Rafe noddedyes.
“Wow.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live abroad, you know? I want to take full advantage, and just going for fall semester is so short. I want to travel and keep experiencing all England has tooffer.”
“Yeah.”
“And I’ll be back junior year!”Junior year.He wouldn’t return to Browerton until he was an upperclassmen. It sounded so much longer when he put it likethat.
“Yeah,” Coop said, still shell-shocked.
“And I know you’re thinking I’m just staying because Eamonn is my first-ever boyfriend, but I’m not. Of course I’m excited to spend more time with him, but he’s just the free gift withpurchase.”
“Yeah.”
“Coop, please say something else besides ‘yeah.’” When Rafe got to his room, he kneeled on the floor and held the phone in front of him like he was praying toit.
“What about Dance Til YouDrop?”
“Dance Til You Drop,” Rafe repeated. It was a thirty-hour dance marathon that Browerton hosted every year in March to raise money for charity. He and Coop had agreed after missing out last year to do it as sophomores. They were going to dance like Charlie Brown characters for the entire time. Rafe thought of the time they practiced in their room lastyear.
“We can do it our junior and senior years,” Rafesaid.
“I guess so. Maybe I can rope Matty into doing it with me.” But it wouldn’t be the same. “Aw man, and you’re not going to see any of my performances thisyear.”
“Film them and put them up onYouTube.”
“You’re going to be missingan entire yearof college life here. Parties andstories.”
“I’ll make storieshere.”
“But I won’t know them,” Coop said with a smile. Rafe thought about the games and events he would miss. Stroude didn’t seem to have the same school spirit that Browerton had, or at least his flatmates had no interests in seeking it out. No tailgates or football games or festivals. No blizzards that blanketed the campus in winter or a river to rest along inspring.
There was Eamonn, though. Rafe wasn’t staying just for him, but that free gift with purchase was very valuable. He had never felt this way about anyone before. He knew in his heart that what they had was more than some study abroad fling. He just hoped that Eamonn felt thesame.
“Maybe I’ll come out to visit you,” Coop said. “I’ve never been toLondon.”
“You’d like it. I’ll look up British rappers we couldsee.”
“Nice.”
“So start looking upflights.”
Coop gave him the captain’s salute and ended the call. Browerton had never felt so faraway.
