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“Same old.”
“Listen, I hear your fish tank filter running. How long have you been in your dorm room?”
“I dunno. What day is it?”
“Okay, enough. Meet me at the Engineering building and we can walk on the path there. It’s a decent walk and pretty enough. You can get some exercise and some fresh air.”
“Do I…?”
“Yes. It’s an order.”
“See you there in fifteen.”
I hang up, pull on some track pants and a hoodie, and head for Engineering. Even if you’re a freshman like me, Engineering is the easiest building to find on campus. It’s the one with the enormous boulder out front. The one the engineering students paint every semester with their new batch of classmates. Weird colors and freaky stick figures, and always the current class year.
Seeing it used to make me smile.
Seeing it today, nothing.
I wave. Hunter sees me and runs up. He gives me a hug and a kiss. Softer than usual. He’s treating me like I will break. Maybe he’s right. Maybe I am at the breaking point. He takes my hand, and we stroll down the tree-lined path.
Hunter stays silent. He’s waiting for me. I don’t want to, but I will. He wants me to vent.
“It’s hard, you know?”
“What?”
“Accepting all of this. It’s like two planets colliding and the stars didn’t give out a warning.”
“Uh, Wren, you’re not making much sense.”
“Yeah.” I sigh.
Hunter spies some wildflowers. He picks a bunch, wraps one long stem around the stalks as a handhold, and offers the bouquet to me.
I smirk.
“What?”
“Those are goldenrods.”
“Nice, huh? Such a pretty yellow, don’t you think?”
“They’re weeds, Hunter. You’re lucky I’m not allergic. So many people are.”
“Oh.” Hunter tries to take them back. I whip the bouquet out of his reach.
“Nope. They are a perfect metaphor for how I’m feeling about my family. Weeds. Sickness inducing weeds.”
“You know I didn’t mean to –”
“Yeah.” I smile. “I know. And thanks. First real reason to smile in days.” Hunter’s goofy offering breaks my emotional ice. “How the hell am I supposed to look eye-to-eye at anyone in my family again?”
Hunter jerks his head. His eyebrows jump. “You look eye-to-eye? From where I’m standing, you haven’t done a goddamned thing to be shamed about. Of the four, you’re the one with pristine hands here.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
“Don’t guess. I know.”
