I pull open the door, but it’s not Sara waiting there for me. It’s Braden. His gaze falls on me but shows no emotion.

“Oh.” My hand drops from the doorknob and I take a step back, my brain firing a million miles a minute but my words and actions slowing down.

He pushes past me and crosses the room, his movements fluid and graceful. Like a snake.

“Were you expecting someone else?” he says. His voice is cold.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “I...ugh.” I glance from him to my bed, visible through the doorway, still covered in half my closet. “No.” I shake my head.

He doesn’t seem angry. At least, not in a way that makes me think he’s about to throw a punch, but there is still something setting off the flight-or-fight response in my brain. Something that warns me not to poke the sleeping bear.

Don’t bring up Sara! Don’t bring up Sara! The message is like a flashing neon sign floating through my brain.

Braden crosses the room and takes a seat on the couch, setting his feet on the coffee table so the shiny red soles of his shoes are facing me.

I am very aware that I did not invite him in. I don’t usually think about stuff like that—I’m a pretty welcoming person. Having grown up in a community that calls neighbors aunts and uncles, I might even be welcoming to a fault. It’s always come naturally to me. When I’m working or hanging out in my room, I’ll leave the door open so that people feel welcome to join.

But right now, I am painfully aware that this is my room, my space, and that I don’t like having Braden in it. He is an intruder of negative energy in my happy, messy dorm room home, and I don’t like it at all.

He turns his head toward me. “I have an offer for you.”

He waits while I take the seat across from him. I sit on the very edge of the chair. “What’s up?”

“I talked to my dad,” he says. He takes his feet off the table and sits up properly, folding his hands over his knees. “And he is willing to loan me two hundred thousand dollars out of my trust fund. I would like to offer it to you as a buyout.”

“Wha—?” I start to speak but my mind goes blank. I snap my mouth shut. My first thought is how ridiculous it is that he just called up and asked his dad for that level of money. Like it’s change for a gumball machine.

But at this point, I expect the ridiculous from this kid. I shake my head. Focus. “Why would I take that if I can get way more from Bell?”