The next day, Ryan was so grateful that he wasn't hung over that he actually enjoyed chem lecture. And he had always been good at science, so he felt like this was going to be a good class—even if it was at an excruciating time. But what he was really dreading was his 10 a.m. Introduction to the Humanities course, a freshman requirement. Two hours of lecture plus three hours of discussion section a week was just cruel—but fuzzy English majors and techie-science kids like him all had to endure it nonetheless.

Ryan's Humanities lecture was packed, and since he'd had chem on the other side of campus and ended up arriving just before class started, he had to sit on a step in the aisle.

"Don't worry about the crowding, we're already in the process of having the class moved to a larger lecture hall," began the professor while T.A.s distributed syllabi.

"Don't bother. After today, half the class will be skipping lecture regularly, anyway," muttered a short kid next to Ryan.

Ryan smiled. Maybe this class wouldn't be so painful after all.

Of course, as luck would have it, it soon became clear that he couldn't have been more wrong. Ryan had discussion section right after lecture and when he walked into the seminar room he plopped down in the first chair he saw. He was leaning down to pull a notebook and pen out of his backpack when he heard a voice that sounded sort of familiar. Ryan looked up and there, across the seminar table, was the boy with the sandy brown hair he'd made out with at Full Moon. Ryan gaped.

Crap, the kid completely saw Ryan staring at him. Ryan looked away, then glanced back. The kid was shooting him a dazzling, friendly smile. Ryan nodded quickly in greeting, then stared down at his notebook. Ugh, there were dozens of discussion sections for the entire freshman class; what was this kid doing in his?

Wait, and hadn't he said he was a senior? Or implied it, anyway. Well, there was really no point in being weird and awkward around this kid all quarter. After all, they had to spend a lot of time talking about The Aeneid and stuff together. Ryan decided he might as well be friendly—after all, it was just one stupid, drunken, accidental kiss. Everyone made out with lots of random people at Full Moon, and it wasn't like Ryan even liked boys, or anything. Whatever, he'd just be cool. Yeah.

When the T.A. came in, she asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves. Ryan sat up. Now he'd even learn something about this kid.

"Hey, I'm Jack. Jack Kelly," the kid introduced himself, looking perfectly casual and confident. "I'm from New York, and my dorm is Branner." A kid across the table—who had introduced himself as Sean and who was the same short kid Ryan had noticed in lecture—cheered. Jack smiled.

Hm. Interesting.

Ryan made it through the class without imploding, even though he kept accidentally making eye contact with Jack, who seemed completely unfazed and, frustratingly, nowhere near as awkward as Ryan felt. And, Ryan kept thinking about the kiss and how it wasn't nearly as gross or weird as it should have been. By the end of section, he had worked up the courage to say something to Jack. Not like it was a big deal, or anything. And maybe Jack didn't even remember.

When class ended, Ryan packed up his stuff and waited outside the door for Jack to come out. When he saw Jack though, Ryan's face fell.

"So you're a gymnast, huh? I think I saw your picture somewhere, weren't you almost an Olympic qualifier or something?" Jack was telling some girl from section, smiling at her way too flirtatiously and not noticing Ryan at all.

"Oh, yeah, I was like, ninth; it's not that big a deal," the girl demurred, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. Ryan rolled his eyes.

"No, that's awesome!" Jack grinned, way too similarly to how he had smiled at Ryan the night before. "Want to grab some lunch?"

"Sure!" the girl replied brightly as they walked off.

Whatever, Ryan thought, as he walked off towards his dorm. Just as well, really. Weird, though, that Jack looked like he was interested in that girl, since he had obviously been plenty interested in making out with guys the night before.

Though of course, Ryan had kissed a guy too—but that had been an accidental, one-time thing. He liked girls. He went out with girls. Okay, so he went out with a girl, but still. And okay, so that was just his friend Sophie on prom night, but still, that was a date. And he had made out with her at the after-party at his friend Kyle's house. And it was perfectly reasonable for him to have declined her totally blatant implications that she wanted to do something more—after all, it would have been weird, they'd been friends forever. Just like it had been perfectly reasonable that he hadn't wanted her to be his girlfriend after the prom—they were about to graduate and go to different schools, and there was no point in starting something that would have to end so quickly.

But whatever. The point was, Ryan liked girls.