“Oh,God,no!” Jude exclaims at the same time, but their face twists with disgust in a way that almost hurts my feelings.
“Oh, thank God,” Max sighs with relief, which, again, doesn’t feel great, but I try to move past it. “I mean, no offense to either of you, but?—”
“I’m into girls,” Jude declares. “Like, exclusively.”
“Exactly,” Max says.
“Yeah, totally,” I answer stupidly. “I mean, who isn’t?”
“Well, I’m not,” Max clarifies. “Into girls, I mean. Like, not at all.”
“Of course,” I add with a nod. “Neither is Caleb.”
“What about Caleb?” Theo asks, having only just returned to the dorm after walking Caleb downstairs. He’s eyeing me nervously.
“He’s not into girls,” I blurt, feeling dumber by the second. “Neither is Max. But Jude is. And Theo is. But Theo is into both. He’s bisexual.” God, I wish I could shut up.
“Oh, are we declaring our sexualities?” a new, unfamiliar voice asks from the living room. My eyes follow the sound to a tall woman with a tawny complexion and soft, tightly coiled black hair, watching me suspiciously from the couch. “I’m straight, unfortunately.”
“Same,” says Harrison, whom I honestly forgot was still here.
“Also straight,” Vimlesh mutters uncomfortably from the floor pillow. Shit, when did he join the party?
“Okay, wow, great job, everyone!” Max interjects anxiously. “Glad we got all of that out there! Thanks, Oliver.”
I try desperately to will my face to cool down. “Anytime.”
Max and Jude exchange a look, then Max retrieves a sparkling water from the fridge. “Anyway, I’ll leave y’all to…whatever weird shit y’all were up to before I interrupted.”
Before Jude can answer, the girl on the couch calls Jude’s name and gestures for them to join her. Jude smiles and complies, scooting past me without another word.
Well, shit.
I didn’t even get to find out what the fortune from their fortune cookie said.
“Well, that was fucking weird.”
I settle in on the couch next to Celeste, who is still watching Oliver skeptically. “What was?” I ask her innocently.
Celeste tilts her chin down to give me The Look, which essentially reminds me that I’m an idiot. “Was that white boy trying to flirt with you?”
I shake my head. “No! We were literally only talking.”
“That’s just Oliver,” the Tech guy interjects, his eyes lingering on Celeste. “He’s a goofball, but he’s harmless.”
“Why is he asking about everybody’s sex life, then?” Celeste asks, snapping her attention back to Tech Guy. “That’s fucking weird.”
Tech guy shrugs. “I’m sure it was just part of a bit,” he says reassuringly. “He’s a really good guy, trust me.”
“Yeah, nothing personal, Harrison,” Celeste replies. “But I don’t trust you, either. We literally just met.”
“Oh, come on, Celeste, be nice,” Max pleads.
“Oh, I’m plenty nice,” Celeste says, her smile returning. “Before we were interrupted, Harrison, weren’t you talkingabout computer media or something?” Her charm is back, which means she thinks Harrison is cute.
“Computational Media, yeah,” Harrison says with a smile. “That’s what I’ve decided to major in at Tech.”
“That’s a good choice,” Vimlesh chimes in. He’s so quiet that I almost forgot he was here. “For now, I am majoring in Computer Science here, but we’ll see what happens. I was deferred from Georgia Tech this year.”
