I wouldn't say we were evil, just bored.

18 years old, first semester of college, too cocky for our own good.

Me and Derek mostly kept to ourselves.

We weren't jocks or frat types.

We just liked messing with people. And Jeremy was easy. He sat in the front

row every class, always took perfect notes, didn't talk to anyone. Like literally, not once did I

hear the guy make small talk, even with professors.

Just walked in with that same weird little leather notebook, eyes forward, no phone,

no earbuds.

Who does that?

It was like he was lopping as a 1950s honors student.

Plus, there was something about him that rubbed people the wrong way.

Not that they ever said it out loud, but everyone knew he was off.

Like, he didn't understand how other people worked.

He never got sarcasm, never reacted to jokes.

If you bumped into him in the hallway and said,

My bad, he'd just stare at you like he was trying to decide what species you were.

He was rich too.

That didn't help.

His parents owned Hartley Biologics, this huge farmer lab that basically funded half the

scholarships on campus.

They'd billboards all over town with pictures of babies and smiling doctors, clean white

...