Page 87 of Daydream

The front door opens, and Russ and Robbie appear holding bags of food. Russ looks at me and nods toward the den. “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.” I follow him and sit at the table, and hold my hand out for Russ to give me the burrito he just got.

Russ immediately places a laptop in front of me. When he lifts the screen, I realize what this is about. The student portal is staring back at me like something from my nightmares. “Do it, Henry. Or I’m not giving you your food. You can’t run off to Halle’s place and avoid me now. We’re all here and you’re doing this. I promised you I’d make you.”

He takes my food out of the bag, holding the foil wrapper out of my reach. We both know I’m faster than he is. If I went for it, I could probably get it before he has a chance to fight me off. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Press the buttons, Hen. Do it or I’m putting your dinner in the trash.”

“Did you offer me a burrito with this in mind?” I ask, swishing my finger across the mouse pad but not clicking on anything.

“Yes.”

“I’m not a dog,” I grumble.

“Did he do it yet?” Robbie yells from the kitchen. He rolls himself into the den where we’re sitting around the table, apparently where I’m signing up for classes, not where I’m eating a burrito.

Robbie hands me a plate for the food I don’t have and takes his spot at the table beside Russ. “What doIneed to do to getyouto do what you need to do for next semester?”

“Does that even make sense?” I ask, making him roll his eyes at me.

“You promised me a month ago you were going to sign up for your classes on time. It’s important that you don’t have this weighing on you. It’s important that I don’t get fucking fired by Coach if we have a repeat of September. I’ll give you anything, Hen. Name your price and just sort this out.”

I must have forgotten to tell them that Halle made me do thistwo weeks ago, but I’ll always seize an opportunity to get something from Robbie.

“Just log in and tell me what classes you want to take, and I’ll do it for you,” Russ says. “Then you can forget about it until after the New Year.”

“I haven’t decided what I want to do yet,” I say, enjoying how both of their eyes widen. “I might take Thornton’s other class.”

“What do you mean, what you want to do? You’ve been complaining about him for literally months,” Robbie snaps.

Russ unwraps his burrito slowly and I stare at mine longingly. “Is that the one Aurora and Halle are doing? The sex one?”

Robbie stops eating his own food and glares at me. “Pleasetell me you aren’t considering putting yourself through more misery just to study sex with Halle. Do it in your bedroom like a normal couple. Don’t get fucking graded on it.”

I ignore when he and Russ both mutterwe’re not a coupleunder their breath before I can.

I shrug nonchalantly. “It sounds interesting. I like eighteenth-century art.”

“You need to get laid,” Robbie says, like I’m not incredibly aware of that fact. “You’ve lost your mind. Henry, promise me you’re not going to do it. You can spend every spare second with her if you want to; you don’t need to be with her during college hours, too. You don’t like him, remember? Just because Halle is fucking brilliant and made it easy for you doesn’t mean you should go through itagain.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” I say, and his face starts to redden.

“I think you’re looking at it with rose-tinted glasses,” Russ says carefully. “I know Halle made it manageable for you, but when she wasn’t here you complained about Thornton a hell of a lot.”

“I don’t remember that,” I say. Robbie is now very red. There’s a vein in his forehead I only usually see when we’re losing.

“Well I do,” Robbie snaps. “You complained a fuck ton. So much that I felt like I was taking the class with you.”

This is more fun than seems fair. “If JJ were here, he’d tell me to do it. And he’d let me eat my burrito.”

Robbie snorts. “JJ told you to get your dick pierced and you told him that you’d rather swim with hungry sharks than ever take his advice. But sure, you’d listen to him about this. It’s funny how you say ‘ask JJ’ and not Nate, who absolutely would not allow you to take a sex class.”

To Robbie’s credit, that’s exactly what I said. However, I’ve taken JJ’s advice more recently and it hasn’t all gone horribly wrong yet.

“Did you start doing brain training or something? Why do you suddenly have the memory of an elephant?” I ask Robbie. “And you know it’s not a sex class, right? It is definitely about art and literature.”

Robbie looks at his watch, then back at me. “It’s been five minutes of nonsense and not five minutes of you prioritizing your education. I’m being serious, Hen. Name your price.”

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