Chapter 6: A Conversation with Noelle
Two months later
Cheyenne pulled the sheets around her as she lay in Thomas's twin bed. While she watched him get dressed, Cheyenne fingered the subway token around her neck, the one Thomas had given her as a token of his affection.
"Better get dressed, Shy," Thomas warned her. "My roommate'll be back in like fifteen minutes."
Suitably motivated, Cheyenne hurriedly put on her underwear, then her skirt and blouse. She gave Thomas a quick kiss and prepared to head off.
"Want to go to the Red Barn Friday night?" Thomas asked casually.
Cheyenne frowned. This was the first time Thomas had ever asked her out to a fancy restaurant; usually, they would just hook up in his room while his roommate was out. Cheyenne wondered if this meant that Thomas was falling in love with her. She hoped not. After all, she wasn't in love with him either, and that would just make everything so awkward. Cheyenne reserved her love for one boy, and one boy alone: Damian.
"Can I think about it and let you know tomorrow?" Cheyenne asked.
"No problem, babe," Thomas agreed. He offered Cheyenne a glass of vodka, and Cheyenne accepted.
When Cheyenne finished the vodka, she kissed Thomas one last time, then hurried off toward her dorm, making sure Thomas's dorm monitor didn't see her coming out of his room. She had a chance to take Firsts this semester, and she didn't want to ruin that by getting caught breaking visitation.
As Cheyenne walked across the quad, she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. Turning around, she saw Noelle approaching her, a grave expression on her beautiful face.
"Talk to you for a minute?" Noelle asked. Cheyenne nodded.
"You have to break up with Thomas Pearson," Noelle began without preamble.
"Why?" Cheyenne asked.
"He's a drunk and a drug dealer," Noelle explained. "Worse yet, he has no respect whatsoever for the traditions the Billings girls work so hard to uphold."
Cheyenne wrinkled her forehead. "But you're not a Billings girl yet. What do you care?"
"No, but I will be next year. And you will be too the year after that, if you dump Thomas. Get the picture?"
Cheyenne shook her head. "I don't need you to get me into Billings. My mother and sister are both alumnae."
Noelle smiled. "I know your family goes back to the Mayflower just like mine does, but they don't have any money, at least not enough to guarantee acceptance into Billings. You need a Lange to sponsor you, and I'll do that if and only if you get rid of Thomas."
Cheyenne stamped her foot. "I don't get it! You hardly even know me, why do you care so much who I go out with?"
"Because," Noelle explained patiently, "I see a certain potential in you, but you'll never be able to cultivate it if you ball-and-chain yourself to a loser like Thomas." She leaned in closer, her breath tickling Cheyenne's ear. "We're alike in some ways, you and I. We both eat men like air."
Cheyenne smiled at the Sylvia Plath quote. She remembered a promise she'd made to herself at age ten, that she would have as many boyfriends as she could juggle. Cheyenne might have broken that promise for Damian, but to tie herself down to Thomas, a boy she didn't love and probably never would love…
"I'll think about it," Cheyenne told Noelle. "But if I do break up with him, it'll be because I want to, not because you made me do it."
"That's fine," Noelle agreed. She hugged Cheyenne. "You'll make a great Billings girl."
Noelle walked off toward her dorm, and Cheyenne stood lost in thought in the middle of the empty quad. Finally, she turned around and headed toward Ketlar to give Thomas back his subway token.