Cross’s smirk morphs into a full-on smile. “Oh, I got it. No need to hold up a sign screaming I’m spoken for. No one’s going to encroach on Keller’s territory. I just wanted to see my favorite little cosplayer squirm.”

I can’t decide what, amongst everything he just said, shocks me the most. “I’m not—” I was going to say I’m not spoken for, but that’s not right; I am. Just not by Keller. The fact that he assumed so makes me squirm much more than Lily. “We’re not…” I try again.

Lily saves me. “Come on, Claire. He’s not worth the bother, trust me.”

As we walk away, in the direction Keller took to get us those sweet drinks he promised, I whisper, “What was that all about?”

Lily rolls his eyes. “He’s a player on the college hockey team. Which is terrible, by the way. What are they thinking, playing hockey in California? They don’t even have snow half the time. Anyway, it’s like him and the rest of his hockey friends haven’t left high school. They just love picking on my friends and me for being…” She shrugs. “Us. I don’t mind too much, but they’re just horrible to Liv. You’ll meet her eventually; she’s painfully shy.”

“Ugh, I know the type.” I glance back at the guy who’s watching us walk away. “I didn’t get a bully vibe from him, though.”

“I suppose he’s not the worst of them,” she admits reluctantly. “But he doesn’t stop anyone, and he could.”

I’m silent for a while. I never really thought to blame someone for their inaction, as such. This makes me scrunch up my nose. Back home, some of Noah’s friends were pretty terrible to anyone they didn’t consider consequential. It was awful to watch, and I was pretty certain the only reason I was left alone was because I was with Noah. But Noah has never actually said anything to stop any of them. When I think about it, it’s pretty messed up. At the time, I was just glad the bile wasn’t thrown at me, so I just kept my head down and didn’t think much about it.

We enter a second lounge, with bookshelves filled with both academic texts and fiction; anything from graphic novels to classics, and fantasy titles. I would have expected gaming consoles and DVDs from a college house, but instead, this study-slash-lounge-slash-bar has a reading nook. The seat’s taken, but I can imagine myself claiming one of those deep armchairs and tuning out the world, a good book in hand.

“They don’t even have a TV,” I muse.