“Um . . . yes?” she said, it coming out more like a question. “This is the subject I want to move into. I find it very interesting and valuable for my future.”

“Good. Good,” Professor Mires said absentmindedly as the computer brightened before her eyes. She took the distraction to filter through her emails and Liz just waited. “This colloquium is very important to me and to the university. It is truly part of my life’s greatest work to be able to bring together my colleagues along with prominent journalists and politicians to foster more research and development, as well as the potential for great educational and networking opportunities for everyone involved. I want everyone to benefit from this, and I want you to participate.”

Liz sat frozen. How could she participate more than she already was?

“I would love for you to present some of your own research at a special topics in undergraduate research in political journalism on Friday afternoon.”

“Me?” Liz asked, excitement bubbling up in her chest.

Professor Mires looked back at her from behind her horn-rimmed librarian glasses with a smile. “Yes. I thought I would include your final research paper for the semester. Of course, that would mean it would be due a couple weeks early, but we could work with the preliminary drafts, if that suits you.”

“That would be . . . wow,” Liz said, speechless.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes! Absolutely.”

Professor Mires’s face brightened further. “Are you sure you’re set on becoming a reporter? You would do wonderfully in graduate school.”

Liz’s head buzzed with the compliment. “I’m open to different options, but I’ve always wanted to be a journalist.”

“Well, don’t rule grad school out,” she said with a nod of her head. “Now go on. That’s all I wanted to talk about. You can respond to these emails tomorrow during your research hours.”

Liz blew out a sigh of relief. She really just wanted to get home and see Hayden. Massey was covering the paper this afternoon, so Liz had the night off.

“Thank you again,” Liz said, before darting out of the room.

When she left, she was walking on cloud nine, with a bounce in her step and everything. Liz took the stairs two at a time and pulled out her phone to text Victoria. She was supposed to meet with her after class to walk home, but she had forgotten to let her know she would be late. She jotted out the message to ask her to wait.

As she hit Send, her phone started ringing. Shit! Had she had that on loud all class?

Then Liz noticed the name flashing on the screen. Justin. That wasn’t a name she had seen in a while. After he had gotten a DUI last summer, lost his scholarship, and left the school, no one had really heard much from him except to know that he was taking a semester off to “get his life back together.” Sometimes he didn’t even return the messages she left for him, which was why she wasn’t expecting him to call back now.

“Justin, hey! How have you been?” Liz asked.

“Hey, Liz. Not too bad actually. Yourself?”

“Good. Professor Mires is working me into the ground and Hayden wants me to be editor-in-chief next year, but you know, nothing big.”

Justin laughed. “You still dating Lane?”

She hadn’t heard from Justin in weeks. “Yeah. We’re still together. What’s up?”

“I’m coming into town for work in a couple weeks. Do you want to catch lunch next Friday?”

“Sure,” she said immediately.

Liz’s classes were over early on Friday, but she usually had plans with Hayden. No biggie. He wouldn’t care if she rescheduled. She almost laughed at the thought. Only a couple months ago she had gotten out of a similar lunch with Justin at the thought that she might see Brady, and now she was dropping her lunch with Hayden with equal ease.

“Sounds good. Aren’t you back in school? What has you traveling to Chapel Hill for work?”

“Yeah. So about that,” Justin said. She could practically see him shrugging through the phone. “I got a job with a software company. I’ll tell you all about it when I come into town.”

“Just text me when you get here and we can figure out where to meet.”

“Sounds good, Liz. Catch ya on the flip side.”

“Bye, Justin,” she said, trying to hold back an eye roll.

Liz dropped her phone into her purse and rounded the corner. Victoria was standing under the tree in the middle of the Pit, talking on her cell phone. She hadn’t even noticed Liz walking directly toward her.

“No, seriously, you’re ridiculous,” Victoria said into her phone. “I am never going to do that.”

“Hey,” Liz said, waving at Victoria as she approached. Victoria still ignored her.

“You can try if you want.” Victoria tapped her foot impatiently. “Yes, I might be amenable to that, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you bring one of your friends in on this. If I’m having a threesome, I want some double penetration.” Victoria glanced up then, smiled and waved. “Hey, Liz is finally here. I’ll call you later.” Victoria snapped her phone shut. “Ready to go? I’ve been waiting all fucking day for you.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Liz asked.

Victoria shrugged. “I’m giving Daniel a hard time. He wants to threesome with some other chick, which I’m down for, but not one of his friends. Ew. Gross. Let me find the chick if it has to be a chick. You know?”

“I just can’t believe you are still dating the Duke Fan,” Liz said the name with disdain, “let alone sleeping with him.”

“Oh, lay off. He’s not that bad. And anyway, at least I’m sleeping with someone. How come you haven’t fucked Mr. Perfect yet?”

Liz shrugged. “Not ready.” How many times had they had this conversation? Victoria didn’t want details if she did sleep with Hayden. She just wanted it to happen already so that she could tease Liz.

“It’s been a couple months. It’s kind of weird. You’re not going to fucking save yourself for marriage or anything, are you? I might disown you.”

“Oh my God, no. I’m not saving myself. I just . . . I don’t know. I’m not ready.”

“How are you going to know when you’re ready? When he puts his dick inside of you and you don’t tell him no?” Victoria asked. “I think you should just let him fuck you and then you’ll know if you were ready or not.”

“That does not make any sense. At all, Vic.”

“Try it out and then it’ll make sense.” She stopped midstride and gasped. “Oh my God, is he impotent?”

Liz rolled her eyes and picked up her pace. “I’m never talking to you again. We’ve ceased being friends.”

Victoria laughed boisterously and jogged to catch up in her mile-high heels. “I’m fucking with you. Slow down. Slow down.”

“You’re a real bitch. You know that, right?”

“Class A act. The one and only.”

“Class A tramp.”

“I love you, Lizzie,” Victoria said, trilling the name affectionately.

“I love you too, Vickie,” she said, in the most annoying singsong voice she could muster.

They turned the corner onto their street with a relieved sigh from both of them. It wasn’t a far walk, but in chilling temperatures and high heels, it sucked. Liz changed the topic and told Victoria about her conversation with Professor Mires. Victoria was happy for her, and even managed to hold in her sarcastic comments until the very end. Victoria knew how important this was to Liz, because Victoria’s success was just as important to her in her genetic research laboratory. Both girls were on the right track to getting any job they wanted after graduation.

Once they finally made it to the house, Liz dropped her backpack in her room and quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and black sweater with her black riding boots. She was glad she had the night off to hang out with Hayden. It had been a while since they had just relaxed together. School was sucking the life right out of her, and he was loaded down with coursework, the newspaper, and applying to jobs at the same time.