EIGHT Jessie

EIGHT

Jessie

Jessie had made plans to go to brunch with Tanvi Saturday afternoon right before her shift at the student center. It was the only time she allowed herself to eat off campus outside of her meal plan. She knew that Tanvi would want all the details about what happened after the party, and she'd been dreading the inquisition.

But the gods were on her side today.

"Do you think we can rain check brunch?" Tanvi croaked from under her blanket. "I have the mother of all hangovers."

"Do you want me to get you anything?" Jessie asked as she grabbed her bathroom tote and flip-flops. The room was still dark, their curtains drawn and the lights switched off, even though it was already eleven. "I can run down to the convenience store at the corner and grab some Tylenol and Gatorade."

Tanvi's arms appeared from under the blanket, and she pointed to the fridge that they'd tucked under her lofted bed. "I have one in there. Can you hand it to me?"

Jessie opened their mini fridge, took out the red Gatorade bottle, and tucked it in Tanvi's hand. It disappeared under the blanket. "Thanks."

"No problem," Jessie said. She turned to go, when Tanvi called her name again.

"Don't think I forgot about yesterday," she croaked.

"Right," Jessie said, then left as quickly as she could before the Gatorade really kicked in and the questioning started while she was still in her smiley-face pajama pants.

Jessie didn't expect it to be so difficult to keep a promise. Ravi said he was going to cover for her, and she believed him. Which meant that she had to give him a reason to believe her, too. She entered the bathroom and made quick work of her basic skincare routine and shower ritual. She wasn't washing her hair that day, so she quickly applied some dry shampoo and tied it in a topknot. Maybe she'd get started on homework for her Wednesday classes while she was working her shift at the information desk. She had a quiz she could prepare for, and a coding assignment as well.

"Hey, are you Jessie?"

Jessie turned around from the vanity mirror and table station where she'd been applying sunscreen to look at the two unfamiliar people that had walked into the bathroom. They were both Desi, and Jessie was pretty sure they lived on her floor.

"I am," she said slowly. "Hi."

"Hi!" they said brightly. "We heard that you're Ravi Kumar's study partner, and we—"

"I'm sorry, what?"

They looked at each other and then took a step back as if her reaction were completely unreasonable. The one on the left spoke first.

"We heard he's hanging out with a new girl. A first-year Desi named Jessie. And you're the only student named Jessie. There was a picture of you two together last night at a diner. My friend Jason sent it to us. We just wanted to know, is he as nice as people say he is? We're just really curious."

Jessie could feel her heart pounding under their scrutiny. At least they were nice about it. It's not like they shoved their phones at her. "Uh, we're not together or anything," she said. "We have a class together. Seminar. And last night, we were in the same place at the same time, I guess. Anyway. He's polite to freshmen like me."

She saw their hope fade on their faces, as if they had wondered if there was an opportunity for them to have a fairy-tale romance.

The girl on the left motioned to her bathroom tote. "Sorry, I know this seems really weird to catch you like this, but we weren't stalking or anything. We were headed to the dining hall and stopped to go to the bathroom, but then there you were. We heard he got all of his friends jobs over the summer. That's the dream."

Jessie smiled at them. "Yeah, that actually sounds like him." She wasn't sure if it was true or not, but it fit with Ravi's reputation. He was genuinely a nice guy, even though he had his grumpy moments with her.

"Anyway, thanks," the one on the right said. "We'll see you around."

"See you," Jessie said. When they left, she picked up her phone and sent a text to the number she'd added the night before. Well, technically a few hours ago.

JESSIE: People know that we know each other.

A response came seconds later.

RAVI: So?

JESSIE: So ... I prefer to not draw any attention to myself. People are going to start viewing me as competition or something. Hey, did you really give jobs to all of your friends? And how many girlfriends do you go through?

RAVI: Relax, JJKN. Those are all rumors. No one is going to see you as competition if you don't want them to.

Jessie looked up from her phone. "What the heck is JJKN?" It took her a minute to put the pieces together. Jessie Jaissi Koi Nahin. The Indian remake of Ugly Betty. She'd looked it up after the first time he'd called her that ridiculous name.

JESSIE: I guess we'll just have to keep it on the down-low or something. My family believes in the evil eye, and I don't want that to affect my grades.

RAVI: If you're ashamed to be seen with me, it'll be real hard working on our project together. Don't forget, we're reading the letters as a team. Unless you'd rather not?

Jessie looked down at his text and rubbed her fingers against her temple. Shit, she'd offended him.

She shouldn't care. It shouldn't matter. But other than their petty war in the booking system to secure the study room, he'd been ... fair. He'd walked her home at night every single time she left after dark. He'd given up the room when it was her turn even though he could've been an ass and stayed longer. And he didn't treat her like dirt, like some of the other upper-class students did to the incoming first-years. She typed a quick message and hit send before she could rethink her decision.

JESSIE: I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that.

Three dots popped up, a bubble of anticipation on her screen.

RAVI: Thanks.

Jessie let out a breath. "He'll forgive me," she whispered as she put her phone in her back pocket and packed up her bathroom tote.

That was as much as she could expect in her current circumstances.