Fangirl

a mother.”
    “Solid point, my dear. Wren? Come on. Your sister’s awake.”
    Wren walked into the dining room, holding a saucepan and a trivet. “You were asleep,” she said, setting it on the table, “so I made breakfast.”
    “Oh, Christ,” their dad said. “Is that Gravioli?”
    “No,” Wren said, “it’s new Cheese Gravioli.”
    “Sit down,” he said. “We’re talking.” He was in running clothes again. He looked tense and nervous.
    Wren sat down. She was acting playful, but she was nervous, too—Cath could tell by the way she was squeezing her fists. Cath wanted to reach out and unclench them.
    “Okay,” their dad said, pushing the Gravioli away, so that it wasn’t right between them on the table. “Here are my terms: You can go back to school.” Wren and Cath both exhaled. “But you don’t drink. At all. Not in moderation, not with your boyfriend, not at parties—never. You see a counselor every week, starting this week, and you start attending AA meetings.”
    “Dad,” Wren said. “I’m not an alcoholic.”
    “Good. It’s not contagious. You’re going to meetings.”
    “I’ll go with you,” Cath offered.
    “I’m not done,” their dad said.
    “What more do you want?” Wren whined. “Blood tests?”
    “You come home every weekend.”
    “Dad.”
    “Or you can just move home. It’s your choice, really.”
    “I have a life,” Wren said. “In Lincoln.”
    “Don’t talk to me about your life, kid. You’ve shown complete disregard for your life.”
    Wren’s hands were tight fists, lumps of coal, in her lap. Cath kicked her ankle. Wren’s head dropped. “Fine,” she said. “Fine.”
    “Good,” their dad said, then took a deep breath and held on to it for a second. “I’ll drive you back later, if you think you’re ready.” He stood up and looked at the Gravioli. “I’m not eating that.”
    Cath pulled the pan closer and picked up a spoon. “I’ll eat it.” She took a bite. The noodly parts dissolved immediately in her mouth. “I like how soft it is,” she said. “I like how I don’t have to use my teeth.”
    Wren watched Cath for a few seconds, then took the spoon and scooped up a bite. “It tastes like regular Gravioli—”
    Cath took it back. “But cheesier.”
    “It’s three comfort foods in one,” Wren said.
    “They’re like pizza pillows.”
    “They’re like wet Cheetos.”
    “That’s terrible,” Cath said. “We can’t use that.”
     
    “I’m starting to feel like you don’t want me around.”
    “I’ve never wanted you around,” Simon said, trying to push past his roommate.
    “Point.” Baz moved to block the door. “That was true. Until you decided that you always wanted me around—that life is just a hollow shell of itself unless you know my heart is beating somewhere in the very local vicinity.”
    “Have I decided that?”
    “Maybe it was me who decided. Never mind. Same difference.”
    Simon took a deep, obviously unnerved, breath.
    “Snow. Are you unnerved?”
    “Slightly.”
    “Aleister almighty, I never thought I’d see the day.”

    —from Carry On, Simon, posted February 2012 by FanFixx.net author Magicath

 
    THIRTY-ONE
    Alejandro was waiting for them when they got to Schramm Hall. He shook hands with Cath formally. “Frat boy manners,” Wren said, “they all have them.” Jandro was in a fraternity on East Campus, she said, called FarmHouse. “That’s actually its name.”
    Most of the FarmHouse guys were Ag majors from outstate Nebraska. Jandro was from Scottsbluff, which was practically Wyoming. “I didn’t even know there were Mexicans out there,” Wren said, “but he claims there’s this huge community.”
    Jandro didn’t say much besides, “It’s nice to finally meet you, Cath. Wren talks about you all the time. When you post your Simon Snow stories, I’m not allowed to talk to her until she’s finished.” He looked like most of Wren’s boyfriends—short hair, clean-cut, built to play football—but Cath couldn’t remember Wren looking at any of them the way she looked at Alejandro. Like she’d been converted.
    *   *   *
    It was ten o’clock by the time Levi got back from Arnold.
    Cath had already showered and put on pajamas. She felt like the weekend had been two years long, not two days. Freshman days, she could hear Levi say.
    He called to tell her he was back. Knowing they were in the same city again made the missing him flare up inside her. In her stomach. Why