On the flipside, if it wasn’t for Nick, maybe I’d still feel guilty for not wanting to be a doctor. It might have taken me a whole lot longer to figure out that some things just aren’t my things—same as how some people just aren’t my people.

Looking back, it’s crazy to think I almost had a nervous breakdown over having to live with Nick. The whole reason I applied for the solo dorms early was because I had zero interest in rooming with a stranger. But then I got that letter saying I’d been assigned a double anyway. The head of residence didn’t give two shits when I called to appeal. He said people are often “pleasantly surprised.” I seriously wanted to punch him in the nuts for that, but he wasn’t wrong, because honestly, I probably never would have even talked to Nick if they hadn’t forced us to live in that shoebox for two semesters, and we definitely wouldn’t have rented our house last year. Now it seems like I lucked out with the only other normal person in our entire class, and now I feel kind of bad about spazzing on the head of residence.

This one time, I told Nick he was the weirdest person I’d ever met. I wasn’t a dick about it. I was just like, “Dude. You’re so weird.” And he was like, “So?” And I was like, “My point exactly.” I’d never met anyone before who gives zero fucks about being cool, or about being a certain type of person other than himself. There I was trying to be the premed kid, like it was my whole identity or whatever, but hating myself for hating it so much, and Nick was like, “Do it if you want to. Don’t do it if you don’t.” Turns out it really was that simple. Why had it always seemed so much more complicated before?

If anyone else had pulled that life-is-too-short-to-blah-blah-blah crap, I’d have told them to shove it, but Nick’s been through some shit. He knows better than anyone how short life can be. I mean, life is too short to bust my ass for a job I hate, or to worry about what guys like Sam Crowley think about me, or to miss out on getting to know people like Kayla, who’s supposed to be radioactive but, as it turns out, is pretty cool and pretty much wants to get to know me too.