night settle. I surfaced from sleep slowly, onl

ade my breath catch. For a moment, I just lay there, staring at the ce

gathering, reminding me exactly of the dream I hadn't mea

es shut, mortified at myself, at how little time I'd been in this

nter of the room as if distance might dissolve the evidence. But nothing dissolved. The shee

crushes they imagined pressing them into lockers, or hookups after parties, or complained about professors they'd slept with in exchange for grades. Not me. I'd made it thro

, pacing toward the bathro

heap and bolted for the shower, twi

liated. The spray tangled in my hair, ran down my face, an

when professors rattled off syllabi like commandments and parking lots turned in

use my subconscious had staged a private

het

hissed. "Ju

ding me I had forty-five minutes to eat something, f

er, Nyelle," I

ts into a laundry bag I'd die before letting Maria

me feel even

idified, this would never happen again. I wouldn't allow it. I'd chain my

bumping shoulders. I squeezed into a seat near the window,

her returning student, weighed down by dread of textb

ted M

class? Need

, already at Bean & B

lder, she was perched at a corner table, iced latte in

ack, bitch!"

, but I ordered my usual black coffee with an extra shot, becaus

a new TA she'd spotted, how unfairly hot he was. I nodded, laughed at t

ease, and make it into a story we laughed about later. But this

my tongue, and pretended to ca

ped her arm through mine for the walk across campus, b

get bored in psy

ring, then turned to