The Long Way Home

Asher Hayes has been the roommate of the narrator for three years, and in that time the narrator has met several of his ex-girlfriends. Asher is handsome, popular, and draws attention from men and women alike, though he has always brushed off such advances. When he mentions that a man confessed to him, the narrator pulls a hand away and forces a smile as the table laughs.

The narrator cannot say when these feelings began, only that Asher is the one who calls during holidays and carried the narrator down six flights of stairs during a fever. Then Asher introduces Chloe, tall and fair, and the narrator eats until sick, walks back to campus alone, and watches the two of them together.

When Asher and Chloe break up, the narrator offers silent comfort from a distance. At the graduation party, Asher drinks himself unconscious, and the narrator leans close in the dim light, only for Asher to turn over in his sleep.