A Mystery At Ravenscroft

And They Meet Again

Parker

September 24th, 2021

Toby, my tour guide, leads me throughout the student center while pointing to his favorite spots to eat and study at.

"And over here we have my favorite coffee place, Dunkin. Oh, and before you ask, yes, there is a Starbucks, but their coffee is mediocre at best. Stick to Dunkin, you'll thank me later." He says, with a funny expression on his face. I've got to say I'm obsessed with him. His style, his attitude, his humor, it's all there on display for all to see.

"And down this way is the Arcadia Lounge, where you're supposed to go study, but honestly, no one does. If you want to, I don't know... feel better, there's stuff in there for you." He says, then turns around and shields his mouth and says to me, "I just go for their edibles, to be honest."

"You're serious?" I ask.

"Dead. Why do you think it's so damn dark in there? Did you really think anything productive goes on there?" He asks mid-laugh.

I roll my eyes and follow Tobias through the center, about to end the tour. This student center is really big. When I look at the ceiling, it towers above us, with clear glass at the top displaying the light blue sky. The floors are marble, the tables and chairs a nice tan shade, and big signs above each vendor. There are not that many people in here because of how early it is, but the few here seem to be staring at me. Which I guess I could understand. I did have on a thrifted Mac Demarco shirt on with ripped jeans and Vans, while everyone else was in pretty much the opposite. I'm sorry, but how do you wake up first thing in the morning and wear a dress? Absolutely not, I will run a fucking marathon before you catch me in a dress.

Out of all the places here, I'm the most excited to go inside their Barnes and Noble because it looked ENDLESS. I just know I can get lost in all of those shelves, cozying up, reading a murder mystery novel, and hopefully find myself a morally grey, dark-haired book boy.

We've passed a Canes, many coffee shops, their university store, a bagel place, and many study and lounge spots. Well, according to Tobias, half of them are just used to get drugs, which I'm not crazy about. The edibles? Maybe, but not yet.

Tobias checks one last thing off his clipboard and turns to me.

"Okay, so that concludes this part of your tour. Thank you for, like, not being bat-shit crazy. The last person I had to give a tour, well... let's just say that they told me I was going to hell so... Anyway, let's grab a bite really quick before we tour the rest of campus!" He said, changing subjects really quickly.

"No, hold on a second. That wasn't right of that person at all; I hope you did something." I say with an expression of worry on my face.

"Girl, you know I did." He says to me, half smiling. I love his energy.

"Let's just say I may or may not have set her up to get drugs from Arcadia and called one of the security officers to catch her getting some. So she was on community service here for a whole month. Honestly, one of my biggest accomplishments." He says grinning. I start to laugh because honestly, that's what that person gets.

"Glad you're keeping the streets safe, Toby," I say to him nudging his arm.

"Oh, so we are on a nickname basis now?" He asks with a quizzical expression on his face. "Okay, we love that for us."

We end up stopping at Dunkin (are we surprised) and he got some super-specific iced coffee made, and I just get an iced black coffee.

"Oh, so you're one of those." He asks me sarcastically as we sit in some brown bean bag chairs in the far corner of the place.