Page 44 of You'll Love it Here

Jane’s eyes widen as a shadow passes through the hallway. From our crouched positions, we make out some very signature cowboy freaking boots passing by the rec room door.

Carmen. In his bad jeans.

“So gross,” Jane hisses at the sight of him.

The rush of adrenaline coursing through me suddenly sinks, settling as a heavy lump in the pit of my stomach. I can’t hide my deep disappointment—Carmen turned out to be a complete creep after all.

But his footsteps don’t stop at the laundry room. They continueuntil then end of the hall. Then comes the sound of a metal key scraping into a lock.

The storage unit.

I swallow through the thick, musty air.

The sounds from the storage unit next to us muffle through the walls. There’s a clang of something metal dropping onto the concrete floor. Carmen scrapes more items against the floor before he closes the door and locks up, then reenters the hall.

He doesn’t stop in the laundry room before passing our door, this time carrying some weird metal statue of a dog in his arms. What the hell?

Jane and I stay crouched behind the table, our rhythmic breathing the only sound until he leaves.

I tilt to see if the coast is clear, when a bang sounds behind us. We jolt. Fuck. The eight ball tumbles from the corner of the table to an open pocket and rolls toward my feet.

The light flicks on. Carmen is standing above us, holding the metal statue above his head like he’s about to take a swing.

My heart stops. I swear it stops.

“What you doing down here this late at night?!” Carmen shouts. “I almost took you out.”

I glance at Jane for help. She looks as puzzled as I feel.

Another muffled sound echoes in the background. Very light footsteps. A new shadow enters the hallway.

Holy shit.

Norm passes by the entryway, carrying a tattered laundry bag. Unlike Carmen, his steps are measured and as light as possible. Like he doesn’t want anyone to hear him.

He makes eye contact with the three of us standing by the pool table, each of us exchanging horrified faces. Then he continues on into the laundry room without a word.

My heartbeat picks up as Jane lifts her phone to watch the live feed.

“What the hell are you doing?” Carmen asks.

“Shh!” Jane hisses.

She angles the phone so we can see just as Norm shows up, standing in the laundry room. He stares at Jane’s dryer with her pink mesh laundry bin marking it on top.

He stands a good two feet away, not moving an inch. It starts to feel like time has stopped and we’re stuck in a tunnel. My heartbeat and Jane’s breathing are so loud they take over the world.

Finally, he seems to decide something because he turns to face the washers (and the phone we’d set up) on the opposite side of the room. He places his laundry bag on top of the machine, the fabric blocking out half the screen now. Shit.

Jane holds her free hand over her mouth as we see him open what must be the washer below him and load it with his clothes. Lots of T-shirts and socks.

Finally, he closes the lid and removes the bag from the top of the washer. The sound of water pulling into the laundry room gushes through the walls and echoes from Jane’s phone.

With a measured lightness, Norm exits the screen. His footsteps make their way back up the hall and up the stairs.

We sit in stunned silence before Jane lets out a gasp. “I’m going to piss my pants!”

“What is all this about?” Carmen asks. “Why are you spying on Norm?”