Alex still hadn’t let go of my hand so I started swinging our arms back and forth playfully as we made the way to his dorm. “Alex, you’re my friend and I love you but sometimes you’re a jerk to people.”

“Hey, I’m not southern like you. I don’t have to be nice to everyone you meet, especially to a boring pretty boy who looks too old for you and is encroaching on our study time,” he said. “You know I require a lot of time for studying. And what was with his hair? I didn’t even know they made dye in that color.”

“He just came here from South Korea. Trends are different there,” I defended. “Anyways, I like it.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

Alex unlocked the door to his building and held it open for me. “You’ve been a sheltered little one down south and now that you’re states away from your family you’re bound to act out a little which includes crushing on older guys with blue hair.”

We made our way to his room and I waited for him to unlock that door as well. “Who says I have a crush? I just think he’s able to pull of the blue hair.” He struggled with the lock but finally got the door opened. I went in and sat down on his bed. “I think he means to dye it soon anyways. Just hasn’t had the time.” Alex passed me my backpack. “Or maybe he  hasn’t actually done it himself before. He probably had a girlfriend back in Korea who would help him dye his hair and now without her here he has no personal hairdresser.”

Alex sat down beside me. “Would you ever help me dye my hair?” he asked leaning close to me as if he was going to kiss me.

“Ugh,” I said laughing and jokingly shoving him away, “get over yourself. Just ‘cause everyone thinks we are or should be in a relationship doesn’t mean we actually have that kind of relationship.”

“Please you know you want to kiss me,” Alex joked.

“You do know the way you act with me is damaging your efforts to go out with Christen with you like you actually want.” I said. Alex made a face. “What?”

“She likes you.”

“What?!”

“Yep.” He laid back on his bed. “I’m stuck in a love triangle. The girl I like likes my best friend. Who’s a girl. That usually doesn’t happen in the movies.”

“Well that’s very flattering for me. Disappointing for you. Bummer for her since I’m straight.”

Alex sat back up. “Well in her defense you haven’t actually dated any guys since you’ve been going to this school.”

“True, but I haven’t dated any girls either and there’s more eligible girls here than there are guys that I would even consider dating.” I took my laptop out of my backpack and turned it on. “Plus I think you scare away all the guys from me.” Alex was a good six foot five inches and was every bit the typical big, broad strong Italian guy. “That and my ugly face and my crappy personality.”

“Hey now,” Alex said placing his hand on my arm. “Don’t feel bad about your face. It makes mine look so much better when we walk around together.”

“Ugh,” I shoved his hand off of me. “I’m gonna tell Elena and Sophia you said that and they’re gonna kick your .”

He shrugged. “Probably. Sophia is a little ball of rage and violence but I gave her the pie I made in lab the other day so she might go easy on me.”

“You gave her the pie and not me?” I sniffed. “I don’t know why I even bother helping you out with your homework.”

“You’re allergic to gluten,” Alex reminded me, “and pie has gluten.”

“But gluten’s tasty,” I pouted.

“I will not enable your gluten addiction, Gabby. I’m too much of a good friend to do that,” he said in mock seriousness.

“If you were a good friend you would pay attention in math so I wouldn’t have to come here and go over it with you.”

“Nah, that would be being a good student and it would signal the end of the world if I became one,” he retorted. “And you would be upset if it was the end of world before you graduated.” He picked up his own bag from the floor. “Plus,” he added, “would a bad friend provide study time snacks?”

“Ooh food?  What kind?” I asked eagerly.

“Umm,” he dug through his bag. “Do you want chocolate or gummy bears?”

“If you let me have some of both I’ll love you forever.”

“It’s a deal.” Alex piled the snacks on his desk within reach of both of us and we got to work on his math project.

After helping with Alex with his project for about thirty minutes he threw down his pencil. At the surprised look on my face he asked “Why are you so distracted? Is there something I’m keeping you from?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not distracted.” I popped another gummy bear into my mouth.

“You are! You had to redo that one question three times. You pride yourself in only having to do a problem once.”

“I had gluten today,” I pouted. “I’m bound to be a little slow. You know what gluten does to my brain.”

“No, this is more than just the usual gluten high from you. Something is seriously up.

 “Nothing’s up,” I said. “Promise.”

“You positive? It’s not like the time in freshman year you said nothing was wrong when really your brother just got diagnosed with cancer?”

 “Nope. I haven’t received any news along those lines. I’m really fine,” I insisted.

 “Well if you’re sure…” Alex started.

 "I am.” I looked at the clock. “Kevin’s gonna be back soon. I should head off.”

 Alex looked out the window. “The sun’s set. Do you want me to walk you back? I know how you don’t like to walk alone in the dark.”

I smiled. “Thanks but it’s not that late yet so all the frat boys haven’t started drinking yet so I should be fine.” I started putting stuff into my backpack. “Sometimes I wish that I didn’t go to such a party school. It can make things rather inconvenient.”

“Well,” Alex said, “in case it does get inconvenient you have that pocket knife Sophia gave you."

I looked at him with surprise. “How do you know about that?” I demanded. “That was supposed to be a secret between me and Sophia.”

“I saw it in your bag a while back with the note ‘so you can stab a ’ and Sophia’s name on it,” Alex explained. “As if you actually have any secrets from me,” he snorted. “It’s more likely that I actually did pass psych the first time around and the teacher just made an error entering it into the grade book.”

“I totally do have secrets from you. You just don’t know about them ‘cause they’re secrets.”

Alex patted me on the head in a patronizing way. “You keep telling yourself that if that’s what you need to believe to get through your sad, lonely life.”

“It’s only sad and lonely ‘cause I’m stuck with you all the time,” I shot back.

“Oww,” Alex said mockingly rubbing his chest over his heart. “That hurt.”’

“Aww poor baby,” I teased. “somehow I feel like you’ll get over it.”

“We still on for tomorrow like usual,” he asked as I opened the door to leave.

“Just like always,” I replied closing the door behind me.

On my way out of the building I ran into Kevin, Alex’s roommate. “Hey Kev,” I greeted and managed to get a grunt in return. At least he was acknowledging my presence now.

Back in my room I actually managed to get some time to myself as my roommate had a lab until late which meant I actually could study without “Call me maybe” being on repeat in the background.