"You have two hours in which to write the exam. Turn over your papers, you may now begin."

The sound of a hundred pages being turned echoed through the room as the final exam of the year got under way. Ben stared down at the writing on the page and then stole a glance at everyone else in the room. Craig was sitting with his pen between his teeth looking thoroughly confused, Nick Phillips was writing furiously on his answer sheet and Evelyn…Evelyn was staring into space as if she hadn't heard what had been said. Ben watched her for a while, silently willing her to start writing, to try and prove all of the predicted grades wrong. For five whole minutes, he waited and then, to his relief, she turned over her paper and started scanning it.

Ben felt as if he could finally concentrate now, so he turned his attention back to the paper in front of him and for the next two hours was lost in the minefield of jurisprudence. The time flew past and he was stunned when the examiner declared the exam was over. Letting out a long, shaky sigh, he put his pen down and handed his paper in, before stretching and telling himself that his first year at Harvard was now over.

"Well?" Craig asked, appearing beside his desk, "What did you think?"

"It was ok," Ben replied, watching as Evelyn hurriedly left the exam room, "You?"

Craig made a face, "Could have done better I think. But, it's all over now." He grinned, "You heading home right away?"

"After I pack."

"There's a gathering in the bar, you want to come?"

Hoping that he might have a chance to see Evelyn, Ben agreed and the two of them followed the crowd across campus. Everyone was in high spirits, glad that the exam, and the year, was finally over and discussing what they were doing for summer vacation.

"You planning on doing anything exciting?" Craig asked as they waited to be served/

Ben shook his head, "Need to get a job I suppose."

"Me too. Not that I'm looking forward to manual labour again."

"You should try for an office job," Ben said, "some of the bigger firms do summer placements."

"I've just spent a whole year doing law, you think I want to spend my summer doing it too?"

Ben didn't answer. He had just caught a fleeting glimpse of Evelyn as she left the bar, "Get me a beer," he ordered, pushing out of the line.

"Sure," Craig said to no-one, "No problem."

Ben raced to the door and out into the blistering heat of the city's current heat wave. Evelyn was a few feet in front of him and he called out her name. She turned, but when she saw it was him, she kept walking.

"Evelyn!" he called again, running to catch up with her, "Wait!"

"What do you want, Ben?" she asked, continuing to walk as he fell into step beside her.

"How did you find it?" he asked.

"Fine. Was there something else?"

"I just…" he fought for the right words, "we haven't really had a chance to talk since…" Since the night he'd turned her down. "I just wondered what you were planning on doing for the holidays."

"This and that."

"Can you be a little more specific?" he asked with a chuckle.

"No," she stopped and faced him, "I can't. Why won't you ever learn, Ben?"

He was confused, "Learn what?"

Evelyn sighed heavily, "You don't want to be involved with me. You don't want to be my friend. I'm not the kind of person…" she broke off, "I'm just not." She started walking again.

"Hey," he grabbed her arm to stop her and she swung around to face him, her expression one of anger.

"Don't touch me!" she said furiously, "You had your chance once and you blew it, so don't touch me!"

"I'm sorry," he tried to placate her, "I do want to be your friend." She looked at him dubiously, "Why don't you at least give me a number I can reach you at over the holidays?"

Evelyn shook her head, "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because, I just can't."

"Ok, fine." He pulled a scrap of paper and a pen from his pocket and quickly scribbled something on it. "Here's my number." He thrust it at her, "Give me a call and we can…you know…maybe meet up."

She took it from him and looked at it before stuffing it into her pocket. "Thank you."

"Have a good summer," he said lamely, for he didn't know what else to say. "I'll see you in September."

Evelyn met his gaze, her eyes like huge pools, tears hovering not far from the surface. She nodded sadly, "Goodbye Ben." Then she stepped forward and kissed him lightly on the lips.

It was the briefest of moments, but for Ben, time seemed to stand still. All he could hear was a buzzing in his ears and all he could feel was the warm pressure of her lips against his. He reached out to take her in his arms, but she stepped back, and with a final look, she hurried away.

SSSS

Summer dragged for Ben, long, hot and boring. He had got himself a job with an old friend of his father's who ran a printing business. He told himself it was good experience of office life, but he hated getting up every morning and relished the ride home at night. The first question he always asked his mother when he came home was "did anyone call?" Once she had said yes, and his heart had leapt thinking that Evelyn had been in touch. But it had turned out only to be Craig, who was working on his uncle's farm in Oklahoma and had apparently met the woman of his dreams at a barn dance. Ben wished with all his might that Evelyn had given him a number. He had taken the phone directory out one evening and scanned through all the Sandersons' in the Cambridge area, but there were hundreds, and he didn't even know her father's name. Then he went to the library and searched newspaper clippings about Danny Sanderson's murder, but again, nothing.

"What exactly are you looking for?" his mother asked him, despairing of the fact that her son didn't seem keen to accompany her to family occasions where she could boast of his achievements. He had received straight A's in his results, but even that sense of relief and happiness was overshadowed by concern for Evelyn.

"You know, Melanie Jones is back from her semester in Europe," his mother told him one night at the dinner table.

"Who's Melanie Jones?" he had asked.

"Your Aunt Lily's next door neighbour's daughter," Mrs Stone had reminded him, "you know, the blonde?"

"Oh right."

"Ben…" she had sighed, "one of these days you're going to have to find yourself a girl, before all the good ones get snapped up."

He had thought about her words, thought about his future. Yes, he wanted to be married some day with a family and no, he didn't know if that future involved Evelyn, but there were so many thoughts and feelings unexpressed in their relationship that he knew he couldn't contemplate anyone else until he had straightened things out with her.

September couldn't come fast enough, and when it did, Ben left home as quickly as possible to drive back to Harvard. His mind was buzzing with excitement at what he was going to say to her and the drive seemed endlessly long. When he arrived, it was a replay of exactly a year earlier, except he knew exactly where he was going this time and who he wanted to see.

Parking outside Hunter House, he jumped out of the car, grabbed one of his bags and tore inside. He hoped and prayed that she had arrived before him. He wasn't sure he could stand hanging around waiting for her.

Ben took the stairs two at a time, feeling his heart thud louder and louder as he reached the landing. He dropped his hastily packed rucksack, the contents spilling out onto the floor and he scrambled around to pick them up. Clutching them in his arms, he hurried forward and threw them down outside his room. Then he sidestepped and banged loudly on Evelyn's. It was going to be different this year, he could feel it. There was no reply, so he knocked again, louder, until eventually, the door was thrown over and a short, chubby blonde glared at him.

"What's your beef?" she demanded from behind thick glasses.

Ben paused and glanced at the number on the door, as if by some strange occurrence he had managed to knock on the wrong door. But no, there it was. 12C.

"I'm…" he faltered, "I'm looking for Evelyn Sanderson. This is her room."

"No it isn't," the blonde replied, "it's mine, and I'm busy." With that, she slammed the door in his face.

Ben stood for a moment looking at the wood and then walked back to his own room, opening the door and dumping his bag inside. He looked around it, drinking in the familiarity, and yet couldn't help but wonder where Evelyn was. He knocked on Craig's door, but his friend hadn't yet returned, so he walked around the campus, going into all the places he thought she could be and coming up empty handed. By the time he had taken all his belongings out of the car abnd put them back in his room, Craig had arrived.

"Wow," he said when Ben told him, "Do you think she switched rooms?"

"She hates me that much?" Ben asked, not wanting to believe it.

Craig mused for a moment. "You could always go to the Deans office. They must have a list of everyone's rooms."

"But will they give it to me?" Ben asked.

"They might," Craig replied, "if you ask nicely."

SSSS

The stuffy looking secretary at the Deans office told them in no uncertain terms that they could not see the list of rooms as it would 'violate privacy,'

"Privacy my ass!" Ben declared angrily.

"Come on, Ben," Craig said touching his friend's arm lightly.

"I just want to know where she is," he said, trying not to sound too desperate.

"She'll show up in class tomorrow," Craig reassured him, then you can ask here where the hell she lives now."

Ben nodded and allowed himself to be taken away from the office and back to Hunter House. He didn't sleep that night, wondering why Evelyn had chosen to move rooms, why she wanted to be far away from him. She had kissed him hadn't she?

The following morning, he raced to the first criminal class of the new term and surveyed the rest of the students as they entered, hoping to catch a glimpse of Evelyn. But she never appeared. After class, as he prepared to hurry off to search the campus for her again, Whitworth stopped him.

"I hear from your careers adviser that you're going to be applying for the DA's office," the older man said.

"Yes sir."

"A good choice. You're one of my best students, Stone. It would be their grave loss were they to turn you down."

"Thank you sir," Ben replied. He made to leave and then turned back, "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you knew why Evelyn Sanderson wasn't in class today."

Whitworth looked up from his papers and shook his head, "Now there's one who won't make anything of herself if she doesn't buck up her ideas." He sighed heavily, "Perhaps it's just as well."

"Just as well what?"

"That she didn't come back."

"To class?" Ben asked, his heart thumping hard in his chest.

"To Harvard," Whitworth replied, "Miss Sanderson has dropped out."