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I scratched the back of ather so that would end up pissing us both off “Okay, Grandma You’re one to talk”

“It’s sort of a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ type of lecture,” he admitted sheepishly

“You have other suggestions?”

“Not really Just be careful I think the crew back in San Diego would spit on your hospital bed if you ended up in a coma after you’d come back hale and hearty from deployment”

He wasn’t wrong No one liked to hear the news about a brother who survived the war only to coet fucked up in soood ory “Yeah, got it”

I stood and pulled the rest of my clothes from the locker Jeans, ratty T-shirt, boots, and a heavy winter coat that weighed about ten pounds I hated the cold As I threw ainst the concrete floor

Noah walked over and picked up the heavy coin that had fallen “What do you think this guy would say about your fighting?”

The heavy coin with the emblem of the Medal of Honor stared up at me, almost as if it looked disappointed Do the Corps proud, both in uniform and out

I rubbed both hands over hter, Noah Jackson” I snatched the coin from his hand and curled es bit into my skin

His response was to wrap his hand around ht “Semper Fi, brother”

AM

YOU’RE GOING TO REGRET NOT being in biology with arten and now college roo the dreaded science elective that every other student took their freshed to duck the requirehsht it was an empty threat, but we both loved him as our academic advisor—hideous sweaters, tendency to spit, and all Dr Highsmith was considered one of the foremost economic thinkers in the country, and his chair was endowed by soe success to theories that Dr Highsht I planned to be the CEO of my own insurance company someday and endow my own chair The AM West Chair of Econo to it

You’ll be the one with regrets when you have night monkeys

Ellie had been afraid of tornadoes since she watched The Wizard of Oz ere seven She’d heard froy class and she changed her science elective that say had nothing to do with the weather could convince her otherwise, which hy I alking into class byfor just such an occasion, grinning at her ih text just has no power

“You’re gonna run into that stage”

My texting conversation with Ellie ca About five inches froy 101 class The warning had saved me from sure embarrassment, but my cheeks heated anyway as I turned to see the person behind the voice I’d an idea who it was, but I o parts disht of him Bo Randolph

I knew of Beauregard Randolph Everyone at Central did Central College was one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation, nestled in an urban area in the Midwest, but it was sh schools Gossip whispered at the start ofclasses at one end of campus was heard at the other by noon in the cafeteria Or soossip, anyway

I’d never envisioned attending any other college than Central, but one drunken party later and I wished for the anonymity of those public universities and their enormous student populations So while I’d heard many rumors about Bo, I didn’t kno many of theirl who’d banged the entire lacrosse teainity after one fraternity party to soed about it to his teammates

Somehow that one encounter became the entire team Once a field bunny, always a field bunny The lacrosse squad ame, prey to be chased down and taken at any opportunity Sober, not sober Willing, not willing I wished there had been an infor that hooking up with a lacrosse player resulted in social ruination

The ruhter to having killed so Oh, and don’t forget the woirl here at Central It didn’t irl was sporty, artsy, quiet, or popular, Bo seemed have hooked up with thehten Bo’s reputation with both sexes If you were a guy, your conquests irl, you were the conquered, no better than a toy

I’d sat directly behind him in Advanced Econo twin emotions of lust and resentment Resentment because of the unfairness of how differently our actions painted us in the eyes of our classo to class It wasn’t because price discri topic or that econoht of those days was staring at the interplay of muscles and skin and tendons when Bo wrote, stretched, or reached behind him to pull his backpack over his shoulder He looked like the liveof what I assuenerated a Pavlovian response of craving in me About the only flaw I could see in Bo was his messy dirty blond hair, but even that just invited ers in it and smooth it down

Ellie told s was to engage in a long bout of angry sex with Bo But all I did was fantasize Like s I enjoyed about Central, my pleasure in Bo Randolph was taken surreptitiously and privately Only Ellie knew

“Miss, in the yelloeater, if you’ll sit down, I can start my lecture,” the professor barked out

I turned to look to the side to see if anyone else was standing, but Bo just shook his head sadly and leaned forward to whisper, “He’s talking about you”

Iflike the five-alar this time Bo stood and waved me into the empty space beside him and I had no choice but to sit down I rushed and tossedon the empty table space If I had taken one second more, I could have moved down five seats or even farther before I bumped into another student, but in my panic I didn’t notice

None of these things were like me I tried to draw as little attention to myself as possible on campus I sat in the back of the classroom I did not make a spectacle of myself in front of an entire classroorateful that these were freshe artery system about me couldn’t be immediately attached to my rarely-seen face

I pretended I wasn’t sitting next to Bo, that I hadn’t been called out by the professor, and that a hundred pairs of eyes weren’t pinned on my back Instead, I pulled outEllie Humiliation had to be shared in order to be endured