Please Remember Me Like This

That's Why They Envy Me

Please Remember Me Like This

Chapter 11: "That's Why They Envy Me"

"Dear Iandore,

Congratulations on your acceptance into Willowdale College! We hope you'll consider joining us next semester as part of our continuing, rich legacy. As a new Griffin..."

But Ian stopped reading after that, breathing a sigh of relief as he leaned back in his seat after he got the e-mail. Willowdale. Dad. Aeric.

It was all really happening.

"Well, hon, what did it say?" Mom asked, trying to refrain from looking over Ian's shoulder to look at the letter. She had to hold onto Colt's hands just to keep herself from acting too nosey.

"Yeah, come on, Ian, tell us!" Barley goaded, actually threatening to look at his laptop screen.

Oh, who was he kidding? He couldn't keep it in any longer! "I got in!" he cried, breaking into a giant smile.

"Sir Iandore of Lightfoot is gonna be a Griffin!" Barley exclaimed, picking his little brother up in a celebratory hug.

"Oh, honey, congratulations!" Mom reached over and kissed Ian's cheek. Even Blazey got into the excitement, jumping up to hug Ian by the waist. "I promise you're gonna love it!"

"Great job, sport." Colt gave an obligatory thumbs up, but Ian went out of his way to hug his stepdad, too. This was a time to celebrate everything!

"Well, I can't believe we got a piece of news as big as this before Aeric," Mom chuckled, making a joke of it.

But that had Ian's smile faltering for a moment. It'd been a full week since he healed Aeric's leg—and yeah, they acted like things were okay in front of their friends, and they still sat together in the classes they had, but other than that? Pretty much silence. No times after school getting coffee and hanging out, no late "I love you" texts. Sure, they said it in school, and Ian caught on Aeric's story their continued campaign for Prom Kings, but they seemed to just be acting the part of boyfriends instead of just... being. Which was so dumb! If he didn't love Aeric, he wouldn't have wanted to heal his leg in the first place! Obviously he loved his boyfriend more than ever, and now they were more than likely to attend college together. He still wanted Aeric. But he wanted Aeric to understand just how much magic meant to him now, and that it would just continue to be part of his life well into college.

Of course, when he asked why Aeric acted so distant when he could miraculously walk with this spell, Aeric had just said, "We could forget it all if you apologize for not asking to heal my leg first."

Well, that was rich. Ian wasn't going to concede with that attitude coming from his boyfriend. And with Victoriana postponing meetings for a week, Ian couldn't even discuss it with anyone. Sure, there was the group chat, but he hated trying to read people's tones over text when it came to something so heavy—one of the biggest struggles when it came to being on the spectrum, especially when, on the outside, nothing about him looked out of the ordinary. It was why he and Aeric usually didn't text anything too heavy.

No, he had to just wait for the next meeting. And boy, what a wait it was.

This news, though, getting into Willowdale, might actually overshadow that.

"Well, now, this calls for a celebration!" Colt declared, clapping a hand on Ian's shoulder. "Wherever you want to go, Ian. It's our treat."

"Ooh, we can invite Aeric!" Mom piped up, obviously unaware of the situation. As far as his family knew, Aeric had been totally okay with Ian healing up his broken leg (selflessly!) on a whim. "Celebrate the two new Griffins heading off into the real world!"