“Don’t you have to swim in a couple hours?” Micah chuckles while he scoots back into his seat and sets down the cup of water he fetched. “Oh, hey-you’re one of my residents!” 

“You know Q?” I ask as I force my arms to push myself up to a more acceptable position for interacting with other humans. 

“I’ve seen him around-” His voice cuts out, and by the time I’m functioning enough to watch their handshake, Quinn’s quietly introducing himself. 

But he seems off about it. Like...his jaw is set and he’s staring at Micah long after he’s moved on to continue the not-at-all-interesting math talk with Hank.

“Do you have more gum?” 

My question startles Quinn out of his glare fest, and he blinks over at me like I’ve just asked him to punch his mother in the face or something.

“Dude-”

“Um...” He takes a quick breath and glances down at the fraying backpack hanging on his chair. “One sec. I think I’ve got some in here.”

“It’s cool. I really should eat instead-” I snap my mouth closed when he smirks before looking my way. “Hush.”

Quinn’s lips twitch while he prepares a retort, but he’s cut off by Hank making a whooping noise. He’s trying to mess with his nerd buddy’s shirt again, and I’m about to report him to campus security to get some goddamn quiet in here.

“That’s it!” Micah releases an exasperated laugh as he stands and grabs his plate and water cup. “I’m out.” 

“Just fucking tell me who it was!”

“No!” He walks off, only glancing back once to wink at Hank’s near tantrum as he rips apart his remaining pizza. 

“You really need to take it down a notch,” I mumble while I arrange my toast into tiny bite-sized pieces. 

“He doesn’t actually care, he’s just got a meeting with his professor in ten minutes.” Hank plants his elbows on the table with a long exhale. “What’re you-?” When his voice simply stops making my headache worse, I risk a peak and discover him staring wide-eyed at Quinn trying to finish his banana. “You saw them, too…right?” He gets all excited again as the redhead’s cheeks flush almost as dark as his hair. 

He nods, which gives Hank the false impression that this conversation wasn’t over the moment it began. “Have you ever seen work like that? I mean-”

“Stop being jealous and annoying about it.” I cut in, eyeing the slow, methodical chewing of the freshman next to me as he glares at the discarded peel like it’s just stabbed him in the balls. “You okay, Q?” 

Quinn’s entire body flinches when he registers my voice, and he gulps down that last bite with a curt nod. 

“Huh…” Hank’s dark stare narrows as he leans across the tabletop. “You were kinda weird with Micah-oh! Were you one of the ones he had to write up? That would be awkward.” 

“Um...no.” Quinn forces out a half-snort before reaching for the water bottle stowed in the mesh pocket of his backpack. 

“Good.” Hank swipes his glass into a swig that spills a little juice on his plate while he drinks like he’s five. “That woulda been tense.” 

“I just don’t know him very well,” Quinn mutters tightly. 

“He’s cool,” Hank says with a grin. “You should get to know him.” My semi-best friend hands me part of his crust and clears his throat. “He probably wouldn’t bust you for your fake. Micah only really becomes a hardass about safety violations and stuff.” 

“I’m good thanks-wait, my what?” Q’s deep auburn brows furrow sharply as he pushes his hair off his forehead. 

“Don’t you have a fake I.D.?” I give the pizza crust a sniff before plopping it on my tongue. Manageable. 

“No…?”

“Wait, why don’t you want to be friends with Micah?!” Hank is all worked up again, and there’s nothing I can do but groan. 

“I just-”

“Is it the hickeys?” Hank cracks himself up from behind his juice. “Are you a prude Quinneyboy?” 

“Okay, that’s not a contender, either.” Quinn covers his eyes with his hand for a moment and starts to adjust his feet like he’s going to leave. 

“Hold on,” I say around the half-chewed crust between my teeth. 

He pauses with an arm buried in his bag, those big gray irises settling on me as he waits patiently for my brain to remember words. 

“We’re not just...ack.” I force myself to swallow, wincing when it goes down not-so-smoothly. “We’re not like, as idiotic as we seem, so…” I tap my supposedly-okay friend’s shoulder with my thumb without taking my eyes off Quinn. “If there’s actually something wrong, you can come to us.” 

“Awww.” Hank nuzzles my cheek and scoots almost on my chair. “You’re such a good senior leader-”

“Will you cut it out?”

“Fine, but-” He huffs and redirects his attention to the slightly grinning Quinn now setting what looks like a vintage key ring on the table. “We’re packed with wisdom and can tell you’ve got some kind of beef, so if Micah screwed your girl or something, just tell us and we’ll take care of it.” As soon as Hank cracks his knuckles, I come as close as I ever have to slapping him. 

“You’re such a moron.” I inch across my seat to create some distance and try to get my face to form an encouraging smile. I get stuck on a gape instead when I catch Quinn’s gulp and his slim fingers fidgeting his keys into his shorts pocket. “Wait...is that…?” I trail off as my remaining brain power short circuits, but Hank’s got me covered.

“Are you and Micah going after the same lady?!” He gasps, voice dropping right from joking to a notch above that time he almost beat up a coffee table after stubbing his toe when he was drunk last year. “And he shows up here with all those hickeys-”

“Shh.” I manage a simple sound to interrupt, but he’s not quite done.

“Quinn…?” The sudden softness in Hank’s tone brings the kid’s clenched fist from his mouth to the table in a light tapping noise. 

“I guess it’s...something like that,” Quinn murmurs, forcing out a harsh laugh as he takes in the sight of us sitting here like it’s some kind of soap opera. “Can I go away now?”

“Fine, but this isn’t over.” Hank waves Q off with a disappointed sigh, while I simply watch him swing his bag over his shoulder and leave. 

That situation…totally sucks.