“All done,” Ellery said. She sat down on her bed, bouncing a little. Two days ago, they’d had a mostly silent but not necessarily unfriendly breakfast together in the dining hall; last night they’d watched an episode of a Bravo show Ellery had never seen before, and when Ellery asked who the people were, Susie had explained patiently without any huffing.
“Look,” Ellery said now, taking a deep breath. She’d been waiting for the right moment to say this. “I think it’s possible I was a bitch to you this year for no reason.”
Susie closed her laptop, turning to give Ellery her full attention. “Continue,” she said.
Ellery rolled her eyes. “In my defense,” she said, “you were a bitch to me first.”
“When was I a bitch to you?”
“At the beginning of the year!” Ellery said. “That thing about how I talked about California too much.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” Susie told her, “but I’m sure I said it. I was so unhappy at the beginning of the year.”
“You were?” This was surprising.
“Of course I was!” Susie said. “I was so lonely. And you were just, like, completely mute and maybe going to jump out the window any minute, and then you met Danny and Camp and you were just”—she made a whooshing sound—“gone. And that was that.”
Ellery almost told her then about all of it, about how she’d spent the year in the middle of a grand romance but it wasn’t anything like she thought. But that was a conversation for another day. “It turns out I really like romance novels,” she said instead. “I’ve been stealing them off your shelf when you’re not here.”
“I know,” Susie said, smiling a little.
“You do?”
“Of course I know,” Susie said. Then: “Can I ask you a question without you getting offended? Have you never had a friend who’s a girl before?”
“I’ve never really had friends at all before this year,” Ellery admitted before she could stop herself, and Susie looked at her like she had just casually handed over a Rosetta stone, some key to unlocking Ellery’s entire personality.
“Oh,” was all Susie said.
They were quiet for a while, both of them studying. “Look,” Susie said eventually. “I was supposed to live with Violet from down the hall next year, but it turns out she’s probably going to transfer to be closer to her loser boyfriend. So I’m down a roommate.”
Ellery tilted her head to the side. “Are you asking me to—”
“Yeah,” Susie said. “If you want.”
“I do want,” Ellery said.
She startled awake the next morning to the sound of Susie’s gasp across the room. “You bitch!” Susie said. “I thought you said you weren’t doing the Harpswell.”
“I did say that,” Ellery admitted blearily, sitting up and pushing her hair out of her face. “But I changed my mind.”
“Well, you won.”
“I did?” Ellery said, blinking. “Seriously?”
“Yes!” Susie said. “How am I the one telling you that? Didn’t they send you an email or something?”
“I don’t know,” Ellery said. “I haven’t checked.”
“How have you not checked?”
“I was sleeping,” Ellery pointed out reasonably. Both of them started to laugh.
She saw Camp one more time before she left for California, the two of them standing on the green summer lawn outside Honors House. “I told you you could win it,” he called by way of hello.
“You did,” Ellery admitted, tucking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and stepping closer. “Thank you for the recommendation.”
“Of course,” Camp said. He’d submitted the letter way back in October just like he promised, Jonah K. Marlowe had told her. It had been in her file all year long. “How was the lunch?”
