Verse 16: The Loophole Club

We pushed the double doors open and stepped into the hallway, now buzzing with life. Students crisscrossed through the corridor like ants with half-empty coffee cups and full schedules. Malik walked like he owned the place—dapping random people, tossing out jokes only the popular understood. I followed behind, still trying to wrap my head around what info he had.

Malik adjusted his sunglasses and slowed his pace.

“You ever heard of the Loophole Club?” he asked casually.

I frowned. “That sounds made up.”

“Oh, it’s real,” he said, smirking. “Not an official name, obviously. But that’s what we call it. Bunch of us who figured out how to survive campus life without losing our minds... or our grades.”

“So… like a study group?”

He laughed. “Not exactly. It’s more like… an informal network. Connections bro. People who know people. We trade info—professor patterns, class loopholes, admin blind spots, where to get the real food after midnight, how to get into buildings after hours without a keycard… that kind of thing.”

“Sounds like cheating.”

“It’s not cheating,” he said, raising a finger. “It’s optimizing.”

I shook my head but couldn’t stop the smile that tugged at my mouth. “You’re such a hustler.”

“Call it what you want, but it works. Listen... half the shit here is built to confuse us. Paperwork loops, forgotten ID protocols, lectures that get rescheduled at the last minute. The Loophole Club’s just a way of surviving the chaos. So...” he paused dramatically...“you in or not?”

I hesitated. My gut whispered red flag. This is how one joins a cult unknowingly.

“I don’t know, man. I’m not trying to get caught up in some shady club.”

“It’s not shady,” Malik said quickly. “It’s discreet. Connections.  A Brotherhood. Actually, scratch that last part, we’re looking to get some babes to join up pretty soon.”

He stopped near the fountain by the admin building. Then, without warning, he splashed water on his face like he was in a commercial. A couple of students gave us death stares. I tried to distance myself with a look that screamed I don’t know this man, but it didn’t land. Some girl actually sneered at me.

Like, why not sneer at the guy misusing university resources instead of an innocent bystander?

Malik wiped his face and turned to me, his voice softer now. “You already used our services today, by the way.”

I blinked.

“The WhatsApp group. The pinned messages, that’s all us. And unless you like climbing fences, you’ll need help fixing that ID situation.”

He wasn’t wrong. I’d never have made it to class on time without that thread. A backup plan didn’t sound too bad.

“…Fine,” I muttered. “I’ll check it out. Just don’t make it weird.”

Malik grinned like he’d just won a bet.

“Good. Meet me tonight. Nine p.m. Behind the library. You’ll want to wear something that doesn’t scream freshman.”

I squinted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’ll see.”

And with that, he strolled off, motioning for me to follow.

There’s more?

We cut across the quad, taking a side path between the Old Humanities Block and a hedged walkway that led toward the canteen. The morning chill still hung in the air, but the sun was working hard to kill it. Students passed by in clusters—some yawning, others half-laughing at something they weren’t really listening to.

We stopped by the vending machines outside the canteen. Malik slid coins in, pressed some buttons, and grabbed two Snickers bars, which he didn’t share with me.

He unwrapped one slowly and spoke, “Yo. I wanna talk to you about girls.”

I blinked, barely keeping up. “…Okay?”

He threw an arm around my shoulder like we were old buddies.

“My dad told me two things that make a man. One... you gotta be a man of principles. Means you don’t do anything shady to anybody, ever. Two... you gotta be a man of your word. When you say you’re gonna do something, you do it. Got it?”

I stared at him.

“Uh… sure?”

I wasn’t trying to be funny. I honestly had no clue what he was getting at.

“I’m serious, bro,” he said. “You can’t just ghost someone after they invite you somewhere. That’s disrespectful, especially when it’s my sister.”

I stopped walking. “Wait. Your who?”

He gave me that look. The kind that says You’re slow, but I still love you.

“Elena,” he said, spelling it out. “She waited for you at the Open Mic last night. Had a whole chair saved and everything. Said you were coming.”

Elena is his sister?

Okay, now that he mentioned it, I could kinda see it. Maybe. Barely.

But that’s not how siblings work, right? When one is cool, the other is supposed to be a loser. Or one should be extremely good-looking and the other average at best. I mean, look at the Cavill brothers.

Malik sighed. “You really didn’t notice how off she was this morning?

Yeah. I saw her. I felt it too. I hadn’t known her for long but even I thought she wasn’t being herself. I just didn’t think it had anything to do with me.

“I’m being serious, bro. You can’t just not show up when a girl invites you somewhere. That’s a really shitty move. If a girl says, “Hey, you should come to place A,” you show up.... even if it’s at 6 AM in a thunderstorm.”

I instinctively nodded my head.

“I didn’t mean to—” I started, but Malik was already waving it off.

“Just apologize,” he said, cutting left at the corridor fork. “And don’t disappoint my sister again, or we’ll have a problem.”

He walked off with that easy swagger of his, not even waiting for me to respond. I stood there for a second, watching him disappear, my thoughts running after him.

Elena is Malik’s sister?

My brain couldn’t process that twist.

I turned the other way, heading toward the Campus Records Department.

Time to fix something I actually could.