Classic (5 page)

You’re perfect,
Dream Brandon agreed.

It had practically killed Callie to wake up. No wonder she’d taken a twenty-five minute shower during which she’d completely
forgotten to put her Frédéric Fekkai conditioner in her hair and had only gotten out because the water ran cold.

“Wow,” Jenny said softly when Callie finished describing
the dream. Callie kept the details of kissing Easy the night before to herself. Some things were private, scandalous, and
all hers.

“Yeah.” Callie felt her smile slip away as the truth hit her. The dream was real. Not the grape part—which was too bad, because
she’d always kind of wanted to be Cleopatra—but the facts. Both Easy and Brandon were in love with her. And unlike in the
dream, she couldn’t have both of them at the same time.

“I never have dreams like that,” Jenny complained, moving over to her desk and starting to pile up her books and notebooks.
“Last night I dreamed about being late for a class and having to recite the Declaration of Independence, but in Latin. There
were no grapes—and definitely no man-slaves.”

Callie laughed, but her mind was racing. She pulled her knees up under her chin, watching Jenny fill her messenger bag with
the materials she’d need for class. She looked over at her own bag, thrown in a heap on top of her messy desk, and sighed.
Last night she’d been so sure of what to do: break up with Brandon and be with Easy. Simple. She’d never loved anyone the
way she loved Easy. But wasn’t that the whole problem? She and Easy hurt each other again and again and again, like they couldn’t
seem to help themselves. He’d even dumped her for Jenny earlier this year, and yet she’d still gone ahead and lost her virginity
to him. She didn’t regret it—they were like magnets, always coming together, but never for very long before they were pulled
apart. And what was a magnet if it was on its own, pulling nothing?

Meanwhile, Brandon was good to her. Always. He cared about her, and he would never treat her the way Easy had treated her—or
even the way she’d treated him. He was funny and sweet, and they’d spent all of last month together. Could she really throw
that away, just because Easy was back? It would crush Brandon. Besides, she and Easy would probably implode the way they always
did. Their relationship was way too volatile.

“What am I going to do?” she moaned, dropping her head into her hands.

Jenny stopped fussing with her school books and turned.

“You need to follow your heart,” Jenny said staunchly.

Callie looked up, and absently touched the area over her heart with her hand.

“What if I want both of them?” she asked, looking from Jenny to the bright, hard winter sunlight pouring in their windows.
Outside, she could see the cold ribbon of the Hudson River snaking through the winter landscape.

“I don’t think they’d go for that,” Jenny said with a little giggle.

Callie sighed. “Wouldn’t it be easier if they would?” she asked wistfully.

Jenny frowned for a moment, leaning back against her desk, her messenger bag at her feet. Her eyes lit up suddenly. “Perfect
Match!” she cried, like she was saying
ta da!

Callie blinked. She had never been a fan of silly magazine quizzes that told you who you should be with. What did they know?
She especially hadn’t enjoyed last year’s Perfect Match,
when Tinsley had matched herself up with Easy. She’d claimed she was just teasing Callie, but Callie had always doubted the
truth of that story. Tinsley just liked to cause trouble. Callie had filled out the survey this year, just because everybody
did, but it wasn’t like she really put stock in the results.

“I don’t know what people told you, but it’s just a bunch of computer geeks messing around with people for a week,” Callie
said gently, not wanting to shatter Jenny’s little fantasy. She probably still believed in Santa Claus. “It’s not like the
matches really mean anything.”

“You’ll get paired with one of them, Brandon or Easy, on Perfect Match, and then you’ll know what you’re supposed to do,”
Jenny said firmly, putting her hands on her tiny hips. “It can’t be a coincidence that the matches come out
today
, can it?”

Her petite roommate’s determination forced a smile out of Callie. She scraped her wet hair back from her face. “Okay,” she
said, shrugging. “Sure. Perfect Match will solve all my problems.”

“It will!” Jenny cried. And her own, too. She was sure of it. Last night, when she’d gotten back from her solo walk across
the quad to find their room empty, she’d had nothing to distract herself from obsessing at great length over Isaac’s weird
behavior. Had she come on too strong? Did he not like her as much as she liked him? But then she’d remembered that the Perfect
Match e-mails were coming out this morning. She’d never experienced Perfect Match before—but what wasn’t to love about the
idea?

Obviously, Perfect Match would pair her with Isaac, because
they were perfect for each other. And it wasn’t that Jenny suddenly believed a computer program could see into people’s hearts
or tell the future or anything, but she figured being
proven
perfect for someone had to be worth something. It would clear up any hesitation on Isaac’s part, wouldn’t it? It had to.

“Maybe it really will,” Callie said, warming to the idea. Her eyes looked dreamy. “Maybe I don’t have to make a decision—maybe
Perfect Match already knows the answer.”

“Speaking of which…” Jenny said, waggling her eyebrows.

They both giggled and then dove for their laptops.

Callie pulled her MacBook onto her bed and opened it up, suddenly feeling jittery with anticipation. She scrolled through
her e-mail until she found the one she was looking for and couldn’t help grinning as she clicked on it. Maybe Jenny was right
to put her faith in Perfect Match. Why not?

She blinked and read the e-mail again.

“So much for Perfect Match being a fortune-teller,” she said, slapping her laptop closed and getting to her feet. “It thinks
Alan St. Girard
is my one true love.” Callie shook her head. She couldn’t believe she’d been paired with the biggest pothead on the Waverly
campus. Seriously? “Did I fill the survey out while I was high?”

Jenny sat completely still in her hard desk chair, staring at the screen of her Dell. She blinked a few times, but the e-mail
didn’t change. Even though she knew it was silly, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She didn’t want Callie to see her
expression, so she didn’t turn around. She’d just been so sure
that Isaac would be her Perfect Match. They were
meant
to be together, weren’t they? She scowled at the screen of her computer, but the fact was, his name wasn’t the one in her
inbox.

“Let me guess,” Callie said, rolling her eyes. “You got Isaac because the two of you are destined to live happily ever after.”

“Actually, no,” Jenny said. She turned her laptop so Callie could read the screen. Callie got up and came to peer over Jenny’s
shoulder. Together, they both gaped at the name.

“No way,” Callie said, leaning closer.

“Yeah.” Jenny slumped in her seat. “Julian McCafferty.”