Chapter 4: Soup and Reassurance

Keeley knocked on our dorm door at seven that evening with a thermos and a paper bag.

"I heard about the hallway," she said. "I brought soup."

Dani opened the door three inches and looked at the bag.

"What kind?"

"Tomato. And grilled cheese, because I'm not a monster."

Dani opened the door the rest of the way, and I felt bad for the three inches.

Keeley sat on my bed with her shoes off and poured soup into our two mugs.

She asked how I was holding up, and she listened to the answer.

She said Ellis had no right to put me in the middle of something.

She said the board was cruel and that she had reported the thread herself.

"You don't owe anybody your notes, Marlo," she said. "Not him, not me, not the whole college. Keep them for yourself."

She asked what hours we worked at the library desk, so she could bring dinner on another night, and Dani told her.

I held the mug in both hands and almost believed how warm it all was.

"The umbrella example," I said. "In the written question. Where did you get it?"

"Oh." She laughed. "Honestly, I don't know. It just floated up. I read so much."

She said it so easily that I looked at my soup.

Dani looked at Keeley a beat too long, then asked if there was more cheese.

When Keeley left, she hugged us both at the door and told us to sleep.

"She's nice," Dani said after the door closed. "I hate that she's nice."

"Maybe she's just nice."

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