And then, like he’d materialized from the air, Brougham pushed past a group of students and touched my elbow. “Come on,” he said simply. And for once, the order didn’t sound pushy or rude.

He gently steered me through the crowd to his group’s table, on an unfamiliar end of the cafeteria, far away from Brooke and Jaz. I was so grateful I could’ve dissolved into tears.

A few other students sat at the table, along with Hunter and Luke. Next to Hunter sat Finn, who was apparently pleased to see Brougham had rescued me. Now, I guess, all three of us had rescued each other from self-inflicted suffering in varying degrees.

“Thanks for letting me sit here,” I said as I slid into the free seat across from both of them.

“We don’t have any reason to be mad at you,” Finn said. “We’ve never required your services.”

Brougham and I met eyes for a fleeting moment, but neither of us corrected him.

“That makes things easier,” I said instead.

“It does seem like the majority of the school has at one point or another, though,” Finn mused. “I’m impressed. You must have been busy.”

“Business was steady.”

“Apparently.” He took another mouthful and chewed thoughtfully. “I mean, I never put in anything because I assumed it was some straight white girl answering them.” He nodded at me, his eyes twinkling. “Half right.”

I grinned. “Would you have, if you’d known it was me?”

Finn snorted. “Darcy, I like you a lot, but you don’t have the range. No offense, but if I’ve got a question about, like, a guy wanting to come to my cousin’s wedding with me when some of my extended family’s still in denial about me being gay, I’m not exactly desperate for advice from someone who doesn’t know the first thing about my life or what it’s like to be Korean American. Like, what the fuck would you know, you know?”

He said it all very pleasantly, conversationally, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected him to say. For once, though, keeping Brougham’s words from the weekend in mind, I clamped down on the instinct to defend myself. Instead, I shrugged a single shoulder. “Well, that’s probably fair.”

But Finn had already lost interest in the conversation. He’d leaned his head in toward Brougham, whose gaze was somewhere else. I followed their eyes, but I couldn’t see what they were looking at. Just students. No one was acting out of the ordinary as far as I could tell.

“Jack’s looking over here,” Finn said under his breath.

“I noticed.” Brougham’s tone was light.