always welcome. Cleo found that their prettiness was somehow multiplied when they were together, that people seemed to notice them more and gave them more attention. She thought maybe it was because when they stood next to each other, Monica’s hair looked darker and hers looked blonder and the difference was striking. But that was just a theory.
They shared each other’s clothes and Cleo always put eye makeup on Monica, after suggesting nicely that sometimes she was just a tad too heavy on the shadow. It was everything Cleo could have hoped for college, and so midway through freshman year, when Monica suggested they move off campus, Cleo was all for it.
“My cousin is a senior and living in one of the best off-campus houses. If we don’t take it now, some junior will get it and keep it for two years. We have to do it. It would be a crime not to.”
“But are we even allowed?” Cleo asked. She hadn’t heard any other freshman talking about moving off campus.
“Well, legally it’s allowed,” Monica said. She bit her bottom lip. “I mean, they don’t really like sophomores to move off, but they make special exceptions sometimes, and my dad thinks he can help.”
Monica never said specifically, but Cleo got the feeling that her dad, who was a Bucknell alum, donated a lot of money to the school—money that had helped Monica get accepted, and also get into the best freshman dorm, and into any classes that were filled.
They decided to ask two girls from their hall, Laura and Mary, to move in with them. The four of them sometimes went to eat dinner together, or pre-gamed in one of their rooms, and it seemed like the logical choice. All four girls got permission from their parents and then from the housing board to move off campus. For the rest of freshman year, the four of them talked endlessly about how amazing their house was going to be and the parties they could have. Sometimes, in the dining hall, Cleo would say to Monica, “I can’t wait to have our own kitchen next year,” just to remind whomever was around them that they were special, that they were moving off campus.
In New York that summer, Cleo felt like she was just counting the days until she could get back to Lewisburg. It seemed now that Bucknell was her real life, and New York and Elizabeth were just a holding place to wait until she could get back there. Cleo went to visit Monica in June, and stayed in her big sprawling house in Lynnfield, slept in the spare twin bed in her room, and went with her to a party at a high school friend’s parentless house.
While they sat outside that night, drinking Keystone Lights by the pool, the two girls talked about their sophomore year, told all the other kids there about their new house and the parties they were going to have. She and Monica sat at the edge of the pool, their feet in the water, and they laughed at everything.
“I’ve missed you so much,” Monica said. “You’re just so much more important to me than my high school friends.”
Cleo loved everything about Monica. She loved where she grew up, how she was meticulous about putting her clothes away as soon as she changed, the way she drew little animals on the corners of her notebooks. She had a best friend and everything just fit. Cleo was filled with happy; everything was right in the world.
SOPHOMORE YEAR STARTED PERFECTLY. The girls moved in at the end of August, tripping over each other as they unpacked and ran from room to room. They hung up posters and bulletin boards, bought throw pillows and pots from Target, stocked up on macaroni and cheese and big plastic bins of pretzels. They were as happy as four little clams.
For the first few months, things went amazingly well—swimmingly, as her mom would say. Then two things happened, although Cleo couldn’t say which had happened first, or if one thing caused the other, or if they just happened at the exact same time. The first thing was that Monica became severely anorexic. She started running for hours each morning, first at the gym on campus and then, when spring came, outside. After her run, she’d do sit-ups in the common room. As they all stumbled out of their bedrooms to make it to class in the morning, they’d find Monica flying up and