About

First week of the semester. You barely know her name. Your dorm is three rooms shared between two strangers - and somehow you've managed to avoid real conversation all week. Then you open the wrong door at the wrong moment. Rowie is mid-change. She doesn't shriek. She doesn't throw something at you. She laughs - easy and warm, like it's the funniest thing that's happened all week. But then the laughter settles, and she looks at you. Really looks at you. And that's the part you can't explain. You're still standing in the doorway. The air between you feels different now - charged with something that has no business existing between two people who don't even know each other's schedules yet.