Most days, I eat lunch in the cafeteria, even though the food is comically bad, so I can engage in stealthy hand-holding with Cheng under the table and gossip with Nix and our friends. But sometimes I take advantage of my off campus privilege by heading home, which I do today because I am too angry to be around anyone. I need to come up with my next move, and I can’t strategize while keeping on my sunny face and making nice. The only risk is that I will wake Mom, and she will ask why I’m home and trust me, that is not a conversation I am up for.

I slide my key into the apartment door quietly and tiptoe in. The door to her room is shut, and the place is quiet, so I think I’m safe. There’s a printed picture of a sleeping kitty hung on the knob with a ribbon; if the picture is turned around to show the cat leaping at a toy, it means she’s awake. She works the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift as a charge nurse at a nursing home. She should be out cold till around three or so, and I’ll be long gone by then.

Inside the fridge is my secret stash of Lime Frost Gatorade. It is so not on-brand for me, I would never drink it at school, but I got hooked in fourth grade when I went through a two-year soccer phase. Mom thinks the electrolytes piece is okay but says the dye is bad, and whatever, but her paranoid list of things that could kill you is a mile long.

Cheng has snapped me a meme of a dog looking around after its ball has been snatched away.

I snap back a GIF of a UFO sucking up a body.

So Shreya hasn’t told him. I owe her a smoothie.

I text Shreya first.

Then Cheng.

Neutral enough, right? I have barely hit send before he replies.

Cheng looks like a jock in his hoodies and sweats, but he’s smart and emotionally on point. Sometimes it would be easier to date an airhead like Chris, who looks like a model but talks like a squeaky toy. Cheng may be chill, but he also doesn’t miss a thing.

I snap Cheng a clip of Lizzo holding up a hand as if to ward off paparazzi and then put my phone down.

“Luisito?”

“Jeez, Mami! I almost spilled on my shirt!”