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Ezra borrows soether—like the last year never happened We end up racing each another across the big student parking lot, Ezra running backwards, laughing Then he spreads his arainst his chest and whirlslike roe of the science building’s lawn, and I stand in between the road and Ezra as he digs a quick hole with a stick and does the deed

“Did you really put them there?” I whisper

“You wantserious

“No Just put the them up”

“You sure about that?”

I nod

Ezra

Do Gooder I think it suits him I can tell, as I drive us toward Tuscaloosa, just how one Somehow, band comes up, and he seems self-conscious as he explains that he’s not in band at Auburn

“I don’t knohy,” he says “Actually that’s not true I just didn’t feel it this year Maybe later”

It makes him sad I don’t think I’d be able to read hiram and Snapchat But I know a lot of his expressions, and I feel like I have a solid understanding of his personality I’m not shocked that he feels…maybe like a failure Like he’s a little unmoored

I ask hie, and he laughs and squeezes my hand “Nah, man Not even a little I don’t knohat that means about me,” he adds wryly

“I think it just means you’re normal”

We talk a little about me and football How it’s all I’ve had for years—the only anchor, “Except you”

Mills tells e More about his car wreck

“It was scary as fuck,” he says “And I got in so much trouble Plus, you know…the lost car”