Missing the Big Picture by Donovan, Luke (great book club books txt) 📕

students who suffered from domestic violence, mental disorders, and eating disorders. Three girls living in my dormitory had to get help for eating disorders. In the spring, a student was also assaulted on campus and died.

I had to study for my final exams hearing Rich’s voice in my mind at the same time. Most of these surreal talks revolved around when we were both leaving and how Rich was staying overnight until the last possible day the dorms were open, after almost everybody else would have left. Rich and I started to plan our own little day together. Since the last of day of exams was May 20 and I had a final at eight o’clock that morning, Rich and I were planning to get drunk after everyone had left campus. I never really drank much; I just went along with the voice in the hopes that it would stop. Rich even asked me if I would smoke pot. Most importantly, Rich promised that we would sit down and actually talk about our telepathic communication. Out of all the different activities previously mentioned, I was most looking forward to that.

Even though I hadn’t talked to the real Rich for two weeks, I absolutely believed that he would come to my dorm room at five o’clock, we would talk about all the weird stuff that was happening in our minds, and then the fun would begin. It was a day that I had anticipated since January 29, 2001—the first time I thought I had a telepathic conversation. I convinced myself that these conversations were real, and I was counting on Rich to verify it; after all, I had spent so much time tormenting myself and getting into arguments with my mother and Dr. Roberts.

As a backup plan, I knew that Diana and Shannon were also staying overnight on the twentieth, the last day the dorms were open. If Rich pulled a no-show, I knew I had at least two other friends to visit.

On the morning of May 20, the main thing on my mind was my art history final, but I was also thinking about Rich coming to my dorm room and talking about what I thought was our telepathic experience. I decided to call Rich in person and ask what he was doing after his finals were over. I left a message. Now it was more than just a telepathic plan; I had actually called Rich and asked him to visit.

As it turned out, the art history final lasted only an hour, and then most of the SUNY Geneseo residents moved out and said their tearful good-byes. It was hard for me to say good-bye to Denise and Vanessa. Bruce actually moved out four days earlier, and there was no love lost between us anyway. I actually helped Bruce pack his dad’s car in order to get him moved out faster.

By five o’clock, the dorm had turned into a ghost town. Kaitlin and some of our other friends decided to use a computer-animated voice to make prank phone calls. Somebody would dial the number and then type in what she wanted the computer voice to say. Once Kaitlin typed in, “You make me so wet, you just turn me on.” That was the least vulgar and sexually explicit of what the girls were typing in.

In the meantime, I was getting nervous about what was going to happen. For several days now, Rich’s voice said that he would be at my dorm room at five o’clock. I just sat in my room when five o’clock came and then realized as the minutes ticked by that Rich wasn’t going to show up. I decided to walk by Rich’s room and found it locked. It looked like nobody was there, but the name tag with Rich’s name and hometown was still posted on the side of the door—meaning he hadn’t checked out yet.

As I walked back to my dorm room, I began to hear Rich’s voice in my mind again. It said he was still on campus, that he didn’t forget about me, and that he would stop by at nine. So I sat in my room at nine o’clock, feeling totally detached as I waited for Rich. At nine thirty, Rich still didn’t show up, so I went to his dorm room. His name tag was gone. Despite the phone messages I’d left saying that I wanted to talk to him before he left, and despite what was happening in my mind, Rich was a no-show and I was crushed. I had convinced myself that I was communicating with Rich in my mind and was waiting for the minute when he would confirm that I wasn’t schizophrenic after all.

Luckily, Shannon and Diana were still in the dorm. As soon as I saw Rich was gone, I went down to my favorite hangout, Diana’s dorm room, one last time. I walked in while Shannon, Diana, and some other girls were talking about what it would be like to orgasm, since none of them ever had. Even though everybody was laughing and joking, I knew the girls would figure out that something was wrong with me. Still, I could never tell them that I was hearing somebody’s voice in my mind. Soon after, we went to a pizza place right off campus.

On the way there, Diana and Shannon were still talking about boys and Diana was saying that she didn’t want a guy who would drop everything to be with her; she didn’t like the desperate type. I, on the other hand, was about to tell them something that they would find disturbing. Most of the people who were in the pizza parlor were graduating seniors, since Monday night was the beginning of Senior Week, a weeklong celebration devoted to the seniors that ended with graduation on Sunday.

As the girls were eating their pizza in the relatively empty restaurant, I told them I couldn’t imagine myself graduating from SUNY Geneseo in three years. I