“You and Matt Pine are close?” said the blond reporter holding the microphone.

“Oh yeah. I’m not just the dorm’s RA. We’re like family.”

Ganesh barked out a cough of smoke at that.

Next up was Jane, her long hair flowing like she’d just had a blowout, her eyes wet and glistening.

“Mr. and Mrs. Pine were so wonderful. They treated me like one of the family. And Matthew’s sister, Margaret, was such a special girl—she was the family rock, and was going to MIT in the fall. And Tommy”—Jane’s voice cracked—“he was just a sweet little boy.”

The emotion was real. Just yesterday, Jane had told Matt that she loved him but he couldn’t give her what she needed. Whatever that was. Jane dumping him shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Yet for such a supposedly observant guy, he sure hadn’t seen it coming. She was from old money, raised in a breathtaking apartment on the Upper West Side, destined to marry one of those guys from Stern who wore business suits and carried briefcases to class. Matt sometimes suspected that Jane dated him—a film student and scholarship kid—just to piss off her parents.

The screen jumped to an image of Danny from the documentary. Matt reached for the remote and turned off the set.

He and Ganesh sat quietly for a long while, Matt lost in his head, Ganesh stoned, chomping on more salt-and-vinegar potato chips, not cluttering up the conversation with platitudes. This was one of the things Matt liked most about Ganesh. He never littered conversations. When the documentary had come out during Matt’s freshman year, Ganesh kept him sane during the chaos. “Don’t stress, bro,” he’d said. “Let’s make lemonade out of it, and use the show to get some girls.” It hadn’t been the worst advice.

Now Ganesh said, “There’s a party in Brooklyn I was gonna hit up if you wanna come?”

“I think I’ll just hang out. You mind if I stay here tonight?”

“Of course, man, as long as you need. It’ll be like the old days,” Ganesh said, as if their freshman year had been a lifetime ago. In many ways, it was.

“I can skip the party,” Ganesh said. “If you want some company, I can—”

“No, you should go. It’s been a long day. I’m just gonna get some sleep.”

“Cool, cool, cool,” Ganesh said. He disappeared into the bedroom and came out wearing a hoodie and smelling of Axe body spray.

“Your ex keeps texting me looking for you. So is everybody else. You want me to—”

“Hold off telling them where I am. I wanna be alone for a bit. I’ll reach out to everyone in the morning.”

Ganesh nodded. “You sure you don’t wanna come? Take your mind off things?”