him.
“Of course, I have crisps. What do you take me for?”
“I don’t know, I worry about these things,” Tanner said with a grin.
“Yes, they’re kettle crisps, the kind with jalapeño for you.”
“Hell, yeah,” Tanner said as he made his way to the pantry.
“Seriously, I’m probably going to eat all of this myself, so I don’t know what you guys are going to do,” Miles added as he started building himself a sandwich. I laughed and did the same. Soon, all of us were pretty much cleaning out my double sandwich inventory and chowing down while standing around the island. Dillon had given me the stool, and Tanner was leaning on one. If we continued living here for another year, and with the girls in and out as much as they were, we probably needed another set of stools for the kitchen area.
“Now, what are you thinking?” Miles asked as he bit into a pepperoncini. He went to reach for another one. They were the extra-hot ones, and I was surprised he didn’t beg for some milk.
“I just thought we needed more stools in here since the girls are over so often.”
“Yeah, Mackenzie and Elise do spend a lot of time here,” Tanner said, his brows raised.
“Well, they don’t spend the night every night. They still live with Natalie and Nessa.”
None of us mentioned that Nessa wasn’t spending as much time here as she had in the past. We still saw each other, but she refused to study with me, and I hated myself just a bit for that. I had screwed everything up because I hadn’t seen what was going on, and things were slightly awkward now. I had tried to apologize, but she wouldn’t listen. She had said she needed space, so I was giving that to her. Even if I still felt like a piece of shit for hurting her in the first place.
“What’s your first exam?” Miles asked, and I blinked, realizing he was talking to me.
“Um, statistical analysis and everything else that’s in that title that I can never remember.” I laughed as the guys crossed their eyes at me.
“In other words, Dr. Michael’s class. He’s the asshole professor, not the evil one,” I said, and Dillon shook his head. “You know, I always thought I was decent at math, then I met you and Mackenzie. I’m happy that I do not have to take those courses.”
“These are my last main math courses,” I said. It’s only my minor. Next year’s all physics, all the time.”
“Are you going to be able to take fewer credit hours, then?”
I shook my head, “Nope. Labs are only one credit hour. That means I get to spend even more hours on campus and yet not get as many credits for it. I love our system.”
“Sometimes, I feel like I should’ve just gone to culinary school as planned,” Dillon said to me, and I nodded. “Between you and Tanner, you eat well. I usually provide sandwiches,” I said with a laugh, and Miles shrugged. “They’re damn good sandwiches,” he said, taking his final bite of a pastrami on rye.
“I don’t want to get back to studying,” Tanner said, “It’s hard to believe that we’re nearly done with our third year.”
“Fourth year’s coming up fast,” I said, shaking my head.
“Well, I guess we should go study so we can pass our classes and not end up with extra semesters,” Dillon said. “As it is, I was afraid I might not graduate on time since I took a year off and fucked around. But I’m here, and who needs sleep?”
“Well, considering you spend most of your time in bed with Elise, I guess you don’t,” Tanner said and ducked Dillon’s playful punch.
We started cleaning up the dishes, all of us talking about our random classes until Dillon cleared his throat.
“Hey, I just want you to know that even though we haven’t talked about it with you, we’re okay that your aunt owns this place,” he said, and I looked to see Tanner and Miles nodding.
It seemed they’d made Dillon their spokesperson. I didn’t mind that too badly.
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t know how to bring it up.”
“Of course, you didn’t,” Dillon said.
“Anyway, I don’t know if I can convince my aunt to lower the rent, but I think we do okay.”
“Our rent is ridiculously low already,” Tanner said. “We don’t need charity.” At the tone of his voice, I nodded and dropped the subject.
“Okay, Tanner, I have to go