Auggie started to sob.
“All right,” Theo said. It sounded very stupid, but he had no idea what else to say. “It’s going to be all right.”
They stood like that for a few more minutes, Auggie crying, Theo alternating between patting his back and rubbing slow circles.
“I’m so stupid,” Auggie said, pulling away. “Oh my God, I’m so fucking stupid. I’m sorry. There was this guy, and he—I don’t know, and then they were waiting outside, and they started yelling, and I just ran. I . . . I don’t even know why I came here, I just didn’t know where else to go.”
“Auggie.”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten you involved, I shouldn’t have come here. I’m so sorry. Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Auggie—”
“Please, oh my God, my mom will kill me. Please. You cannot tell anyone.”
“Your mom? This is way more serious. Anyway, it’s too late for that, ok? I called campus security. They’re on their way.”
“Oh my God,” Auggie said, his voice rising with panic. “He’s going to kill me. He said if I went to the police he’d kill me.”
It was Luke all over again. Theo wanted to scream. He knew every line in this fucking performance by heart.
He had found Luke in the hayloft, shot up with enough heroin to kill a horse. What Theo remembered, when he remembered that day, were the flies crawling on Luke’s eyes.
Auggie’s eyes were very brown and very wide. Helpless eyes.
Theo said, “Sit down. I need you to tell me everything, but first we have to get our story straight.”
9
When campus security left, Auggie was alone with Theo in the office; a girl with a cloud of brown curls had stopped by briefly to pick up the microwaved meal on her desk. She’d tried to hang around until one of the security guards asked her to leave. Now, Auggie sat next to Theo’s desk, replaying snatches of the day—the Community theme song, the pile of pillows squished behind him, the fragrance of Orlando’s soap, the sun hot on his neck as he ran across campus, the weight of the gun in his hand. His eyes moved to Theo’s desk.
Theo seemed to sense his thoughts because he put a hand on the drawer.
“Why did you lie to them?” Auggie asked. Theo had spun a story about meth heads trying to steal the computers. He hadn’t said anything about the distinguishing tattoos. He hadn’t said anything about the gun. Now that the guards had left, from time to time he rubbed his head, and Auggie remembered the sudden, brutal viciousness of the headbutt. Theo wasn’t excessively tall or big, but he was definitely strong, and he also apparently knew how to beat the shit out of white supremacist gang bangers. Not exactly what Auggie had expected from his Shakespeare professor.
“You told me this couldn’t go to the police,” Theo said. “If I tell campus security that two white trash assholes with a gun broke into my office to abduct a student, they’re going to take it to the police.”
“I mean, why are you helping me?”
“I’m part of a freshman transition-to-success program,” Theo said. “We’re supposed to handle this kind of stuff.”
“Oh,” Auggie said.
“That was a joke.”
“Oh,” Auggie said again.
Theo sat back; his chair bumped a banker’s box on the floor behind him, and he flinched without seeming to realize it. “You gave me the reader’s digest version while security was on the way over. I want to hear the whole thing.”
So Auggie told him. When he’d finished, he said, “And now this asshole is going to kill me, or those people he sicced on me, they’re going to kill me, or Christ, I don’t know. I am in such deep shit.”
Theo said, “It’s not the same group.”
“What?”
“The guy who was in your dorm room, he works for someone else.”
“Those guys were literally waiting outside my building after he finished knocking me around.”
“Exactly,” Theo said. “If they were working for that guy, why wouldn’t they have come upstairs with him and really put a scare in you? Why wait outside and do the whole show a second time?”
“Because—I don’t know. Because they’re not that smart. Because they thought it would send a message. Fuck, I don’t know, because they forgot to get my organ donor info for when they blow out my brains.”
“Nope. They’re working for somebody else. And that means two groups of people are ridiculously interested in the disappearance of a college senior who’s graduating in December.”
“Robert’s a freshman.”
“No,” Theo said. “He told me he was a senior.”
“He’s definitely a freshman. He rushed with the freshmen. He’s a Sigma Sigma pledge too.”
Theo tightened and relaxed his hands, knuckles popping. “Whatever. Drugs. It’s got to be drugs.”
“I don’t do drugs. I mean, I smoked some weed, but that’s basically legal in Orange County. What?”
“This isn’t about weed.”
“No, you made this little face. I mean, your mouth. I don’t know. What does that mean?”
“Of course Orange County,” Theo said. Then, before Auggie could ask what that meant, he said, “Does your roommate do drugs? Could he be involved in this somehow? Never mind, that doesn’t make any sense. They wanted to know about Robert. Why do they think you’re involved with Robert?”
“I don’t know. I don’t even know him.”
“Do you always do fun things with strangers like steal a car and drive drunk and almost kill somebody?”
“I didn’t steal—”
“Jesus Christ. Just don’t, ok? I’m trying to help you, so don’t insult me by lying to me.”
Face hot, Auggie stared past Theo, looking out a window that had a great view of South Quad.
“I’m not just talking about almost killing me,” Theo said. “I was being stupid, I get that. I shouldn’t have been in the road.”
“You were trying to kill yourself,” Auggie said. On the quad below, a girl with a yellow backpack had spilled her books, and a guy with a man bun had stopped to help her pick them up. She was laughing. He was laughing. They were taking a
