In Motion

Chapter 10: To Be Alone With You by Sufjan Stevens (2004)

I still had no idea what to do with Martin. He texted me to meet him at the AS Lobby that rainy Friday afternoon.

I found him standing by the pillars, listening intently to a rally. Others milled around and ignored the program. The activists were saying what they always had since last year: Rollback the tuition.

Mine was peanuts compared to what Martin's batch was made to cough up. My folks wouldn't mind forking that amount over, still a fifth of the tuition in the university across. But a 300-percent increase was eye-popping. I could see why Martin felt concerned, even if his academic god status spared him from it.

I stood beside him and felt him scoot closer. His face was scrunched in concentration. Speaker after speaker was pointing out the same thing: The admin made an underhanded dick move. Inflation was a shitty justification. UP was becoming inaccessible. State education was being privatized. All fair things, really. But the admin would sooner level the Sunken Garden than reverse course.

After a few minutes, Martin bumped my shoulder and motioned his head to the exit.

The rain was unrelenting from where we were standing: hard, heavy August monsoon drenching the campus. Martin was unfurling a foldable umbrella as I stared at the sky.

"Mine is, uhm," I said, scratching my head and giving him a goofy grin. "It's in the car."

"That's not cute," Martin deadpanned, though the softness in his eyes told me otherwise.

He offered his umbrella to me. I hunched myself under it.

We began walking down AS Steps as the rain pounded his flimsy umbrella. On instinct, I put an arm around him and pulled him closer. I looked at the ground, careful not to slip. Martin's grip on the umbrella was shaking, either from the cold or the sudden closeness. We reached my car with half of our bodies drenched.

"If I had a car, I'd keep two giant umbrellas in it," Martin said, full on mockery. "No, make it five. I'd dump five of those in the trunk."

I heard an "Ugh" escape from my throat as I rubbed water droplets off of my hair. "Why were you there anyway?" I asked, my turn to poke fun at him. "Are you joining the rally?"

Martin gave me a long death glare, his eyebrows threatening to become a unibrow. "I wanted to hear what they were saying, okay?" he said, his voice clipped.

Feeling like a total asshole, I drummed the steering wheel with my fingers and stared at my wipers. He was looking down and rubbing his palms on the wet parts of his shirt.

"I really think the tuition increase is unjust," he said, his voice hinting at frustration again. "My parents would probably be looking for that money if I didn't have my--" he cut himself off. "Anyway, whatever," he continued, shaking his head. "So many others couldn't. My friends from high school took full rides in other schools."

"Is that why I'm your only friend here?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood.

Martin tried to give me another glare. Instead his expression broke into a smirk.

"Look, I get the economics of it," he lamented with a sigh. "But the least I could do is, I don't know, support those who are opposing it. Heart in the right place and all that."

"You want to do our next paper on that?" I asked, thinking fast on my feet. "State universities? Issues of access in developing countries?"

Martin looked at me. With his damp, swishy hair. With his thick eyebrows and facial hair that grew out too fast.

"See, this is why I keep you around," he said, his dimples deepening.

I stuck my tongue out at him, relieved that I was in the clear. "You wanna go somewhere?" I asked, determined not to let signal number bajillion ruin our dat-- our plan.