RUIN ME, I DARE YOU.

iv Cas

hirteen dollars an

on her half of the rent, and the fi

st ten seconds. 5:04 a.m. The café was empty, the lights were too b

1.

rent, groceries, or the phone bill that somehow came

textbooks: not enough, and she needed them. Pick up extra hours at the café: t

een and slid the p

, coming out of the back

e min

own and didn't quite look at her.

ropped before

aid. "Corporate cut the budget. I'm sorry

still. She'd had

r budget twice already this month and there was nothing lef

e decision, and explain

s fi

n't soun

fine,

usually did when sh

fast, exact, and without wasting a word. A girl in a sorority sweatshirt wanted

ll hoodie leaned on the counter like

e cof

doll

her name tag. "Viv. You always look li

aking

smile while

cup across

said. "It c

ned, delighted, and dropped

the ch

gener

ond. It wouldn't fix anything. She still w

ned to the n

hand and her statistics notes in the other, crossing t

ed to her. Numbers behaved. They said what they

ere the

paper and burnt coffee. She didn't have a shift there until Thursda

he way other peo

ay editing, $20. A flyer f

gold border, pinned like it belonged to someone w

DED: UNIVERSITY S

ad it

ur was nearly double any

would stop the next nine weeks f

se's schedule. It meant hours stolen from her own studying. And rich students with

eres

lder under one arm and the look of someone who

said. "Why th

to look serious." The woman tappe

bad

needs someone workin

ll have my work

r. "Do you have time

. "That's neve

back to the card, and that was when she saw

nt: M

stopped halfwa

," sh

cher for Blackwood. His

barely heard the

ew tha

rom a time much earlier: a hallway, a closed door, her f

a

ike a name. He'd sa

waiting for something to come through the wall. Then h

he'd said.

ow it sounded. She had ne

each other?" the

N

lso the kind of true

sharp. A coincidence, she told herself. Hale was

ly was not hal

dy stacked as high as it could go without toppling, and she did not

id forty-five d

n her pocket, said si

nd harder to ignore, was a question

ke it,"

blinked. "You

't nee

diff

am

form from her folde

pen above the line. Then she signed her nam

self it was

almos