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ME: Great meet you in the quad?

LEAH: yep See you soon

I slipped into a fresh pair of jeans—the same ones with the hole in the knee Jacqueline had hated sohair with a towel and twisted it into aout

Leah had beento in this sea of bullshit We sat together in chemistry, and she’d eaten lunch withhall, of course, but out on the quad somewhere Thank God the school was in California, not so outside, although my stomach clenched unpleasantly every time I stepped into Astor Hall to pick up my food, to the point where it was usually hard to eat it afterwards

“Ready?” Leah called as soon as she caught sight offrom her dor near it According to her, they were all housed on the top floor of the far north building, Clarendon Hall

“Yeah You?”

“Sooo ready I need some serious retail therapy after this week These classes are killing me”

“Sas

There was a student lot behind the ss on the far east side of the ca and almost always full, and it had a s spots at one end

We settled into the car ht pink, shiny Bentley Mulsanne, and even though it was brand new, the color made it seeirls would’ve driven in the 1950s

Several kids had mockedwas a fucking eyesore

I hated pink—especially that bubblegum pink, Pepto Bismol color that made my car stand out like a sore thuray Everything about it was too randparents had spent on it could’ve easily paid my rent back home for several years But I drove it anyway, too unnerved to ask the more practical

Roseland was about thirtythe ocean air dance in our hair When we pulled up in a trendy looking part of town, Leah hopped out and just about fell over laughing atup to the curb and surveying my extremely crooked car

Okay, definitely not my best work

I’d learned to drive our old pickup just so I could run errands for et to and from work Once it broke down, I never had the chance to practice on anything else Thank God I already had my license