I look up from my blank sketch pad. “You just want to run into Rhett. How is he, by the way?” I haven’t been able to run into Jack casually in a way that doesn’t make me look like a complete stalker, so between that and the stakes of this assignment, there hasn’t been any movement on that front.

Not that there is any movement to be had, anyway. We’re just friends.

I think.

“Ohmygod, you savage binch. I see what you did there, and while I don’t like it, I respect it.” Benny rolls onto his stomach, buries his face into the comforter, and expels a muffled scream. “Rhett’s in the middle of another ‘I’m straight, we can’t hook up’ phase.”

“Tragic.”

“Right?” Benny wriggles his body until he manages to sit upright. “We have to go out tonight, or I’ll actually die. It’s Friday! There are probably a million parties we can go to where I can drink until I puke. Preferably a rosé spritzer of some kind.”

“I’m thinking it might be hard to find a party that serves a rosé spritzer.”

“You honestly never know.” Benny clasps his hands together. “Please, I need action of some kind. Don’t you have a friend who goes to Laurene?”

I nod. “I wouldn’t mind a night out.” I stick a finger in the air. “Hold, please.” After grabbing my phone, I dial Rae, and her face bursts onto my screen.

“Yes, binch!” Benny shouts. “That’s what I’m talking about! Dick and rosé!”

“Dick and rosé?” Rae asks. “Sounds like a party!”

“Harlot!” I shout.

“Says the person who made me listen to Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ on repeat the summer before junior year,” she retorts.

“You both are fabulous!” Benny hops off his bed and moves to hover behind me. “Hi, I’m Benny, Chase’s new best friend!”

“Excuse you?” Rae says, aghast. “I never received your application. This simply will not stand.”

“Ohmygod, it must have gotten lost in the mail,” Benny says, not missing a beat.

“It’s a rigorous process to be approved,” Rae says.

“I’m gay and like rosé,” he says.

“You’re approved!” Rae shouts. “So what do you two want? What are you doing tonight?”

“That’s kinda why I was calling,” I say.

“We need to get out,” Benny interjects. “I’m withering away in here!”

She laughs. “Not sure if y’all are interested, but there’s a concert on campus for Laurene students,” she says. “Years & Years. Not sure if either of you have heard of them.”

“I think you mispronounced A-ri-a-na Gran-de,” Benny says.

Rae bursts out laughing.

“I know them. They’re a queer pop band with, like, an electronic rock vibe,” I say, remembering the poster of the band tacked on Jack’s wall. “If it’s just for Laurene students, how’re we getting in?”

“If you’d let me finish, slore, I would’ve told you I was legit just about to call you because a group of us were gonna go, but at the last minute, Harry and his friends decided to—wait for it—study.”