“Vic nudged my elbow with his. "You and me are still friends, right? You guys get a joint custody in the divorce. Generous visitations rights.""Divorce?" Despite myself, I laughed. Only Vic could call the aftermath of a bad first date a divorce. We hadn't exactly been friends beforehand, so "still" was an exaggeration, but it would've been mean to point that out. Besides, I liked Vic. "We're still friends.""Excellent. The weirdos have to stick together around here.""Are you calling me a weirdo?""Highest honor I can bestow.”

“Are you calling me a weirdo? Highest honor I can bestow.”

“I guess it's hard, being apart all the time.""It really is. If Lucas were still here, everything would be different." Vic's smile turned smug. "Yeah, I'd have a roommate who could beat me at chess instead of the other way around."Ranulf never looked up from the chessboard. "I hear your insults and plan to silence them with my victory.""Keep dreaming," Vic called.”

“I went to him in the doorway and embraced him tightly. "Thank you," I whispered. "You've done so much for us, and we've done nothing for you.""Don't say that." Vic's hands patted my back. "You're my friends. Nothing else to it.”

“That buy is totally cracked out," Vic said one day, as we walked past Balthazar in the great hall.I don't think he's on alything."I didn't mean, for real. If he was cracked out for real, he'd probably be having more fun, right?" Vic shrugged. "Balty looks like he's not having any fun. He looks like he never had any. Like he wouldn't know fun if it started dancing around yelling 'I'm fun' in his face.”

“Remember how I told you that the Vikings sacked my village and took me back with them?" Ranulf was speaking to Vic now; I'd never heard this story before. "All young men among the Vikings were taught to fight."Vic slowly said, "This is why you kick so much ass at World of Warcraft, isn't it?”

“How did you learn all this?"Vic sighed. "See, while you spend all your time making out with Balthazar, and Raquel stays holed up with her art projects, and Ranulf's off studying his Norse myths again, i do something else. Something crazy. Something strange. I call it 'talking to other people.' Through this miraculous process, I am sometimes able to learn facts about two or three other human beings in a single day. Scientists plan to study my method."~Vic”