The buzz against my thigh wasn't supposed to mean anything.

Phones buzzed in class all the time. Group chats. Reminders. My roommate forwarding me TikToks she thought were funny when they weren't. I almost didn't check. Professor Hadley was in the middle of explaining why some dead philosopher mattered, and I'd already decided I'd review the slides later, the way I always did.

But something made me look. I don't know what. A feeling. The kind you get when you walk into a room and realize someone's been talking about you right before you came in.

I tilted the phone under the desk.

Unknown number.

Three photos.

I opened the...