I had scheduled an appointment with Dean Lyons’s at 2:30 PM. Because of my interest in Silicon Valley startups and working for tech companies in general, I wanted to introduce myself personally to Dean Lyons. I exited the elevator on the fifth floor when I saw Jett and Troy outside Dean's Suite. They shook hands with smiles on their faces.

I looked around. What alternate universe had I stepped into? I thought about stepping back into the elevator, but as I turned around to get back in, it shut on me.

It didn’t matter anyway. “Laney!” Jett called after me. They’d definitely both seen me. I turned around to find them both waving enthusiastically. I wasn’t sure what to make of their smiling and the friendly looks on their faces. They’d both had ignored me all week.

Were they friends now? That was a good thing but also really strange. I hadn’t heard a single thing from either of them, but here they were, the best of friends, and smiling at me.

After the night of the party, a week ago, Troy and Jett had stopped talking to me completely. When I’d see them in class, they would ignore me. It hurt. Jett told me explicitly he wouldn’t bother me anymore. I half expected that this was something he had said out of disappointment and anger, but when Monday came around, he kept to his word. When I walked into a room, he averted his eyes. It was miserable to see him actively snubbing me.

What baffled me was that Troy never said anything to me about keeping his distance. When I waved at him in the courtyard that same Monday, and he just nodded to me and kept walking, I knew that Troy was avoiding me too.

Jett made his reasons clear, but I couldn’t figure out Troy’s reasons for shutting me out. As I walked towards them with apprehension growing in my gut, it hit me that maybe they had made a joint decision to not deal with me anymore. It honestly saddened me. Maybe things weren’t going to work out with either of us, but I still wanted them to be in my life in some capacity.

What made things worse was that Marsha stopped talking to me too. Coming home to our dorm room was uncomfortable. After her confession about Troy, she’d grown cold to me. She wouldn’t even look at me when I walked in.

It seemed that everyone in my life was giving me the silent treatment.

As I got closer to them, I was surprised to see they were both eager to talk to me. “You can’t believe what just happened, Laney!” Jett said.

“What happened?” I asked, looking at them both. Whatever it was, they were dying to tell me.

“Marsha drugged me!” Troy exclaimed. His brown eyes were huge saucers.

“Marsha? My roommate?” I asked in complete confusion.

Jett nodded as he looked at me with a smile on his face. “Yep. I saw her. She sprinkled some white stuff into Troy’s food at lunch. I watched her do it.”

“What? What was it?” I asked, shocked.

Excitedly, Troy said, “It was Viagra or Cialis or whatever. An erectile dysfunction drug.”

I laughed nervously. Marsha sprinkled Viagra in Troy’s food? “How did you know what it was?”

Troy answered candidly, “I had a huge boner in Investments class. I like investments and finance, but not that much. I had to leave class; I was so uncomfortable. Marsha was waiting in the hall for me. Dressed like a real slut. She offered to help out with my problem. Then she pulled me into the men’s bathroom to have sex.”

“I followed Troy out of class to make sure he was okay. I ran into the bathroom and stopped them mid-act,” Jett added.

My eyes must have looked to be popping out my head. “Oh, God.” I looked at Jett. “You saw them?”

Jett shook his head. “No, I didn’t see anything.”

Troy agreed, “Yeah. We were in the stalls.” He looked at Jett. “Dude, she was all over me. She was on me before I knew what the hell was even happening.”

“I was surprised it was Marsha. She looked so different dressed up like that.” Jett said. He ran his hands down his torso, gesturing a tight-fitting dress.

“She does look pretty different when she’s all dolled up,” I agreed, thinking about how when I first met her I’d thought she was down to earth and outdoorsy. Later, I discovered she loved clubbing and wearing slinky short dresses and stiletto heels.

“Jett and I took her to Dean Lyons. She’s getting expelled from Cal.” Troy said hurriedly.

The two were animated when they talked, gesturing wildly with their arms. It was quite a story. I put my hand to my mouth. She definitely needed some help for her obsessive behavior with Troy. Plus, her self-esteem was superbly low. She pinned all her confidence on the opinion of one guy, Troy.

What Marsha had done was terrible. At the same time, I felt bad for her. She wanted to be a doctor, but she risked all of it to trick Troy into having sex with her. Her dreams of being a physician were over, because of a guy. She was a beautiful, smart girl. It was sad she had gotten too hung up on Troy. A guy who just wasn’t into her.

I confessed to Troy, “She told me the two of you went to high school together.” Troy nodded his head affirmatively. “And that she has been in love with you since then.” Another huge nod from Troy.

Jett’s face broke out in disbelief. “Really?” he asked Troy. “I had no idea you two knew each other from high school.”

“Yeah. She had a thing for me, I guess. I mean, I knew it, but damn she’s nuts, I wasn’t about to do anything with her,” Troy said, grimacing.

“She had a bit more than just a thing for you, Troy,” I said. “She pressured me to go out with you because she said you deserved to be happy and that she would do anything in her power to make sure you got what you wanted.”

Troy’s face fell in realization. “I’m sorry, Laney. I understand now that you only liked me as a friend.” He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry I came on too strong. I’d like to be friends again. If you can forgive me, that is.”

A smile filled my face and my heart. He wanted to be friends and so did I. That’s all I ever wanted from him was friendship. The fact I didn’t want to be his girlfriend had gotten in our way of just having a good time together now and then. “Troy, I’d love to be friends. We had a lot of fun together.”

Troy’s hands flew up to his face. “Man, this whole time I was acting like a Marsha.”

“Troy, you were not acting like Marsha. You never drugged me.” I reminded him. “You’re not psycho. Just a bit on the aggressive side is all. I know you can reign that part of you in a bit for the next girl you find yourself attracted to.”

“True. Still, I could have handled your rejection a little better.” He held up his thumb and forefinger, holding them close together. He smiled at me and then at Jett. “I’ll see you guys around.” Then he walked away with a sheepish look on his face. Jett and I were left, staring at each other.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Jett shoved his hands in his jean pockets and rocked on his heels. The grin he wore told me he was feeling sorry about how he’d given me the cold shoulder too. “I miss you.”

“I miss you, too,” I said quietly and maybe too quickly. There was so much I wanted to tell him, but I waited for him to say more first.

To my sad surprise, Jett didn’t say anything else. He patted me on the back and walked away. Watching him go, I felt perplexed and sad. When he got on the elevator, I thought about running after him to tell him how I felt before the doors closed. Instead, I stood still, remembering my meeting with the Dean.

I watched as the elevator doors started to close and he gave me a little wave. I gave him one back and felt as if those doors were closing on us. What we had or could’ve had.

Was Jett truly done with me? Had he already moved on? Gloom rippled through me. My hope was that Jett would tell me he wanted to give us a chance again, but he said nothing, just that he missed me.

I wished he would have said more. Or maybe that’s all he had to say to me. That thought crippled me. Maybe my chance to be with Jett was really over.