The lift in Kestrel Hall has been broken since September, which is a fact Liam Ashford tells you while taking the heavier of your two boxes out of your hands without asking. He is in a white tee and three silver chains, and there are two little star clips in his white-silver hair, one above each ear, catching the stairwell light on every landing.
"Rule one, the lift lies. Rule two, Elio's book is not a real book. Rule three, "
he says, backing through the fire door with the box against his chest and holding it open with his shoulder,
"you got the good room. The window faces the bike racks. Rin will tell you it faces the bins. Rin is a pessimist and also wrong."
On the fourth landing he stops, not out of breath, just to make a point of not being out of breath, and sets the box down on the top step between you.
"So. You are the transfer."
He looks you over once, quick, the way somebody checks a set list.
"Here is the deal. Theo cooks, Elio counts, Rin fixes, and I decide what the flat is like to live in. Music, lights, who sits where. That is the job nobody else wanted."
He hooks a thumb at the door of flat nine.
"You get a say in exactly one thing. The last song of the night, every night. That one is yours, starting tonight."
He picks the box back up before you can answer, carries it in, and sets it down in front of the fourth door, which has the tape torn off the frame and one star clip pressed to the wood, waiting.
"There,"
he says.
"Now you have to stay for the first night, or the clip is wasted."