Earth to Me

Chuck and Riley had bought plane tickets to Chicago for that weekend, and it would’ve gone to waste if they just flew back the next day. So, even if they had to rent out a cheap hotel in the suburbs, it still meant that Tegan and I had a few of our peers to talk to in order to pass a nice Sunday’s time.

The last thing any of us wanted to do was spend it cooped up indoors, though, so I just drove us all into the city to find a nice park to sit in. It wasn’t hard, considering how many parks were all around Chicago, and eventually I just ended up going straight to the one I went to all the time as a kid. The weather was perfect – sunny but not too hot, windy but not a tornado.

In fact, that was one thing that Chuck and Riley both liked to complain about: the weather. They’d tell us how horrible it was down in Gainesville, especially Riley, who could go on for hours about the humidity. Even if Chuck hailed from New Jersey originally, he didn’t have nearly as much to say.

“Man, this is beautiful!” Riley wailed, stretching the second after we all filed out of my car. “Fucking miles ahead of gator country, that’s for sure.”

“You make it out to seem like anything is better than your hometown,” Tegan rolled her eyes. Dressed in jeans and a striped tanktop, she combed her short hair back with her fingers.

Chuck shrugged and said, “Well, it is. Not much going on down there.”

“Well, except for all the assholes who think they’re better than us just ‘cause they go to UF, but we won’t head down that path,” Riley said with a snarky tone. He twisted his baseball cap backwards. “I’m tellin’ ya’ll, living around a bunch of snobs who think they’re the shit just ‘cause they can afford to go to school – that’s the worst.”

Tegan and I glanced at each other as we walked toward the lush green grass of the park. Weirdly enough, this was the same park we strolled through the day Mick found out he could control plants, back in 2011. She raised her eyebrow and then looked back at our buddies.

“We weren’t, like, talking about you guys,” Chuck quickly saved, flailing his hands and blushing. “You’re cool. You don’t have that arrogance that some people have.”

“Yeah, ya’ll are art majors anyway, so it’s practically like you’re not even going to college,” Riley joked.

To be honest, I never minded those jokes. There are plenty of other horrible things people could say about me, that’s for sure.

Tegan, however, shot him a nasty look. “Suck my left nut.”

He just smiled, his teeth bright white, and said, “I was kiddin’ around, jeez. Touchy.”

We found a spot to sit in the shade underneath a tree, and despite risking sitting in dirt, it was worth it to not have to stand in the warmth. We didn’t bring a blanket or anything, so we had to sit in it straight-on. People were walking all around us, kids in strollers and adults hanging out with their friends, and overall, it was just a peaceful kind of day, a moment of silence in the big city.

“So,” Tegan said, leaning back on her hands, “you guys still saving up your cash down there?”

Chuck nodded, his legs crossed. “Yeah, I’m at Santa Fe College right now. Technically I should be back there ‘cause classes have started, but I just took the weekend off.”

“Of course you did,” Riley smirked. “You’re the least punk-rock person out there, just doin’ what you think you have to.”

Chuck was obviously used to this. “Well, I wanna work in journalism, so I kinda have to go to college to do that. You don’t need much to be a bartender for life.”

“Eat my asshole,” Riley grumbled. “And I’m trying to become a roadie, for your information.”

“So are you gonna transfer to another school or are you gonna stay in Gainesville?” I jumped in, hoping to squish the inevitable fight before it happened.

Chuck smiled a bit, his glasses glinting in the sunlight. “I wanna transfer to UCF next fall when I get the money. I gotta work a little more at my current job, though.”

“Oh yeah, you’re a waiter, aren’t you?” Tegan inquired. “That sucks.”

He just shrugged; for a second, he even looked smug. “It could be worse. I’ve gotten thicker skin ‘cause of it, that’s for sure.”

I was counting on Riley to make a fat joke, but thankfully, he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he was staring at his fingernails, worn and weathered from so much hands-on work.

“I just wish I worked harder in high school, since I might’ve gotten a few more scholarships that way,” Chuck laughed airily. “When I moved from New Jersey, a few things got screwed up along the way.”

“At least you got a scholarship at all,” Riley grumbled.

I bit the inside of my lip, not knowing how to react to that. My dad made me apply to scholarships at the end of my senior year and I did end up getting a few (my Latino/dead mother sob stories came in handy for that), but nothing that covered the whole cost of college. These two were in a much different boat – they didn’t just have to work for a summer to cover most outside expenses; they were working just to have a home.

Every so often I remembered how different me and Tegan were from them. That was one of those moments.

“But shit, at least we’re out of our parents’ houses. Right, Chucky?” Riley smiled a bit wickedly, elbowing his friend.

“Yeah, true,” he said, resting his chin in his hand. “It’d be nice to not eat frozen lasagna every other night, though. Not that I’m complaining or anything.”

“I’m just waitin’ for the moment I can move up north and actually do shit,” Riley sighed long and loud, staring up at the sky. “And I can wear shorts every day and not melt my balls off.”

“Go to New Jersey, you’ll love it,” Chuck said sarcastically.

Riley just patted his back hard, saying, “Thanks, buddy! I’m glad you’re thinkin’ of me.”

“It’s kinda hard not to when you’re around me all the time,” he grunted. I was never able to tell whether or not he was serious.

“Really, I appreciate having someone attached at my hip all the time,” Tegan laughed, poking me in one of my jelly rolls. “But I guess it’s different if you actually like the person.”

“Oh, he loves me. He’s just saying that to sound hard-to-get,” Riley said, mussing Chuck’s hair.

I don’t know if Chuck knew, but I caught him smiling a little bit.

Later that day, we drove them to the airport so they could go on their merry way home. When Riley gave out his weird little hugs, Chuck shook our hands, and then we said goodbye to our fellow teen guardians once again. I’m not sure why, but it felt like it was officially the end of summer, even if we still had a few days to savor before going back to college.

Soon enough, we’d be sitting back in our dorms surrounded by homework, left to fend for ourselves with too many adult things to handle. Right then, it was just nice to know that even though a few people could seem worlds apart at first, in the end we were all just regular people who happened to have powers granted by the universe and its odd ways.

------

Move-in day came much faster than I would have liked.

It was the Saturday before classes were set to start, and just like the previous year, it ended up making everybody extremely sweaty and incredibly smelly. My dad helped me just like when I moved into Hitchcock Hall a year before, and Tegan’s mom helped her out too, but this time we had a newer face to give us a hand – Shira.

And honestly, she was very much appreciated. We were on the second floor of Breckinridge Hall that time around, and her extra muscle came in handy. When we were all done and unpacked, though, I could’ve sworn I saw a tear drop from her eye when she hugged Tegan goodbye, but I stayed out of it and instead focused on more relevant things, like saying goodbye to my own dad.

Like last year, we went out to lunch at McRonald’s and he had to fight to keep from crying, but this time around, he kept it all in. Not a single sob. He just looked me square in the eye, smiled, and said, “You are going to do great again, Oshie. You made the Dean’s list last year, just remember that. You will do well.”

(I easily could’ve said, “Yeah, well, I’m an art major, of course I made the Dean’s list,” but I didn’t.) “Thanks, papá,” I smiled instead.

He held me tightly, feeling so small despite him being an inch taller than me, and he kissed me square on the cheek, his incoming beard scratching against my awful baby-face. “I will miss you, mijo. I will keep up with you online, and I will call you, but I will still always think of you. Do great things this year.”

I nodded and said I would try, and then with one more hug, Dad was speeding off again back to the suburbs, back to our home.

Like I expected, there was another hollow feeling in my chest after watching him pull out of the parking lot again, but ultimately, it wasn’t as bad as the last year. I didn’t have to bite back a waterfall of tears, and I knew that I’d see him on weekend visits as usual. He was my dad, for crying out loud – he had always been there, and he always would be.

Tegan, however, stood outside of my door, and it was like a repeat of last year; she was wiping her eyes, and when I asked her what was wrong, she looked up at me and said, “My mom cried again. I swear to God, if she keeps doing this every time I go to college, she’s gonna con me into living back at home when I graduate.”

I laughed and hugged her to try and cheer her up, and she went back to her room to unpack, saying how her roommate was a sorority girl and she definitely didn’t have high hopes again.

“Plus, she’s got a cross hanging above her bed, so who knows how she’ll react when my girlfriend comes to town?” she had snorted.

I told her I hoped things would be okay, turning back into my own room. It was around one in the afternoon and Murray hadn’t showed up yet, but earlier that week, he had texted me to let me know that he would be a little late on move-in day since he was eating out with his family. I just stared the mass of crap sitting around my side of the room for a moment, and then I dug in.

I was halfway through unpacking when the door unlocked, a familiar voice cutting through the silence – “Hey sweetheart, I’m back!”

When I looked up from my careless organizing, there he was in all of his glory – Murray Grant, the best roommate I ever could’ve asked for, flashing me a million-dollar smile that always had a way of letting me know that things were gonna be alright.