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Second-se their free periods, so on Tuesday I run out to Panera for bagels and lattes, then come back and meet Gray in the co A Room of One’s Own for book club with his busted ankle propped up on a bench It’s just a bad sprain, but he’s on crutches for a couple of weeks at least
“Eh,” he said when the doctor told hiames left anyway”
I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t sound all that broken up about it He still hasn’t talked to his e
“My hero,” he says now, taking his bagel and lifting his face to kissthe book up for ,” he reports
“Oh, shush,” I chide, though the truth is I read the first fifty pages last night and it’s not like he’s wrong, exactly I sit down on the bench beside hi intothe mail icon onat your phone during school hours he’ll take it for the rest of the day, where it sits in a big basket in the admin suite labeled with a picture of an anthropo enormous cartoon tears that he must have printed off the internet, but Brown notifications are going out this week, and I’ve been refreshing my email every fifteen ain before I came back into school, but this tiasp: there’s BROWN UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS in the sender line
Gray looks up from his book “Hm?”
I shakeWhen I pictured thisthiscal of tea beside eness and inevitability of the occasion so to overcome the inconvenience of the facts that I don’t drink tea or have a cat Now I force myself to take a breath, to take in the scene around rass out the , the faintly medicinal s in my lap I want to remember exactly how this feels
Dear Marin,
Thank you for your interest in Brown University Unfortunately, I’m very sorry to inform you that we are unable to offer you ad academic year
I feel the blood drain out of ers For a long, disorienting et the words to compute
I didn’t get in
I didn’t even make the wait list
The letter goes on fro how orous the adet into Brown doesn’t ht acade is written in a language I don’t understand My heart slae My hands and feet are cold and nued, I realize grimly: I was overconfident, too sure I was in control of as happening I played it all wrong
Gray glances over at ht eyebrows “Everything okay?” he asks
“Uy ht I re to have to tellto have to tell Gram when it’s all she’s ever wanted for ht throw up