Arya didn’t hobble back to her dorm room; she practically floated on a cloud of sheer, caffeinated panic. Every time her foot hit the stone floor, the image of those water droplets tracing the ridges of Laksh’s chest flashed in her mind like a lightning strike. By the time she slammed the door of Room 3B behind her, her face was so red that Chloe, who was halfway through a complex legal brief, actually dropped her neon highlighter.

"Whoa, whoa!" Chloe exclaimed, pushing her chair back as the wheels shrieked against the wood. "What happened? Did the stairs fight you? Or did you finally find that Victorian ghost you’ve been looking for?"