“He hooked up with her. Didn’t get it in. Am I right, J?”

Jeremy had made the mistake of bragging to his brother about making out with Claudia Castro, and now, just like his father with the Green Day contest, Lars brought it up constantly. To Lars, the Claudia Castro hook-up meant that Jeremy was making all the right choices. Positioning himself with the right people. Making the right connections and the right impressions. Lars, like most bartenders, was big on connections. Bringing people together, making things happen. His goal was to own his own bar by thirty-five. He kept everybody’s business card and treated everybody as a possible investor.

“How did we not know this?” asked Dante.

“I knew,” said Chris. “It was early, right? First couple days of class.”

“You know who her dad is, right?” shouted Lars.

“It was just a hook-up,” said Jeremy. “She was cool. We just don’t really run in the same circles.”

Obviously, he hadn’t told anyone that he texted her half a dozen times before finally giving up. He saw her around campus sometimes, but she wasn’t at the dorm much. He’d followed her on Instagram right after the hook-up and never un-followed. Her feed was mostly a cliché of cocktail glasses, skimpy tops, and manicures, but she also posted some pretty cool art. The art part annoyed him. It didn’t bother him that a vapid rich girl had decided the boy from Long Island wasn’t worth her time, but the fact that she had taste, that she had ideas—shouldn’t she have seen that he wasn’t just another freshman doofus trying to decide if he should go into law or business? He was going to be a star.

“Well, she better catch you on the way up,” said Lars. “’Cause once you’re touring with Green Day I know you ain’t gonna try to keep a lady at home.”

Everyone agreed this was exactly right. If Claudia Castro wanted a piece of Jeremy Cahill, she better take it soon.

And, because it was the best night of his life, who should he see when they finally got to Down Under? Claudia Castro, sitting at the bar, already drunk enough that when he bellied up beside her and gave her that Green Day grin, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him for a sloppy hug.

“I know you!” she said. “See, I told you people were still around. Spring break is for assholes.”

“Claudia’s been drinking,” said the guy next to her. Jeremy recognized him from the dorm but didn’t know his name.

“We’ve all been drinking! Everyone here has been drinking, Chad. And we are going to continue drinking!” She motioned to the bartender, then looked at Jeremy. “What are you drinking?”

“Let’s do a shot,” said Jeremy.

She agreed. “Tequila? Chad, you want another shot?”

“Why not?”

“Three shots of tequila!”