Page 112 of Safety Net
"PowerPoint night." Her brother explained. "Join us. You'll need to learn for later."
"Do I?" Eden looked unconvinced but curious, nonetheless. She grabbed a ginger ale and joined us in the living room.
I sat on the ground in front of Celeste. She immediately placed her hand on my cheek, thumb rubbing circles on my jaw. I closed my eyes for a second, enjoying her touch and turning in to kiss her palm.
Sam took his place by Aderyn, teasing her with the strings by loosely wrapping them around her wrists.
"Me or you first?" Naomi turned to me from her spot on the floor. Finn held out his hand to her, offering to work the laptop and click the next button on the slides.
"Me," I said. "Mine's boring, so best to get it out of the way. I'll shoot you the email now."
Henrik took his time closing the curtains. I could tell from how he was dragging his feet that he was waiting for Eden to take a seat. She found a spot on the recliner, tucking her long legs underneath her, popping open her soda, and squinting at the TV.
"What am I looking at?" she asked.
"It's PowerPoint night," Naomi explained. "We make PowerPoints on things we find interesting, or want to convince others to find interesting."
"Lincoln wanted to convince us to watch theBanner Chronicleslast semester," Sam explained as he stretched his arm out over the back of the couch. "So he made us sit through a presentation on its merits."
"It was shockingly convincing," Naomi chimed in. "I felt like I'd be missing out if I didn't watch."
Aderyn leaned into Sam's side. "Doesn't that series have like thirty-five movies and a dozen spin-offs?"
"Two dozen," Finn corrected in a low voice as he pulled up the email I'd sent to Naomi.
"You convinced them to watch over sixty movies?" Aderyn whistled, impressed.
I shrugged, still pleased with the accomplishment. "What can I say, I'm persuasive."
"We're on the twentieth," Naomi said. "Going strong."
"Some of us are still strong," Sam noted. "Others grow weary…"
Celeste continued to massage my cheek, her movements gentler as she listened to everyone go back and forth. I tilted my head back for a moment to get a good look at her. She smiled down at me, pride in her eyes. Making her proud took over the prideful spot of convincing everyone to watch all those movies in a heartbeat. If I didn't accomplish anything else in life, I'd be happy with knowing I'd made her look at me like that.
However, I would still strive to accomplish more. My hastily made PowerPoint presentation appeared on the scene. I pulled out a red laser light and pointed it at the title.
"Where do you get these things?" Aderyn wondered under her breath.
"The Journey to an Impossibly Bright and Brilliant Future (or a three-year plan that doesn't completely suck)," I read.
"I need one of these," Eden mumbled under her breath.
"Slide, please," I directed Finn.
"It's very minimal," Sam teased, aware of my usual flair.
"I was pressed for time," I defended. "For good reason."
Celeste leaned forward so both hands were on my jawline as I went through my plan with everyone.
"Graduation," I started. "Realistically, it will take a semester and a half longer than projected. But if I want to avoid burnoutand still commit the right amount of time to practice, then slow and steady wins the race."
"Words I'd never thought I'd hear from a hare," Henrik said, finding his voice once again as he settled on the floor next to Naomi. He took in each of my bullet points with far more attention to detail than the others.
"What are those?" Naomi pointed at the little drawings.
"My side quest. You two inspired me," I said, referencing Finn and her shared interest in gaming. "I'm embracing the fact that I should be well-rounded. And perhaps I can channel my interest in mystery into something post-college. As I wrote this out, I wondered if it was okay if my end goal wasn't fully figured out yet, or if it would naturally fall into place. But, trying to improve doesn't come naturally, so I figured, why would my purpose?"
