I shook my head. “It’s not a thing. We just like mentioning it because you smile and joke with us about it. If we’re hurting you, let us know,” I urged.
Natalie smiled. “I’m a virgin because I want to be, not because I’m waiting for the right guy. It’s because I didn’t have anyone I wanted to date in high school, no one I wanted enough to touch me.” She shivered.
The others laughed, and I smiled. “I can see that being a problem.”
“Exactly,” Natalie agreed. “Maybe I’ll find a guy I don’t mind being with someday, but I would rather just focus on school. Maybe a relationship and sex will come.”
“That’s the goal of sex. Coming,” Nessa added, and I groaned at the horrible joke. Suddenly, the four of us were laughing, and I felt like maybe I could do this whole roommate thing. The girls I had lived with for the two and a half years prior had all been a year older than me. I had known that they would move out one day and that I would be forced to find new roommates. But that had been part of my plan. I had been okay with the idea of having to find either girls in my year or another set who was younger like my prior roommates had done for me. But then our landlord had doubled the rent to the point that I couldn’t afford it.
Bottom line: He hadn’t wanted students in his place anymore. And I understood that. Especially since the guys next door, who weren’t technically part of a frat since there weren’t fraternities on campus, had destroyed their house. My roommates and I hadn’t been that way. We had cleaned the place to within an inch of its life and left it in far better condition than we found it. But our landlord hadn’t cared. He had wanted us out and adults in. I had a feeling the place would have a high turnover rate because adults didn’t want to live near college students. Especially not off college row. It was silly to think that even boosters—those who gave big money to the school—would want to live in the place full-time. Any homes on that road that weren’t full of students these days only seemed to be filled during holidays, during off-peak times, and if there was a football game near.
Nobody wanted to live in party central. My new home was a street over, so it wasn’t as loud, but there were a lot of younger students. Ones that didn’t live in the dorms or were living alone for the first time. So, it could get loud, but college row held the parties. Pacey’s house, the one he shared with the guys, was on that street. I shook my head. Since when had I started thinking about it as Pacey’s house?
I needed to push those thoughts from my mind and not think about him like that.
Because Pacey was not the center of my universe.
Sanders had been, and that had clearly been a mistake.
“So, what is this internship?” Natalie asked, and I looked over at my friend, shaking myself out of my thoughts.
“It’s still on campus, but we get to go up to Boulder as well to work with the CU Math Department. I’ll be working on proofs and giving talks and just learning what it feels like to be a professor and in the industry of my career.”
“I still can’t believe you’re a mathematician,” Nessa said, and I raised my brows at her.
“Because girls can’t be good at math?” I asked dryly.
Nessa rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t think that. It’s more that you’re hot, funny, popular, and I never knew that girls like that could be in the math program.”
I rolled my eyes because I knew she was joking with me, especially if the laughter in her eyes was any indication. “Well, it’s thoughts like those that make my schooling years not so much fun. The number of guys in our class is ten to one at this point. And there’s only twenty of us in some of these classes,” I said dryly.
“That’s a little ridiculous,” Elise said.
I nodded. “Some aren’t as bad because there are great STEM programs for people who aren’t part of the stereotype when you think of a mathematician. But it’s still a boys’ game, and I hate it sometimes.” My professors were all men, which was odd to me since I knew there were female professors on campus in my program. But this semester, it was all men. And now we were at a point in my classes where I was mostly with those sharing my major, or some whose minors were in math, like Pacey. Gone was the time when we had more women in class because they had all moved into their majors, like physics, chemistry, and biology. There weren’t many math majors out there. And I had applied mathematics, not full theory, so the scope was even narrower. I loved what I did. I loved figuring out problems and playing with numbers. Because there was an answer for all things. You could go down a path—you just needed to find it. And that’s how I planned my life. To find that path.
I hated that I sometimes fell off, though.
Once again, I pushed those thoughts from my mind.
“And this program?” Nessa said. “I don’t understand it.”
“Me, either,” Elise added. “We don’t have a full thesis or anything for my senior year. You just get your credits as long as it reaches your major, and then you graduate with that degree.”
I shrugged. “Not all majors are like this. And not all universities are like this one. But mine has a final senior thesis for your undergrad that leads you to your master’s classes that you can take at this campus. But a lot of times, they want you to be at another campus before you go on to your doctorate. It’s a whole long, complicated mess. And that means I’ll be writing thesis after thesis until I decide to retire.” I shrugged. “I don’t mind it. It’s math. It makes sense.”
“To you,” Nessa said dryly.
“To me,” I said with a smile. “But this is the semester where everything starts to settle into place for your senior year. And then, after that, you’re an adult, not just playing adult, like I feel most of us are doing in college.”
“Nothing you have ever said has been so true,” Nessa said with a laugh.
“Are you going to have time for any extracurriculars?” Natalie asked.
I frowned, shaking my head. “I’m taking an extra three-credit-hours class. I wasn’t planning to this semester, but they moved it from the fall to the spring. I needed to add it so I wouldn’t miss out and have to take another year.” I sighed. “I can’t even get the part-time job I wanted to apply for so I’d have some extra spending money.”
“But your parents are helping you out?” Nessa asked.
I cringed. “Yes, and no. They saved for college and are paying for every other semester. My loans pay for the rest. I had to get an additional loan for spending money, but that’s fine,” I added as the girls sighed. “I’m not insane when it comes to spending and rent, and everything will be paid for. It’s just not something I planned on, which is the theme of this semester.”
“You can’t plan everything, Mackenzie, but you can do your best,” Elise said, then sighed. “I guess the only fun you’ll have is with us and when we hang out with the guys.”
I pressed my lips together and nodded. “Are we hanging out with the guys a lot?”
“Of course, we are,” Nessa said. “They’re our friends. And you-know-who doesn’t live there anymore, so it’ll be easier for you, right?”