I tried not to flinch at the mention of her name.
"I don't even know you and I can tell you're better," Benny said.
I laughed awkwardly. "Thanks, I guess." I didn't want to be talking about Isabella. "Luke promised me some stories once the two of you arrived."
"That I did," Luke said and took a sip from his glass of scotch. "Have you ever heard the professor story?"
"The professor story? I don't think so." I felt James hand slip protectively onto my lower back.
"Mason has already told Penny plenty of stories," James said.
"Surely not the ones we're going to tell," said Luke.
Mason laughed. "I have told her lots of stories."
"But Penny wants to hear embarrassing stories about James," Mike said. "Right, Penny?"
Mason smiled at me. "I've already told her loads of those too."
"See," James said. "Penny, didn't you want to go find some dessert?"
"Oh, no," I said. "I want to hear their embarrassing stories. Starting with the professor story."
James groaned. I was pretty sure I was the only one that heard it though.
"It was hilarious," Luke said. "We were all taking poli-sci together sophomore year."
"They forced me to go to it," James said. "I wanted us all to take psych."
"But no one else wanted to take that," Luke continued. "So we had all agreed to take poli-sci." He emphasized the word agreed. "When we showed up on the first day of class, the professor was late. So James here," he put his hand on James' shoulder, "decided that he was going to teach it. He walked up to the front of the class and started talking about how politics is all about the distribution of power and resources. Actually, the lecture wasn't half bad. He made some valid points about how elections are basically popularity contests..."
"You're missing the punch line," Mike said.
"Right, right." Luke took another sip of his drink. "So he asks for volunteers and makes Mason, Benny, Mike, and I go to the front of the room too. And he makes the class vote on who they'd want to listen to speak next."
"I won," Mason said matter-of-factly.
"Beside the point," Luke said and waved his hand dismissively. "But as the professor walks in, James grabs Mason's face and says, 'You voted for your new president based on his pretty face. Suck it America, politics are a sham.' And then he made an incredibly rude gesture to the whole class."
I started laughing. Before today I wouldn't have been able to imagine James doing that. But I was pretty sure he had made the same rude gesture outside of the police station earlier.
"We ended up all getting kicked out of the class," Mike said. "And the only class left with four openings was psych. The evil bastard."
James shrugged his shoulders.
"I never got to take poli-sci," Benny said. "I'm still pissed about that."
James laughed. "You guys ended up loving psych. Don't lie."
Benny shook his head. "What? I hated psych. We had to memorize all those stupid studies instead of just having awesome debates in poli-sci. You screwed us."
"Wait, Mason, please tell me you've told Penny about the streaking incident," Luke said.
Mason started laughing. "No, I never tell anyone that story. It makes all of us look bad."
"That's true," Mike said. "I thought we promised never to discuss the night of November 9th ever again."
"Well now you have to tell me," I said.