“You seem weird.”
“Don’t I always?”
She let out a little laugh, but knew how it sounded. She read it from his uncertain, baffled expression, as clearly as if he had told her what he thought.
It was as hollow and desolate as a haunted auditorium.
“No. No not really. That was just something I said in high school because some asshole had briefly taken over my body. Remember? You have to remember. I said it like twenty minutes ago.”
“I remember. But really there’s nothing wrong. I’m fine.”
“Okay. Great. So you’re gonna sit down now.”
“Sure I am. Any second. Definitely about to happen.”
“Oh definitely. Yeah, I can see that you sitting next to me poses no problems for you at all,” he said, in a way that should have seemed nasty. Only it didn’t, and he made sure it stayed that way. “Or you know I could just take my desk chair and move it into the bathroom doorway, so we can both see my laptop without ever making you look as horrified as you do now.”
“I look horrified?”
“To put it mildly.”
“I’m sorry. My face disobeys me all the time. I tell it to look like an ordinary freshman about to watch a movie with wrestling champ Tate Sullivan, and all it can manage is what feels like anxious frowning.”
“It looks a lot like anxious frowning, too. But we can easily make that go away.”
He stood, and lifted his desk chair like it was made of paper.
“See I can just move this to here.”
“Stop. Tate, stop a second,” she said.
But he didn’t.
He just kept on rearranging furniture.
“And then if I just angle the screen…”
“Tate, no, no. Stop I said.”
“It’s really not a problem.”
“I know. But I’m just being ridiculous. I don’t need you to sit in the bathroom, okay? I can sit on the bed with you and everything will just be normal and fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
She nodded after the word, yet still he hesitated. More than that, in fact. His eyes roamed over every item in his room, as though looking for an alternative solution.
And he found one.
A really stupid one.
“I tell you what, then—how about we put something between us?”
“You want to put something between us. Like in medieval times.”
“Exactly, yes. That way, my leg will never touch your leg and my butt will never nudge your butt.”
