Page 23 of Daydream

“It’s going about as well as your essay, except your word count is higher. I was supposed to work on it last night, but, well, I was talked into coming here by Cami. But as embarrassed as I feel today—”

“Stop feeling embarrassed.”

“—it actually makes me feel super inspired. I want to write aboutpeople who have all these experiences and are a bit messy, but I think I can’t start because I don’tactuallyhave any experience of my own. I never do anything,” she explains. “But maybe by doing stuff it’ll clear the creative rubble. Even if I did expose myself to you and also dance with your enemy, which I’m still very sorry for.”

“There are other ways to get experiences than putting yourself in Mason’s path. And we can have a friendship ground rule that means you’re allowed to get naked in front of me whenever you like, if that helps with your misplaced guilt.”

There are worse ground rules to have with someone who looks like Halle.

Her cheeks flush pink but she doesn’t look uncomfortable like she did earlier. “Do you have a tablet?”

“Yes, why?”

She climbs off my bed, my sweatpants hanging low on her hips. “Because you’re delaying us starting your essay by distracting me. I’m going to use the bathroom, you get your tablet, and we’ll start, okay?”

“Yes, Captain.”

IORDERED LUNCH WHILEHALLEread my outline, and by the time the food arrived, she’d already downloaded a dozen PDFs and had started highlighting relevant sections for me to work with.

She’s lying on her stomach beside me, feet crossed in the air behind her, leaning against her hand speed-reading each thing she’s downloaded while I type on my laptop. She makes me stop writing after twenty-five minutes and take a five-minute break. At first I didn’t understand and thought maybe she was bored and wanted to chat, but she happily lets me sit in silence if I want to.

I don’t want to. I’ve been using my five minutes to ask her more about the book she’s writing. I won’t be reading it—unless she high lightsthe important bits for me—but I really like listening to her talk about stuff. Maybe I will join her book club.

It takes us a couple of hours to find the right rhythm, but when we do, everything becomes so much easier. She’s intelligent and knowledgeable, and the questions she asks me make me think harder before I answer her. Then she makes me write it all down before I lose my train of thought.

When I finally shut my laptop, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. “Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re amazing.”

“You did the work. I just highlighted stuff. I’m happy I could help you. I really should stop overstaying my welcome now and head home.”

“You’re not overstaying your welcome,” I argue. “I’d tell you if you were.”

“You would?”

“I would tell you to leave if I didn’t want you here. You’re not a prisoner and you can go if you want to, but if you want to watch a movie with me you should stay.”

Halle sits up on the bed to sit opposite me and I can’t tell if she’s about to move beside me to settle or run for the door. “What kind of movie?” she eventually asks.

“Horror. My friend JJ’s mom texted me a new recommendation last week. I was going to watch that.”

“Not a rom-com then?”

I sigh. “You’re just like the others. When my friends’ girlfriends lived here last year they were relentless. I watched so many shit movies.”

“How about we rock-paper-scissors for it?” she suggests, holding out her fist. “I win we watchHow to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, but if you win, we watch JJ’s mom’s suggestion and we both pretend that I’m not crying the entire time. Ready?”

I hold out my own fist, shaking it three times and choosing paper, knowing statistically she’ll choose rock, which she does. My hand wraps around her fist and she pouts up at me. “Best of three?”

“No, sorry, we didn’t agree on that ahead of time.” I reach for the remotes to roll down my blackout blinds and turn on my TV.

“Are you really not going to play me again?” She’s still a little pouty. Cute. Distracting. “That isn’t very sportsmanlike.”

“No. You snooze, you lose. Do you need extra pillows? Blankets? Protective weapon?”

“We’re good on the pillow front and no weapon needed,” she says, slipping farther into the bed. “I’ll use you as a human shield.”

I scoff as I press play on the movie, fluffing up the pillows behind her head to make her more comfortable. I slide down, too, relieved not to be on that damn air mattress, and pretend not to notice when she shuffles an inch closer to me. “Not if I use you as one first.”

Chapter EightHALLE

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