The Annoying Sleepwalker novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Worth It

Three people who said things can always be replaced lend her $15,300 of valuables on camera, and at 2:47 a.m. the sleepwalker is already at the desk.

Casper knocked on our door at six the next morning, before Kelsey woke up.

He held his phone out and played me the clip in the hallway.

In the video, Kelsey sat up in bed with her eyes open.

She turned her head and looked at the doorway where the phones were.

She stared at the lens for a full second.

Then she got up and walked to my desk.

"Sleepwalkers don't check who's filming," Casper said quietly.

"No," I said. "They don't."

"Why didn't you say that last night?"

"Because last night everyone had already decided I was the problem."

Casper nodded slowly. "So what are you going to do?"

"Nothing," I said. "I'm going to make a photo series."

He looked at the floor group chat on my screen, then at me.

"The most expensive thing everyone owns," he said. "On your desk. With a sleepwalker in the room."

"I need two cameras on that desk," I said. "One she can see and one she can't."

Casper did not smile, but his shoulders dropped a little.

"I have a night-vision camera," he said. "I'll tape it inside an empty cereal box."

Behind me, our door opened.

Kelsey stood there in her pastel pajamas with her hair a mess and her eyes huge.

"Jess?" she said. "Why is everyone looking at me weird? Did I do something again?"

Her voice cracked on the last word.

She looked at the empty spot on my desk where the laptop had been.

Then she burst into tears and threw her arms around me.

"I'm so sorry," she sobbed into my shoulder. "I'll pay for it, I swear. I'll get a job. I'll do anything."

Over her shoulder, Casper's face didn't change.

I patted her back twice.

"It's okay," I said. "Things can always be replaced."

She pulled back and wiped her cheeks with both hands.

"You're the best roommate in the world," she said.

The tears stopped in a second.

I smiled back at her and said nothing.

That evening the lenders came one by one.

The RA arrived first, carrying a black guitar case in both arms.

"It's a 1978 Gibson," she said, and set it on my desk. "My dad bought it in a pawn shop in Nashville. It's appraised at $3,400."

"Thank you," I said. "Would you say that on camera for the series? What it's worth and why."

She shrugged and looked into Casper's lens. "It's worth $3,400. And if somebody broke it, I'd be upset for a day and then I'd buy another one."

"Perfect," I said.

The girl from 3C came next with a tablet, a stylus and a leather folio.

"The whole set is $2,100," she said into the camera. "It's honestly just stuff. I'd get over it."

Colson came last, and he came with an audience.

Two guys from the basketball team followed him down the hall, carrying their phones.

He held the steel watch up to the light with two fingers.

"Nine thousand, eight hundred dollars," he said to Casper's lens. "Limited edition. My dad gave it to me when I made the team."

"And if it broke?" I asked.

Colson laughed. "Then I'd buy two. I told you."

His friends laughed with him.

I wrote the three numbers on a sticky note and added them up.

The RA's guitar. The tablet set. The watch.

It came to $15,300.

Kelsey came out of the bathroom with a towel around her hair and stopped dead.

"Whoa," she said. "Is that real?"

She walked up to the desk and put one finger on the watch's green face.

"Colson lets you hold this?"

"He does," I said. "For my class."

Kelsey smiled at the watch.

It was a small smile, and I almost missed it.

Saskia came in right behind her with two cups of tea.

She stopped at the desk and looked at the guitar and the tablet and the watch.

"Jess," she said. "Are you sure about this?"

"It's a photo project."

"It feels like a trap," she said. "Not that I'm saying you would."

"Would you lend me something?" I asked.

She laughed and shook her head.

"I don't own anything worth shooting," she said. "I'll help you set up, though."

She moved the guitar a few inches to the left.

She took the watch out of its case and stood it up in the center of the desk, right at the front, where the lamp would hit it.

"There," she said. "That's the shot. It'll look amazing."

I thanked her and took the tea.

Casper set the cereal box on the bookshelf with the lens pointed at the desk.

He set a second camera on the shelf above my bed, in plain sight.

"Lights out is at midnight," I said to the room. "See you all in the morning for the shoot."

Everyone left.

I lay down in my bed and faced the wall.

Kelsey got into hers at eleven forty-five, humming a little tune.

She said good night to me in her sweetest voice.

I answered her and kept my eyes shut.

I did not sleep.

At 2:47, the springs of her bed creaked.

I opened my eyes a crack.

Her bed was empty, and the blanket was thrown back.

She was standing at my desk with her back to me, and her hand was already reaching for the watch.

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