Hanin splashed over and offered their gloss on the situation (that everyone who worked in academia was selfish and that it wasn’t worth it). “Hi Kieran, by the way,” they said.

“Find me a place where I can do science all day that isn’t graduate school or, like, the military,” Steph said, clearly irritated by the interruption. “And she goes by Cay now.”

“Oh, my bad,” Hanin said. “Jesus, dude. Like, duh. I’m trans now, too, how about that.”

“I hear it’s because they’re putting chemicals into the water,” I said. Steph laughed a little too loud and long.

“Something like that,” Hanin said. “I’m assuming we’re going back to the apartment after this, right?”

“It’s a day off,” Irvine said. She had her eyes closed and was in the water all the way up to her neck. Just her small, pale face was poking up from the swirling, sandy water. “Where else are we gonna go?”

♒

Steph and Hanin and I were never really close friends, to tell you the truth. I mostly knew them through other people. The diner waitress had remembered one or two times, not much more than that. It was like I had never disappeared, like I had just gone around the corner and was back with them on a sidewalk in Ypsilanti after a short absence, making polite talk and waiting for everyone else to join us. But this was all there was left, maybe. I started to feel a little washed-up, talking to Steph on the way back.

On the porch was a stack of milk crates with a lighter and an ashtray on top. Four broken-looking wooden chairs surrounded it. I nervously sat in the one closest to the door. Hanin started rolling a joint and continued a conversation with Irvine, speaking quietly enough that Steph and I couldn’t hear.

“Did Irvine show you any of her comics?” Steph said, lighting a cigarette.

“No,” I said.

“She’s really good at it,” Steph said. “She used to make her own paper. Like, she’d make pulp out of paper bags and old receipts and stuff.”

“Huh,” I said.

“Her comics were about these two aliens,” Steph said. “One with four eyes and one with five eyes. And it was never clear if they were like, dating, or if they were just friends who had sex.”

“I guess it’s a subtle distinction,” I said.

“They, like, argued about it in the comic,” Steph said. “You know, it sort of paralleled a relationship Irvine was having with this girl who couldn’t commit.”

“I know how that is,” I said vaguely.