Hope, Levy, Marc [good summer reads TXT] 📗

did his best to field Hope’s questions on his behalf.

By midfall, Hope, Josh, and Luke had become inseparable. After classes, they would rush to meet outside the library when the weather was good, retreating to the reading room on cold or rainy days.

Of the three, Josh studied the least but got the best grades. After every exam, Luke compared their results and grudgingly admitted that when it came to science, Josh shone brighter than the rest of them. Hope was more measured in her assessment. Sure, Josh was talented. But he used and abused his powers of seduction both with their professors and his female prey. At best, she accepted that he was more imaginative than she and Luke. But he was less driven too.

At least Luke didn’t get distracted by every pretty face that passed by, and his priority was graduating with flying colors. Hope had the same goal.

One evening when they were studying in the cafeteria, a student at the next table was undressing Josh with her eyes, and he returned her glances. Hope interrupted their little game by suggesting the pair of them get a room instead of pretending to study.

“How very classy of you.”

“Tie game!” Luke called out. “Quick question. Why are you two always giving each other shit like that? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

His friends remained silent.

“I don’t know . . . Go on a date or something?”

An awkward silence settled in, and shortly after, Hope withdrew from the group, saying she had exams to prepare for and that it was scientifically impossible to study alongside two idiots like them.

“What the hell?” Josh turned to his friend.

“I’m just tired of watching you two act like teenagers. It gets old.”

“It’s none of your business! And anyway, we’re just friends.”

“Maybe you aren’t as smart as people say. You must be seriously blind not to see what’s staring you in the face.”

Josh simply shrugged before sloping out of the cafeteria.

Back in the apartment he shared with Luke, he sat down in front of his laptop to embark on a special research project. After trying all the various combinations of usernames he could imagine, he gave up. It was no use. Hope was the only person he knew who had zero online presence. And that intrigued him.

The next day, he waited for her after her class. They wandered around the campus together for a while, but any attempt he made to broach the subject fell flat. Hope led him around the library in circles without Josh realizing that they were endlessly looping back on themselves. Then they headed toward her dorm.

“What do you want, Josh?” she said finally.

“Just keeping you company, that’s all.”

“Let me guess. You’re behind schedule, and now you need help with your assignments?”

“I’m never behind schedule.”

“How are you never behind schedule with all the time you waste smoking weed? You’re a real-life scientific anomaly.”

“I get straight to the point, you know? I optimize my time.”

“I don’t believe it. I think you have an army of little lab girls ready and waiting to do your work for you.”

Josh bristled. “You know what, Hope? I hate how you’re always judging me. Who do you think I am?”

“A gifted scientist. And that annoys me even more, although it hurts to admit it.”

He couldn’t decide whether or not she was serious.

They had arrived at the door to her dorm, and Hope reminded him that men weren’t allowed in. Unless he had a wig he could throw on, he wouldn’t be coming in with her. And it was then that Josh finally asked the question he had been dying to ask.

“How come you aren’t on social media?”

Hope glanced at him. “How do you know I’m not on social media?”

“I couldn’t find you.”

“Which means you were looking!”

Josh’s silence spoke for itself.

Then he asked, “What are you thinking?”

“What in the world would make you waste precious time trying to research me online? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just ask?”

“Okay. So I’m asking.”

“Posting stuff for everyone to see is about trying to show people that your life is better than theirs,” Hope said. “My life is just different. It’s my life, nothing more, nothing less. I keep it to myself. And anyway, you’re not on Facebook, either!”

“Oh really? And how do you know that?” Josh smiled, which irritated Hope even more.

“Tie game, as Luke would say.”

“I don’t like social media. I don’t like social anything, to be honest. I’m a loner,” Josh said.

“What do you want to do after graduation?”

“Join a circus.”

“See,” Hope sighed. “That’s the kind of comment that makes me think we’ll never sleep together.”

Hope hadn’t realized the immensity of what she had just said; her throwaway comment rendered Josh speechless.

“What?” She glanced at him. “Like you’ve never thought about it!”

“I have. But I knew you wouldn’t want a circus guy in your bed, so I never even considered trying.”

“I don’t have anything against clowns . . . but you’d just be another nameless conquest to add to my collection,” Hope said slyly, mocking him. “And just think of the morning after. It would be hard, having to tell you not to get your hopes up, telling you we need to keep things casual. I can see myself already, creeping home at dawn while you sleep. I can feel my cheeks burning just thinking about it. You deserve so much better than me, honestly . . .”

“So that’s how you see me, then?” Josh interrupted. “Just some shallow tease?”

“Shallow? No. A tease, definitely.”

Josh frowned as he took a step back, and Hope suddenly wondered if she’d gone too far.

“Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not that kind of guy.”

“Think what you want.”

Josh began walking away, but Hope caught up with him, blocking his path.

“Give me one night in the lab, just one night, to make a pill I can secretly mix into your coffee tomorrow morning.”

“A pill that does what, exactly?” Josh was still smarting from her earlier comment.

“A pill to erase all our conversations from the