to think about that stuff, probably because Dylan saw Auggie as an adult, as his equal, instead of as a kid.
Auggie tapped out his message to Genesis before he could reconsider: Where and when?
Almost immediately, the composition bubbles appeared by her name.
While she was still replying, he opened a separate message to Theo and typed, I’m meeting with Genesis today, if you want to come. As soon as he sent it, he regretted opening the message that way. Oh, and happy New Year, Merry Christmas. I got back to Wahredua last night.
Because Theo still used an ancient flip phone, Auggie had no idea if he was replying.
Genesis’s message came through: Library? 1:30?
2? Class.
2.
Auggie sent her a thumbs up. Theo still hadn’t responded, so Auggie sent him the time and place and headed for class.
4
Theo was assisting Wagner again—another section of the same class that Auggie had been in the semester before—when the texts came through. The classroom smelled like wet wool and what might have been rust, which he associated with the massive radiators that were used to heat the building. Wagner was at the front of the room, droning through the syllabus. Half the kids were already asleep, and the other half were barely on this side of consciousness. Staring at his phone, at the messages from Auggie, Theo managed not to scream.
The rest of class was a blur. He went to his office. He turned on the computer. He left the door open, hoping the smell of vanilla-and-chai tea, which Grace must have left on her desk over the break, would dissipate. Then, at his desk, he stared at the document he had pulled up on the screen. His thesis. The Romeo and Juliet chapter. And for the life of him, he had no idea what it said.
Over the course of the next few hours, he typed a handful of words. He ate the peanut-butter sandwich he’d brought from home. When he needed to break up the monotony of staring at the screen, he shuffled the printouts of scholarly articles. At quarter to two, he packed his satchel, locked the office, and headed across campus to the library.
In the lobby, which had been redone a few years ago in the blond woods and glass and chrome that made it look like a Scandinavian spaceship, he found Auggie.
“Hey,” Auggie said, a huge smile spreading across his face. He stepped forward and hesitated.
“Just give me a hug,” Theo said, “so we can get it over with.”
Auggie squeezed him hard, his face against Theo’s shoulder, the cast on his wrist bumping Theo’s back. The hug lasted a long time, and Theo felt the tremors working their way through Auggie. He ran his hand down Auggie’s spine, counting the bumps of vertebrae, until Auggie pulled away. The younger man’s face was blotchy, and the smile was twitchy, slipping away every time Auggie seemed to forget to keep it in place.
“I didn’t know—” Auggie stopped. “It’s really good to see you.”
“How are you?”
“Me? I’m great.” The smile twitched some more. “How are you?”
“Really? You’re great?”
“Yeah. I had a great break. I had such a great time being home. What about you?”
“Yeah,” Theo said. “Me too. Are you sure you’re ok?”
“Um, yeah. Just kind of overwhelmed. I thought maybe—I don’t know, I was having this great morning, Dylan and I were—” He faltered, then rushed ahead. “And then you never texted back, and I thought maybe you hated me and didn’t want to see me anymore. So I’m just really happy. You know. Happy to see you.”
But he didn’t look happy. That first smile, the huge one, had looked like Auggie. But the person in front of Theo had dark circles under his eyes, and he held himself awkwardly, as though keeping a very specific pose to avoid aggravating his injuries any further. Whatever he said about being worried that Theo might not show—and Theo didn’t doubt that was true; he was irritated he hadn’t forced himself to answer Auggie’s texts—something else was at the heart of Auggie’s distress. Something that had been torturing him for a lot longer.
“How are you?” Auggie asked.
“How do I look?”
Auggie bit his lip, and Theo couldn’t tell if he was on the brink of smiling or crying. He wasn’t sure Auggie knew either. “Pretty awful.”
“There you go,” Theo said.
Before Auggie could respond, Genesis stepped into the lobby. She still had her hair in braids, but she was wearing a parka and snow boots—a far change from the t-shirt