"Alright, five? A ten is speaking," Tobin starts as she walks in the student lounge.

Sky doesn't look up from her cup noodles. Her friend places both palms on her desk loudly. "She stole my eraser today."

"Kill her."

"Sky, no, we talked about this. Your immediate response should not be a murder intention. Let's try again. She stole my eraser today."

Sky puts her chopsticks down and speaks through a mouthful of noodles, "And who's the 'she' now?"

"This cute girl in my lab," she answers, taking the seat across her and putting her feet up. "And I still don't know her name, what's wrong with me?"

Sky slurps the soup from its cup, holding it up to her mouth. She wipes her lips with the back of her hand and asks, annoyed, "Don't you have other friends to tell this to? I'm busy, I need to prepare Bennett's lecture. Look." She gestures to the laptop in front of her with the blank slide. "Busy."

"It's blank."

"Busy," Sky repeats. "I'm stressed and I needed food."

"I don't want friends," Tobin answers in response to Sky's earlier question. She hangs her head back and closes her eyes. "I want pussy. Not in the literal way. I want a girl."

"Well, I want dick," Sky counters, pulling the laptop closer to her. "In the literal way."

Tobin scoffs lightly. "There's someone offering you his. Harvey Ryerson in your class."

Sky shuts the laptop. "I think that's enough work for today."

"You didn't do anything, the slide was literally still blank—"

"I don't need a man, but where is he and why is he still not here? I need to head to the bar." Sky grabs her phone and bag. "Come with me."

It shouldn't take long for them to reach a bar, a multitude of them is literally across the street from their university—but Tobin refuses to go anywhere (where she can meet her potential girlfriend) looking like she just got out of class, and drags Sky to her condominium unit to change into something more presentable.

Presentable, meaning, tight jeans, tube top, makeup. Tobin already has killer eyebrows—Sky doesn't understand why she needs to do anything else for her face, but whatever makes her feel gorgeous, right?

"Are you not going to change." Tobin asks this like a flat statement, already knowing her friend's response. She looks at her through the mirror as she's applying lip gloss. "I do not want to be seen with you looking like that. At a bar."

Sky is in a hoodie and jeans. "I am not. I want a drink."

"You said you wanted a man. A dick, actually."

"I changed my mind. I don't need any of those."

Tobin smacks her lips in the mirror and twirls around for Sky to evaluate. "What do you think, darling?"

Sky nods in approval. "Would bang but will not. Because you're not into that and because you're my friend."

"Great," Tobin answers with a grin, slipping on her pumps. "Come on, then."

Tobin orders their drinks as soon as they arrive. Sky sits against the bar and Tobin leans over the counter to flirt with the bartender, and they toast to their sad, sad lives and how they're probably going to end up marrying each other anyway—

A man approaches Tobin with a disgusting, creepy smile. "Hey—"

"I'm a lesbian and I'm ace, move along," Tobin says immediately, waving him away. She sips on her drink and watches him back away slowly.

Sky smirks, circling the rim of her bottle with her finger. "My favorite part about you saying that line is watching their faces morph into a combination of confusion, disgust, disappointment, and indifference—all at once."

"I'll have to wait for someone who reacts differently, then," Tobin mumbles, winking at her.

Sky takes a swig of her beer and almost spits it out, but she has more class than that so she puts the bottle down calmly and grips Tobin's arm. "Oh, God, don't look. An idiot just walked in."

Tobin, stupid as she is, looks. "It's Harvey Ryerson. Fate is pulling your red strings together."

"Shut up already about the red strings," Sky grumbles, rolling her eyes. "And I told you not to look, you sithspit—"

"Sky!" Harvey yells, his eyes smiling first before his lips—so wide that Sky is worried it might actually morph into his ears. He jumps and waves at her excitedly.

"No," Sky mutters, bowing her head. "No, no, no."

"Yes, yes, yes," Tobin counters, nudging her. "He's on the way here and he's bringing two hotties with him. Maybe you'd want—oh, never mind, they're both gay."

Harvey reaches her first. He's in a dark polo shirt with the first few buttons open, and fitted jeans she's never seen him wear before. His hair is gelled and it looks soft and what is she doing and why is she staring at Harvey Ryerson's thighs. "Hey," he says, still wearing that same, annoying smile—"This is Landon, this is Abe."

His friends shake their hands. Sky points to herself, then to Tobin with her thumb. "Sky, Tobin. Nice to meet you."

"Do you guys want to go dance?" Tobin asks Harvey's friend number one. "I'm not interested in anything but having a good time and Sky here doesn't dance for shit."

Harvey's friend number two agrees and excitedly pulls her along to the dance floor. Tobin leaves her drink with Sky and gives her finger guns.

Sky flips her off in response.

Harvey takes the now-empty seat beside her and orders his drink.

Sky thinks it's weird—he's definitely old enough to drink (he's in college!) but he's younger than her and she just thinks it's weird that a student in a class she's a TA for is ordering an alcoholic drink.

She shakes her head and faces him. Might as well talk to him, right? "So why are you here?"

Harvey tips his chin up to the dance floor. "They said they needed to find me someone because they felt bad they have a great relationship—there's another one, by the way. He has football practice and couldn't make it."

Wow. Sky raises both eyebrows and takes another swig from her drink. "Alright, then go find someone."

He places his elbow down on the bar and props his chin on his palm, the way he always does when Sky's lecturing in class and the small smile on his face makes her want to punch him. "I have an ideal type. Curly, dark hair. Smart as shit. Into Star Wars, loves eating. Has a sharp mouth..."

"Stop describing me, Harvey." Sky faces the dance floor again.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he answers lightly, sipping from his cocktail. "Are you here to find someone, too?"

Sky glances at him and challenges, "And if I was?"

Harvey grins. "You're not even dressed up."

"I'm not trying to be pretty."

"You're failing."

"And you're tiptoeing the line of annoying me," Sky blurts out immediately in response to his flirting. Though she hides it, it's so frustrating how flustered he makes her. "I'm here because I want a drink. That's it."

Tobin comes back, stumbling. She downs her shot in one go. To Harvey, she slurs, "Your friends are fuckin' insane."

"Mild word to put it, but yes," Harvey agrees.

Tobin pulls on Sky's wrist. "Darling, come dance with us."

Sky takes her arm back but tipsy Tobin is strong and persistent as hell—she grabs her wrist again and yanks her off her seat, and Sky stumbles and she's being dragged towards the dance floor despite her protests—

And then she feels the hand smacking her butt and Sky's mind shuts down.

She turns around forcefully, almost knocking Tobin out of the way, and snatches the hand that touched her ass and twists it over.

The man yelps in pain, bending down, eyes wide and seething—

"Do that again and I'll break your fingers, got that, Billy?" Sky says through her teeth, twisting the hand further.

Billy yells and groans in pain. "Th-that's not m-my—"

"Mother's mistake, then? Fuck off." Sky pushes his hand to his chest. Billy stumbles, cradling his hand, and runs.

"Yeah!" Tobin yells after him. "Vete a la mierda!"

Sky doesn't understand Spanish, but she thinks her friend said fuck off, too.

Sky exhales heavily and turns around.

Harvey's seat is empty, and his drink is still half-full. He's gone.

Sky shuts her eyes. "Shit."