"Yeah, but—"
"So give him a call."
"Which place does this occupy on your dating advice list?" I ask sarcastically.
"You wouldn't be asking him on a date." She rolls her eyes then arches her eyebrows. "Booty call."
"No way." I grimace. "I have tons to do for Monday anyway," I say and start looking for the assignment on the Stanford intranet.
"Oh stop being such a good girl, you give me the creeps. It's your last semester. Have some fun. Anyway I'm sure Aidan will let you copy it from him if you smile nicely."
Aidan has the second highest GPA in my class after me. He also has zero social skills, which makes him turn a violent red and babble incoherently ev
ery time a girl pays attention to him. It wouldn't take much to convince him to let me copy the solutions.
"If you show him a boob he might copy it for you," she snorts. "In addition to coming in his pants."
"You disgust me," I say.
"You need to get laid again."
I only realize what she's up to when I hear a distant dialing sound. I leap from my cross-legged position, sending my laptop crashing to the ground in the process, and launch myself over the table.
"Don't. Jess, I swear—"
It's futile. She holds my phone up in the air, too far away for me to grasp it. Jess is my best friend in the whole wide world, but sometimes—like now—I get the strange urge to throttle her. "Jessica Haydn, hand me that phone."
"Certainly," she says after a few excruciating seconds, and I know there can only be one reason for it.
He picked up.
"Hi…" I say, straightening up and struggling to even my breathing.
"Serena. To what do I owe this surprise?" The sound of my name in his mouth instantly brings back memories of all the other times he called my name and it has the devastating effect of erasing anything else from my mind.
Like why I am calling.
"Umm," I look up at Jess, who mouths the word plans over and over. "I was wondering if you… already have plans for tonight?"
"What do you have in mind?" he says, sounding amused.
"Nothing special," I say quickly, feeling more embarrassed with every second.
"Then you can drop it?"
"Drop what?" I say confused and Jess slaps her forehead.
"The nothing special you had planned and join me." He sounds even more amused than before.
Jess gives a triumphant squeal. I'd do the same if I weren't on the phone.
"Where?"
"You really think I'll tell you?" he teases and I can feel his conceited smile forming at the other end. "Can you be ready in half an hour? I'll pick you up."
Jess desperately shakes her head, pointing to my hair and mimicking that she's applying lipstick.
I roll my eyes at her. "Sounds good."