Page 29 of Talk to Me

Our professor smiled at him and gave him a nod.

“Yes?” she asked. “I don’t know all of your names yet.”

“Theo,” he said, lowering his arms.

Of course, at the sound of his voice and his name, several students turned to stare at him. Somehow, Theo seemed unaware of the sudden attention.

“Thank you, Theo,” she replied. “Go ahead. What are your thoughts on the overall theme of the play so far?”

Theo cleared his throat.

“So far,” he said, “it feels as though the play has no central theme. Intentionally.”

I grinned at him, watching him speak.

“It’s pointless without the audience, in the way that an audience doesn’t exist without a play to watch as a group. It aims to elicit an emotional response from each viewer in whichever way they choose to interpret it, so the theme can be different for everyone. It begs for attention from the audience, but doesn’t force itself on them.”

Our professor gave a small smile. “That’s a very—”

“He’d know a lot about begging for attention,” a freshman a few rows in front of us mumbled, but was loud enough for absolutely everyone to hear. “Dick.”

The professor stopped and stared at the student, an angry expression bursting onto her face. Theo’s head fell and his cheeks immediately turned crimson. Without willing it, my head snapped around to glare at the freshman who had spoken up.

“You’re going to be begging for medical attention if you don’t shut up.” I hissed.

The entire class erupted into a cacophony of “ooooohs” and hoots as the freshman seemed to shrivel in his seat. In the chaos of the eruption, Theo grabbed his materials off of the table, stuffed them into his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and pushed away from the table. Before I could blink, he had dashed to the front of the class and out the door. He even forgot his coffee cup in his hurry to get away.

Our professor, completely flustered by the incident, and how quickly it had happened, stared at the door, her mouth moving up and down. No sound came out, but she was obviously trying to think of something helpful to say. When she realized Theo was gone and her moment with him was over, she turned her gaze to the freshman and glowered at him. I didn’t wait to see what she would say to admonish him. I stuffed my materials into my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and grabbed the two coffee cups. I walked down the aisle and gave the offensive freshman a gesture that I hoped looked like a Voodoo curse, but not threatening enough to get me called before a tribunal.

As I raced from the room, our professor ignored my departure as she ripped into the rude freshman. I could still hear her admonishing him as the door swept closed behind me and I raced down the hall to find Theo. Mentally, I knew that Theo had too much of a head start to catch him. However, I was going to do my best before he disappeared and wallowed alone in his embarrassment.

When I dashed through the doors of the English and Language Arts building, I was shocked to find Theo sitting on one of the concrete planters, his hands in his lap as he stared down at them. I’d assumed he would race all the way back to his dorm to hide. Of course, with classes still in session for another forty-five minutes, he probably felt safe sitting down for a moment to collect himself. Running into someone within the next few minutes was unlikely since everyone was in a class.

“Theo?” I muttered as I walked over to him cautiously.

He didn’t look up, but he didn’t indicate I should leave him alone. Instead, he sighed so deeply his whole body seemed to turn into one big shrug. Not knowing what to say, I held his coffee cup out to him.

“I got your coffee,” I said gently.

He looked up briefly, doing his best to give me a smile before taking the cup from me.

“Thanks,” he said, and then looked down at his lap again.

“You all right?” I asked.

He gave me an actual shrug. His voice was shaky when he spoke, but he did his best.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be okay. I just…yeah. I’m fine.”

I looked around, seeing that we were completely alone. There was no one to witness Theo having a few moments to collect himself. There was no obvious way forward to help him, though. What could I possibly say about the embarrassment he had to feel in that moment? He’d gotten brave enough to engage in the class discussion—and make a good observation on top of it. However, there’s always the one dickhead that wanted to knock him down a peg.

“Look,” I said, “American Lit is my only Friday class. If you want to go talk, I can—”

Theo stood from the planter slowly, interrupting my thoughts. He gave me another quick look and the best smile he could muster.

“I think I just need to be alone,” he said. “If that’s okay?”

I quickly nodded. “Of course. I understand.”