“Hi.” I lock eyes with Sumner. “Can we talk?”
Hailey steps aside and glances down at Sumner. “Do you need to go tutor her?”
A hot wave of embarrassment settles over my skin. “No—” I start at the same time Sumner gets this iniquitous grin on his face and goes, “Yes. You see, no matter how many times I explain thePythagorean theorem to Carmichael, she thinks it’s a little obtuse.”
“Hilarious,” I say dryly.
Sumner’s eyes brighten. If Hailey gets the joke, she doesn’t show it. “I’ll find you later,” she says. Then to me she offers a less-than-friendly “See you in bio” before crossing the room.
Sumner watches her go, which does nothing to temper my initial embarrassment. He starts to open his mouth, but I get there first. “Outside.”
He follows me without comment, and once we’re greeted by the balmy night air, I start walking along the paved inner loop within the quad. “Where’s William?”
“I told him to watch a YouTube video called ‘How to Be Popular,’ ” he says, keeping pace beside me. “He was taking notes when I left.”
I toss him a sidelong glance. “And my texts?”
“I’m not ignoring you.” Sumner sighs. “I needed a beat to process.”
“I have to tell you”—I catch his gaze under the glow of the lamppost—“I’m kind of freaking out.”
“And I’m the poster child of unbothered indifference.” Off my panic, he adds, “Carmichael, you can’t possibly think you’re the only one. This is beyond my realm of comprehension.”
“As if this situation is within my personal realm of reality?”
He pulls his phone from his pocket and stares at thescreenshot, brows knitting together in concentration. A hand tugs through his hair and a few loose waves maintain gravity-defying volume.
I can’t take the silence any longer. “What are you thinking?”
“None of this makes sense,” he says. “And if we’re going tomakeit make sense, we’ll need to walk it back. Try to figure out the cause in order to get to a solution.”
It’s the most Sumner answer I’ve ever heard. Logic-driven. Not like I have anything better to add. There’s no manual for this exact scenario.
“This is no ordinary problem.”
“No, it’s not.” He slides his phone in his pocket. “He found his way forward in time without knowing what this place means to him. I’m thinking it’s like…a cosmic anchoring point. I don’t fully understand it.”
I bite at my thumbnail. “Do we tell him?”
Sumner’s eyes soften. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it. It’s just a feeling. Like telling him messes with his ability to make his own choices and decisions, somehow screwing things up more. I mean, if someone told me in the next twenty years I’d win a Fields medal—”
“A what?”
He tilts his head. “Really? You’ve never seenGood Will Hunting?” I shrug, but he continues. “What I’m trying to say is, I’d feel a bit mindfucked trying to figure out how I went about earningthat accomplishment. I’d wonder if the choices I were making would lead to this desired outcome now that I knew it would happen.”
It makes sense, what he’s saying. I don’t have a reasonable counterpoint. “You’re right—”
“I usually am, but continue.”
I roll my eyes. “You’re right that we need to walk it back and figure out what caused this,” I say. “We should meet tomorrow.”
“You know, you’re sure asking a lot from someone who, by your definition, is ‘conventionally adequate.’ ”
“Please be serious.”
