Chapter 7: Patient

By Monday morning the video had two hundred thousand views.

By Monday lunch, people were barking at Jesse.

Not everybody.

Just enough.

A guy on the library steps did a long howl when we walked past.

Two girls in the coffee line went "woof" and fell over laughing.

Somebody had stuck a dog bowl outside the door of his statistics lecture.

It had his name on it in marker.

Jesse kicked it down the hallway without slowing down.

The purple bar sat at ninety-six all morning.

I watched his hands.

They were in fists in his jacket pockets.

A year ago, the Jesse Rainey everybody talked about would have put somebody through a window by now.

He didn't.

He just got quieter and quieter.

[Host,] said the System. [I can't tell what he's annoyed at.]

"Me," I said. "Obviously me."

[I don't think so. The number's not moving when you're near him. It's moving when they bark.]

At noon, the quad was full.

It was the first warm day in weeks, and everybody was out on the grass.

Darcy Shelton was sitting on the edge of the fountain with four friends and a phone stand.

She was filming herself.

When she saw us coming she turned the phone around.

"Oh my God," she said. "Walkies!"

Her friends barked.

People on the grass turned to look.

Jesse stopped walking.

I felt him stop.

I looked up at his face, and it was completely calm, and that scared me more than anything.

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