I pulled my cardigan around me, and Finch noticed, hugging me to him and rubbing my arm. I knew that I was paying far too much attention to Travis’ general direction, waiting for him to look up at me, but he seemed to have forgotten that I was sitting at the table.
Once he finished his lunch, my heart fluttered when he walked up behind me and rested his hands on my shoulders.
“How’s your classes, Shep?” he asked.
Shepley’s face pinched. “First day sucks. Hours of syllabi and class rules. I don’t even know why I show up the first week. How about you?”
“Eh…it’s all part of the game. How ‘bout you, Pidge?” he asked.
“The same,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual.
“Did you have a good break?” he asked, playfully swaying me from side to side.
“Pretty good,” I smiled.
“Sweet. I’ve got another class. Later.”
I watched him make a bee-line for the doors, shoving them both open, and then lighting a cigarette as he walked.
“Huh,” America said in a high-pitched tone. She watched Travis cut across the greens through the snow, and then shook her head.
“What, Baby?” Shepley asked.
America rested her chin on the heel of her hand, seeming vexed. “That was kind of weird, wasn’t it?”
“How so?” Shepley asked, flicking America’s blonde braid back to brush his lips across her neck.
America smiled and leaned into his kiss. “He’s almost normal…as normal as Trav can be. What’s up with him?”
Shepley shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s been that way for awhile.”
“How backwards is that, Abby? He’s fine and you’re miserable,” America said, unconcerned with listening ears.
“You’re miserable?” Shepley asked with a surprised expression.
My mouth fell open and my face flamed with instant embarrassment. “I am not!”
She pushed her salad around in the bowl. “Well, he’s damn near ecstatic.”
“Drop it, Mare,” I warned.
She shrugged and took another bite. “I think he’s faking it.”
Shepley nudged her. “America? You goin’ to the Valentine’s Day date party with me or what?”
“Can’t you ask me like a normal boyfriend?
“I have asked you…repeatedly. You keep telling me to ask you later.”
She slumped in her chair, pouting. “I don’t wanna go without Abby.”
Shepley’s face screwed with frustration. “She was with Trav the whole time last time. You barely saw her.”
“Quit being a baby, Mare,” I said, throwing a stick of celery at her.
Finch elbowed me. “I’d take you, Cupcake, but I’m not into the frat boy thing, sorry.”
“That’s actually a damn good idea,” Shepley said, his eyes bright.
Finch grimaced at the thought. “I’m not Sig Tau, Shep. I’m not anything. Fraternity’s are against my religion.”
“Please, Finch?” America asked.
“Deja vu,” I grumbled.
Finch looked at me from the corner of his eye and then sighed. “It’s nothing personal, Abby. I can’t say I’ve ever been on a date…with a girl.”
“I know.” I shook my head dismissively, waving away my deep embarrassment. “It’s fine. Really.”
“I need you there,” America said. “We made a pact, remember? No parties alone.”
“You’ll hardly be alone, Mare. Quit being so dramatic,” I said, already annoyed with the conversation.
“You want dramatic? I pulled a trash can beside your bed, held a box of Kleenex for you all night, and got up to get you cough medicine twice when you were sick over break! You owe me!”
I wrinkled my nose. “I have kept your hair vomit free
“You
I blew my bangs from my eyes. I could never argue with America when she was determined to get her way. “
“Finch?” I asked him with my best fake smile. “Will you go to the stupid Sig Tau Valentine’s Date Party with me?”
Finch hugged me to his side. “Yes. But only because you called it stupid.”
I walked with Finch to class after lunch, discussing the date party and how much we were both dreading it. We picked out a pair of desks in our Physiology class, and I shook my head when the professor began my fourth syllabi of the day. The snow began to fall again, drifting against the windows, politely begging entrance and then falling with disappointment to the ground.
After class dismissed, a boy I’d met only once at the Sig Tau house knocked on my desk as he walked by, winking. I offered a polite smile and then glanced over to Finch. He shot me a wry grin, and I gathered my book and laptop, shoving them into my backpack with little effort.
I lugged my bag over my shoulders, and trudged to Morgan along the salted sidewalk. A small group of students had started a snowball fight on the greens, and Finch shuddered at the sight of them, covered in colorless powder.
I wobbled my knee, keeping Finch company as he finished his cigarette. America scurried beside us, rubbing her bright green mittens together.
“Where’s Shep?” I asked.
“He went home. Travis needed help with something, I guess.”
“You didn’t go with him?”
“I don’t live there, Abby.”
“Only in theory,” Finch winked at her.
America rolled her eyes. “I enjoy spending time with my boyfriend, so sue me.”
Finch flicked his cigarette into the snow. “I’m heading out, ladies. I’ll see you at dinner?”
America and I nodded, smiling when Finch first kissed my cheek and then America’s. He stayed on the wet sidewalk, careful to stay in the middle so that he wouldn’t miss and step into the snow.
America shook her head at his efforts. “He is ridiculous.”
“He’s a Floridian, Mare. He’s not used to the snow.”
She giggled and pulled me toward the door.
“Abby!”
I turned to see Parker jogging past Finch. He stopped, catching his breath a moment before he spoke. His puffy grey coat heaved with each breath, and I chuckled at America’s curious stare as she watched him.
“I was…whew! I was going to ask you if you wanted to grab a bite to eat tonight.”
“Oh. I uh…I already told Finch I’d eat with him.”
“All right, it’s no big deal. I was just going to try that new burger place downtown. Everyone’s saying it’s really good.”
“Maybe next time,” I said, realizing my mistake. I hoped that he wouldn’t take my flippant reply as a postponement. He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets, quickly walking back the way he came.
Kara was reading ahead in her brand-new books, grimacing at America and I when we walked in. Her demeanor hadn’t improved since we’d returned from break.
Before, I had spent so much at Travis’ that Kara’s insufferable comments and attitude were tolerable. Spending every evening and night with her during the two weeks before the semester ended, I was beginning to regret my decision not to room with America.
“Oh, Kara. How I’ve missed you,” America said.
“The feeling is mutual,” Kara grumbled, keeping her eyes on her book.
