The Smartest Girl in the Room (23 page)

Drew let Emily put in about two hours of work
before he started bothering her. First it was little notes, then
tickling, and finally whispers. She tried to put him off and shush
him, but he persisted. Finally, Emily laughed at a few of his jokes
and absently nodded through some of his stories, hoping he wouldn’t
give her a quiz like he sometimes did. She had just finished an "mm
hmm" when she saw a shadow looming over Drew.

It was the football player. He bent over
Drew. "Listen, not all of us are here to talk and play footsy. If
you can’t shut up, then get out."

"Okay, I-I’m sorry," Drew stammered out in a
small voice and the other man, not even looking at Emily, clomped
past the girls and back to his seat.

For the second time that night, Emily was
shocked. "Are you going to let him talk to you like that?"

"What do you want me to do, get in a fight
with him?"

She remembered him holding the door closed
three hours ago and how he'd talked to her and Jessie on Saturday
night. "Of course not." She stood up and marched past the girls to
the football player.

"Excuse me," she said in a voice as brave as
she could manage. The man looked up.

"Yeah?"

"Yes, I’m sorry if my boyfriend and I were
making too much noise just now, but from now on, if you have
something to say to either of us, I’d appreciate it if you were
just a little more polite." She turned back to her seat. She had
just gotten past the girls when she got an answer.

"Drop dead, bitch." She saw Drew, ashen and
immobile. She saw the girls, some of whom were suppressing a
giggle, some of whom looked scared. Emily turned back to the
man.

"Oooh!"

He stood up. "How about I show you how to be
quiet?"

"Yeah, I’d like that. Why don’t you show me
what a big boy you are?"

A security guard walked by before the jock
could make good on his threat. He looked at everyone, and then
addressed himself to Emily. "Is everything alright here?"

"I’m not sure, sir. What do you think, big
guy?"

He looked at her, then the guard. "Yes, sir.
Everything is fine."

"Good. Let’s keep it that way."

Emily sat back in her seat, opened her book
and didn’t say a word. She didn’t have anything to say to Drew.

A moment later, she heard a flurry of papers
being shoved into bags, giggles and then a bunch of feet shuffling
off. Someone tossed a note into Emily’s lap. He’s an asshole,
anyway. Yep, that pretty much said it all. She put the note on the
desk. Drew picked it up, but she didn’t care if he had anything to
say about it.

Less than fifteen minutes later, she heard
more shuffling of papers. Drew turned around. "He’s gone!"

"That’s nice, but you know what? I’m not done
yet." Drew, for once, didn’t say anything.

~~~

"So?" Zainab said as soon as she met Emily in
the Student Center the next day.

"I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about
Drew coming with me to the library again."

Zainab gasped several times during Emily’s
story. "He didn’t even stand up after that asshole called you a
bitch?" she asked when Emily was done.

"He didn’t need to. And I don’t care."

"You know you could have been really hurt,
right? That was a pretty stupid thing to risk."

"I’m so fed up, Zainab. I’ve been lied to,
stood up and manipulated and that idiot was stupid enough to
disrespect me to my face. Believe me, I’m not the one who had
something to worry about."

Zainab patted her on the shoulder. "Remind me
not to get on your bad side."

Mitch checked his email after every class,
right before he went to bed, and as soon as he woke up. He also
called his parents twice a day. "Mitch, it hasn’t come yet. You
know we’re going to call you as soon as we get it."

"But sometimes Mom forgets to check the
mail."

"She doesn’t anymore."

That day, his parents made the call. "Son,
I’m very sorry to tell you-" Mitch felt a pit open up his stomach-
"that you’ve been condemned to spending the rest of your life lying
for people who don’t deserve it." Silence. "You’re in!
Congratulations, you’re going to law school!"

"Yes!" Mitch shouted so loudly that almost
everyone on the campus could hear him, or so he thought. "Okay,
Dad, I’m going to call you back later. Whoo!" He threw open his
door and ran into the hallway.

Martin was the first person he found. "I’m
going to law school, man!"

"Oh, bummer, sorry to hear that." Martin
laughed, then high-fived him. "Where?"

"The one back home." The undergraduate
program may not have had the best reputation, but the law school
had a very good one.

"And you’re sure this is what you want?"

"This is the only thing I’ve wanted since
high school. This is what I went to college for."

"So what are we going to do to
celebrate?"

Mitch grinned. "I was hoping to find
Kyra."

Martin groaned. "You do that, then let me
know when you want to have some fun that’s actually fun. I think I
saw her near the North Hall about an hour ago."

Mitch half-skipped toward the North Hall, not
troubling himself about why she would have gone there when all of
their classes were in the South or West Hall. She must have been
visiting one of the dorms there.

He walked through the halls and thought he
caught some strange looks from some of the Danish students. He had
gotten almost to the end of the hall when he heard groaning. He was
about to move on when he heard a familiar moan. He stopped in his
tracks.

"Uli, you do that really well."

"Thank you. Now I think there was something
you did last time I particularly liked."

Mitch moved without thinking. He knocked on
the door. "Who is it?" Uli asked.

Mitch knocked again. And again. Uli opened
the door a crack. Mitch pushed it open and saw Kyra scream as she
covered herself with a sheet. "Oh, my God!"

She cowered under the covers and started to
whimper. Mitch looked at Uli, who looked like he had no idea what
all of the fuss was about. "No problem," Mitch said. "She’s all
yours." He forced himself to walk away, one foot in front of the
other.

He had just gotten to his hall when he heard
Kyra frantically running behind him. "Please Mitch, let me
explain!" That gave Mitch the burst he needed to run to his door
and lock it before she could force herself in.

He sat down in the dark. He heard Kyra crying
outside, banging on the door, but eventually she left.

Hours later, Martin turned on the light and
jumped when he saw Mitch. "Didn’t you hear Kyra banging on the
door?"

"I did," Mitch barely whispered.

"What’s wrong?"

"Did you know that Kyra was screwing
Uli?"

"I think I might have mentioned something if
I had! Oh man, I am so sorry."

"I think most of the Danes knew." He blinked.
"I wonder how long that’s been going on."

"You know she’s not good enough for you,
right? It’s hard to think of anything more humiliating than being
stepped out on- by her, with him- but take it as a blessing. You’re
finally rid of that dead weight."

"I don’t care."

"You just told me she’s been making the
two-backed beast with someone else, and you don’t care? There’s
noble and forgiving, and then there’s being a doormat."

"I don’t care about her. I’ve tried so hard
to care about her that, I don’t know, maybe there’s something, but
mostly, it doesn’t matter. I don’t care who she screws."

Martin was quiet for a minute. "If you don’t
care, then why are you with her?"

"’Cause I’m an idiot."

"Right... but why did you get with her in the
first place? Was it her looks? She’s pretty, but she’s not a
goddess."

"I can’t tell. I’ve been too busy worshipping
someone else."

"So," Martin said slowly. "There was someone
else."

"I don’t... maybe. No, there was. There is.
There was someone else. I think about her all the time."

"Then I’m going to ask a little more clearly.
Why were you with Kyra?"

"I’ll tell you what I told someone else. It
was because Kyra was here and Emily wasn’t going to be. It’s that
simple."

"That’s some bargain, except for the part
about Kyra being a blithering, cheating idiot."

"I did it on purpose." He was making himself
sick. "I couldn’t have left this person, so I went to Kyra
instead."

"Do you want to start making sense? Were you
with the other girl or not?"

"I was going to be. I had a date with her. It
was important. If I’d gone, I don’t think I could have left her.
But I had to. I promised my grandmother and my parents and myself.
I couldn’t let some nineteen-year-old temptress get in the way of
that. Even if she made me feel like everything was the way it
should be. Coming here was more important. So there was Kyra, and
can you think of a better excuse to not be with someone than being
with someone else? So I was. And I lost a friend because of it, but
I didn’t care, because I had to come here. Even when I found Kyra
waiting for that other guy-"

"There was another guy?" Martin shook his
head. "When was this?"

"Before we left. Before finals were over. And
yeah, I thought I should find Emily then. And someone told me I
should. I was in the middle of trying to figure out what to say
when Kyra called and begged me to come back. I was going to look an
asshole anyway, no matter what. And Kyra said she was sorry. And I
couldn’t think of anything I could do to make Emily take me back.
So I went back to Kyra."

"And now here you are, sitting in our room
with me. Great plan. Now what are you going to do?"

"I’m going home."

"Are you off your head? We’ve got finals next
week. Everything’s going down the toilet then, and oh yeah, won’t
that ruin your law school plans if you screw an entire
quarter?"

"Then I’ll take them now."

Richard asked Emily to meet him for tea. When
she walked into the café, she saw Richard with a short, pretty girl
with wavy dark brown hair. "Hi," Emily said as she sat down. The
other woman smiled uncomfortably. Two minutes after Emily arrived,
she got up and apologized for not being able to stay longer.

"That was weird," Emily said after she left.
"What was her name again?"

Richard sipped his coffee. "Sophie."

"Sophie," Emily repeated. "Gorman?"

"Yes."

Emily stared at Richard, waiting for him to
say something else. He didn’t. "What are you doing?"

"I want to know what Drew told you about
her."

"Why don’t you tell me what Sophie told you
about Drew?"

"It’s not that simple. I want to know why
Drew told you they broke up."

"Why don’t you ask Drew? Why don’t you ask
Sophie?"

"I’m your friend. I care about you." Emily
stiffened. "I think Drew has been lying to you about a number of
things, and Sophie’s one of them. I can’t prove it- "

"Then why bother?" Emily felt tears coming to
her eyes. "Did Jessie put you up to this? I thought I made it clear
to her. We’re friends, and that’s the way it’s going to stay." She
couldn’t breathe. "Don’t you think I know how I must look? But I
didn’t think you judged me."

"I don’t-" he put his hand on hers, and she
yanked it away.

"Forget it. I can take care of myself." Tears
were streaming down her face. "Why don’t you get your own house in
order before you try cleaning up after other people?"

Emily walked out of the café and into the
cold, crying the whole way to the library.

Emily forced herself to work because getting
through and out had been so important. But as much as she
concentrated, she couldn’t stop thinking about how hurt Richard
looked. She’d text Jessie later to figure out how to apologize, as
soon as she was done being mad at him.

That voice came back on her way home, the one
she heard that day on her yoga mat.
What are you doing?
"I
don’t know," she answered out loud.

She stopped. She blinked. Joe Welles was
standing on her front steps, talking to Drew. Drew was telling a
story, maybe coming to the end of it. Joe was smiling, but looking
off to the side. Emily backed away behind a building so neither
would see her.

She peered back and saw them shake hands,
Drew cupping his hand over Joe’s. Joe laughed, then released him
and waved off. Drew smiled then went back upstairs. Joe was heading
towards Emily. Now was a good time to go back home.

"Joe!" Emily said two seconds later. "What
are you doing here?"

"Hey! Emily!" Joe said after a second. "What
are you doing here?"

"I live nearby, just heading home to drop off
my books before I hit the library. And you? Oh, let me guess,
picking up the flyers, right?" Zainab had told her the week before
that Joe had started making flyers for the election, although it
wasn’t for a month. Zainab had also told her that she had picked
them up yesterday.

"You caught me," Joe laughed. "Boy, Zainab
keeps you filled in! I couldn’t get any of this done without
her."

"She’s the best. But don’t work her too hard,
okay?"

"I promise, I won’t. But hey, I’ve got to go.
Flyers!"

"Good luck, Mr. President!"

She thought she’d try the direct approach
with Drew. After kissing him hello and asking about work, she
casually mentioned Joe. "Did I see you with Joe just now?"

"Who?"

"Joe Welles. I thought I saw him talking to
you as I was coming up the street."

"Oh- oh! Joe! Yeah, he’s great. He was in one
of my classes and we were shooting the breeze. How do you know
him?"

He didn’t remember the party. Okay. "Same
thing. A class. What’s he been up to?"