Mateo’s office was in the Biology lab somewhere on the fourth floor and it was a pain to get to. The university was sprawling and covered many city-blocks and I still wasn’t super familiar with their shuttle systems.

But I knew the building from taking classes in it, just not the fourth floor and after several laps around the balcony area, I found the room number. Mateo’s name was listed with a few other grad students. My body froze up, suddenly unsure of what the etiquette was. Did I knock? Or was I supposed to just walk in.

In the end I decided on both and gave a couple gentle knocks, paused for a moment and then cracked the door open.

Two different young men looked up at me. The darker skinned of the two pushed some large headphones off his ears and looked quizzically at me. I probably looked ridiculously young to be here.

“I’m looking for Mateo,” I said quietly.

The darker skinned boy nodded his head and waved me over to his table. A beat up laptop was sitting on top of it, with a few different windows full of fine text open.

“What can I help you with?” he asked, minimizing some of the tabs on his computer screen.

I glanced over at the other young man, but he’d turned back to his own work so I took a breath and unzipped my bag.

“I was wondering if you could tell me what species or whatever this is,” I explained.

“Uh… I’m not really sure,” he said. “Are you a… URP?” he asked.

“No.. but I don’t really know of anyone else with experience in entomology,” I explained and finally pulled the bag out.

He stopped, in the midst of maybe turning me down when he saw the insect and frowned.

“Huh…” he reached out and gently put his hand behind the clear plastic to angle the corpse a bit for a better look. “Why do you need this?” he asked.

I glanced at the other guy but he still had earbuds in. I sat down in the chair next to him.

“Is this…?” Mateo asked.

I nodded. “It’s from the other day,” I explained. “From the dining hall incident.”

“Why not bring it to the authorities?” he asked. “They’d probably be better equipped to deal with it.”

I stayed silent. There were a lot of things I couldn’t say. And the police wouldn’t exactly give me the information I wanted once someone else took a look. He eyed me up and down.

“I’ll see if I can identify it,” he said and took the baggie. “But after I’m done you should bring it to someone with better credentials.”

I nodded. “Just tell me if you find anything at all,” I said. “It’s… not actually one from the attack but I… acquired it later. I want to know where it comes from,” I explained carefully.

He looked it over in detail. “I can tell you right now, it’s not a wasp. It looks more like a bee.”

I’m sure my clueless face said it all.

“It’s got quite a bit of hair for a wasp and the wings are shaped differently–” he waved me off. “I’ll send you an email about it later. What’s your ID?”

I gave him my email address, and he jotted it down.

“I’ll send you what I can find,” he told me.

I gave the bag one last look before I wished him goodbye and left the office space. I saw him glance at the other guy in there before quietly sliding the ‘bee’ into his bag and going back to work.

I had to leave, and wandered around the building for a minute before getting out to the hot and humid Florida atmosphere.

Chloe was getting discharged from the hospital. I drove there to pick her and another girl up and drive them back to campus. She smiled when she saw me and jumped to give me a tight hug. “I missed you,” she said.

I nodded and patted her back until she let go.

My lungs reinflated as she looked me up and down. “You look as tired as I feel,” she said.

“My Biology exam is tomorrow,” I explained. “And I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“I’m sorry.” She gave me a comforting pat.

The other girl, RA Vickie, gave me an awkward wave from behind Chloe and I remembered my purpose for coming over here.

“I parked over in the garage, but I can pull it around if you guys want,” I offered.

“No,” Chloe protested. “It looks bad,” she glanced at the large bandage plastered on her arm. “But I’m feeling fine now. It just itches a bit.”

“If you’re sure,” I sighed.

Our RA shrugged, not worried about the walk. “I just want to get back,” she said. “It’s been a long night.”

I quietly agreed and led them into the parking garage amid the scent of gasoline and exhaust fumes.

“They probably should’ve pushed your exam date back by a class,” Vickie said. She was stretching, her back arching as she walked. “That’s pretty standard practice for a college course when an emergency happens.”

I hadn’t thought to check my email to see if they’d done something like that.

“I’ll check when I get home,” I told her. She was a limber girl. Lean and pretty in a very conventional way. She managed to look pretty even in simple things like folding herself into the back seat of my car.

I couldn’t help but feel a weird mix of awe, crushiness and jealousy. If I had that kind of bod, I’d probably have a girlfriend by now. But I knew our RA was already taken by some tall, conventionally handsome guy that visited her in our dorms from time to time.

I found myself lost in thought on the drive back. Chloe was chatting about how strange the hospital water tasted and said her dad had once made a joke the water pitchers they used were recycled from the pitchers they stored people’s urine in.Vickie, who was a pre-med student assured her that hospitals would not do that and would be shut down promptly if they tried.Chloe was quiet on that topic afterward and the conversation sputtered the rest of the ride back until I pulled into our dorm’s parking lot.

“Thanks for the ride,” Vickie said. “I’ll see you guys at the next floor meeting, right?”

“Of course,” I agreed automatically.

She departed from us. Chloe waited for her to go before giving me a look.

“What’s up?” she asked. Her voice was sterner than before.

I shook my head. “I’m fine,” I brushed her off.

“Something’s wrong though. Tell me what it is.”

I ignored her. “I’m just tired.”

She frowned, following where I’d started to head back inside.

“You know you can tell me anything, right?” she asked. “I talk a lot but I can keep a secret.”

“It’s not a secret,” I sighed. “I’m tired. I have an exam, I didn’t sleep well, you were in the hospital because a giant swarm of killer bees descended on us, and I just want to go to bed,” I rambled, grumpy. It wasn’t so much that I was tired as much as I just wanted to be alone for a bit. Getting alone time in a college dorm was rather challenging. Even if I did have a single-room.

Chloe yielded, though. She walked with me to my dorm and tried to reassure me again that she was there if I needed anything.

I wished her goodnight, trying to make up for my foul mood earlier.

She gave me a final hug, returned the good night and headed off for her own dorm room.

I hauled myself onto my bed and laid down, staring at the ceiling in the almost-quiet. Somebody’s music from several rooms down was reverberating through the walls, keeping it from being completely quiet. I still fell asleep a while later, noise or not, I was tired.