“She’s right,” I point out. “I do love cherries.” In fact, so much so that I predict whatever children I end up having far into the future will love it as much as I, if not more.
“Hey, where’s Madi?” I ask, not finding our fifth roommate in the sitting area. With perfect timing, the gentle sounds of her violin are heard, flowing into the windows. She’s a music performance major and during the weekends—when she’s not in orchestra practice—she practices outside.
The guys don’t mind it, just as long as she isn’t practicing at night and there aren’t any parties thrown in the yard between our houses. It doesn’t happen that often, these days—the partying, not Madi’s involuntary violin recitals in the yard.
“Where did you get the pie, anyway?” Ronnie questions.
I just shrug and respond with, “A friend gave it to me.”
“Does that friend happen to live in the house behind us?” He grins.
Without responding, I take the fork out of his hand and snatch a bite for myself, nearing moaning in delight from how good it tastes. How is the crust so flaky? And the filling…don’t even get me started on that.
“Well, there’s my answer,” he mutters. “Whatever happened to your whole ‘never associate with the enemy’ mindset?”
Lucia looks up from her nails so fast that I wonder how she doesn’t have whiplash. “Did you finally talk to him about it?”
That has our fourth roommate looking up from her book—which is a feat all on its own because Emma is attached to her books—with brown eyes lit up like a fire. “Is Diana finally dating someone?”
“I’m not dating anyone, Emma,” I clarify. “My scholarship’s in jeopardy and I need help with a class.”
“So I suggested asking someone in the class to help,” Lucia adds. “Looks like you took my advice, D.”
I am about to correct her before Emma speaks up, and I close my mouth since she hardly contributes to the conversation given her social anxiety. She’s more of a listener and enjoys receiving gossip than spreading it around.
“This should be interesting,” Emma remarks.
“I’ll bet,” Ronnie agrees with his cousin. “Let’s see how long she’ll last before ripping his head off.”
I turn to Ronnie with furrowed brows. “How do you know who it is?”
“Enzo said something about it this morning.”
“Are you guys official yet?” Lucia asks, edging closer to her seat.
Pressing his lips with a ring-clad thumb, Ronnie shrugs with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I don’t kiss and tell.”
I gasp in delight. Thank fucking god. Those two have been hooking up since September and he has not said shit about their status.
“He did invite me to this house party,” he continues. “It’s tonight. You guys down to join?”
“I’m down,” Emma responds. “Someone go talk to Madi.”
“I’ll relay her the info,” I offer. “There’s no point in my going but I might as well be useful.”
“Come on, D!” Ronnie exclaims. “This one’s supposed to be chill. Just an outdoor party.”
“You know how I feel about parties,” I remind him.
“We know how you feel aboutdrinking,” Lucia corrects me.
I raise both eyebrows at her. “You know what parties lead to?”
“Optional drinking, duh.” She paints one last coat of polish on her nails before blowing on them.
“Not at this school,” I mutter. Parties at USC are intense, from what I hear—again, I’ve never been to one—and there’s a reasonI stay away from them. One thing about this school I didn’t take into account was the partying culture, especially on Greek row.
Parties lead to drinking, which leads to bad decisions and death. I’ve already nearly died once and I prefer to stay alive until I’m at least eighty, thank you very much.
