She patted me on the back. “Trust me, Christine, this will all be over and done with soon.”
Was she right? I so desperately wanted to believe that she was right, but fear had an icy tight grip on me. I honestly couldn’t recall what it was like to be calm. Even when I raced up the stairs in the dorm building, two at a time, and I locked myself away in my room, I didn’t feel secure.
But then how could I when I knew how easy it was to access this place? If Brandon could do it with such ease, then who knew if anyone else was able to? I would never truly be alone in this place.
I tossed my bag on the floor and fell onto my bed. I half expected tears to fall, but they didn’t come. I was too exhausted for any of it. I didn’t even notice how tired of life I actually was until my eyes began to flicker in an out-of-control manner.
I guess I really did need this rest. More than I realized.
* * *
What’s that noise?
A key.
I bolted upright in bed, shaking the sleep from my eyes. The sensation that I’d been caught doing something naughty haunted me. I didn’t want Brandon to see me like this…
“Oh, it’s you,” I gasped out with relief, the tension rolling off my shoulders in waves as Maggie strolled in through the door all casually.
“Yeah, your roommate. Who else would it be, dummy?”
She laughed and I joined in.
“Yeah, I don’t know, I guess I was in the middle of some really weird dream or something.”
The one thing I hadn’t told her about was Brandon breaking in here without us knowing he had a key. I didn’t think she’d get that.
“I’m glad you got some sleep. You look so much more rested than you were before…”
Her words trailed off as she stared at something in horror. It took me a moment to drag my eyes off her face, because I hadn’t ever seen that expression on Maggie’s face before. But when I did, I started to see why she was so shocked.
Why the hell was my laptop open? And seemingly live streaming me sleeping?
Okay, I was definitely not awake yet. This had to be a nightmare.
“Is this…” Maggie pointed awkwardly, “something you do? Like some kind of cool money-making scheme? Because I am all for the side hustle, and if you can make a bit of extra cash by people watching you sleep, then more power to you, but in our room…?”
“No,” I gasped before she could get too caught up in that idea. “This has nothing to do with me. I don’t…” I broke off, panting desperately. “I don’t even know how that happened. My laptop was in my bag. I didn’t even get it out, I…”
Finally, Maggie closed it down, breaking the terrifying spell it had on me, freezing me to the spot. I shuddered, feeling violated. What the hell was that about? Me taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon in my own dorm room was supposed to be a private experience. Not for other people to see. I wasn’t under the covers or anything because the nap just sort of happened. What if my clothing rose up while I slept? I never wanted to expose myself online.
“Is it a pop-up?” Maggie asked thoughtfully as she tried to find some rational explanation for what she had just seen. “They do always say keep your webcam covered, don’t they? Maybe this is why. Because shit like this can just happen…”
I let my jaw hang low slightly, because I had a snap retort to say to my friend. My laptop was in my bag, I knew I didn’t get it out, so it couldn’t have been a pop-up.
But then I realized what must have happened, the only real explanation. If it wasn’t me and it wasn’t Maggie, there was only one other person who had been in this room since I lived here. Brandon. He must have snuck the keys once more and set up all of that.
Tentatively, I stepped forward, and I opened my laptop up once more.
“What are you doing?” Maggie gasped.
“I need to figure this out, if it is a pop-up,” I murmured. “And I also want to find out how to block it so it can’t happen again. I don’t want everyone able to see me.”
But it wasn’t everyone. As I glanced to the left hand corner of the screen, I could see a username blinking at me. TheProf. Just as I suspected, it was him.
Brandon had snuck in my room while I was sleeping; he’d set up my laptop and given himself full access to me via live stream. I guess he couldn’t take his eyes off me for even a second.
My heart pounded against my rib cage; I wasn’t sure which side of the fence I fell on. Was I horrified that all of this happened without me knowing? Or upset that Maggie had walked in to wake me up so I couldn’t discover this alone? I could only imagine how Brandon would feel on the other side of the computer screen if I started touching myself for his pleasure.