I already know what’s happening out in the barn: girls are grinding up on each other on the dance floor, vying for attention, while other people light up in the loft. But I don’t have anything else to do. And this kitchen really is crowded.

“Why not?” I shrug, resisting the urge to roll my eyes when Travis smirks and looks obnoxiously proud. Yeah. No. My willingness to check out the barn has nothing to do with him, and everything to do with my desire to be anywhere but here.

I scan the room and spot Paige and Kyle waiting for next game at one of the beer pong tables. Paige and I make eye contact, and I point toward the door so she knows where I’m headed. She gives me big eyes and an excited grin before schooling her expression and turning back to listen to whatever Kyle’s droning on about. Probably crypto. Or a podcast he listened to this week, which now makes him a certifiable expert in whatever subject they covered.

Travis leads the way out the sliding glass door and onto a deck that’s just as crowded as the kitchen. At least it’s cooler out here. I grab a water bottle from an open cooler, then I follow him down the stairs toward the back of the property.

He reaches for my hand, but I hold up my double-fisted beverages and feign an apologetic smile.

“How do you like school?” he asks, slowing his pace to match mine as I traverse the yard in wedges.

“It’s awesome,” I answer honestly. “I love my school and my program. I’ll definitely stay out there for law school, as long as I can get in.”

“You go to University of California, right?”

“I go to UC Berkeley,” I correct.

“Oh. But that’s still in California, right? So the parties must be pretty cool?”

I open my mouth to tell him that I haven’t attended a single college party since starting at Cal, then think better of it.

My major is in legal studies, and I’m double-minoring in gender and women’s studies and political science. I’ve consistently taken eighteen credit hours a semester since the second half of freshman year. I have neither any interest in nor any free time to party.

I’m not a hermit. I have a group of girlfriends I met my freshman year in the dorms, and we get together for drinks on Thursday nights. But I mostly hang out with my cohort for my major.

But none of that is worth explaining to Travis. He doesn’t actually care. And I don’t really want to share that part of my life with him.

“Yep.” I pop the P for emphasis and pray he doesn’t realize I’m mocking him. “Awesome parties.”