Flash! Fiction 3 by Peter McMillan - HTML preview

40

“Could have if someone hadn’t tipped him off and told him I was cheating.”

“Damn, Cami! I’m so sorry, I had no idea that—”

“It’s not your fault. But, wait a minute how did you know my prof’s name? I know you went to City College and all, but—“

“I was in third year—that was the year we made it to the NIT—and I was gonna graduate early. Battaglia’s class was one of five Econ courses I was taking.”

“Whew! I only had the one and that was one too many. Maybe you remember the guy. Had a freckled face sorta like yours and this great big fro. Looked like a botched home perm. Really smart guy though—had to have been an Economics major—but he wasn’t at all obnoxious from what I could tell. Not that we ever spoke. We International Business students were cliquish—as bad as the Greeks.”

“Don’t think so. It’s been a long time.”

“Some days, it seems like just yesterday. By the way, how’d you do?”

“Um, passed but might as well have failed. I needed an A to get a grad school scholarship, but I choked. Just stupid, careless mistakes.”

In the background, the announcer yelled “SCORE! Gagner’s shot OFF the skate of Taranov—” and the bar erupted in raucous jubila-tion as the home team had forced an overtime.

First published in Down in the Dirt, March/April 2014, vol. 122.