“You’re preparing for your future,” I answer evenly. “Working hard as a student so you can have the career you want.”
“I don’t even have a job, though.”
“That’s fine. Not everyone needs one.”
“That doesn’t make you resentful?” he asks.
“No.”
He looks dubious, so I go on.
“Why would I resent you for having money, Isaac? It’s not the marker of a person.”
“It’s not even my money,” he says quietly. “It’s my parents’.”
“And? Did you steal it from them or did they offer it freely?”
He huffs. “Of course I didn’t steal it.”
“So why does it matter?”
“Because money…matters,” he says, even as his brow furrows.
I knock the toe of Isaac’s shoe with my own. “Says the man pursuing an English degree, which we both know has nothing to do with money.”
He sets down the last piece of his sandwich, exhaling a heavy breath. “It matters to a lot of people, Trevor.”
Ah. “Your father?”
“Not only him,” Isaac shoots back. “You said yourself it’s your biggest hurdle to starting a studio.”
“I also said I don’t need money to be happy.”
Isaac looks off through the windows into the bookstore, a tense set to his jaw. “Never mind. Let’s just…drop it.”
I think there’s something about this topic that’s a sore spot for Isaac, but I don’t push him on it here. Instead, I rewind back to another point he mentioned. “Are you worried about Todd and Lumi leaving after graduation?”
His shoulders slump.
“Sorry,” I say quickly. “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want.”
Isaac scrubs a hand over his face before glancing down at his last bite of sandwich. “I don’t know. Todd’s not sure yet what he’s doing. And Lumi will likely go wherever the job opportunities are.”
“What’s her degree?”
“Performing arts,” he says. At my raised eyebrow, he elaborates. “She loves theater. Being on Broadway is her dream.”
I imagine the five-foot-nothing unyielding force that is Lumi and smile. “Oh, they better watch out.”
Isaac barks a laugh, looking momentarily so weightless that my own chest lightens. The strain returns after a moment, subtle at the corners of his eyes. He finishes his sandwich in silence.
“Do you think…” I say cautiously, “that distance would change your friendship?”
Isaac takes a moment to answer. “I think I’m not particularly easy to get along with. But Todd and Lumi have never acted like I’m a burden to be around. I’m afraid, when they go, I’ll feel just as alone as I did before I found them.”
Isaac doesn’t pull away when I cover his hand with my own. “You realize I won’t ever let you feel alone.”
“You can’t know,” he says, voice hoarse.
