Page 1 of Talk to Me

Collin Gray’s voice changes anytime he gets excited. Something between a squeal and a hiss emanates from his mouth, directly into his victim’s ear. Nine times out of ten, over the last two years, I’ve been his victim. While I don’t begrudge my friend getting excited and wanting to share something with me, the delivery leaves something to be desired. The fact that he can get excited about almost anything doesn’t help, either. An entire class lecture can be lost to him filling my ear with his excited whistle tones because he had gotten thirty-percent off his most recent clothing purchase. It’s impossible to focus on a professor explaining the concepts of the class when you’re worried your eardrum is going to rupture before you even manage to have lunch.

The problem with Collin’s excitement really falls in when he decides to express it. He can never pick up the phone and call a guy. Or even shoot you a text. Hell, even an email would suffice for most of the things he gets excited about. Instead, he waits until your focus needs to be on something of importance, riles himself up, leans in, and wails into your ear. Somehow, he manages to be shrill enough to pierce an eardrum, yet quiet enough that no one else notices much. There’s never a witness to his assaults.

He’s a gossip, but he’s a sneaky one.

After two full years as dormmates and occasional classmates at Midway University, I’d learned to cope with his flaw. Which is why, when I sensed him lean over our shared armrest in the lecture hall during Economics of Information, I was prepared.

“That’s him.” Collin’s breath was hot against my ear.

I never understood why he felt the need to whisper so closely to my ear. Of course, no one else looked over at us, so maybe whispering directly into my ear helped muffle his gossip?

Looking up from my notes, I shot a look to my left at him, then began scanning the lecture hall. We were seated in the fourth row from the top of the amphitheater, so I quickly realized that there were a lot of rows to examine. Professor Warkesh had lowered the lights for his PowerPoint presentation, so even if I’d had a vague idea of who had caught Collin’s attention, locating his target would have been difficult.

“Who?” I replied in a sensible, human-like whisper.

“Two Gays from Blaze.”

I turned my head, giving Collin my full, bewildered attention.

“Well,” he frowned, “One Gay from Blaze now, I guess.”

“What are you—”

“That guy from Blaze University who—”

I waved him off, as if swatting a gnat buzzing around my face at a barbecue.

“Third row from the bottom. Tenth from the left. Blue blouse. He’s trying too hard to be trendy.” Collin pretended he hadn’t seen my hand splitting the air between us.

To hammer the nail home, I waved my hand in his face again, swatting him away. Collin sat back in his seat with a huff. When he crossed his arms over his chest, stuck out his bottom lip and stared straight ahead at our professor, I knew he was done bothering me. He’d read me the Riot Act after the lecture, but at least I could sit in peace and learn something for the remaining forty minutes of class. I could take notes that weren’t full of holes for once.

Though I didn’t intend to do it, I did let my eyes drift through the lecture amphitheater a few moments later, counting rows and seats, until my eyes landed on the target of Collin’s gossip. A regular looking guy in a blue…shirt…was sitting in row three, seat ten, watching Professor Warkesh’s lecture. In the dim light, I wondered how Collin could have spotted a specific person—especially one so nondescript. Why Collin had described the guy’s top as a “blouse” was another mystery. Nary a ruffle in sight, the object of Collin’s attention was wearing a nondescript collared shirt that happened to be a shade of sky blue.

His hair was short on the sides and back, a bit longer up top, kind of stylish, but in a devil may care type of way. However, from the back, he looked like any other male student at Midway University. His shirt might have been a little too fitted and stylish for a morning class—and maybe he looked a little too put together for so early in the day, especially for a college student—but he was…normal. I couldn’t help but shoot Collin an irritated glance once I realized the tea he thought was piping hot was actually iced. Since the guy appeared to be attractive from behind, the tea could have been called lukewarm, since I felt generous.

After the lecture ended, a riveting hour going over the syllabus to prepare us for the coming term, I slid my notebook and pen into my bag. Sitting near the top of the amphitheater had the advantage of making it easy to be one of the first students out of class, especially if you sat near the end of the row as Collin and I had done. So, when I saw a flash of a blue shirt whiz by up the stairs, I couldn’t help but take notice. Collin’s gossip item had whirled out of the amphitheater as if he’d grown wings.

Standing from my seat and slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I turned to find Collin pouting. Which is exactly what I’d expected. Fortunately, the people in the row behind me wanted out, so Collin wasn’t able to trap me. However, once we’d made it out of the row and up the stairs into the hallway outside of the lecture hall, I was met with his frown once more. Rolling my eyes, I slung an arm over his shoulder and pulled him along with me.

“Don’t be such a sourpuss,” I said.

“You didn’t even listen to me!” Collin replied.

“Well, if you’d wait until after class—you know, when I’m not trying to hear the lecture—I’d listen better.”

“It was important!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What could possibly be important about a gay fire thing or whatever?” I asked the logical question as we waded through the sea of Midway students.

Midway University, though a smaller midwestern college, had a dense student population due to the number of students on such a small campus. Between classes, the hallways of buildings, the quad, the dining hall, the student bookstore, the library, and computer lab were always packed. If you wanted to navigate campus without bumping shoulders with dozens of other students, you had to get up awfully early or stay late.

I didn’t mind the chaos so much. Coming from a town where the high school and middle school were in one building, the chaos was a nice change. Small town life often makes people long for the hustle and bustle of big city life. Unfortunately, Midway University was the only big thing in town. For miles, in fact. A bustling college campus, Midway University is in Big Fork, Iowa. Big Fork, Iowa is exactly in the middle of nowhere.

With a population of less than five-thousand people, Big Fork isn’t really much of a town at all. Unless you’re on campus at Midway, you won’t find much to do. There’s a pizza place, a small movie theater, and a bowling alley, but when you come to Midway University to study—that’s mostly what you end up doing. I suppose that’s the best way to look at Big Fork and Midway University. There aren’t a lot of opportunities for students to get into trouble. Unless you want to drive the half hour into Des Moines. Which I do weekly.

“A gay fire thing?” Collin gasped as we pushed our way out of the Economics building and into the open air of the quad. “Do you hear yourself?”