gregori

He'd only been gone for one semester. But something in him had changed. It was barely perceptible and Gary doubted anyone noticed it but himself. But there was something in the way he talked now--in the words he used and the way he spoke. He seemed more confident; self-assured. No longer was he the awkward older brother Gary knew before. That sullen kid for whom the simplest questions always elicited one- or two-word responses. "No, thanks." "Yeah, sure." "Maybe." He now reeled off delightful anecdote after delightful anecdote with a detached sort of coolness, mixing a newly acquired college-level vocabulary with a newly-acquired campus slang.