“No need to be sorry.” I’m annoyed he yapped on and on about my father, but mostly, I’m relieved. I’m not sure what it is about him that makes Rosalie shy away from conversation, but I didn’t like seeing it. I’m glad she’s starting to glow again.
“But you met Dr. Adebayo! Isn’t she stunning? She’s so cool and collected. Like nothing can shake her because she runs this place, you know?” There’s a twinkle in her eye as she talks, rambling on while she digs into her popcorn again. “She is such an inspiration to me. That’s exactly what I want to be twenty years down the road.”
“A department head?”
“A boss ass bitch.” I can’t help the chuckle tumbling out of me. I attempt to hide it behind my hand, but it’s too late, and Rosie is laughing too. “I’m serious! She doesn’t have to deal withshit because no one gives her shit. She worked her ass off and got the top, right where she deserves to be.”
My roommate smiles and everything seems back to normal. My shoulders slump and heartbeat calms.
Rosie continues, “Oh! Another thing. Did he say your last name was McCarthy?”
As quickly as calm came, chaos replaces it. Everything goes cold. The lights around us—as minimal as they are—are suddenly too bright. Everything positive and happy and delightful around me crashes. It was too good to be true. To imagine someone so deeply woven into Brookstone’s engineering program wouldn’t recognize my last name.
Here it goes.
I sigh, nod, and prepare for the pit of disappointment. “Yes. Locke McCarthy.”
“Oh my gosh.” Her eyes go wide. I could scream.
I want to go back to being woefully ignorant. In the days we’ve known each other, it was nice for someone to know me. Just me. I say goodbye to that memory while watching her clap her hands, grinning.
“There’s no fucking way. Are you Grant’s brother?”
Everything stops again.
This hurricane of emotions is going to give me a damn whiplash.
“Grant?”
“Yes! Grant McCarthy, is he your brother?”
I blink. I wait. I’m trying figure out what I’m supposed to say. Grant is such a new addition to my life, that I haven’t prepared to talk about him.
Gulping, I nod. Less defeated and more confused. “Yes. He’s my older brother.”
“Like,GrantGrant? Artist, brown hair, stupidly obsessed with a girl named Liliana?”
That’s an accurate description of my brother if I’ve ever heard one.
“That’s him.” The hope starts to win me over again. That, by some miracle, Rosie knows my last name from the older brother I admire, and not someone else. “Do you know him?”
She tugs on my bicep playfully. A small but comfortable smile stretches onto my face. “This is so crazy! Such a small world. I’m Liliana’s best friend.”
My mouth parts just slightly. I’m not used to showing so many emotions in public to someone. “Oh, really?”
She nods excitedly. It’s exactly how I feel, because it is a small world, and it is a happy coincidence. I already enjoyed being around Rosie. Liliana is still someone I only know by proxy of Grant, but she’s undeniably kind, and I’ve grown comfortable around her.
The fact that she knows Rosie, to the point of being best friends, reassures my judgement. My roommate is not at all the type of person to put more weight to my last name than any other part of me. It’s the best unexpected news I could’ve gotten.
“We should’ve exchanged last names the day we met. This could’ve been done ages ago.” Rosie jokes. It’s weird to laugh along with her. It’s so unnatural to find humor in my surname. “Mine is Mendoza, by the way. In case you happen to be childhood best friends with my Tito Manny or something.”
When I laugh, I don’t try to hide it behind my hand. It’s too reverberating for that.
“Can’t say I am. Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” She shrugs. “I’ll introduce you. You got lots of years to make up for.”
In that moment, the anxiety completely lifts away. In a room of people mumbling behind their drinks about who I am and why I’m here, there’s no sense of dread or difficulty to breathe.I’m just laughing, with Rosie, about a joke that won’t make sense to anyone but us.
