“How’d y’all meet?” I ask.

“In the same seminar our freshman year,” Sofía says in between bites of falafel. “We competed for the arts endowment with our respective shorts before realizing we could be unstoppable together.”

“She’s just saying that because I beat her ass.” Chloe takes a swig of Coca-Cola.

Sofía rolls her eyes. “We’ve been inseparable ever since.”

“We’re planning to study abroad for the spring and summer semesters in Los Angeles. A certain animation studio has been wooing us after seeing a film we worked on all last year,” Chloe says.

“Really? I’d love to see it. If that’s okay, I mean; sorry if that’s, like, inappropriate or whatever.”

The excitement builds in my chest. Not only do I have two new friends and mentors, but they’re also up-and-coming animators!

“You are the cutest,” Sofía says. “You should come to our house on Friday. We’re having a little soiree. You can see what we’re working on, and we can have fun times.”

Friday just so happens to be my birthday. Should I mention it? That’s weird, right?

“Actually …” I’m about to answer, but it’s as if the world stops because I see Jack. He’s wandering around, talking to somebody on the phone, looking all sorts of lost. My mouth goes dry, and my heart races.

Then Chloe’s hand is in front of my face, snapping. “Hello, earth to Chase.”

“Sorry, I—”

Jack sees me, and his hand shoots up. And I obviously have no chill, so my hand does this awkward wiggle thing that makes me look like a T. rex doing the “shopping cart,” and my cheeks get insanely hot.

“Did we break him?” Chloe whispers, but Sofía had already swiveled to follow my line of sight and manually turns Chloe’s head in the direction of Jack. “Oop!”

Both Sofía and Chloe follow Jack as he winds his way through the scattered mess of tables to get to us. Neither one takes their eyes off him. I don’t blame them. He’s beautiful.

“Callum, I gotta go. Talk later, bro. Tell my dad I’ll call him tonight.” Jack clicks off then shouts over the noise. “Chase!”

Stay calm. Keep cool. Collect yourself. Make a mental note to inquire more about this Callum fellow later. “ ‘Sup.”

Chloe busts out in a guttural giggle.

“Hi, I’m Jack.” He extends his hand to them.

“Yes, you are,” Chloe says, leaning back to get a better look.

“You eating lunch?” he asks then winces because obviously.

I nod, and he shifts his weight from leg to leg.

“Cool, cool. How’d your flip-book thing go?”

“Good—”

Sofía interrupts. “It was fabulous. Beautiful, actually. We’re working with him.”

His eyes widen, and he smiles, the balls of his cheeks shining. “Oh, wow, that’s amazing. Congrats.” He hikes his backpack on his shoulder. “I gotta get to class, but you wanna grab dinner at the Garden Dining Hall tonight?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

“Nice to meet you all,” he says, offering a chin nod before turning on his heels and heading out.