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? Nicely?”
“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.
“Déjà 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 so many times, America Mason!”
“You sneezed in my face!” she said, pointing to her nose.
I blew my bangs from my eyes. I could never argue with America when she was determined to get her way. “Fine,” I said through my teeth.
“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.