was in the middle of the first semester. Delia and I were celebrating that night. I had worked so hard studying the stories in expository writing to come up with the perfect arguments to shoot Luke down that I earned an easy A on my next paper.
Delia was celebrating too, because she brought up her tragic C on the first paper to a solid B+. We decided to rent a movie to watch in the common room of our dorm together. We lived in Weld, a dorm once inhabited by none other than John F. Kennedy himself. It seemed a bit of a travesty that a nerdy computer science girl and a nerdy pre-med should occupy the same space as such a great man, but as I said to Luke that day, at least we got in here fair and square. Even JFK probably got in at least partially because of nepotism.
It was a Thursday night, so the common room was empty. On Fridays and Saturdays, you could usually count on a bunch of drunk kids in there making out. I hadn’t been drunk ever before and I’d never made out with a boy, so I generally avoided the common room on weekends. But Thursday night was safe.
Delia had a bag of popcorn, but when we went to pop it in the microwave, we found a big “out of order” sign taped to the door. “Lame!” Delia whined.
“There’s a microwave in the Thayer common room,” I recalled. I knew because I’d cleaned the bathroom in there, but I didn’t mention that part.
“Great.” Delia shoved the popcorn bag into my hands. “I’ll see you in five.”
“Me?” I cried. “Why do I have to go?”
“Because I’m wearing my fuzzy slippers!” Delia said, pointing down at her feet, which were indeed cloaked in bunny slippers, while I had my sneakers on.
I didn’t want to admit the real reason for not wanting to go to Thayer, which was that I was scared of running into Luke. Well, not scared, exactly. But he wasn’t my favorite person these days and I knew seeing him would put a crimp in my night. Then again, if I slipped in and out of Thayer real fast, the chances of running into him were slim.
I trekked out of my dorm into the yard. I was only wearing a sweater and it was wicked cold, although at least I had my hair to keep me warm. New England was colder than Jersey by a noticeable margin. I heard on the radio that it was supposed to snow soon.
I was shivering violently by the time I reached Thayer House. Gripping my bag of popcorn in my raw, red fingers, I raced in the direction of the common room. I noticed a couple was making out on the couch, but I figured I wouldn’t disturb them if I slipped in there and popped some corn real quickly.
Except just my luck: half of the couple was Luke Thayer.
Luke had his fingers laced through the girl’s luscious blond hair, and I could hear her moan softly. It looked like a very nice kiss. For a moment, I imagined I was sitting there instead of the blond girl, and it was my lips that Luke’s were pressed against.
To my surprise, I felt myself getting tingly at the idea of it. And then I hated myself.
“Twelve Fingers!” Luke had broken away from the kiss and he was grinning up at me. “What are you doing here?”
I quickly averted my eyes. I marched right to the microwave and shoved the bag inside. Unfortunately, I had no idea how long it was supposed to go in for or how to work the controls on this stupid microwave.
Luke noticed me struggling. He climbed over the back of the couch and landed practically right at my feet. He was so nimble back then—effortless.
“Get away from me, Thayer House,” I snapped.
But Luke didn’t budge. “Can’t even work the microwave?” He clucked his tongue. “This is a disgrace. How’d you get in here anyway? Maybe they needed to fill their New Jersey quota.”
“Well, they definitely filled up their rich asshole quota,” I replied, cursing the stupid microwave and the fact that I couldn’t concentrate with Luke staring at me.
“What did you get on the SATs?” Luke asked me.
“I got a sixteen-hundred,” I replied honestly, lifting my chin to him. A perfect score. Beat that, Thayer House.
“Oh yeah? Me too.” He grinned at me, then pressed a button on the microwave, which whirred