"So is anybody going Friday night?" Bella looks first to Chandler, then around the table to the others. Adam is on his phone and likely hasn't heard her.

"I can't get up the money," says Ethan. Ethan is a full tuition scholarship student which at a university of this caliber symbolically means that he is brilliant but poor. Of the five friends, he is the most reticent, shy still around girls and shyer around men who are bigger and tougher than Hummers.

"It's only $25," says Daphne. "C'mon, I'm going. I could loan you the money."

"No, but thanks," says Ethan. I'm saving for one of those, the phone," he points, "like Adam has." He brings his coffee up to his lips, lets the cup hang there just to hide the wistful expression that he knows is there.