Page 68 of Slayer

“I know, silly. Everyone knows who you are. Welcome to Veil Haven,” she said earnestly.

“Thanks.”

She looked at Asher. “Ash, you want to get lunch?”

Ash. Right. I needed to leave. This was awkward.

“Well, see you around,” I told them both as I grasped my bags and found the will to lift them. I beelined it for the back hallway as fast as I could.

Asher and Daphne. They sounded cute together.

Ashne. Dapher. Okay, not the best celebrity couple name, but still. They were iconic.

Perfect. I guessed when Harper said he was recently single, she’d been misinformed.

I pushed them from my mind and managed to fit through the hallway and find room four. I dropped the bags down in front of the closed door and peered to the left, to the open number three. Luna and Harper were inside with Celia and Luna’s mom. They were finishing making their beds, and I grinned at the sharp contrast in the style of the room.

The left side was light green and pink with fairy lights and butterflies. Harper.

The right side had black bedding, a black macramé wall hanging, and black lights. Luna.

“Stella!” Harper jumped in excitement when she saw me. “Check this out.” She pulled me into the room and went to a door at the side wall. When she walked into it, I found myself in a nicely tiled bathroom with a double sink and shower. Passing through the bathroom, she opened the door on the far wall and into the room next door.

Mine.

“We can go back and forth whenever we want!” Harper exclaimed.

I stepped into the room and took stock of what was there.

A queen-size bed was in the center of the room with a desk and little kitchenette on the far wall.

“Oh, I’m totally using your kitchen.” Luna came in behind me.

Their room didn’t have one. Must be a legacy thing.

The bed was already made with powder-blue floral sheets and a navy comforter, and a stack of gray towels sat neatly folded at the end.

“I didn’t know your style, but you didn’t strike me as the pink girl type, so I went for blue?” Celia called out as she came into the room.

She bought that for me? And made my bed? My throat pinched with emotion.

I wasn’t a pink girl. “My favorite color is powder blue,” I told her, and she grinned.

“Nailed it,” she told Harper, who reached out and fist-bumped her.

I felt uncomfortable when people did nice things for me, which I knew wasn’t normal or healthy. I felt like I owed her now and that I wasn’t worth this kind of attention.

“Thank you. Let me pay for the stuff you got.” I dug into my duffel where I had a hundred bucks, but Celia put out her hand to stop me.

“The school store has a cute dorm aisle with things to decorate if you want to grab anything else with your money, but this was a gift from Derek and me.”

Why did I feel like I wanted to cry? Foster parents bought us bedding all the time. But they were given money from the government to do it. This was Celia’s money. A true gift.

“Thanks,” I muttered, unsure what to say.

Celia opened the door to my dorm and dragged my two bags inside, placing them on the bed. Luna and Harper walked back to their dorm to finish getting things set up, and Celia went over to my desk.

“Come here. I wanted to show you something,” Celia said.