“I’ll figure it out.” I brush off her question, not in the mood to think about it.
The front door of the Graham-Greenlee dorm swings open, and I can tell from Amber’s happy squeal that the frat boy wearing a Pi Beta Phi shirt and shorts that hit mid-thigh is her boyfriend.
“Kyle, this is Mars—”
“Like the planet?” Kyle asks, draping his arm around his girlfriend. “Does anyone ever call you Saturn?” He laughs at his own joke.
“Kyle, like Kyle Cotton?” I ask, my head cocked to the side. Out of the corner of my eye, I see three guys approaching us in the cold, and I do a double take.
“Who?”
I snap my attention back to Amber’s boyfriend. “Kyle Cotton? Brown hair. Yea high.” I hold my hand at chest level. “He was in my third-grade class. Or wait—fourth grade? No, third grade.”
Kyle blinks at me. “How the fuck would I know him?”
I shrug innocently.
“It’s a joke!” Amber says. “When we met, she said, ‘Like the resin fromJurassic Park?’ Isn’t that hilarious? She does this toeveryone.”
“Not everyone,” I say with a smile.
Amber waves and makes introductions. “Mars, these are Kyle’s friends Aaron and Nathan, like Aaron, um…Wait, this is hard.” She bites her lip.
“Aaron Burr and the famous hot dogs?” I supply.
“No. I was thinking of Nick Carter’s little brother. Anyway…” She points to the third friend, who’s towering over the rest of us in a hoodie and jeans. “This is Kyle’s roommate—”
“West, like Mae,” he says, nodding at me. “We’ve met.”
Amber’s eyes light up like this is extraordinary news. “Really? Oh, that’s perfect! We’re meeting up with a few more people at the game, and I didn’t want either of you to feel left out, but you can hang together. It actually makes sense. You’re both a little weird.”
“Ouch?” I cover my heart with my hand.
She rolls her eyes playfully. “Said withaffection!”
“How am I weird?”
“C’mon, Mars! You never party with us, you’re always in some fantasyland in your head, and you brush your teeth in the shower!”
“Do people not do that?”
“They don’t.” West shakes his head emphatically as Amber and Kyle lead the way to the McKale Center. “Did I sound like Kyle when we met?” he whispers as he falls into step next to me at the back of the group.
“With my name? No. You didn’t try to call me Uranus, for one thing.”
“Did he really?”
“He would have gotten there if I’d given him two more minutes.”
“Is this a bad time to point out that you’re saved as ‘Jupiter’ in my phone?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not even in your phone.”
West stuffs his hands in his pockets. “So, your roommate is the reason I have to spend all my time at the library?”
“Wait—really? They’re…” I raise an eyebrow.
“Banging? Oh yeah.Allthe time.”
