or they’ll take away my right to shout Oorah. What’re you studying?”
“Didn’t your recon divulge that? You know my class schedule, where I live, and apparently where I was partying last night.”
“I admit that I hung out over at the Fine Arts Center for a few days and was surprised I didn’t see you or any of your work,” Noah said, unperturbed by my recitation.
“Why would I be at FAC?”
He shrugged. “I just thought you’d be majoring in something over there. Like Art, or whatever majors there are in Art.”
I could rattle off a few. Unlike the business section, I knew this part of the course catalog by heart.
“Because of my photography?”
“Yeah, I mean the stuff you sent was amazing. It should be in a magazine or a museum or something. You aren’t going to do something with that?”
“Um, thank you, but first, my stuff isn’t that good and second, photography is my hobby,” I said. I didn’t want to admit to Noah, who had fought in a war and was likely putting himself through school here at Central, that I was too weenie to submit a portfolio for entrance into the Fine Arts program. Instead, I told him a partial truth. “I don’t want to ruin it by having the stress of having to support myself with it.”
Noah shook his head. “You can tell you’ve never had to worry about money.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Only people with money ever say money ruins things.”
“That’s …” I trailed off. I hadn’t had to worry about money, but it’s not like money had ever made me happy. It didn’t keep my dad from dying. It didn’t make my mom suddenly stop being addicted to anti-depressants. It didn’t prevent Lana from getting an eating disorder. “I’m undeclared. I haven’t picked a major,” I finished.
I felt his hand on my head as he turned my head to look at him. “Not knowing isn’t so bad. You’re young yet.”
I stuck my tongue out a little. “What are you, my dad?”
“Is that your kink? I haven’t had a girl ever call me Daddy before, but I’m open-minded.”
“‘Eww’ is the only response to that.”
I shook my head. I couldn’t tell if his flirting was just to cheer me up or lighten the mood, or if it was an invitation. I did know I didn’t want to talk about money or majors. “How is empire-building these days?”
“Slow, but I’ve got a plan.”
“Are you empire-building by yourself or with others?”
“Others right now,” Noah added. “Roommates.”
“How many roommates do you have?”
“Four.”
“Wow, and they all go to school here? Have I met any of them?” I was letting curiosity get the better of me.
“No, only Bo and I. Finn flips houses and works at his dad’s construction company, Adam plays in a band—although technically I think he lives off his trust fund—and Mal,” Noah paused, “I’m not sure what Mal does. ”
“That’s a lot of testosterone in one house.”
“Yeah, it can be fun, but also a pain in the ass.”
The mile walk along the campus was over before I realized it, and not once had Noah removed his hand from the back of my neck. He opened the door with one hand and placed a light pressure with his other to propel me forward. A huge clock over the reception desk declared it was nearly ten o’clock.
We sat ourselves in a booth and pulled out the slightly greasy menus that I hoped were tacky-feeling because of a cleaning compound and not something else. A waitress came over and took our orders. Noah ordered an egg white omelet with fresh vegetables and wheat toast, no butter. I ordered the number 2: eggs over easy, toast, and bacon.
“How did you come to live together?” I picked up the thread of our conversation. From across the booth, I felt Noah’s long legs stretch out next to mine, his jean-clad legs rubbing slightly against my bare leg.
“Bo and I went to the Americana bar down on Fifth one night.”
“Never been there,” I admitted. Lana and I stuck pretty close to campus. I wasn’t even sure I knew where Fifth was.
“I’ll take you sometime,” Noah said, nonchalantly presuming that we would be spending more time together. “Adam was in the band. He tried to crowd-surf an unfriendly crowd for some reason, and we ended up defending him. Not sure why, though. His music sucked that night.
“Ouch. What’s the band?”
“No band right now. He couldn’t play all summer, so they found a new guitar player. The