For a spark of an instant we are frozen again. Then frantically I scrabble behind me, looking for the doorknob, wrench it, lean hard against the door, and spill out backward, stumbling a few steps and then catching myself, freezing.

We’re both completely silent, waiting for an angry security guard to grab us by the hair and haul us off to prison, but there’s nothing. Then another boom, the familiar sound of the ventilation system roaring on. I gasp, pressing a hand against my chest like I’m in a melodrama. My heart’s never had a workout like this.

I swallow and choke out in a whisper, “The ventilation system. It was the ventilation system. Not the elevator.” Relief.

Jack closes his eyes, then straightens and tugs his jacket down. “Right,” he says. “Ventilation. Of course.” He’s a little breathless too.

He digs in his pocket for his hat and jams that back on his head too. He shoves the door closed with a thump. We stare at each other for another long moment, and when I nod at the exit, we sprint to it, run up the driveway, and dive for the trees, ducking behind one like it’s going to offer any protection. Snow shakes off a branch and lands with a plop on my head, and I yelp.

“Shit!” I choke, because I can’t stuff it all down anymore.

In our escape we keep to the wooded area for a little bit, and I feel ridiculous creeping from tree to tree, and then we bounce back onto the paved walking path and meander like it’s any old night, swing left between the math and arts building and back onto the main thoroughfare. I stop and suck in a big, big breath.

“Holy crap!” I say, bouncing on my toes. “That was terrifying. I thought we were going to die. I thought we were going to jail.” I’m grinning at him, but he looks serious.

I stop, reach out to touch his shoulder, but pull back. “We’re okay, right?” I say in a low tone. “It was just the—system?”

“HVAC,” he says. I’m not surprised he knows. He nods. “I think it’ll work,” he says, businesslike. Does he mean the space? He turns and we’re walking, back to the dorms, I guess. My shoulder bumps against his, and he pulls away.

“You’re okay?” I ask him. “That was a big scare at the end.”

“Oh, yeah,” he says.

I want to push, poke at him until he tells me why he is acting like a weirdo. I want to look at him in the light, because my mouth still feels like it is tingling. There is so much in my head.

I say hi to some people who pass from behind us. I turn to Jack to say something casual, but he’s stopped. We’re at the door of the girls’ dorm.