Davis had gotten in the back seat, so Reagan was sitting right next to Luna. “Sure.”
“There’s a local place just a bit down the street. It’s mostly packed with college students, so you know it’s both good and cheap.”
“Perfect,” Reagan answered. She only had a few bucks on her at the moment.
She stared out the window for the brief drive. They pulled into the parking lot of a place she’d seen the day she arrived in town. That just brought on memories of how sore she was when she moved in, so she focused on her current company, instead.
“Do you two come here a lot?” Reagan asked as they walked toward the crowded restaurant.
“Every time there’s a game or practice. I’m so hungry afterward I could eat a horse.” Luna paused as Davis opened the door for them and let the ladies go first.
Reagan smiled but didn't say anything until they’d ordered and were seated at a four-top table waiting for their number to be called. “I don't get you two.”
Davis smirked as he tried to spin the salt shaker. “Nobody does, little freshman. Least of all us.”
Luna sighed and glared at Davis. “We met our first year in one of our classes. He’s tried desperately to get me to date him ever since. I like him, we’re friends and we hang out, but I don’t want to date him. That little fact evades him constantly.”
That seemed easy enough, but Reagan wondered why Luna didn't want to date him. Maybe there was something fundamentally wrong with him. Maybe she was into girls. Maybe she was focused on her classes and didn't want to get hung up on a guy.
Davis popped up when they called their number. He’d insisted on paying for all of them, so they were all on one ticket.
“He’s too rich,” Luna murmured when he was out of earshot. “I come from nothing, and he comes from . . . everything. It’s so easy for him to do anything he wants, to buy whatever strikes his fancy. He has no idea how his money affects his everyday life, or how my lack of it affects mine.”
“So it’s awkward.” Reagan understood that more than anything else Luna had said.
“Yeah.”
Davis came back with a tray full of fries in cardboard containers and three burgers. “Mind if we combine the fries? We usually do, but I won’t if you don’t wanna,” he said to Reagan.
“Oh, okay.” She was a tiny bit of a germaphobe when it came to food and didn't want them to be touching her fries. She figured she could hoard a portion to herself and not be seen as a complete freak.
Luna leaned forward. “It’s because I eat more of them than him.”
“She packs away the food. It’s astonishing what she can eat in one sitting.” Davis wiggled his eyebrows at Luna as he spoke.
Luna giggled. “I’m active. I get hungry.”
“Yeah,” Reagan said. It made sense.
“Freshman here has a shitty roommate,” Davis announced to Luna as she squeezed ketchup out of the packets onto the paper her burger was wrapped in.
She swirled a fry into it, shoved it in her mouth, and then picked up her burger. “Let me guess, you want to fix it for her.” She bit into her hamburger after that statement. It was clear that she knew Davis well enough to know he was going to make that attempt.
“Yeah, why not? She can stay with me; unless she’s shy.”
“Um, we have checks by the RA to make sure we’re in our rooms.” Reagan thought this was an obvious point since he was friends with an RA.
“Yeah, but I can make a deal with them. It depends on their morals and their willingness to be bribed.”
“Okay, no.” Reagan took a sip of her drink and looked right at Davis so he would understand that she was serious. “No bribing. No bending or breaking the rules. I’m not okay with that.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
“You can hang out with us until curfew,” Luna offered. “Davis lives off-campus, and I spend a lot of time at his place.”
Of course he did. “Maybe.” Reagan thought about the benefits of that. Not facing Lydia except at bedtime and first thing in the morning would probably make a huge difference in her stress level. “Okay, yeah. But I’m not interested in being alone with you, Davis. I don't care if Luna is your soulmate”—she used air quotes—“I don't need rumors to spread about me.”
“You’re a goody-two-shoes, aren't you?” He didn't sound utterly disgusted like she half-expected, just resigned.
