Talk Too Much by Coin is the inspiration for this novella and really accurately represents Auggie and his future relationship so feel free to listen to this while reading :)
Emryn: 22
Auggie: 18
September 10 2032
He never regretted his parent's decision to let him go to the same school as his siblings. He's glad they tried to make his life as normal as possible. He's glad they didn't make a big deal about him being a prodigy.
He never wanted to feel different.
And they never forced him to feel anyway that he didn't want to.
He was a prodigy, however. Insanely smart. Beyond smart. Albert Einstein kind of smart. But, he never liked people to know that, so he tried to blend in. He didn't often answer questions in class—even though he knew all of them— because he didn't like to draw attention to himself.
That was half due to him not wanting people to know he's a prodigy and half due to his stutter. Now it's true that his stutter didn't bother him too much, but it was still an annoyance to him at some points.
His speech therapy had helped a bit. His stutter is definitely not as severe as it was when he was a kid. He still stutters on most words, but not excessively. It comes out more when he's feeling intense emotions like fear, sadness, or excitement.
He was really grateful that his parents gave him a normal childhood, he wouldn't have wanted it any different. The fact that he could've gotten his GCSE by the time he was 9 didn't matter to him. Family mattered to him, and if his parents would've chosen to send him to a boarding school for prodigies—which most of his doctors strongly encouraged his parents to do—he doesn't know if he could've ever forgiven them. The relationships with his siblings that he has because he got to stay at home and live a normal childhood is something he wouldn't trade for the world.
However, now he's 18 and starting University like the rest of kids his age—except he's already gotten two degrees (one in economics and the other in mathematics that he earned online) but still, now he's getting the actual university experience. Living away from home, going to Oxford, having the opportunity to make friends.
Okay, that last part isn't exactly apart of his big dream. In fact, it's not apart of it at all. He had a few friends back home. Mostly from his prodigy program that he went to after school on most days, but now he's in a new city and he knows no one and he's almost 2 hours from home with a roommate who he hasn't talked to since he got here and...he has no idea what to do.
His alarm starts ringing, but it doesn't wake him up because he never went to sleep last night. He's been laying in bed completely awake just starting at the ceiling and anxiously waiting for his alarm to go off to tell him that he needs to start getting ready.
And now it's ringing.
And he wants to do anything except go to school.
He contemplates not going, he really does, but ultimately he's too much of a rule follower to not go, so he gets up.
He quietly opens his door and looks down the hall of his new apartment, checking to see if his roommate's door is still closed. It is, so he quietly tiptoes past the door and towards the bathroom at the end of the hall.
He squirts the toothpaste onto his brush and looks at himself in the mirror, combing his hand through his bleach blonde hair and rubbing at his blue eyes.
He doesn't want to do this.
Too many people.
Too many new people.
Too many opportunities for professors to play Get To Know You games. Oh my gosh he'd rather die a long and painful death.
He spits into the sink and stands by the toilet as he pees into it yawning widely and smacking his lips together. Maybe he should've gone to sleep last night.
Just as he's about to strip down to take a shower to procrastinate leaving the apartment even longer, the door to the bathroom door bangs open making him jump and quickly turn around, not even realizing that his pants are still down from peeing.
"Oh! Sorry mate!"his roommate, Jake, quickly responds, adverting his eyes. "Sorry, the door was open...and I'm still pretty hungover...not used to sharing a bathroom with people...sorry."
"Y-You're g-g-g-good,"Auggie assures him, his stutter worsens when he's afraid or startled, just like when he was a little kid. He quickly pulls up his pants and disregards the idea of a shower, leaving Jake alone in the bathroom while he makes it back to his room.
Jake went to the Welcome Back (or welcome to) Oxford Party last night that practically the whole college went to. Would it have been good for Auggie to go and meet people? Sure. Did he stay home and read his genetics textbook instead? Why, yes. Yes he did.
While in there, he puts on a black and white striped long sleeved t-shirt with black jeans and his black high top converse. Well, actually they're not his converse, they're actually Bowie's, but he stole them two weeks ago and Bowie is still yet to have noticed.
He does one swipe through his hair that is now long enough to fall into his eyes. Darcy always teases him that it's getting too long and that she needs to be able to see his "twin eyes" since they have the exact same eyes, but he likes hit a bit longer.
He puts on his new glasses, black circular lenses and grabs his book bag, sliding his arms through the holes and walking out of his room.
He makes a quick stop by the fridge, opening it up and getting out an apple to eat on the way to class. His mum would chastise him and tell him that that's not nearly enough for breakfast, but she's not here right now, and honestly he doesn't really know how to cook.
He begins his trek up to campus, his apartment is only a few blocks away and decides to make a call on his way there, wanting to seem busy so that no one tries to talk to him. He plugs in his earbuds and clicks the contact that will always be able to make him better.
"Augs! Hey mate! How are you? You haven't had class yet, right?"a 21 year old Darcy bubbles with a huge smile, sitting at her kitchen table and scooping oatmeal into her mouth. Her brown curls are pulled into a messy bun and her eyes have a couple bags under them. He knows how hard she's been working in midwifery school, and it's definitely showing. She's always been really hardworking, especially since she's the sole provider of Penny.
"H-Hey D-D-D,"Auggie smiles over a bite of his apple. "N-No I-I-I h-h-haven't b-been t-to c-class y-y-yet. I-I'm w-w-walking t-there r-right n-n-now."
"Exciting!"Darcy squeals, winking at Auggie before shoveling another spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth. She talks over the bite with a full mouth, making Auggie giggle a bit as the words come out muffled. "Do you want to say hi to Munches?"
"T-T-That's t-t-the o-o-only r-reason I-I c-called,"Auggie playfully jokes, winking at his older sister.
Darcy laughs and hands the phone over to her little girl who's sitting across from her. Penny's big blue eyes that match her mother's and Auggie's widen happily as she looks at her uncle. Her hazel waves brush the tips of her shoulder and show that they definitely have not been combed yet this morning.
"H-Hey b-b-babe! H-How's m-m-my f-favorite 2 y-year o-old d-d-doin'?" He smiles as he watches her face scrunch up adorably. She just turned 3 six days prior, so she knows he's teasing her, and she's very proud to be 3, so she doesn't appreciate being called a 2 year old.
"I free,"Penny replies with a bit of sass in her voice, holding up three of her little fingers. "Not two! I not a baby, Auggie!"
"O-Oh y-you're r-right,"Auggie playfully rolls his eyes and slaps a palm against his forehead. "H-How s-silly of m-m-me."
"Tell uncle Auggie to have a good day at school,"Darcy prods Penny.
"Have good day at school!"Penny lisps with a smile.
"T-thanks, b-b-babe,"Auggie smiles widely, blowing a kiss to the screen. "I-I l-l-love y-you Pea."
"Ove oo moreeeeee,"Penny sings tilting her chin up and holding out the last syllable.
Auggie chuckles as Darcy takes back the phone. "You'll do great, Gussy. I love you love you love you. Have a great day and call me after, okay? And call mum after too, she's been a mess since you left."
Both Darcy and Lennon went to a university that was just 20 minutes away from the Styles house, so they were never far away. And, Darcy lived with her parents until a couple of months ago when she got her own apartment, but still, the apartment is only five minutes away from her parents house. So, neither Harry nor Camryn are doing too well with Auggie being so far away. He's the first to actually leave the nest and it's a bittersweet moment for them.
"I-I w-will,"Auggie chuckles. "L-Love y-you t-t-too."
***
He makes his way to the science building and all the way to 24B, his physics class. He walks to the back of the classroom, sitting in the very corner and feels his heart drop when he realizes that they're connected desks. Two people per desk.
His worst nightmare.
He sighs and drops his bag on the floor before sitting down and cautiously looking around the classroom. Almost every seat is filled which means the odds of someone sitting next to him are just rising.
He's staring at his textbook (he already read it 3 times last night when he couldn't sleep, even though he already knew all the material), but he wants to appear as if he's doing something.
"This seat taken?"
Before he can even really realize what's happening or respond to the question, there's a girl sitting next to him with a huff, throwing her bag on the floor with a bang and tipping her seat back on the two back legs so that she can rest her head against the back wall.
She has split dyed hair, one side is bright blue and the other is purple. Her winged eyeliner is thick and surrounds her whole eye. She also has a silver septum piercing as well as a black eyebrow piercing.
She catches Auggie peeking over at her, even though he's trying to be as nonchalant as possible, and raises her eyebrows at him. "You good?"
He quickly whips his eyes away from her and nods his head silently, pretending to go back to reading the textbook.
"You know class hasn't even started yet,"the girl snickers, looking at how he's already 3/4 of the way through the textbook.
Auggie nods and continues to look at the book.
"You don't talk much do you,"she observes, continuing to study him with her brilliant green eyes. She blows a bubble with her bubble gum and taps the toe of her black Doc Marten boot on the tile floor of the classroom.
He remains silent, completely enraptured and completely confused by everything that she is.
She sighs, getting a bit bored and bangs the back of her head against the wall a couple of times. "Bud, you're gonna need to say at least one word to me this semester if we're gonna get anywhere."
Auggie peers up at her cautiously and stays silent, but he doesn't need to talk, she does enough talking for the both of them.
"I like your shirt,"she offers, her eyes casting down to his striped shirt.
"T-T-Thanks,"Auggie whispers with a kind grin. He looks at hers. It's a black shirt with an electric blue dragon on it, she also has an electric blue long sleeved shirt under it with black ripped skinny jeans. "I-I l-like y-yours."
"Thanks,"she nods. And she doesn't say anything about his stutter. As insane as it might seem, everyone no matter how old they are and how many manners they have, says at least one comment about his stutter when they first hear it. It catches people off guard, but not her. It doesn't even phase her. "You look really young for a fourth year."
This class that they're currently in is only offered for fourth years, but the university of course made an exception because he's smarter than every single fourth year in the university. Every professor too, actually.
"I-I'm a-a f-first y-year,"he simply replies, not taking his eyes off of her.
She doesn't take her eyes off of him either as she continues to lean back on her tipped chair with her head resting against the back wall. "You're a first year?" Her darkly filled in brows furrow. "Today's your first day? You some sort of child prodigy or something?"
He smirks and nods. "K-Kinda."
"Wait actually?"she asks, thinking he's playing with her.
Auggie nods and taps his fingers on his open textbook.
"Hmmm that's cool,"she decides, using her pointer fingers as drums on her legs, beating to a rhythm in her head as she nods along. "70842 times 42084."
"W-What?"Auggie asks, very confused.
"You said you were a child prodigy,"the girl replies, turning her head to look at him again and challenge him. "What's 70842 times 42084?"
Auggie casts his eyes to the ceiling as he quickly replies, "2,981,314,728."
The girl looks at him, her face dropping as she tips her chair back onto the ground, quickly pulling out her phone from her backpack and typing the numbers into her calculator. Auggie looks over at the phone as the exact number he said appears on the screen. 2,981,314,728. She looks up at him with wide eyes. "Woah."
Auggie chuckles and nods, he's become very accustomed to people being in awe of him, but it makes him a bit uncomfortable. He doesn't like to be the center of attention.
"You're my partner for every project for the rest of the year." Most people would say this in a joking manner, playfully teasing him about how smart he is, but she's not joking at all.
He nods at her with a chuckle. It doesn't seem like he gets a choice in the matter, but he's got no better options screaming at him.
"I like your glasses,"she offers again, "pretty cool. My ex boyfriend had the same pair." She looks at the white board and taps her pencil against the desk with a shrug. "He was addicted to drinking hand sanitizer. Really awful guy actually. Really mean to me."
Well, what does he say to that?
He's already terrible at conversations, but this girl and her way of speaking so plainly and matter of factly is making it even harder on him.
"S-S-Sorry?"he tries, glancing over at her to check to see if her face will let onto that being either the right of wrong answer.
"Don't be" is all she says, not looking at him.
They don't talk for the rest of the class, although she does make snarky comments under her breath the entire time, and Auggie's gotta admit that most of them are pretty funny.
"Alright, and for the final thing before class is over,"the professor says, standing behind his desk and pointing to the board. "We will have a small group project that's due by next class. Just a little thing to introduce us all to each other since we'll be spending the rest of the year together. You can all pick your partners." The bell rings and everyone stands up in a haste.
Auggie's shoving his textbook in his backpack when he feels her stand up and put on her back backpack, turning around to look at him. "I'll see you at your flat, yeah?"
"U-uh,"Auggie chokes, looking up at her with furrowed brows.
"My place is a dump,"she simply states. "Trust me, you'd rather it be at your house."
"O-Okay,"Auggie simply nods.
She takes a gum wrapper out of her pocket and bites the cap off of a pen as she writes on it before sliding it across the desk to him. "That's my number. Be careful with it, you could make some good money selling it. Text me your address. I'll be at your place around 5, capeesh?"
"U-um,"Auggie mutters, completely stunned. She's so straightforward, not that that's a bad thing, he's just so...not.
"Just say yes,"the girl sighs, shoving her hands into her pockets, "I'm not an ax murderer. Although, I suppose that's what an ax murderer would say." She wiggles her eyebrows and fingers at him. "Oooo, so spooky. 'Kay, see ya, bye. I'm out!"
She walks towards the door with so much confidence that it just oozes out of her.
He's never met anyone like her and it amazes him and terrifies him at the same time. He has no idea what to think.
"W-Wait,"Auggie calls, standing up from the desk, and holding his hand out as if that will help stop her.
She stops in the doorway and turns around, one earbud in her ear and the other she's swinging around by the wire in her hand.
"I-I d-d-didn't c-catch y-y-your n-name,"Auggie says, looking right at her.
"Emryn,"she simply responds. "But you can call me the love of your life." She winks at him with a smile that suggests she's completely joking. "And yours?"
"A-August."
"Like the month,"she checks.
He simply nods.
"Were your parents on drugs when they named you?"she snickers, continuing to swing around her earbud, wrapping it around her finger and then spinning it unloose.
He doesn't know what to say, so he just looks at her. He's finding that more often than not he doesn't know how to respond to her comments.
She sees his face pale and confusion and worry cross his features and she laughs while rolling her eyes. "I'm kidding, mate. You're talking to a girl who's name is Emryn." She walks out of the door and then turns around, looking at him once more. "Oh and by the way my parents were on drugs when they named me."
Normally he'd think she was joking because he doesn't think that's something a person would admit to a stranger, but something about the way she says it so nonchalantly makes him think she's telling the truth.
***
"Hi." She's standing on her doorstep at 4:58pm and obsessively blowing and popping the bubble gum that's in her mouth. He really hopes it's not the same piece from class. "Do you notice anything different about me?" She uses her hands to motion at her whole body and he looks her up and down.
Nothings different? Same hair, same clothes, same everything?
He looks her up and down again to see if he missed anything.
"Woah, creep, stop checking me out,"she rolls her eyes, "gosh, can't a girl just walk these fine streets and not get objectified?"
Once again, he's speechless.
"Don't piss yourself, prodigy, I'm kidding,"she smiles warmly. She's like whiplash. He really doesn't know what to make of her. She points to her lip where a black ring is hanging. "I got my lip pierced, do you like?" She juts out her bottom lip and raises her eyebrows at him questioningly.
"O-Oh,"Auggie nods with a smile, holding onto the doorhandles. Of course. It's so obvious, how did he not notice? "Y-Yeah, I-It l-l-looks g-g-good."
"Thanks,"she smiles, "I was exploring the streets and came upon a tattoo parlor and saw that they did pierceings, and I thought why the hell not?" She motions towards her lip. "And botta bang botta boom, here we are. I got a tattoo too."
"W-What I-is i-it?"he asks curiously. He genuinely is curious. With her, he's concerned about what the answer will actually be.
She points to her butt and smirks, "it says 'get ready to party' on my butt cheeks."
He can't stop his jaw from dropping. "Y-Y-You're j-j-joking."
"Yeah, I'm just joking,"Emryn concedes, with a smile, "it's actually on my vagina." She goes on her tippy toes to look behind his shoulder. "Can I go in?"
She doesn't wait for him to answer because he's still absolutely stunned by her tattoo comment, so she shoulders past him and into the apartment, dropping her backpack by the sofa. "Nice place you got here." She turns around in a circle and sees Auggie still looking at her in awe and complete confusion. "You're gonna catch flies,"she says, referring to his mouth that's slightly agape.
He closes his mouth and shakes his head, trying to clear his mind as he shuts the front door.
"Your girlfriend know I'm here?"Emryn questions, continuing to scavenger around the living room, pulling open a few drawers and looking inside them.
"N-N-No."
She's doing more looking around the apartment than Auggie has ever done in his two days of living here.
"You should probably tell her,"Emryn replies, looking over at him as she takes out a Magic 8 Ball that she found in one of the drawers. He assumes it's either Jake's or the last person who lived here because it's certainly not his. She closes her eyes, seeming to make a wish and shakes it, peeking one eye open to look at the answer. She groans at the response and then throws the ball back into the drawer.
Auggie gets red and flustered, "n-n-n-o I-I m-m-mean I d-d-don't h-h-have a-a-a g-g-girlfriend."
Emryn nods and throws a bouncy ball up in the air, catching it in her palm again. Where is she finding all of this crap? "You gonna ask me if my boyfriend knows I'm here?"
He figures he's got nothing to lose. "D-Does h-h-he?"
Morgan sucks in a breath and looks over at him, putting a hand over her chest in offense, her eyes narrowing at him. "I'm gay! Why would you ever assume my sexuality?"
His heart drops as he puts his hands up, he can physically feel his face pale. "Wh-what? Y-Y-You're t-t-the o-o-o-one..."
The girl cackles and throws her head back on the ball of her neck, smiling widely. "Mate, calm down. Breathe. I don't want you to have to go through the embarrassment of pissing your pants in front of me. I'm just playing with you." She smirks over at him and winks. "Also, I'm bi, not gay. And I don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend if you were curious."
"G-G-Good t-t-to k-k-know."
He doesn't really know how to describe what having a conversation with Emryn in like, and no, he's never been in a car crash or in a burning building or in caught in a tornado, but he assumes it's pretty similar. The heart dropping fear and whip lash is probably pretty similar he figures.
He's never sweat so much during a conversation in his entire life.
She somehow makes her way to Auggie's room, he was assuming they were going to work on their project in his living room, but apparently she has different plans.
"That your ex?" He looks up to see her pointing at a picture of him and Darcy at his graduation. Darcy is holding her face in her hand and kissing his cheek as he smiles widely and holds up his diploma.
He smiles, missing her more than he thought he would. "M-My s-s-sister."
"Welp this just got awkward,"she giggles, glancing sideways at him.
"I-I-It'd b-b-be m-m-more a-a-awkward i-if I h-h-had a-a p-p-picture o-of m-my e-ex h-h-hanging u-up."
She smiles over at Auggie. That's the first joke he's made this whole day. "Touché little man, touché."
He's not littler than her, in fact he's a good 2 inches taller than her because he's 5'9 and she's 5'7, but he is skinnier than her, but then again he's pretty much skinner than everyone. He's always been a light one.
She jumps up onto his bed with a huff that's raised a few feet of the floor and lays down on it staring at the ceiling. She looks at the four plain white walls that have nothing hanging on them except a few stray pictures of him with his siblings, parents, and Penny. "You should put up more pictures. White walls are boring."
"I-I'll g-g-get r-right o-on t-that,"Auggie sarcastically says, unplugging his laptop from charging and climbing onto the bed, sitting a safe distance away from where she's still laying down.
"I could help you,"she offers, turning her cheek on the mattress to look at him as she interlocks her hands on her stomach. "I'm a photography major."
He furrows his brows and looks down at her. "T-Then w-why w-w-were y-y-you i-i-in p-physics?"
She shrugs, "I wander wherever my Emryn soul takes me."
"Y-Y-You're n-n-not a-actually i-in the c-class?"Auggie asks surprised. "W-What w-w-will h-happen w-w-when P-Professor M-M-Morrison f-f-finds o-out?"
Emryn shrugs and looks up at Auggie. "I have a feeling he won't mind."
"H-How d-d-do y-y-you k-know?"Auggie asks curiously.
"Hi,"she smiles, holding out her hand towards Auggie, waiting for him to shake it. "I'm Emryn Morrison."
***
"S-So y-your g-grandfather I-is P-Professor M-Morrison?"Auggie clarifies after getting the whole rundown of Emryn's family tree.
To be fair, he asked for an explanation once he realized that her and their professor have the same last name.
She looked up at the ceiling as she nonchalantly told him all about her childhood. Her parents were both druggies and everyone knew it, but the police refused to take her and her younger brother out of their parents' custody. Her grandparents went through a super long custody battle and lost, sending them back with their druggie parents. Then, 7 years later when she was 16 there was another custody battle and this time her grandparents won, so she was raised by her grandparents since age 16. Her grandpa is the professor of Physics, and even though it has nothing to do with her major, and she understands absolutely "nothing zero zilch" about physics, she's still taken his class every year just so she can "cheer him on".
"Yes sir,"Emryn nods, drawing shapes in the air with her finger that has black nail polish slathered onto the nail. "Greatest man you'll ever meet."
"S-so were y-y-your p-p-parents r-really b-b-both on cocaine when y-you were b-b-b-born?"Auggie clarifies again. He thought she was just making a joke about her name when she first told him that in class, but now he's starting to think that she wasn't joking, although he's learning pretty fast that you can never tell with her.
"No, no that would be crazy,"she shakes her head with a chuckle. She looks over at him and sees that he's intently watching her. "They weren't both on cocaine. My mum was on meth."
He can't help but laugh at the statement. Who is this girl? He's never met anyone like her.
She smiles widely and laughs also, he's finally catching onto her humor and as much as she likes seeing him almost piss himself with nerves while not understanding whether she's joking or not, she'd rather see him comfortable with her.
***
They end up finishing their project surprisingly fast. Auggie does all the facts and science part of it, Emryn does all of the graphics for the google slides and finds aesthetically pleasing photos.
She tells him after they finish that she should be getting home because it's getting dark out and she walked here. He offers to take her home because he has a car to which she responds that she's "not a freeloader." He assures her that he knows that's true, but that he can still take her home. She refuses, to which Auggie tries to argue that he'd really feel better if he allowed her to take her home to make sure she was safe to which Emryn snarkily and sarcastically replied "stalker" and assured him that she'd be just fine.
So with a wave and her promising, after he forced her to, that she'd text him when she got home safe, she walks away, tapping her fingers on the railing as she goes down the stairs and blowing her bubble gum up until it pops, only for her to do it again and again.
He's a prodigy.
He understands practically everything in this world.
But, he's found out that there's one thing he doesn't understand: Emryn Morrison.
Hi yeah so I'm in love with these two
HAHAHA I mean seriously like I have so much fun writing Emryn as a character like I can't even begin to describe it to you
I hope you enjoyed!!! I freakin' love their story and will have more of them coming out really soon!!!
I think the next thing I post will be the 2nd chapter to Darcy's story???
I hope you guys have a great weekend!!! And I hope you're enjoying these little novella things, I'm really enjoying writing them
also I'm so sorry I haven't posted a Family Forever chapter in like a week, I feel really bad, but I've just been so busy with these chapters. I just feel like...guilty?...when I don't have a Family Forever chapter out for a while? Idk sorry I'm an over thinker and I just don't want to disappoint you guys or bore you guys 😂😂
Hopefully it's okay since you're still getting the same characters?? Anyways, so sorry, I'll try to have a new Family Forever chapter out really soon!
I LOVE YOU ALL MWAH
- Mel❤️