Dylan invites me to lunch. I don’t have class for another hour so we head to a local sushi place a block away from campus. One of the perks of going to school in New York!

At first, we talk about high school and our lives until this point. His aunt and uncle live in LA and he’s been there a few times. I ask him about Worthington, the fancy boarding school he’s gone to for the last three years. Growing up, it had been a dream of mine to go to a boarding school. It’s not that I wanted to get away from my parents or be a grown up so much earlier. I just like the idea of the independence that came with it. Living with roommates. Being responsible for your own laundry. Living on your own terms. But still in a somewhat safe environment with other kids. I share my dream with Dylan. He just laughs.

“It’s not really like that,” he says. “I mean, you do get to be on your own a lot. But it’s a little different when you feel like your parents just shipped you off there because they got tired of you.”

“Really? No, that can’t be true.” I shake my head. “I’m sure you parents love you.”

“Well, unlike you, I didn’t really want to go. I liked my friends and my teachers at the private school near our house. But my parents were getting divorced and my brother was already in Dartmouth. My dad had a new girlfriend and my mom was having a breakdown. I don’t think they wanted me around anymore. At first, I protested and they caved. But then when my mom went to rehab for two months, there was no one at the house to stay with me. So my dad thought it’d be best to send me to boarding school.”

“That sucks,” I say and put my hand on his arm.

“Eh, it’s okay. Rich kid problems, right? I’m fine. I honestly wasn’t even going to talk about this. I never really do. I just didn’t want you to have some illusion of what boarding school is like.”

“Well, to be honest, you haven’t really told me anything bad about boarding schools. Your story was really about parents who want to send their kids to boarding school,” I joke and smile. It takes a beat, but he catches on.

“Well, to be honest with you, boarding schools do have their perks.”

“Oh yeah, like what?” I move to the edge of my seat.

“Well, you get to hang out with girls. And I mean really hang out.”

“Is it co-ed like this?” I ask.

“No, but it’s pretty awesome anyway. They sleep in a different building, but they’re on campus. Away from home. So if you meet someone special, you can sneak out at night and actually hang out. No need to steal your parents’ car or anything like you public school kids do.”

I laugh. The check comes. He insists on covering it. Doesn’t let me even look at it. I fight for a bit, but eventually give in.

“Hey listen, I did want to talk to you about something. I just wanted to let you know that I totally get it about Tristan.”

A cold sweat dashes through me.

“What do you mean?”

“I get it that he’s your ex and that it’s really awkward having him as your roommate. But you know, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have the right to be in the living room.”

“Yeah, I know. I just couldn’t really deal with it yet.”

“I know. But the thing is that he’s there. He’s not acting like he doesn’t belong. And I want you to know that you belong, too. You can’t just go through your whole first semester avoiding him. What kind of college experience would that be?”

I shrug. I haven’t thought about how I was going to go through the whole semester. So far I’ve been living hour to hour.

“Not a good one, that’s for sure.” He flashes his handsome smile. “So I just want you to know that I can be your buffer. I’ll try to hang out in the living room as much as possible so you wouldn’t have to be alone.”

“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”

“But I’ll only do it if you promise me that you’ll be there after dinner tonight. You’re not allowed to use school as an excuse.”

I like the way he jokes. It’s not malicious and it’s not at the expense of anyone. His warmth puts me at ease so much that I actually allow myself to imagine what hanging out in the living room with Tristan might be like.

“Okay,” I mumble. “I’ll try.”

“No, promise me you’ll do it. Not just try.”

“Promise,” I say after a while. No feelings of lingering regret creep up. It’s an honest promise.

“Why do you care so much, anyway?” I ask as we walk back to campus.

“’Cause you seem like a fun girl. A fun roommate. And I don’t want to miss out on that just ‘cause you used to date someone at one time.”

That is definitely one way of putting it. I’ve been so much in my own head about this whole Tristan thing, this whole other entity that we became while were together that I didn’t realize that this whole life altering thing could just be described as “I used to date someone at one time.” Putting it that way, gives me a little perspective. Maybe it’s not a big deal after all. Or maybe I shouldn’t make it that big a deal.

My American Lit class is starting soon. I don’t really know where Hamilton Hall is, so I put in the location into the map app on my phone. Dylan’s got American Civilization to the Civil War in the same building at the same time. We follow the app’s instructions, glued to my phone, like all the other freshmen.

“Man, I have to learn the campus layout a bit more before this weekend,” Dylan says when we finally reach the building. “I don’t want to look like a total idiot.”

“Why? What’s this weekend?”

“My girlfriend’s coming to visit me.”

“Oh, you have a girlfriend?” I joke. Not that it should matter, really, but I’m caught off-guard.

“Yes, I have a girlfriend,” he smiles. “Peyton. She goes to Yale. We met at Worthington last year.”

“How far is Yale from here?”

“About two hours, depending on traffic, if you drive. But she’s taking the train. So that’ll be about 3 hours.”

“Ah, I can’t believe you waited all through lunch to tell me. Now I have so many questions and I have to go to class,” I say, looking at my phone. “So what’s she like?”

“She’s awesome. Fun. Outgoing. She’s majoring in Poli Sci. She wants to work in government. She does a lot of volunteer work. Even started her own foundation in high school.”

“Wow, that’s impressive. She sounds amazing.”

“Yep, she is,” he says, beaming. “And she’s really looking forward to meeting everyone. And that includes you.”

I smile and promise that I’ll be there. He gives me a brief hug and turns into his class. I walk down the hall to room 101.