“Bingo,” Chip snapped with his back to us. “I have to hide from Jason. The narc.” He opened and closed one cabinet after the other. “I can’t sneeze without worrying about the door being kicked in by some fag-hating friend-of-a-cop who’s got his own little one-man sting operation going. I’m a veritable prisoner in my own home.”

Frankie rolled his eyes at me. “He’s a veritable drama queen,” he whispered.

Chip wheeled around. He may or may not have caught Frankie’s comment. Holding an empty cereal bowl like a primitive tool meant for digging, he asked me, “Are you a fag-hater?”

“Um, no,” I said.

“Are you a cop?”

“Hardly.”

“Go back to sleep, Chip.”

“Fuck you, Little Frank.” Chip waved the bowl through the air, ran his eyes across the ceiling, and then drilled them into mine. “Are you a fag?”

I looked at Frankie. He stood up and took the soda from my hand. “Thanks for coming over, Joe.”

“You’re throwing me out?”

“No,” Frankie said, sidestepping Chip and carrying both our tumblers to the kitchen counter.

“Your little brother would never be so mean,” Chip told me. “He’s the sweetest, most popular thing on the planet. Everybody loves him. Granted, he’s a good lay, but I should get points, you know, for boosting his popularity. If it weren’t for me—”

“Yes,” Frankie said, taking my arm, “I’m throwing you out.”

“I guess I should have called first,” I said.

“See ya!” Chip called as Frankie escorted me to the door.

When we were outside, he said, “It’s okay. Look, I’m sorry about Chip. It’s just probably better if you go. This guy’s coming over …”

“Jason.”

“Yeah. What are you doing next Saturday?”

He told me about another party, promising this one would be a real blowout. I said I’d be there. He hugged me, said “Sorry” again, and kissed me on the cheek. Then he retreated into the apartment.

I’d come over with the crazy notion that we might talk about living together, that maybe there was room for him and me and his roommate (I hadn’t realized the roommate was Chip) in the apartment, and if so, I could bail out of McGarry like he had. Now I let go of the notion. I would never be able to move in with him, and the more I thought about it as I walked back to the dorm, the more I realized that Chip wasn’t the reason.