“Ju-zi!” James waves him closer and pats him so hard on the back Julius can feel his bones vibrating. “My baby brother,” he introduces him to everyone at large, earning him a fewawws that make Julius feel about fifteen years younger than he really is. Then his brother grins at Julius and leads them to a quieter corner. “That was a lot of fun, wasn’t it?”
“That was … a lot” is the extent to which Julius can agree.
James glances down at Julius’s hand, which is wrapped around Sadie’s. “And look, your girlfriend’s here! Hello, hello. I must say, it’s justsonice that the two of you are still together,” he tells Sadie.
Sadie blinks, like he’s remarked on something as obvious as the sun being in the sky. “Of course we’re still together.”
“Oh, well, I only mean that my brother can be a lot to put up with, and I can’t even imagine how devastated he would be if you were ever to leave him. He didn’t see you for, what, only a few days over the holidays, and he was distraught—”
“I was not distraught,” Julius says in a hurry.
A smile twitches on Sadie’s lips. “Is that so?” she asks James.
“He kept looking at the photos he’d taken of you at the beach and reading over your texts,” James confirms. “The few times I saw him smiling were when he was calling you or talking about you. It’s always Sadie this, Sadie that, Sadie would love this restaurant, Sadie’s so smart, Sadie said she has a sore throat so I should get some medicine delivered, Sadie’s read that book too, Sadie’s perfect—”
Julius clears his throat with emphasis. “Sadie, didn’t you say youreally needed to find the restroom?”
“I can wait just a bit longer,” Sadie says innocently.
He shoots her a look, a silent plea, and Sadie lets him panic for a few more seconds before she acquiesces.
“Okay, no, I do need to find the restroom. Let me go ask someone,” she says.
Everything else goes as planned. When his phone rings a minute later, Julius manages to pull off his mostI’m sorry but this is urgentact, and slips out through the door while his brother goes up to take his three million dollars, which was apparently the final bid for the dot. And the strangest thing is that he should be more bothered by this. He should be dwelling on the unbelievable fact that his brother flicked his wrist in a restaurant one random day and produced something that is now worth more than the average person could make across three lifetimes. But when he steps out into the cool evening air, the purplish clouds blending into the horizon, lights streaming from the cars in the parking lot, and sees Sadie waiting right there for him, he feels a curious lightness in his chest. Who cares, really, if his brother is leaving this place with another potential career path and three million dollars to stuff into his already overflowing bank account?
He’s leaving with Sadie Wen: his co-conspirator, his co-captain, his rival, his life’s great defining question and answer.
Julius promised himself two things for this trip: He would bring Sadie to Berkeley, and he would refrain from making snarky remarks about how the Stanford campus is vastly superior to the Berkeley one.
Yes, they will be attending rival colleges, and there will be plenty of time to bicker with her over this—but this weekend, he will play nice and keep his mouth shut about it. She’s already nervous enough about starting school. That’s actually why they’re here in the first place. Though Sadie has never voiced it aloud, he knows how anxious she gets in unfamiliar environments. She’s the kind of person who needs to physically walk right up to a boarding gate to confirm that it does truly exist, even if the plane isn’t departing for another hour. The kind of person who wants the full guest list for a social function so she’ll know what to expect and who’s bringing who and be able to prepare at least five different conversation starters. The kind of person who needs to locate all her classrooms weeks in advance, and calculate the exact time it takes to walk from one lecture to another, and also where the nearest drinking fountains are.
“Oh my god, this place is massive,” Sadie says as they stroll down the footpath together. All around them, there are students lounging on the emerald lawns, sipping on boba and sharing nachos in greasy takeout boxes; a girl sleepily holding up a faded paperback to block out the sun; visiting parents staring wide-eyed at the white pillars and orange-red roofs, no doubt imagining their own children coming here someday.
“It’s all right, I guess,” Julius says, and resists the urge to add something about how the Stanford campus is much bigger, with better facilities too.
“I can’t believe I’ll be, like, an actual student here,” Sadie says. “I mean, isn’t that wild?”
“You’ll fit right in.”
Sadie turns to him, a small crease between her brows. He wishes he could smooth it out with his thumb, make all her worries disappear with just a few words. “You really think so? But everyone’s going to besosmart—”
“Which is exactly why you’ll fit in,” he says confidently. “Come on, give yourself some credit. You managed to top a class thatIwas in. That automatically puts you in the top one percent of the global population.”
She nudges him in the ribs. “That’s really sweet. But I’m pretty sure it was three classes.”
“Pretty sure we tied in history, if that’s what you’re talking about.”
“There was also English—”
“That’s only because my examiner had an issue with complex vocabulary. It’s not my fault I like to use sophisticated words,” he says.
She’s grinning now, eyes glimmering with amusement. “I thought the feedback was that your writing could be convoluted—”
“Complex,”he counters. “It would only seem convoluted to those with poor reading comprehension.”
“You did have a strong thesis,” she allows.
“I did, didn’t I?” He accepts the truce and points to an empty spot under the shade of a pine tree. “Want to get lunch over there? I packed a picnic for us.”
