The Boy In Room 307

The Note

Mia had been staring at Jayden for nearly ten minutes when the reality of her situation finally caught up with her. She was sitting beside her roommate's bed in the middle of the night, wearing loose sleeping clothes, with her wrist trapped in his hand. If anyone walked into the room, she would have a lot of explaining to do.

"Jayden," she whispered, carefully trying to free herself. "Wake up."

He didn't move.

She tugged gently at her wrist, but his fingers tightened around it even in his sleep. Mia's eyes widened, and she immediately stopped moving. The last thing she needed was for him to wake up and discover that she had been sitting beside his bed for who knew how long.

"Seriously?" she muttered under her breath. "You spend the entire day telling me to stay away from you, and now you won't even let me leave?"

Jayden responded with a quiet breath and turned his face toward the pillow.

Mia stared at him in disbelief. Even asleep, he seemed determined to make her life difficult. She considered shaking him awake, but one glance at his relaxed face changed her mind. He hadn't looked that peaceful since she arrived at Crownridge, and disturbing him felt strangely cruel.

"Fine," she whispered. "But when you wake up, don't expect me to be nice to you."

She settled back against the side of his bed, intending to wait until his grip loosened. Unfortunately, the exhaustion from the previous evening caught up with her. Her eyelids grew heavy, and before she realized what was happening, she had rested her head against the edge of his mattress.

When Mia finally opened her eyes again, pale morning light was slipping through the curtains.

For a few seconds, she couldn't remember why she was sitting on the floor. Then she looked down.

Jayden was still holding her wrist.

"Oh, no."

She jerked upright so quickly that her shoulder struck the side of his bed. Jayden stirred, his eyebrows drawing together, but he didn't wake. Mia pressed her free hand against her mouth and glanced toward the door.

It was morning. Someone could knock at any moment. Worse, Jayden could wake up and start asking questions she couldn't answer.

She carefully lifted his fingers one at a time, trying to free herself without disturbing him. When his grip finally loosened, she snatched her hand back and scrambled to her feet.

"Never again," she whispered, rubbing her wrist. "Absolutely never again."

She hurried toward her bed, grabbed her clothes, and disappeared into the tiny bathroom. After changing, she checked her chest binding, adjusted her loose shirt, and ran her fingers through her short hair. Her reflection looked back at her with tired eyes and a face that seemed far too young to belong in a university dormitory.

Mia splashed cold water over her face.

"Get yourself together, Max," she muttered. "You're here for a reason. Remember that."

She emerged from the bathroom, shoved her notebooks into her backpack, and glanced at Jayden one last time. He was still asleep, his injured leg resting carefully on the pillow she had placed beneath it during the night.

For a moment, she hesitated.

Then she grabbed the door handle.

"Max?"

Her heart nearly stopped.

She turned around so quickly that her backpack slipped off one shoulder. Jayden had opened his eyes and was watching her from his bed, his voice rough with sleep.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Class."

"At this hour?"

Mia glanced at the clock. "It's not that early."

Jayden looked toward the window, then back at her. "You're rushing around like somebody's chasing you."

"Maybe somebody is."

His eyebrows rose.

Mia immediately regretted the answer. "It's an expression. People use them sometimes. You should try it."

Jayden stared at her for a moment before shifting against his pillow. His expression tightened briefly, but he managed to settle without the sharp groan that had disturbed their sleep the previous night.

"Did you put that pillow under my leg?" he asked.

Mia's fingers tightened around her backpack strap.

"What pillow?"

"The one under my knee."

"Oh. That." She shrugged, trying to appear uninterested. "You kept moving around, so I adjusted it. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Jayden studied her face.

"Did you stay beside my bed all night?"

Mia's mouth fell open.

"What? No!"

The answer came out much too quickly. Jayden's eyes narrowed, and she knew she had made herself suspicious.

"I woke up once," he said slowly. "Someone was talking."

"Probably the television in the next room."

"We don't have a television in the next room."

"Then perhaps it was a very loud dream."

Jayden continued staring at her until Mia could barely stand it. She turned toward the door and reached for the handle again.

"Look, if you're going to interrogate me before breakfast, at least wait until I've had something to eat."

"Max."

She stopped.

"What?"

Jayden hesitated, as though he had forgotten what he intended to say. His gaze briefly dropped to his injured knee before returning to her face.

"Nothing. Don't be late for class."

Mia blinked.

That was it? No insult, no complaint about her making noise, and no reminder to stay on her side of the room?

"Right," she said cautiously. "You too."

She escaped before he could ask anything else.

The hallway was already filling with students heading toward their morning classes. Mia hurried down the stairs, keeping her head lowered as she reviewed the day's schedule in her mind. She had barely slept, her wrist still felt strange where Jayden had held it, and she had absolutely no idea how she was supposed to behave around him after what had happened.

By the time she reached the lecture building, she had decided on a simple plan.

She would act normally.

Whatever had happened during the night would remain a private matter between her and Jayden, and she would continue focusing on the reason she had come to Crownridge in the first place.

Unfortunately, Crownridge had other plans.

"Hey, Max!"

Mia turned to find Ethan Brooks approaching with his usual easy smile. He wore a university sports jacket, and his soccer bag hung over one shoulder. Two teammates walked behind him, arguing about a match they had apparently lost the previous afternoon.

"Morning," Mia replied, forcing a smile.

Ethan looked her over. "You look terrible."

"Good morning to you too."

"No, seriously. Did you sleep at all?"

"Of course."

"Then why do you look like you fought a bear and lost?"

Mia adjusted her backpack. "Maybe the bear was particularly strong."

Ethan laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders. "Come on. There's a café near the lecture hall. Breakfast is on me."

Mia immediately glanced around, half expecting Jayden to appear from nowhere and complain about Ethan touching her again. When she realized how ridiculous that was, she quickly looked away.

"Thanks, but I've got class."

"Five minutes won't kill you."

"Neither will missing breakfast."

"That sounds like something a person who hasn't eaten breakfast would say."

Ethan was already steering her toward the café when Mia finally gave in. She ordered a small sandwich and a drink, then listened as Ethan complained about their coach's training schedule.

For the first time that morning, she began to relax.

Then the conversation at the next table caught her attention.

"Did you hear about Cole?"

Mia's fingers stopped halfway to her drink.

One of the students leaned closer to his friend. "Apparently, the knee injury wasn't just bad luck."

"What do you mean?"

"They're saying he was taking performance drugs before the championship. Something went wrong, and that's why his knee got destroyed."

Mia slowly lowered her cup.

"That's ridiculous," she muttered.

Ethan looked at her. "What is?"

She nodded toward the other table. "Those guys. They're spreading some nonsense about Jayden Cole."

Ethan's expression changed.

"Oh. That rumor."

Mia stared at him. "You've heard it before?"

"Since last semester, actually." Ethan leaned back in his chair, his earlier playfulness fading. "Nobody knows what really happened, but people have been talking about it for months."

"And nobody thought to check whether it was true before spreading it around?"

"Welcome to campus." Ethan gave a humorless laugh. "People love a good scandal, especially when the person involved can't defend himself."

Mia looked back at the students. One of them was already showing something on his phone to another, both of them grinning as though Jayden's ruined career were an amusing story.

"That's disgusting," she said.

Ethan followed her gaze. "You seem particularly interested in this."

Mia's stomach tightened.

"He's my roommate. If people are going to keep spreading lies about him, it's going to make living with him even more difficult."

"Right." Ethan watched her for a moment, then nodded. "Well, be careful around him, Max. Cole wasn't exactly known for being friendly even before the injury."

"You say that like he's dangerous."

"I say that like I've seen him break a guy's nose for making a stupid joke about his knee."

Mia's expression hardened. "Maybe the guy deserved it."

Ethan raised both hands. "All right, all right. No need to defend your roommate like a lawyer."

"I'm not defending him. I'm saying people shouldn't accuse someone of something serious without proof."

Ethan studied her for another moment before smiling faintly. "Fair enough."

By the time Mia finished breakfast, she had heard the same rumor from three different groups of students. Some claimed Jayden had used illegal drugs to improve his performance. Others insisted that his coach had known about it and helped cover it up. Nobody offered any real evidence, but that didn't stop the stories from spreading.

Mia attended her morning classes with her mind elsewhere. Every time she heard Jayden's name whispered behind her, she remembered the way he had struggled to move his injured leg the previous night.

He had been in pain, but he had never mentioned drugs or any medical treatment. He barely spoke about basketball at all.

What if the rumors were one of the reasons he had withdrawn from school?

By lunchtime, Mia had decided she needed to find out more. She couldn't confront Jayden with a rumor, especially when he had made it clear that questions about his injury were unwelcome. Still, she couldn't simply ignore what she had heard.

When she returned to Building 3 that afternoon, she found the hallway quieter than usual. She climbed the stairs and approached Room 307, already preparing herself for another argument about boundaries.

But when she opened the door, something on her desk caught her attention.

A sandwich wrapped neatly in paper sat beside her notebooks.

Mia stopped.

She glanced toward Jayden, who was sitting on his bed with his laptop open. His injured leg was stretched out in front of him, and he appeared to be reading something on the screen.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Food."

"I can see that."

"Then why did you ask?"

Mia walked toward her desk and picked up the sandwich. "Did you buy this?"

"No. It grew on your desk overnight."

She turned to stare at him.

Jayden kept his eyes on his laptop, but the faint movement at the corner of his mouth suggested he knew exactly how irritating he was being.

"Is this some kind of prank?" she asked.

"It's a sandwich, Max. Not a bomb."

"Then why is it here?"

"You left without eating anything this morning."

Mia's fingers tightened around the wrapper.

Jayden finally looked up. "You spent half the night complaining about my attitude. Don't tell me you're going to complain about free food too."

"I didn't spend half the night complaining."

"Whatever you say."

She looked at the sandwich again, then back at him. It was such a small gesture, but coming from Jayden, it felt almost unbelievable.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

He immediately returned his attention to the laptop. "Don't make it weird."

Mia couldn't help smiling.

For a few minutes, the room felt almost normal. She sat at her desk and ate the sandwich while reviewing her notes, occasionally glancing toward Jayden. He didn't insult her, complain about her music, or remind her to stay away from his belongings.

It wasn't friendliness, exactly.

But it was something.

Then she noticed the folded paper lying just inside the doorway.

Mia frowned and leaned down to pick it up. At first, she assumed it was an announcement someone had slipped under the door. Then she unfolded it and read the message written in thick, angry letters.

GET OUT OF CROWN­RIDGE, JAYDEN COLE. NOBODY WANTS A CHEAT AND A DRUG USER HERE. LEAVE BEFORE SOMEONE MAKES YOU REGRET STAYING.

Mia's smile vanished.

She read the note again, her fingers tightening until the paper crumpled in her hand.

"Jayden," she said, her voice suddenly serious.

He glanced up. "What now?"

Mia turned toward him, holding out the note.

His eyes dropped to the words.

For several seconds, he didn't move. Then the faint warmth that had softened his expression earlier disappeared completely, replaced by a coldness Mia recognized all too well.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"It was under the door."

Jayden closed his laptop.

"Give it to me."

Mia hesitated before handing it over. He read the message once, then folded the paper with deliberate care and placed it on his desk as though it meant nothing.

But his jaw had tightened, and his fingers remained pressed against the edge of the table.

"Are you going to report it?" Mia asked.

"No."

"Jayden, someone is threatening you."

"I can read."

"Then why are you acting like this is normal?"

He looked at her, his expression hardening. "Because it doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters! Someone is spreading rumors about you and leaving threats at your door. What if they do something worse?"

Jayden rose carefully from his bed, his injured leg stiff as he took a step toward her.

"Listen carefully, Max. Stay out of this."

Mia stared at him, anger rising in her chest. "And if I don't?"

Jayden's gaze dropped to the crumpled note between them before returning to her face.

"Then you'll learn why everyone on this campus knows better than to get involved with Jayden Cole."