He knew then she’d lost at least some of her scholarships. The morals clause. He felt a weird surge of chivalry. For a moment, he thought, I’ll get my parents to help her. Pay the gap in her tuition. They had the money. What would it mean to them? But then he imagined them seeing that same shot he’d seen. His mother surely knew that trio of freckles on his hip, from when he was little. He couldn’t stand the thought of his father’s disappointment or, worse, his mother understanding, even vaguely, why he owed Lexie Pine help. The words died in his throat.

She’d already turned away and started off, the bag jouncing against her back.

“Can I carry that at least?” he asked, jogging to catch her.

She stared at him, eyes widening in surprise, and then rage contorted her features. Furious tears rose in her eyes. She dashed them away one-handed, chest heaving with savage breaths as she worked to calm herself. When she finally got herself enough under control to speak, her eyes went blank and dull. She spoke in a fast monotone.

“Do you have any cash? I can’t go home. My mom . . . my mom will . . .” She flushed an ugly red. “I want to go stay with my cousin Angela in Memphis. I think she’s in Memphis. I need money for the bus.”

He pulled out everything he had in his wallet and passed it over without counting, his face as red as hers.

“Thanks,” she said, clipped and unironic, and then she turned and left him there.

He still wanted to carry her bag. Drive her to the bus station. Buy her a ticket on his Visa. But he could not make himself follow her.

He went home and started grunt-pumping beer, belly and reform be damned. At some point Spence found him, and when he caught Spence up on everything that had happened—Ansel, the pictures, Lexie’s exit—Spence started drinking, too, silent and sorry.

The whole day was lost inside a blackout drunk, but apparently at sunset Trey showed up at Maura’s sorority house with a ring he did not remember buying, holding up a boom box that was blasting Peter Gabriel. The next morning he was hungover and engaged.

He mostly felt relieved. His life was back on track. Maura had a path mapped out, tidy and morally upright. He’d stepped off it, and everything had gone weird and wrong.

Their law-school acceptances came in. For the most part, it was yes across the board. The one exception was that Trey and Maura got into Stanford and Spence didn’t.