Coming out of the ice cream shop and still licking his cone, Vic’s mind was an intricate dichotomy. On the one hand, he was still focused on what Liz said, about what she was ready and willing to do to guarantee good grades. He imagined Mrs. Laramie, her boots on her desk, her legs spread open, but he could not see what Mrs. Laramie contained between those legs, because the view was blocked by the back of Liz’s head, her ponytail twitching ever so slightly up and down as she put in the work.

Then there was the other side of his brain, which was genuinely feeling bad for Liz, who even in his first week could see was smarter than everyone in their group and was putting in the most hours into studying. There were more women teachers than men at Dampgate Senior Academy, and the men included those like Mr. Tourette, so certainly he could see how Liz would have been at a disadvantage.

She caught him staring at her as they moved down the street towards the water and he wasn’t sure which expression on his face she saw but either way she flashed him a stern look and then looked away.

As the new member of what seemed like a well-established group of friends, Vic still found himself hanging a bit on the periphery. Owen gabbed loudly among the girls, and even Liz, who was quieter than the rest, kept proper pace with them and added her piece to the conversation. Vic meanwhile felt himself a wide-eyed baby squirrel with its head on a swivel, just soaking in the sights and sounds of Aphrodite’s Landing.

A short walk later and they came to the water with its single jetty, and a boardwalk leading off to the left with a walk up into the forest on the right.

“Okay you see over there?” Owen said, leaning in conspiratorially and motioning to the dirt path leading up and along the rocky shore. “That’s about a fifteen-minute hike and then you end up on this flat rocky lookout. Breathtaking scenery, gorgeous views, will make you believe in Poseidon.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Yeah, also the preferred spot for those who want to feel the sea breeze on their skin, if you know what I mean.”

“I think it’s very hard to miss what you mean at this point,” Vic answered.

“Ha, ‘hard’, nice one. See you’re getting the hang of it. Anytime you want to go up there, even if you’re not the show, you’re gonna get one.”

“Got it,” Vic said, not really annoyed by the conversation itself but at least by how close Owen was.

“You need to loosen up, buddy,” Owen said, putting an arm around Vic’s shoulder and giving him a shake. “It’s the law.”

Before Vic got a chance to answer to that, Owen wandered off to rejoin Liz and Agnes, while Vic noticed that Marcia had gone off on her own and was further away along the wooden jetty. Watching Owen to make sure he was sufficiently distracted, Vic followed Marcia down the weathered wooden planks. Walking here above the murky water that sloshed halfway up the thick bunches of mussels that grew from the posts that supported the jetty, the air smelled thickly of the vaguely rotten seaweed smell of the ocean. High overhead, seagulls circled, occasionally chirping their obnoxious cries.

When he reached Marcia, she was standing right at the edge of the jetty looking out onto the expanse of the water. There were no boats docked there that day, so she had an unobstructed view of the entire grey expanse to the horizon, not another shred of land visible from where they were. Out here a hundred feet out into the water, looking in each direction, it was hard to tell how big their island was, and maybe this little corner of it was all there was to it.

“It’s nice, right?” Vic asked, standing next to Marcia.

“More like terrifying,” she said a bit distantly.

“How’s that?”

“You don’t find it scary?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the sea. “Look at it, there’s so much water. So much water it’s hard to really imagine exactly how much even though you’re looking right at it. And from here, it just looks infinite.”

For a moment, he wanted to ask if there was anything that lay for her across this great expanse, but then he thought the question to be silly, and its absence left him in silence.

“How are you liking your roommate?” Marcia asked finally.

“Marek? Yeah, he’s great. Super fun guy,” Vic answered, making it obvious he was laying it on thick. “Very … prolific.”

“So I bet you’re not getting a lot of sleep, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“My roommate’s the same, but she goes to the boy’s dorm.” Marcia paused then for a moment, and then turned to him, her face lighting up, “Hey, you should come over and sleep with me.”

“Hu-wha?” For a second, Vic thought he would fall right into the water.

“Well, not ‘sleep with me’ sleep with me, but in the same room, in my roommate’s bed.”

“Oh, right, gotcha,” Vic said, awash in both relief and disappointment. “That sounds like a good plan.” It actually sounded like nothing he would attempt in a million years, but the sentiment was appreciated.