“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 lot longer than they needed to, just to pick up a few books. And Auggie wondered what that would be like, to just be able to have things happen like that. He realized the silence had dragged on.
“No,” Theo said like he was explaining a difficult passage. “I wasn’t. Anyway, my point is that you could have hit another car, you could have crashed into pedestrians on the sidewalk, you could have hit a tree or a building and killed yourself and Robert.”
“I don’t need another dad, for the love of fuck.”
Theo’s blond eyebrows arched slightly. The hum of the computer’s fan sounded like a tornado.
Auggie let his gaze slide back to Theo. “Look, I get it. I screwed up. It’s not going to happen again. I’m here to get my life back on track; I’m not going to let it happen again.”
“Get your life back on track? What does that mean?”
“Nothing.”
“If I’m sticking my neck out to help you on this, then it means something, and I want to know.”
“Who the fuck asked you to stick your neck out?” Auggie couldn’t help it; his voice slid into a mockery of Theo’s tone on the last words.
“You did, when you barged in here and said something like ‘Please don’t let them kill me.’”
The heat in Auggie’s face flashed into pinpricks. “That’s not what I said. But, yeah. Ok. Thank you, again. And . . . and I’m sorry. I’m freaking out.”
“What do you mean, get your life back on track? Were you involved in some kind of trouble back home? Could these guys have followed you here?”
“No. Look, I’ve got this . . . business, I guess. On social media.”
Theo’s expression was blank. “Like, Facebook?”
For the first time in what felt like days, something loosened in Auggie’s chest, and he laughed. Pulling out his phone, he opened Instagram and passed it over. “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. There’s a new one called Snapchat, and I think it’s about to explode. Here, this is one of our most popular videos ever.”
Theo watched it and said, “You’re a pretty good dancer. Who are these other guys?”
“Oh, my buddies Logan and Devin.”
Scrubbing a hand through his thick beard, Theo said, “How do I watch it again?”
Auggie tapped the screen.
When it finished this time, he said, “I don’t get it.”
“There’s nothing to get.”
“You try to eat a slice of pizza. Then your buddies drag you away before you can get it. You guys dance to ‘Walk Like an Egyptian.’ Then you eat pizza and pretend to spill it on each other. Then it shows an empty pizza box.”
“Yeah.”
“And that got six hundred thousand likes?”
“Yeah, I told you, it’s one of our most popular.”
“What in the world?”
“Ok, well, some people like it,” Auggie said, snatching the phone back. “And I was on track to get this huge sponsorship deal in South Korea—I’m really big in South Korea—and then, um, something happened.”
“What?”
“Can we not talk about this? I promise it’s got nothing to do with these guys showing up or Robert or drugs or whatever the hell this is about.” Auggie blew out a breath, wagged the phone at Theo, and said, “Old guys aside, a lot of people actually like what I do, so I’ve just got to keep my name out of the news, build my brand, and my agent is sure we’ll get that deal in the spring.”
“You swear you’re telling me everything about Robert? You met him by chance at the bid party, you guys decided to do something stupid because you were drunk, that was the end of it?”
“That was the end. I haven’t seen him since. I thought about blocking him, because he said he followed me, but I couldn’t figure out which handle was his. That’s it.”
For a moment, Theo just scratched his beard. Then he said, “The responsible thing to do right now, the right thing to do, is tell you to take this to the police. I know, you already told me you don’t feel like you can do that.”
“That guy was not joking. He’ll know. And he’ll kill me.”
“I said I know, but I’m also telling you, I still feel obligated to say you should go to the police.”
Auggie’s heart had begun to thump. He scooted closer in the chair; his knee bumped Theo’s.
“But?”
“But I was married to a cop for almost five years. And Ian was really frustrated by the fact that police work is almost always cleaning up after the mess happens.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning this guy might be telling you the truth.”
“Wait, you were married to a cop?”
“Yes.” Theo rolled his eyes. “Believe it or not, not everyone finds me so boring they fall asleep on the first day of class.”