Kelly had a new girlfriend, Muriel, and brought her to the room to study but mostly to make out with her, and he was giving Ronny the look that meant he wanted privacy. Ronny took his sociology text and notebook to the first-floor study lounge in the early evening and found a couch at the back of the room where he could sit in peace. A dozen other people there. He was reading about statistical methods in sociology research, repeating every paragraph, trying to follow the near impenetrable prose. Someone turned on a radio very low; someone else asked her to turn it off or use headphones. One of the fencers cruised through in his fencing jacket and knickers, long socks grimy at the bottom, no shoes, shaking out his hair like a movie star. People switched on lamps as the windows grew darker. Ronny was making notes about the chapter, intent, when he felt a weight on the couch and saw Ben settling there. He gave Ronny a grimace, opened a thick American history text. “Brainhead,” said Ben, after a while. “You mind?”

“Plenty of room,” Ronny said.

Later, in the whispery tone of the room, “You study down here a lot?”

“Yes,” Ronny said. “Kelly needs the room for his extracurricular stuff.”

“What?”

Ronny made the finger-in-the-hole sign for sex. Ben laughed and people frowned at him and he tried to become smaller and quieter. “Going to need your help,” Ben said. “They’re on my back about grades.”

“Yeah?”

“You willing?”

“Sure. I work at The Tar Heel three nights a week, though.”

“Well, fuck.”

“There’s still weekends and such.”

“You can study on the weekend?” Ben asked. He grinned, liking how funny he was. “I’ve got games, but maybe.”

“I thought you were a redshirt.”

“Don’t fucking remind me. Still have to practice and go to games.”

“Sorry.”

“My fault. If I kept up my grades I wouldn’t be in this mess.” Shrugged, though, pretense of indifference. “So you’re my personal educational assistant. Got it?”

Ronny chuckled, shook his head, and Ben thumped his arm. “Don’t do me like that.”

“Oh, I’m willing.”

After a while a girl named Tamara showed up and Ben introduced her, closing his books for the night. Left with her, swaggering, looking back once. Ronny tried to sit still, managed to read for an hour or so. The girl with the radio made an attempt to turn it on again. Somebody else shut her down. She sighed and made a show of slamming her books together and walked to the lounge door in a huff. “I can’t concentrate without some music,” she said, and tried to slam the door but the hydraulics caught it. Everybody still in the room giggled a bit and looked at one another.

OCTOBER

In October, he was leaving the Tar Heel office one night after the nine o’clock deadline when he met Kathy Moore near the information desk. It had been months since she’d broken up with Ben. Ronny had forgotten how tall she was. She gave him such a smile when he spoke. He had never seen red hair so bright. “Oh, it’s good to see you!” she said. “I don’t get down to Ehringhaus much anymore.”