudly.
“Do you mean that there’s still a place for a Martino in the Hellions’ dorm?” Hope stirred in me, even if the thought of living in the hockey dorm was daunting.
“Uh-uh.”
“So, my room got canceled by mistake, but my brother’s is still there.”
“Yup, looks like it.”
“So… we just swap them and I can have my room back, since it was a mistake, and I’ve never canceled anything, right?” I smiled hopefully at Lisa.
Her face creased with sympathy. “Oh, honey.”
“What?”
“We have a long list of students waiting to get subsidized housing. When your place was canceled, another student was accepted. It’s their place now.”
“So, my place…” I wasn’t able to voice the rest of that sentence. It was too horrifying.
“Is gone,” Lisa finished for me.
The room spun. I couldn’t afford to be here without the subsidized housing. It was impossible.
Lisa leaned forward. “Just between you and me, I’d take the Martino place in the hockey dorm for now. It’s not your fault, and you are a Martino. Something might come up in the next few weeks if someone drops out or transfers.”
“But am I even allowed to live in the Hellions’ dorm?” I whispered back, matching Lisa’s furtiveness. “I’m not a hockey player.”
“Technically no, but it’s your name, and it’s the only thing there is for you. Don’t rock the boat and try to make it until a place opens up in your original dorm. Do you know the players your brother was sharing with? A Marcus Bailey, Cayden West, and?—”
“Beckett Anderson. I know,” I finished for her.
Fuck.
I went back to the room that was supposed to be mine, to update my almost roommate.
We talked for a while, and she was suitably horrified about what had happened. “So, you can stay in the Hellions’ dorm?”
“Until I get kicked out, I guess.”
