Free Vengeance by Kate Brian

noticed this before, but you are obsessively neat.”
    “Okay, we’ll talk about my mild OCD later,” I promised her. “Do me a favor and just . . . I don’t know . . . keep an ear out. If you hear anyone in there, call security.”
    “I’m on it,” Ivy replied.
    “Thanks, Ivy. I gotta go.”
    I hung up the phone and rejoined my friends. Kiran turned up the volume on the iPod dock and started to sing along to the music, twirling Taylor under her arm as Noelle swayed to the music, grabbing herself a strawberry. I did my best to get in on the fun, but inside I couldn’t seem to unclench.
    And I knew I wouldn’t be able to until I saw my room for myself.

NOT QUITE RIGHT
    The four of us spent half the afternoon talking about the plans for the new Billings, and I forced myself to relax, but the second we zoomed through the Easton gates, the tension returned. By the time Noelle swung her Jaguar convertible into a parking space right in front of Pemberly and hit the brakes, I was filled with dread.
    “You okay?” Noelle asked, noticing my sudden pallor.
    “Yeah.” I unhooked my seatbelt and attempted a smile. “Just remembered I have a ton of work to do.”
    “Well, hop to it, Junior,” Noelle said, patting me on top of my head. She twirled her keys around one finger and got out of the car. “I, graduating senior that I am, am going to ignore my work and head over to Coffee Carma for a latte.”
    I rolled my eyes at her.
    Noelle closed her door, then leaned against it, over the open expanse of the convertible. “Seriously, though, Reed. Thanks for today. I had fun.”
    I smiled for real this time. “Me too.”
    She headed around the dorm for the quad and I ran for the front door. Noelle may have been trying to rub my nose in her freedom, but I was kind of glad she was going elsewhere. It meant I could sprint inside and take the stairs instead of the elevator and be at my room in half the time.
    I threw open the door to my room and stood frozen on the threshold, looking around. At first I felt a slight twinge of relief. Ivy was right. Nothing looked out of place. But as I stepped inside I realized that wasn’t entirely the case. Nothing was out of place, but something was missing. Namely, the Billings blueprints.
    Leaving the door open, I lunged to the corner where I’d left the poster roll containing all Carolina’s blueprints for the new design. It was gone. I hit my knees to check under the bed, but there was nothing there aside from the usual under-the-bed storage and a stray pair of shoes. Cursing under my breath, I shoved open my closet and ransacked the floor, just in case I’d tossed them in there and forgotten about it. Which I knew I hadn’t.
    There was nothing. The blueprints were gone. I shoved my hands into my hair as I turned around and my eyes fell on my computer. Had I left my laptop open like that?
    “Sonofa—”
    I leaned over my desk and booted up my computer. The Billings Construction folder was gone from the desktop. I checked the trash. Wiped out. I hadn’t had time to back up the files before I went out this morning, which meant they were just gone. Carolina had some of theinformation, obviously, and I had everyone’s numbers and e-mails stored in my phone, but all my notes were in that folder. All my ideas and whims and reminders. All of it had been deleted.
    “No,” I said under my breath, lowering myself onto the edge of my bed. “No, no, no.”
    I drew my knees up under my chin and clung to my shins. Suddenly all the old horrifying feelings came rushing back over me. All the dread and fear and sense of violation I’d felt back when Sabine stalked me last semester. That feeling that nothing was sacred, that nothing was safe, that nothing was mine. Someone had been in my room. Someone had rifled through my things. Someone had walked around this very space—my space—like they were entitled to it.
    My heart clenched over and over and over until it felt like it couldn’t