What is friendship?

Needless to say, I returned to the Aubergine the next night and every night after that. Every time I came back there, I found something new to love about Brendon, from his energetic nature to his nearly endless array of sparkly suits. Each night, I came home at an absurdly late time, as I spent more and more time chatting with Brendon after the show. I hoped that Patrick wouldn't notice, and as far as I could tell, he didn't. I wasn't getting much sleep, especially with Patrick waking me up at five o'clock in the morning and the Greek Friendship Society partying through the night, but it was worth it just to see Brendon every night.

A few weeks after I started at the Aubergine, Patrick entered our shared dorm room just as I was opening my paycheck from all of my piano playing. I stuffed the envelope under my bed as he opened the door, and he didn't seem to notice anything. "Hey Ryan," Patrick said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Hi Patrick," I said. "What's going on?"

"I was just wondering if you had heard about the party here at Flack Hall," Patrick said.

"No, I haven't heard about it," I said.

"Well, there's going to be a party in the Flack Hall basement tonight," Patrick said. "Hayley's inviting everyone who lives in this residence hall so that we can all get to know each other. Personally, I think it's a great idea. I'm not much of a partier, but I'm all for getting to know my fellow freshmen."

"Who's Hayley?" I asked. The name sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember her face.

Patrick sighed. "This is exactly why we're throwing the party," he said. "It's October already, and we barely know each other."

"I'm not entirely certain that any human can truly know any other human in the deepest sense," I said. "It's just not possible to know someone else's inner thoughts and emotions..."

"Ryan, you know what I meant," Patrick said. "Anyways, are you coming?"

"I'll come, but I might have to leave early," I said. "My Great People of Mathematics professor assigned a lot of homework."

It was partially true - my professor had assigned quite a bit of homework over the weekend. However, I had finished all of the reading the day before. It was a small lie - in fact, it was more of a half truth than a real lie. Was it wrong of me to lie? Telling the truth didn't benefit anyone in this case. Patrick would freak out if he knew that I wanted nothing more than to go to the Aubergine that night, and so would most of the rest of Flack Hall. It was easier and better for everyone to say that I had homework, but I still wasn't sure if that made it right.

"That's fine," Patrick said. "I can even meet you in the Beauregard Library if you'd like. I have a psychology paper due on Monday."

"That's okay," I said. "I think I'll focus better if I study by myself."

Patrick shrugged and said, "Let's just go downstairs." I followed him down the stairs until we reached the basement, where all of the freshmen living in Flack Hall were gathered. They were all chatting and enjoying themselves, although not nearly as much as I would have been if I was at the Aubergine.

Patrick wandered through the room, and I followed him until we reached a redheaded girl and a few of her friends. "Hi Hayley," he said quietly.

"Hey Patrick!" Hayley said, grinning. "I'm so glad you showed up."

"Ryan, this is Hayley," Patrick said. "She's in my freshman writing seminar. Hayley, this is my roommate Ryan."

"Wait a second," Hayley said. "I think I recognize you. Were you on my tour when I visited here in high school?"

I took another look at her, and indeed, she did look familiar. "I think so," I said. "It's a small world, isn't it?"

"No kidding," Hayley said. "I think I saw our tour guide the other day too."

"He's in the Guyliner Club with me," I said.

"I didn't even know we had a Guyliner Club," Hayley said.

"Most people don't know that Kale has a Guyliner Club," I said.

"I think it's kind of cool," Hayley said. "Can girls join?"

I nodded. "We already have a girl in the club," I said. "Then again, I'm pretty sure that Laura doesn't want to be in it."

"Why wouldn't you want to be in a Guyliner Club?" Hayley asked. "It sounds like the coolest club ever. I would know - I've already joined seventeen clubs here!"

"That's insane," Patrick said. "I'm in the Cookie Baking Club and the Environmentalist Society, but that's about it."

In all of the excitement surrounding my new job, I had forgotten to attend the first Cookie Baking Club meeting. It was probably a little late to join now, although I did feel a slight tinge of regret that I had allowed my commitments at the Aubergine to interfere with the Cookie Baking Club. Then again, it was impossible to do everything available at Kale, as much as I wanted to.

"Wait, what's this about the Environmentalist Society?" Andy asked as he walked towards us.

"We're just talking about the clubs available at Kale," Hayley explained.

"You should all join Vegans United," Andy said. "It's the best club here."

"Sorry Andy, but I like my ice cream too much for that," Hayley said.

Andy sighed. "Why does everyone say that when I mention veganism?" he asked. He had a point. Most people could never give up their favorite foods, no matter what the cause was. I, for one, could never give up oatmeal raisin cookies. That being said, I did think that veganism was a good cause. Animals have souls too, or at least I think they do, and there's something morally wrong about ingesting another's soul.

"I really don't know," a small Asian girl said in heavily accented English. "By the way, I'm Lin Song. Hayley is my roommate."

"She's an international student from China!" Hayley exclaimed. "Isn't that cool?"

"I have to say, I like America so far," Lin said. "It's very different."

"So why did all of you apply to Kale, just out of curiosity?" Hayley asked. "I was on the fence about applying before I visited, but Gerard gave an amazing tour."

"I thought he gave a good tour too, but I came because it's the third best philosophy program in the nation, and I couldn't get into Harvard or Princeton," I said.

"I sat in on an Animal Science class when I visited, and that's when I knew that I wanted to come here," Patrick said.

"A girl from my high school went here and told me about all of activism going on," Andy said.

"I applied here accidentally," Lin said.

"How does that work?" I asked.

"I thought I was applying to Yale University, not Kale University," Lin said. "I did all of my applications, and I didn't realize that I applied to the wrong school until my parents saw my acceptance letter and told me that I had gotten into Kale, not Yale."

"That's an honest mistake," Hayley said. "Yale and Kale have such similar names."

"It all worked out in the end though," Lin said. "I researched Kale University, and it turned out that it was the right school for me. I don't think I would have gotten into Yale anyways."

"All of the Ivy Leagues are impossible to get into," Hayley said. "I applied to the University of Pennsylvania and got rejected, but I was kind of expecting it."

"I decided that I didn't want to go to any of the really selective schools pretty early on in the college searching process," Patrick said.

"I did too, and I'm glad I didn't apply anywhere too selective," I said. "Have you guys met any of the Yale kids yet?" All of my companions shook their heads. "They're horrible. I talked to Mikey Way at the football game, and he's such a snob."

"I'd believe it," Andy said.

"If that's true, then I'm very glad I didn't go," Lin said. "I love being at Kale."

"Me too," I said, and I meant it. Despite all of the homework that I got and all of the strange things that had happened to me since my arrival, Kale was far better than my high school.

I heard a rumbling noise travel through the basement. "Do you hear that?" Hayley asked.

"I don't know what it is, but it sure as hell ain't normal," another girl said.

"I think it's just the Greek Friendship Society again," Joe said as he came towards our group.

"They've been driving me crazy ever since I got here," Andy said.

"They just won't shut up!" Hayley complained. "I've barely gotten any sleep so far this year."

"I've started sleeping in Willoughby library," Lin said. "It's quieter there, and the chairs are kind of comfortable."

"Beauregard is a better study space, but Willoughby does have more comfortable chairs," Patrick commented. "Maybe I should try that, Lin."

"No, we should try talking to the Greek Friendship Society members," Andy said. "This affects all of us."

"That's a terrible idea," Hayley said. "They won't listen to a bunch of freshmen who have no intention of joining their little society."

"We won't know unless we ask," Andy said.

"Let's figure this out later," Joe said. "We're all here to get to know each other and have fun, not to argue."

"You're right," Hayley said.

The others in the group continued to chat, while I thought about everything that had happened. Were these people my friends? I wasn't quite sure. I knew some of them well, but there were others that felt more like acquaintances than friends. What was the difference between an acquaintance and a friend anyways? Was there a difference at all?

My mind floated back to Brendon. Could I consider him to be a friend? I hadn't known him for very long - in fact, I had known Patrick or Joe for quite a bit longer than I had known Brendon. However, I felt like I was closer to Brendon, and I wasn't sure why. I certainly liked Patrick, but my affection for him was quite different from my affection for Brendon, even if I couldn't quite explain how.

Socrates once said that the job of a philosopher was to provide coherent logical definitions of things. If that was a case, then I was failing at my job. I couldn't possibly provide a coherent logical definition of how I felt about Brendon.

I looked at the clock and realized that it was nine o'clock. Already, I was late for my performance at the Aubergine. "I have to go," I told Patrick as I climbed upstairs.

"Alright, Ryan," he said. "See you later." I sprinted upstairs and away from the Kale campus until I reached the heart of Old Haven, where there was a drab building with a bright neon purple sign that read "The Aubergine Dream."

As I opened the door, I considered all of the people that I knew in my life, from my friends to my family to my acquaintances to people like Brendon that I couldn't define. In the end, did it matter what category I put them in? I loved all of them, and I was grateful that I had such wonderful people in my life. When I entered the Aubergine that night, I couldn't wait to see my partner in crime again. He may have evaded my efforts to put him in a box, but in a way, that made him even more wonderful in my mind.