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I couldn’t stand being alone in here. So I said, “Come inside and I’ll tell you.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Well, the last time I saw you, you were fighting the staff.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “I’m not going to attack you,” I said, “if that’s what you’re worried about.” I held up the first three fingers of my right hand. “Scout’s honor. Anyway, you could totally take me in a fight. You’re a foot and a half taller than I am.”

He gave a nervous smile. “I just … I think you’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

That made me laugh. Take iteasy? In the quiet room? A person could go seriously insane in here.

But I could tell my weird sense of humor wasn’t helping my case, so I sat down on the mattress and smiled as reassuringly as I could at him. Was that sympathy I saw in those agate eyes? I hoped so.

“Please come in,” I said. “I need you to understand. I think you might be the only one who can.”

CHAPTER 20

What do I do now?Jordan thinks. This is way above his pay grade. He looks up and down the hallway, but no one else is coming to help.

Meanwhile Hannah’s in there, pleading with him to listen to her, and he can’t just walk away. She looks so distraught. So alone.

The door is locked. But he has a keycard, so nothing’s stopping him from going in. And so, a moment later, he does. He realizes instantly that Michaela was right: it’s freezing in there. And yeah, it’s spooky, too.

Hannah pats the vinyl mattress, and Jordan hesitates only for a second before sitting down next to her.

“Hi,” he says, and then he doesn’t have any idea what to say next.

“What’s your name again?” she asks.

“Jordan,” he says. “Jordan Hassan.”

“Well, Jordan Hassan, I’m Hannah. It’s nice to meet you,” she says. “I wish it could be under different circumstances, of course.” She flashes a sudden and surprising smile. “Like, it’d be better if we started talking because we were next to each other on the F train. Or what if we’d met because we wanted the same apple from the fruit cart on 45th? That’d be nicer, right, than you letting yourself into my jail cell?” Her voice is low and lilting—musical, even.

“Maybe,” Jordan says, smiling back at her, oddly charmed. “But I don’t think the F’s so great, do you? Maybe we should have met in a coffee shop. Or in line for a movie.”

“That sounds great,” she agrees. “As long as it’s not a horror movie.”

He shakes his head. “No way. I sawSinisterwhen I was a kid, and then I was scared for two whole weeks.”

“That’s cute,” Hannah says. “Did you learn your lesson?”

“Yeah, I stuck with Disney movies for about a decade after that.” It’s an exaggeration, but barely.

Her laugh’s even more musical than her voice. “Jungle Cruiseis your jam, huh?”

“I’ll see anything with The Rock in it,” he says, and this is definitelynotan exaggeration.

He’s surprised at how easy it is to sit in the quiet room with Hannah, and how perfectlyregularshe seems right now. She could be a girl in one of his classes, or down the hall in his dorm. How is it that only yesterday she was carried into the room kicking and screaming?

She fiddles with her tangled hair. “So you’re new here,” she says.

He nods. “Very.”And don’t tell anyone, but it’s kind of overwhelming.

“I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” she says.

“What?”