They Told Me I Was Everything by Gregory Ashe

Author:Gregory Ashe [Ashe, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gregory Ashe
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SPRING SEMESTER

JANUARY 2014

1

For Auggie, the three and a half weeks of winter break passed in a blur. Three and a half weeks of California days: sun and a breeze, warm enough to get by without a jacket until evening, the faint dustiness to the air that made him think of manzanita and Mrs. Gutierrez’s Indian paintbrush flowers next door. Three and a half weeks of making reunion videos with Logan and Devin, three and a half weeks of dodging Chan—she kept messaging and Snapchatting him, probably trying to apologize—three and a half weeks of Fer watching Pardon the Interruption in his underwear, and three and a half weeks of Mom coming back loaded, every single night, with Brendan.

“Why do you put up with this?” Auggie had asked. “You make the money. It’s your house.”

Fer had chucked the remote at him and said, “What the fuck did you just say?”

Auggie decided he hadn’t said anything.

Three and a half weeks of no contact from Theo. Three and a half weeks of nights where Auggie remembered the drag and burn of Theo’s beard across his chest and belly, the feel of his hands, the warmth of his mouth. Three and a half months of remembering getting back into bed, and Theo calling him Ian, and then packing in a hurry: everything from his clothes to the pack of Kools at the back of the drawer, like he was a little kid running away.

On the day Auggie’s plane landed, he got his first text from Orlando since the Final Judgment party: where r u? we need to talk

Auggie dismissed the message, snapped a picture of himself in Lambert-St. Louis, and then found a GIF of Billy Madison’s back-to-school montage. During the shuttle ride to Wahredua, Auggie replied to comments, snapped a few silly selfies, and sent a few experimental jabs at MikiLuvs2Sing, more out of boredom than anything else. Two more messages came from Orlando during the shuttle ride; Auggie dismissed both of them.

When Auggie got down from the shuttle at campus, he worked his bags lose from under the bus and set off toward Moriah Court. His phone buzzed as he was halfway across the quad, and he stopped to check it.

Orlando: u r being a real prick this is important.

Auggie shoved his phone back in his pocket and wished he’d gotten his coat out of his bag; Missouri winter was very real, and his hands were already going numb.

Across the quad, it looked like everyone was more or less on the same journey as Auggie: kids were coming back from wherever they had spent the winter holidays. Some of them had obviously traveled quite a distance; most of them had probably stayed within a day’s drive; and a good percentage had family in Wahredua. A pair of boys who had to be freshmen were carrying an air hockey table, cutting across the snow-covered lawn, the cord trailing behind them. For the next week or so, the air hockey table would be wedged

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