Sometimes Sunil would bring Jess along, or Pip would bring her friends Lizzie and Leo. Sometimes half the Castle men’s rowing team showed up – loud boys who scared me at first, but were actually quite nice when you got to know them. Sometimes it’d just be the original five, or fewer if we were busy.
It had become a ritual. My favourite university ritual.
‘And this is the perfect place for Roderick!’ said Rooney brightly, pointing at an empty corner next to the sofa arm.
We headed towards the two downstairs bedrooms, which were both pretty ordinary. Jason and I peered into the second one. It was almost as messy as Pip’s current bedroom.
‘I always wanted a downstairs bedroom,’ said Jason. ‘I don’t know why. It just seemed cool.’
‘You’d be right next to the road.’
‘I think I’d like it. Ambient noise. And look!’ He pointed at a patch of empty wall above the bed – enough room for a framed photograph. ‘The perfect place for Mystery Inc.’
It’d been Jason’s birthday the week before. One of his presents from me: a framed photograph of the whole Scooby-Doo gang. All five of them.
‘I’d like a downstairs room,’ said Sunil, who’d appeared behind us. ‘I like being close to the kitchen. Easy snack access.’
Jason glanced at him warily. ‘As long as you’re not practising cello late at night.’
‘You mean you don’t want to listen to my beautiful music in the early hours of the morning?’
Jason laughed and headed upstairs, leaving Sunil and me to wander into the first bedroom, careful not to touch any of the current occupant’s stuff.
And then Sunil said, ‘I wanted to run an idea by you, Georgia.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Well, I’m only going to be Pride Soc president for a couple more months, and before I have to step down … I wanted to set up a new group within Pride Soc. A society for aromantic and asexual students. And I suppose I wondered … whether you’d want to be involved. Not necessarily as president of it, but … well, I don’t know. I just wanted to ask. No pressure, though.’
‘Oh. Um …’ I immediately felt nervous about the idea. I still had days where I wasn’t brimming with confidence about my sexuality, despite all the days where I felt proud and grateful that I knew who I was and what I wanted. Maybe the bad days would become less and less common, but … I didn’t know. I couldn’t know.
Maybe a lot of people felt like that about their identity. Maybe it would just take time.
‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I’m not even out to my parents.’
Sunil nodded understandingly. ‘That’s OK. Just let me know after you’ve thought about it.’
I nodded back. ‘I will.’
He gazed into the bedroom at the way the evening light was hitting the floor. ‘It’s been a good year, but I’m looking forward to stepping down. I think I deserve a more restful year, next year.’ He smiled to himself. ‘It’d be nice. To have a rest.’
There were three more bedrooms upstairs, and Pip and Rooney immediately beelined for the most obviously large one.
‘I’m having this one,’ said Pip and Rooney simultaneously, then glared at each other.
‘I need more room,’ said Rooney. ‘I’m like a whole foot taller than you.’
‘Um, firstly, that’s a lie, you are only a few inches taller –’
‘At least six inches.’
‘And secondly, I need more room because I have way more clothes than you.’
‘You’re both going to be sleeping in the same room loads anyway,’ Jason muttered, rolling his eyes, and Pip shot him a look that mixed embarrassment with alarm while Rooney immediately went bright red, opened her mouth, and began to protest.
Rooney had still been spending nights out of our room. The first time it happened after the play, I was scared that she’d gone back to heavy drinking and clubbing with strangers, but when I eventually confronted her about it, she timidly revealed that she was spending all of those nights in Pip’s room. And the clothes she kept leaving there were a bit of a giveaway.
She’d spend nights in our room too, though. Lots of nights. It wasn’t like she’d replaced me, or I was less important.
She was one of my best friends. I was one of hers. And we both understood what that meant now.
Once Rooney had finished berating Jason for bringing up her sex life and Jason had tactically retreated towards the bathroom, I watched as Rooney and Pip stood together in the doorway. Rooney gently touched Pip’s hand with hers, and Rooney leant towards her and whispered something I couldn’t hear that made Pip grin wide.