Page 19 of Untouchable Player

“You don’tcooksmores, idiot. You toast them.”

I have to hold in a gasp. I’ve never seen anyone speak to Jones that way before, but he doesn’t even react.

“Whatever man, where’s the food?”

“Are you going to be hanging around here the whole time?” Nate asks.

“No, I’m gonna playGTAin the den until you’re finished, then I’m gonna give Engels a ride to practise.”

“Fine, so grab your food and go.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just sit there with my hands on my knees like I’m in the principal’s office.

When Jones leaves, Nate asks me if I’m hungry.

“Uh…”

He ignores me and grabs some chips and a tub of salsa and puts them on the table.

“Don’t be shy,” he says, “look, I’ll have some too.”

Nate opens the bag of chips – actual branded Doritos – and tries to open the jar of salsa.

“Here, I’ll open that.”

He passes it over and it opens with a pop.

I try not to crunch too much or spill crumbs everywhere as I eat. Nate eats like a little bird. I like the way he chews, all polite and neat.

“Listen, uh, I’m sorry about the other night.”

“What?”

“At the party, I was wasted.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it.” He gives me a weird look and I’d ask what it was all about if I wasn’t so embarrassed.

“Are they your textbooks?” Nate gestures to the books I’ve let spill out of my bag all over the table.

“Yeah.”

“Can I?”

I nod and he picks the one by Professor Williams up and studies the cover.

“That’s my professor. She’s really smart.”Idiot. Just be quiet.

I watch him with my hands clasped in my lap while he reads through the introduction and starts flipping to certain pages before putting it down again.

"So what are you struggling with?"

All of it?

“Do you have an essay question or something to work on?”

“Uh… yeah, I think so.”

I open the student app on my phone and login to my course schedule.

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