“Thanks,” she said, and shut the door.

At the little desk in his bedroom, Trevor tried to focus on his paper for Comparative Religion. He was writing about the concept of nirvana in Buddhism. It had to be six pages and use at least four primary sources, but he gave up after two hours and barely a page. He was supposed to be imagining a life free of spiritual poison, but all he could see was Claudia Castro’s face.

She knocked on his door that evening.

“Hey,” she said. “I’m Claudia.”

Trevor smiled, too big, probably. But whatever. He was happy to see her.

“Are you going back out?” she asked.

“I could.”

“I’m sorry to ask but is there any way I could give you some money to go to the drugstore? I can’t find my phone and I don’t really want to run into anybody.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.” She handed him a hundred-dollar bill and a list handwritten on the back of a subscription card for Marie Claire magazine. “No rush or anything. I just…”

“You don’t have to explain,” said Trevor. “Do you want some dinner, too? I was gonna get ramen.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded. It wasn’t exactly a lie. He had been planning on ramen for dinner, but the plan involved microwaving a dollar-packet from their common room cabinet microwaved with bathroom sink water, not the $20 bowls they sold at the Japanese place down the block.

“Sure,” she said. “I’d take some rice and veggies. Thanks.”

An hour later, Trevor knocked on her door.

“Delivery.”

“I really appreciate it,” said Claudia. She was still wearing the sunglasses.

He paused after handing her the food. He wanted to ask what happened. Somehow, he sensed he could help.

“Do you want to come in?” she asked.

They ate at the coffee table. Claudia was quiet and he looked around the room for something to talk about. Trevor had been here to hook up with Whitney, but they spent most of the time in her bed. For Whitney, Claudia was the Holy Grail of roommates: rarely there. She’s rich, Whitney told him as an explanation. On a chair near the window Trevor saw an oversized leather portfolio case and he remembered that Whitney mentioned Claudia took art classes. But he didn’t know anything about art and he didn’t want to say something stupid, so the silence continued until Claudia asked why he was still on campus over spring break.

“I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on.” Again, not a lie, but not the whole truth. The whole truth was that he hadn’t raised enough money to go to Costa Rica and build houses with his church group. His parents would have liked to see him, but going home was exhausting and flights expensive. “What about you?”

“Obviously, I should have gotten out of town.”