'She have a roommate?'
'I don't know.'
'You know Glenda Baker?'
'Girl that saw it? No, not really, she was a senior when I was a freshman. She's graduated by now.'
'Who would have known Melissa well?' I said.
'She was a Phi Gam,' Sandy said. 'I assume the girls in the house would know about her.'
'See any of them here?'
She turned on her barstool and scanned the room. Her jeans were tight over her thighs.
'No,' she said. 'But they never come here anyway.'
'Why not.'
'They're not fun like me. Phi Gams're all Legacies. Their mother went here, you know? and their grandmamma, and their aunt Foofy.'
'They have a house on campus?' I said.
'Oh sure. Far end of the quadrangle, opposite the chapel.'
We were squeezed close by the crowd. She studied my face.
'What happened to your nose?' she said.
'It's been broken a couple times.'
'And you got like, what, scars, I guess, around your eyes.'
'I used to fight,' I said.
'Box, you mean. Like a prize fighter?'
'Yeah,' I said.
She reached up and squeezed my bicep. I flexed automatically.
'You must have been a pretty good one,' she said.
'I was.'
'You ever like a champion or anything?'
'No.'
'How come?'
'Pretty good,' I said, 'is not the same as very good.'
She drank some more. Her breasts were now pressing steadily on my arm.
'You ever go to college?' she said.
'Yes.'
'What'd you study?' she said.
'How to run back kicks,' I said.
She smiled at me.
'You're a funny guy,' she said.
'Everybody says that.'
'You're kind of old for me,' she said.
'Everybody says that, too.'
'But I like you,' she said as if I hadn't spoken.
'Well, I like you too, Sandy.'
She stopped and looked hard at my face. 'You're kidding me, aren't you?'
'I kid everybody a little,' I said.
She thought about that.
'You want to go someplace?' she said.
'And?' I said.
'And have sex,' she said.
'That's a very nice offer,' I said. 'But Susan Silverman and I have agreed to have sex only with each other.'
Sandy's face was very close to mine in the crowded room. She had a wide mouth and a lot of teeth. She had turned in her seat so that she had one thigh on each side of my leg. Her chest was against my arm. In another minute we wouldn't have to go anywhere to have sex.
