Ten minutes later, Piper is still glaring at me from her spot on the sofa.
It’s when I hear the front door fly open that I feel the shift in energy in my apartment.
“Where is she?”
Goddammit.
Why did she have to call them?
Piper doesn’t even look up from her phone. “Kitchen floor. Don’t ask.”
Emmy rounds the corner first, takes one look at me sprawled out, and sighs. “Why are you such a stubborn bitch?”
“Hi, Emmy,” I say sweetly.
Celeste appears behind her, and I don’t even pretend to be civil.
“Oh no,” I mutter. “Get that traitor out of my apartment.”
Celeste lifts her middle finger without breaking stride. “Shut up.”
Piper claps her hands once, already halfway to the door. “You two got her?”
“Yes,” Emmy says, resigned.
“Absolutely,” Celeste adds.
“Great.” Piper grabs her violin case off the floor. “I have a rehearsal. Don’t let her die.”
And just like that, she’s gone.
The apartment is quiet for all of six seconds.
Thud.Thud. Thud.
We all look up at the ceiling.
“What the hell was that?”Emmy asks.
“My neighbor.”
Celeste glances back at me. “Mr. Rogers?”
I groan. “Mr. Rogers passed away a couple of months ago. He shuffled,” I explain. “I never heard a single sound from that apartment in two years.”
Right on cue, something slams overhead, loud enough to rattle the light fixture.
Celeste squints. “That sounds… aggressive.”
“Correct,” I say flatly. “Whoever lives up there now is apparently training for war.”
Emmy frowns. “Didn’t you say this place has state-of-the-art soundproofing? I thought it was quiet here?”
“It was,” I mutter. “That’s why I took it.”
I lift the ice pack and gesture half-heartedly toward the ceiling. “The apartment was a steal because it’s the only one in the building with soundproofing issues from above. Management was very transparent. They knocked money off the rent.”
Celeste blinks. “And you still moved in?”
