I stabbed the ice cream like I wanted to kill it. Maya and Taylor observed as I shoveled out about half of the pint at once and bit into it like a hungry beast from the jungle. The odds were high that that was exactly what I looked like. I'd got home after the news, changed into shorts and an oversized t-shirt that had more holes than cheese, gathered my hair into a mop above my head, and raided the ice cream.

"How is it possible that life gives a person exactly what they don't want every single time?" I asked them in between open bites of chocolate ice cream so thick I might as well have been eating a frozen bar.

Taylor's ice cream was melting. She'd been watching me devour my pint and her spoonful was beginning to drip. Maya didn't bat an eye, though. As my roommate she was used to worse from me.

"It's not that bad," Taylor said with a shrug, finally giving up on her treat and putting it on the coffee table. "At least you have me in the group."

"Yeah, but he is there, too."

A corner of Maya's lips lifted. "Gabe's not bad—as a person and as eye candy. He's exceptional in the latter."

"I'm definitely not going to complain about that." Taylor sighed and flopped back on the couch, spreading her arms like an eagle. One of them landed on top of Maya's lap. "Too bad he has a girlfriend."

I choked. Among spluttering obscenities in my mother tongue I managed to ask her, "So what, you'd date him if he were single?"

She shrugged. "If he stayed single for a minute, maybe."

"I think every girl in campus has had the same idea at some point," said Maya as she inspected her nails. "Including me."

The laugh that escaped from my throat was so ugly I barely recognized myself in it. It was the kind of laughter of someone on the verge of greatness or disaster. Both would have been fitting if either of them had ever dated Gabe. First, it'd have been a great achievement to nab him, but also for him to develop taste in intelligent and good natured women. Second, it would've ended in disaster anyway, if one was to go by the quick turnaround in his dating record.

"You're kidding me, aren't you?" But I didn't wait for either of them to answer. Shaking my head, I added, "Enough is enough with the fact that I have to put up with his obnoxious face at school and at work. If any of you turn into his arm candy I will riot."

Maya went back to filing her nails because being the healthiest person in the room, she didn't need empty calories to cope with her day. Her words, not mine. She had no issues spending calories on giving me the side eye, though. "Maybe life's giving you a sign because he sure does steal your attention."

"What are you trying to say?" I challenged.

Taylor's face also transformed into her signature let's tease Catalina look. This look had an extra glint that her other smiles didn't possess. "Do you maybe like Gabe? Are you jealous of his girlfriends?"

It was as if I'd sucked a lemon. In my soul.

"Okay, that's how I know you guys have lost your minds, maybe we should go to church this weekend." I made the sign of the cross and shuddered.

"The hypothesis has merit," Maya said, spoken like the future medical researcher she was. "I mean, the statistical sample size of times you've spoken shit about him is, to simplify, huge."

I rolled my eyes, about to say they were exaggerating, but the wide looks on their faces said that nope, they weren't. I sat back for a moment, eating my ice cream and trying to think about the last time I'd talked about Gabriel Cabrera.

Yesterday I complained that he'd had a higher score on a report than me, despite the fact that I'd barely seen him on lectures for that class. And two days before that he'd made me look like an idiot in front of our supervisor as he pointed out a key piece of information I had totally missed from our monthly status report. And then there had been that time last week when his girlfriend Liz dropped by after work, intending to surprise him, and made a big deal out of the fact that he and I had left the office at the same time. The word cheating had been bandied about too easily for my taste.

I had seen him break up with flings for less, so it was still kind of a surprise that they were still together, which meant-

"Oh my God," I said, sitting up right. "You're right."

Taylor's eyes positively lit up. "That you like him?"

"No." I scoffed, unfolding my legs out and standing up. "You're right that I talk too much about him. I must excise him out of my vocabulary."

Maya's smirk made a return. "Easier said than done."

As I put my half finished pint back in the freezer, I thought about those words and recognized the truth in them. It was the same thing as telling a Venezuelan household to vanish any conversation about politics, because that talk made everybody sick to their stomach. Except that the daily doses of negativity was the drug we couldn't be free of.

Talking shit about this dumb guy was the drug that had replaced all that. I couldn't talk about Venezuelan politics with Maya and Taylor. I could tell them how terrible the situation was and they commiserated and offered me support and distraction, but they didn't understand. They hadn't lived what I'd lived, what I'd left behind. They didn't have scars so deep they mutated the fiber of their very being. But talking shit about a boy was something we could all empathize with, even Taylor, whose heart had been broken by girls as well as boys.

I flopped back on the couch and picked up my laptop. "Okay, I promise I'll try to find more topics of conversation."

"Uh huh," quipped Maya. She was about to say more when someone knocked on the door. Since she was closest to it, she got up and looked out of the peep hole. The sigh could only mean one thing and she confirmed my hunch by saying, "It's my dumb brother."

I tossed my laptop aside and sprinted for my bedroom door. There was no way I could let Malik see me with my cheese style of t-shirt and ratty shorts. As the sound of his voice drifted into the apartment, I threw myself into my closet in search of something more decent. In the end I just tossed an over large sweatshirt with the UCF Knights logo I'd bought at Publix and almost made it out of my bedroom before I remembered the state of my hair. Ripping off the hair tie almost made me bald, but I arranged my long hair in a way that I hoped made me look like I just got up from a nap. At nine in the evening.

Whatever.

My face flamed as I greeted him with, "Hey, Malik."

The smile that lit up his almost melted my legs.

"Cat, I was wondering where you were."

His words echoed in my head and I had to ask my heart to be still. How could Taylor's hypothesis that I liked Gabe exist, when they both knew I'd harbored the biggest crush on Maya's brother since I met him.

As if she knew exactly the kind of direction my thoughts had careened in, Taylor said, "Malik brought food."

"From my mama," he said, sorting through a bunch of plastic bags he'd placed on the kitchen counter. One container came out followed by a second, a third. Soon there was a whole pile of food in plain view. "You know how she is."

I glanced at Maya and yep, like every time this happened, she was embarrassed. She had this notion that by coming to college she should be entirely self sufficient but her mama disagreed, especially since she lived just half an hour away. To mama Muriel, her two college kids would always be her babies. And by association, their friends would always be her babies too. Which was why at least once a month she cooked enough food for an army and I got to enjoy Malik's visit to bring it over.

And I got my eye candy.

I sighed, trying to not make it obvious that I was staring. The Thomas siblings were, without a doubt, stunning. Maya turned heads everywhere she went, with beauty that glowed from inside and out and an impeccable sense of fashion. Malik was the male version, taller, with more muscle and even darker skin. To date he had been the most beautiful man I'd ever seen with my own two eyes, even more than his two roommates or Gabe.

And naturally, I turned into a fumbling idiot every time he was around.

"I uh, yes. I like what I see." Even more heat traveled as all eyes fell on me. "The food, I mean. Thank you. Or more like thank mama Muriel."

My friends looked like they were on the verge of exploding in laughter but Malik took my mess of a sentence in stride with a nod. "I'll make sure to pass along the message."

My heart beat faster than a quarterback who had just fumbled the ball in front of thousands of spectators. "Bye," I squeaked out and dashed into my room.

Oh. My. God.

What an idiot. How was I going to show my face to him ever again?

I banged the back of my head against the closed door. If only it were Malik everywhere in my life instead of Gabe. Then I'd be better used to seeing him up close. And he'd be able to see me in better moments, where I kicked ass in class or took names at work. Also when I was dressed like a decent person.

Who was I kidding. If Malik were my competition in class I'd be inclined to let him win every time, just so that I could see that wide smile of his that made me feel butterflies in my stomach. And if he were at my internship I would get absolutely nothing accomplished.

But maybe Taylor was somewhat right after all. Maybe life hadn't put Malik in that position so that I wouldn't tank in my academics. Maybe I should be thankful that instead it was Gabe, that I wasn't attracted to him in the least and that instead he motivated me to go above and beyond where I wouldn't have gone if he weren't stuck in my way.

Competition was a way better drug than politics or love, anyway.

Sure, Jan.

Cata better brace for a rollercoaster, lol.

What are your hypotheses so far?