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at.”
    “Lucky you.” I wished I’d done that. Maybe not basketball, but some other sport that gave out scholarships. Even with financial aid I was going to be over fifteen thousand dollars in debt by the time I graduated. But at least I’d have a degree, and that was a huge step up from the future my father had predicted for me.
    “You’re going to grow up and be a prostitute and die from AIDS,” he used to tell me, even before I really knew what it meant. By the time I was old enough to truly understand, I wasn’t living at home anymore. I’d been handed over to the state of New York because I was too wild and unruly, at least in my father’s eyes. I wondered what he would have thought of the eight other girls who lived in the group home I was eventually placed in. At fourteen, I was still pretty innocent compared to my new housemates. That changed quickly and I wondered if I’d ever not be bitter about it. Although no matter how rough it was in the group home, it was still better than being abused by my father.

I ran into Justin again during my lunch break while trying to figure out how to get the dinosaur of a microwave they had in the break room to work. He was eating at the big round table in the middle of the room and must have noticed me having a hard time.
    “That thing is a fossil,” he said as he walked over to help me. “I should buy another one and bring it in, but I keep forgetting.” Justin pointed to one of the buttons on the microwave. “You gotta press this one first before you do anything else.”
    “Thanks,” I said feeling embarrassed at my inability to operate a simple appliance.
    “No problem.”
    I turned to look at him. His dark hair was cut into a close-cropped fade, and I found myself wondering if he’d let it grow longer when summer was over.
    “Did the boys behave themselves this morning?”
    “Yeah. They were fine. But I kind of felt bad ’cause it didn’t seem like they needed my help that much.”
    “Well, they might have been a little shy. Sometimes we boys don’t like to admit we need help, especially to a pretty girl.”
    I didn’t need to have a mirror in front of me to know that my face turned several shades of red. If those words had come from Don I would have been annoyed, instead I found myself feeling flattered, and shy.
    “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t it.” The microwave dinged letting me know my lunch was ready. Justin grabbed it out of the microwave for me and brought it over to the table. I sat beside him not knowing what to make of his chivalry.
    Before I could thank Justin, Don walked in, spotted the two of us and strolled over to give Justin a fist bump. “Hey Jesse,” he said before pulling out a chair next to me.
    “You two didn’t want to be alone, did you? Am I interrupting something?” Without pausing for a reply, Don leaned towards me and said, “You know, Justin here, he’s a real good man.”
    “Not as good as good as you, Don,” Justin joked going along with Don’s banter.
    “And modest, too.”
    “Hey, c’mon, man. You’re embarrassing her,” Justin said. He apparently wasn’t as oblivious as Don was to my discomfort at their conversation.
    “Am I?”
    “No, not at all,” I replied, lying through my teeth. What I wanted to do was get up and finish lunch in my classroom, but walking away seemed awkward. I fell silent while Justin and Don started talking baseball. I didn’t really have anything to add to their conversation. It wasn’t that I didn’t like sports, I just never had enough free time to follow who was in the playoffs or who was being traded to what team. Most New Yorkers I knew were die-hard Yankees fans, and summers were often filled with long conversations about the team.
    When I finished eating I got up from the table. “I better get back to the classroom,” I said, noticing that Justin and Don had stopped their conversation and were both looking at me. “I think I have a tutoring session in a few