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But then a horde of fraternity-looking guys came piling out of the student union, and their arms were loaded with tacos.
After widening her eyes at them, Oaklynn returned her attention to me. “Maybe we should eat first to make sure we actuallygetsome food.”
I nodded, saying, “Sounds good.”
Oaklynn took my hand and held onto my fingers as she led us inside.
“Is this your first semester at Haverick too, or have you been here a while?” she asked as we found the end of the line that led to the tacos.
“I’m a junior,” I said. “So… This is my third year on campus.”
“Man, you must know your way around town like a pro,” she guessed, sounding jealous.
I shrugged. “Well, I was born and raised in Westport, so…yes, ma’am, I do.”
“Were you really? Ugh…” She nudged my arm with hers. “You’re so lucky. I bet growing up on the coast was sweet. I’m from the Dallas area. Just north of there actually, in Plano. So I was basically surrounded by a concrete jungle my whole life.”
My eyebrows lifted. “That’s quite a ways away.”
With a nod, she blew out a long breath. “Yeah. It’s a six-and-a-half-hour drive, at least. But I’d been dying to get into the Journalism program here since high school when I saw my firstHave U tried Haverickad.” With a self-deprecating roll of her eyes, she added, “And it only took me until my junior year of college to finally get accepted.”
“So you’re a writer,” I concluded, already telling myself to get a copy of the school newspaper so I could hunt for an article from her.
But she said, “I’m more of a talker actually. I’m specializing in broadcast journalism.”
My eyebrows lifted, impressed. “Atelevisionreporter. Wow.”
“Yeah.” Oaklynn smiled out her gratitude and squeezed my fingers. “What about you?”
I winced, already sure she was going to think my career goals were…odd. “I’m a Forensic Psych—”
“Wait,” she broke in, holding up both hands. “Wait, wait, wait. You just told me you were a junior, right? But I thought Thalia told meshewas a junior.”
Before I could respond, Oaklynn stopped frowning in confusion and slapped a hand to her forehead. “Oh…” she said as if realizing something. “You’re twins.Thatmust be why she’s always making such a big deal about being older than you and trying to make you sound little and young. Because she came out, like what…twominutes before you. Likes to lord that over you, I bet.”
I opened my mouth to reply. “Actually…” But I never got the chance to say more.
“How many?” an impatient guy behind the counter asked, stealing our attention and jolting me into realizing we’d already reached the beginning of the line.
“Uh…” Oaklynn froze for a moment before darting a quick, guilty wince my way and hissing, “Please don’t judge.” Then she turned to the food attendant. “I want four.”
My eyebrows lifted because I was impressed that she seemed to be willing to actuallyeatin front of me. But four didn’t seem likethatmany, so after the server slid a tray across the counter toward her that had four tacos on it, and he turned his attention to me, I answered, “Same.”
Oaklynn beamed up at me, and we lifted our separate trays together.
At the pay station, I leaned past her to hand the cashier enough money to cover eight tacos and two drinks.
“Hey, you didn’t have to pay for me,” she scolded while looking wholly pleased that I had.
I only shrugged. “Two tacos for a dollar? I have a feeling it won’t break me.”
She laughed. “Well, thank you.” And then she turned her attention to the rest of the cafeteria, glancing around at the seating. “What about over there?” she asked, nodding with her chin. “We can set these down, then get our drinks.”
I nodded. “Works for me.”
I started that way, only to hear a familiar voice call, “Yo, Arch!”
Glancing over, I caught sight of Parker at a nearby booth. Someone was with him but they were tucked deeper into the shadows so I couldn’t see who it was. Thinking it had to be another one of the guys, I gave a little groan and nodded my head in greeting.
