Chapter five.

The invitation came from Priya, who slid into the seat across from Ivy in the dining hall with the particular energy of someone about to propose something she already knew would get an argument.

"Delta Row's doing a welcome mixer Friday," Priya said. "Open to non-members. Free food, decent music, and it's basically the only way to get invited to anything good for the rest of the semester if you go to at least one."

"Absolutely not."

"Ivy."

"You want me to willingly walk into Reagan Cole's house."

"I want you to stop letting Reagan Cole own an entire building on this campus." Priya stole a fry off Ivy's tray without asking, the way she always did. "Look, I get it. She's awful. But if you skip every single thing she's connected to, you're going to spend the next three years hiding in your dorm room, and that's not a plan, that's just losing slower."

Ivy chewed on that along with her food for a minute. Priya wasn't wrong, exactly. Reagan ran wide enough through the social ecosystem here that avoiding her entirely meant avoiding most of what actually made college feel like college.

"Fine," she said finally. "But if she starts something, I'm leaving immediately, and you're coming with me."

"Deal." Priya grinned like she'd won something bigger than she had.

The mixer was louder and more crowded than Ivy expected, string lights strung across the Delta Row backyard, a firepit throwing orange light across a lawn full of people who all seemed to already know each other. She stayed close to Priya, nursing a drink she didn't really want, doing the math on how long she had to stay before leaving looked normal instead of obvious.

She saw Callum before he saw her.

He was near the drinks table, in conversation with two guys she didn't recognize, dressed down in a way that made her chest do something unhelpful, dark shirt, sleeves pushed up, that same careful stillness he carried into every room. She was about to look away, to save herself the trouble of being caught staring, when his eyes lifted and found hers across the yard like he'd known exactly where to look.

Something passed between them, quick and warm, before he excused himself from his conversation and started toward her.

"Didn't peg you as a Delta Row type," he said, once he'd crossed the distance.

"I'm not. Priya bullied me into coming."

"Smart woman." He glanced past her at Priya, who had very conveniently vanished into the crowd the second Callum arrived, and something like amusement flickered across his face. "Subtle, too."

"She thinks I need to stop avoiding this place."

"She's not wrong." Callum's gaze softened slightly. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here."

Ivy felt her face warm and hated it, hated how easily he could do that with four plain words and no real effort at all.

They ended up talking for longer than she meant to, drifting toward the edge of the yard where the noise thinned out, away from the fire and the crowd, close enough to the tree line that the string lights barely reached. He asked about her classes. She asked about his internship search. It felt, for a stretch of maybe twenty minutes, almost easy, almost like two people who were allowed to want to know each other's answers.

Then Reagan found them.

"Well." Her voice arrived a half-second before she did, smooth and light, the kind of tone that made a threat sound like a compliment. "Isn't this cozy."

Callum's posture changed instantly, shoulders squaring, jaw setting. "Reagan."

"I just came to say hi to my own guests." Reagan's eyes moved over Ivy slowly, assessing, the same way they had on the quad. "Didn't realize you'd RSVP for two, Callum. Cute."

"She's here with a friend."

"Sure she is." Reagan's smile didn't waver, but something underneath it had gone hard. "You know, it's funny. I heard you two are going to be living together soon. Same house. Sharing walls." She tilted her head. "Must be nice, getting to keep her that close all the time."

"That's enough," Callum said, low and even.

"I'm just making conversation." Reagan's eyes flicked to Ivy again, and for a moment the performance dropped entirely, replaced by something colder, more direct. "I hope you understand what you're stepping into. Callum doesn't do things halfway. Whatever this is," she gestured vaguely between them, "it's going to get complicated fast. I'd know."

She turned before either of them could answer and melted back into the crowd, leaving a silence behind her that felt heavier than the noise it replaced.

"Ignore her," Callum said, once she was gone.

"That's hard to do when she's not wrong about the complicated part."

He didn't argue that. He looked at her instead, something unguarded in his expression for just a moment, there and gone the way it always was with him, like he'd caught himself feeling something he hadn't given himself permission to feel yet.

"Come on," he said finally. "I'll walk you and Priya back."

They found Priya near the drinks table, already gathering her coat, and the three of them left together, cutting across the quiet, dark campus toward the dorms. Priya talked enough for all three of them, filling the silence with commentary about the party, about Reagan, about whichever boy had spent the whole night failing to talk to her.

Ivy barely heard any of it.

She was still turning Reagan's words over, whatever this is, it's going to get complicated fast, and the way Callum hadn't corrected her. Hadn't said there was nothing to complicate.

He'd just told her to ignore it.

That wasn't the same thing as saying it wasn't true.