The funeral had been an oddly morbid affair.

Gwen stood awkwardly just outside the circle of her brother’s friends, who looked uncharacteristically somber. Gwen would have laughed aloud had she not been so serious herself. She ran a hand through her carrot-orange hair as the reception carried on around her. Formal events, let alone ones filled with people, had never been Gwen’s sort of thing. Pushing her thick glasses further up on her nose, she watched as family friends and relatives alike gave their condolences to her parents. Every so often her father would spare her a glance, but he knew better than to try and force her to talk to people. Her younger sister sat curled in on herself, on the ground near one of the chairs in their living room. No one was sitting in the chair, as it was filled with what Gwen thought of as ‘Owen memorabilia.’ His guitar, his boots, a couple of CDs- anything important to Owen was crowded in the chair around a photo of him.

Gwen used to think that Owen was the black sheep of the family, but now that he was gone the title seemingly fell on her, and it took her too long to realize that she was made for it. Her long summers spent in New Mexico and Arizona studying under professors and going on fossil digs was nothing compared to her sisters’ residencies and nursing internships; at least not in her parents’ eyes. Gwen wanted to travel the world, while her entire family worked on the same floor of a hospital for their whole lives. It wasn’t enough for Gwen to come home for the holidays; she had to remove her boots at the door as well.

The dorm felt foreign to Gwen when she stepped foot in it again after a week. Not foreign in a way that was unpleasant, but she felt slightly out of place.

Before she even had time to fully unpack, her roommate has extended an invitation to a party off campus later that night.

That was where Gwen was now, though she honestly couldn’t rationalize why. She was still in her cargo shorts and t-shirt, and they clashed horribly with the attire of everyone else. People around her danced to the music as Gwen stood awkwardly against the wall. Every once in a while someone would try and shove a drink in her hands, but she would turn them down every time. It wasn’t until someone kept trying that it got on her nerves.

“C’mon!” He slurred, liquid sloshing in the two cups he held in his hands. Gwen didn’t recognize him, but he looked like the kind of guy who would graduate straight in a desk job, tell his future kids tales from his glory days, and end up living vicariously through their successes as their little league coach. “It’s a party!” He shouted, louder than Gwen liked.

“No.” She pushed him away and tried to move through the crowd in an effort to escape him and the alcohol on his breath.

He grabbed her shoulder, and she whipped around furiously. She slapped the cups out of his hands and stomped on them with her boot, effectively crushing them.

“I said no!” Gwen yelled. A few nearby heads turned, but largely no one seemed to notice the frat boy she had just disparaged as she shoved her way through the crowd and onto the front porch of whoever’s this was. The cold November air bit at her face as tears began to fall from her eyes.

It wasn’t that Gwen never cried, she just preferred not to do it in public. She banged her fists on the railing of the porch and squeezed the last tears from her eyes. She sat down on the porch swing on the far right for several minutes in silence.

Suddenly, the door opened a boy was pushed out onto the porch. The door slammed shut behind him as he stumbled and fell onto the cold wooden floor. Gwen watched him, forgetting about her earlier dilemma, trying her hardest not to laugh. The boy was wearing crinkled dress pants and a button-down white shirt. The sleeves were rolled up, his tie was loosened and askew, and there was a giant dark red wet spot spanning the left side of his chest.

He pulled himself off the ground, mumbling expletives, and brushed himself off before noticing Gwen staring at him.

“It’s okay, Gwen.” He said. “It’s just cheap wine.” He gestured to the stain on his shirt.

Gwen frowned. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m Henry.” The boy introduced himself. “From Art class. I’m the one who’s always asking questions.”

“Oh yeah, Henry,” Gwen said. “Now I remember you. You seem to know a lot about art though, even with all the questions.”

“Yeah.” Henry shrugged. “I dabble.”

Gwen smirked. “Dabble?”

“In art, I mean.”

If it had been any brighter outside, Gwen would have seen him blush.

“Oh. Me too.”

“Cool.”

There was a pause. Henry stuck his hands in his pockets awkwardly and looked around.

“I draw a lot of dinosaurs.” Gwen blurted out; she hadn’t the faintest idea why, and immediately regretted it when she saw Henry's confused expression.

“Oh?”

“Sorry, that was weird.” She said. “I’m an archeology major.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Gwen’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Oh, oh no- I just realized how creepy that sounds.” Henry flustered. “My roommate is your roommate’s boyfriend. Plus, you’re the only person I know who wears a dinosaur shirt more than once a week.”

Gwen smiled as she looked around. She didn’t take a liking to most people at first, but she found herself enjoying talking with Henry.

“You can sit down, you know.” She offered, moving over on the swing to make room for Henry. He obliged, settling down next to Gwen on the cold wood of the bench.

“So what brings you out here alone?” Henry asked.

Gwen froze.

Henry turned to her when she didn’t answer. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Gwen, you’re crying.-

“I said I’m fine!” Gwen shouted. Henry inched away instinctively.

“If you want to talk about it,” Henry said. “We can. I’ll listen.” He placed his hand on Gwen’s shoulder only for her to throw it off as she stood up.

“I don’t want to talk about it! Not with you, not with anyone!” Gwen yelled. “None of this is your business! Just… go back inside and leave me alone!”

Henry stood up slowly. “I can’t go back inside, Gwen. You-”

“Just leave me alone!” She screamed. Henry sighed, a sad look on his face, then resigned to go back to the party. Gwen sat back down on the porch swing, tears streaming down her face- and she didn’t care who saw her this time.

The tears dried cold and sticky on Gwen’s face. She swung slowly back and forth on the bench, watching the color of the lights inside change through the front window. She checked her watch: 11:52 pm. She immediately sobered up. She needed to get back to the dorm; there was a big exam tomorrow and she hadn’t studied yet.

Gwen pulled herself up off the porch swing and entered back into the party desperate to find her roommate and get a ride back to campus. She pushed her way through the sweaty crowd, only to get to the front and find that her roommate was otherwise occupied with someone Gwen could only assume was Henry’s roommate.

She frowned and moved back through the room to the hallway where she had been told the bathroom was. Passing makeout session after makeout session, she finally came to a creme-colored door and pushed it open. Gwen immediately shut it once she was inside, and sank down onto the floor. She would have been content to wallow until the party was over, had she not heard a sudden noise from the bathtub.

Gwen jumped up and yanked the shower curtain open to reveal none other than Henry, his shirt even wetter and more stained than before.

“What are you doing?!” Gwen shouted.

“Staying away from you, if I recall.” Henry retorted, standing up unsteadily in the tub.

“Seriously? Are you drunk?” Gwen asked sourly.

“No!” Henry yelled. “It’s just that when you take a beer bottle to the head, it sort of messes with you!”

Gwen sat down on the toilet in exasperation. “Jesus…”

“I told you, I probably shouldn’t have come back in here.” Henry said, swaying a bit where he was standing.

“Sit back down! I don’t want you falling or anything.” She said, pointing down at the bathtub. Henry complied and sat cross-legged in the tub. He looked up at Gwen.

“So.” He said, his expression settling on deeply compassionate. “You ready to talk now?”

Gwen shot him a glare and was about to deny him any access to her feelings- then her expression suddenly softened. She thought of her sister, weeping into the arms of her boyfriend at the funeral, and of her parents, staying up late to talk through cups of soothing tea.

“My brother died last week,” Gwen whispered, just loud enough for Henry to hear. “Drunk driving accident.” She choked up on the last words as Henry climbed out of the tub. He sat down on the floor next to the toilet and held the hand Gwen surprisingly offered to him. He could sense her closing back up, and immediately tried to get her to open up again; he had enough experience with bottling up emotions to know that it was damaging in the end.

“Keep talking.” He said through her sniffles. “Get it all out.”

The party had gone for hours longer than anyone thought. It was currently 3:47 a.m. and Gwen was standing on the porch with Henry’s suit jacket around her shoulders. Every once and a while someone would come outside and drive away.

“Are you ready to go?” Henry had come onto the porch, holding a pair of shoes. Gwen looked down and saw that Henry was only wearing socks. She wondered how she hadn’t noticed that before.

“Yeah.” She answered. The two stepped off the porch and headed towards Henry’s car. The two of them had talked for hours, and when they left the bathroom Gwen discovered that her roommate had left without offering her a ride. Henry said he’d take her back to campus, and that everyone was leaving already anyway.

Henry leaned up against his SUV, slid his shoes on, and unlocked the door so Gwen could get in. Soon enough they were pulling away from the party, and Henry had plugged his phone into the radio. Gwen didn’t like his music choice, but she said nothing of it.

“So what are you studying?” Gwen asked. She was surprised the topic hadn’t come up earlier, and she felt a bit guilty that she hadn't been as perceptive and observant as him, but that’s just not how she was.

“Linguistics.” He said. “I know it’s probably boring compared to digging up dinosaurs, but-”

“No!” Gwen said. “I think it’s cool.”

“Good to know that being quadrilingual is finally paying off.” Henry said, smiling.

Gwen laughed. “You just keep getting more interesting.”

“You found me in a bathtub earlier tonight, Gwen.” He said. “It only gets better from there.”

Once they got back to campus, Henry pulled the car into the parking lot of Gwen’s dorm upon her instructions. She told him goodnight, and then he drove away, leaving her alone in the dark at four in the morning- still wearing his jacket.

She went inside and up to her dorm, and found her roommate sitting cross-legged on her bed.

“So how was your ride?” She asked.

Gwen’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”

Her roommate smiled. “Nothing. I was just asking a question.”

Gwen pulled the jacket off and threw it on the back of her desk chair. “How did you know? You left before we did.” Her roommate shrugged. Gwen sighed. “Whatever, just tell me next time when you leave me like that.”

Her roommate shook her head softly. “You’re so oblivious, Gwen.”