Why couldn’t Olivia have gone to an all-girls college? There had to be some of those around, right?
One of the counselors breaks away from the side of the room and ambles toward me. I vaguely recognize him as a guy from my Sequential Programs class. Sandro was one of the few people that didn’t regularly piss me off. He was smart, prepared, and didn’t waste anyone’s time. He pulls out the chair next to me and sits.
“You get lost, Audley, or are you checking out the new crop of girls?”
“Neither.” I’ve only got eyes for one woman.
Sandro rubs a finger across the bottom of his lip. “I heard through the grapevine that the Audley twins were carrying some girl around campus all morning.”
“I thought you were writing some augmented reality software, not a gossip column.”
“I’m smart enough to do both.”
There’s no lie there. Sandro has the best grades in the Computer Science department.
“I’m surprised to see you on campus at all, let alone here at orientation. You skipped more classes than you attended. If you’d gone to even half of the classes, you’d have been close to top.”
“I had stuff going on.”
“Hmmmm. You don’t go to class. You hate college. The only things you do attend on campus are your brother’s football games. You’ve never missed one, so I can only assume you had a honey back home and this is her first year at college.” Like I said, Sandro’s a bright kid. He scans the room. “Which one is she? I want to see who brought you down.”
“Why is it brought down? What dumbass is going to spend time with someone who brings them down?”
He arches his eyebrows. “That’s fair. So it’s serious then. Are you really sharing her with your brother?”
I sigh internally. I guess I knew people were going to wonder what the hell was up between the three of us, but I didn’t think I’d get the tenth degree five seconds after Olivia stepped on campus. “Where’d you hear that?”
“I’m writing that gossip blog, remember?”
“You are?” I jerk back in surprise. Sandro always came off as a serious dude, not some keyboard warrior writing blog posts at two in the morning with Cheeto dust on his fingers. “I thought that was a fucking joke.”
He laughs. “It is a joke. It’s all over the campus Snap story.” He flips his phone around.
I grab it and start tapping through the app. There are several pictures of Levi jogging toward the dorm with Olivia over his shoulder and a couple of photos of us standing outside of Olivia’s dorm room interrogating that guy who’d spent way too long in the hallway for my comfort. It’s a girls’ dorm. What the hell was he doing there anyway? His excuse that he was delivering shit for his sister didn’t hold up for me—at least not given the curious looks he kept sneaking toward Olivia’s door.
It would solve a lot of problems if Levi and I could make a public claim, but I’m stuck because I don’t know what Olivia wants. Back home, everyone knew the three of us were a unit and no one asked a question. We were the Audley twins. We didn’t explain shit to nobody.
If it were just Levi and me, we’d say fuck it and let the gossip run, but Olivia’s here and we want to make sure she has a painless—and fun—experience. I guess we need to sit down and have a chat, and not just about how public she wants us to be, but also Levi’s plan to limit the physical contact. Olivia’s not going to like any of that, but we better all get on the same page so no one’s mad about the next campus Snap story.
My own phone buzzes. I hand Sandro’s device back to him and pull mine out of my pocket.
Levi: We’re on the campus Snap story
Me: Already ahead of you
Levi: Have you talked to Livvie yet?
Me: Don’t you have practice and no, she’s in the middle of orientation.
Levi: We’re doing team lifting. I’m resting between sets. Buy her something at the mall that says she belongs to us.
Me: Like what? A personalized sweatshirt?
Levi: Sure.
Me: That was a joke.
Levi: Not to me.
“Have fun with your fame.” Sandro slaps me on the back. “At least I won’t be worried that this year will be boring.”
I give him the finger as he walks away. Olivia decides that now’s the time she wants to take a break from her notes and sees me with my middle finger out. I raise my other fingers and give her a cheery wave.
Her eyebrows come together and then she spins around in her chair—her back preventing me from seeing what she’s doing. My phone dings again.
Olivia: Who do we hate?
Me: Come again?
Olivia: You were giving someone the finger. I’m ride or die, babe, remember? So tell me who is on the shit list so I can give them the cold shoulder.