“What are you listening to?” David’s mom asks as she parks the car in front of the wrong house.

“Kendrick,” David replies, pausing Hide by RKS with a double tap of his airpods. He grabs his school supplies and opens the car door. “Thanks, mom,” he says, smiling at her.

“Yup,” she responds hastily. Then, slower: “Love you, honey.”

David takes his time walking to his destination. It’s a perfectly gorgeous spring afternoon; birds are chittering in the background, and the sun is visible, yet gentle enough to be comfortable. But it isn’t the weather slowing his steps. It’s something else. David decides not to think about it.

Finally, David arrives in front of Jacob's house. He texts him that he’s there.

“Hey, dude,” Jacob says, propping the door open with his shoe. “You’re late.” David’s eyes dart around Jacob’s skinny figure. Colin’s already there. So is Evan. Evan.

“Yeah, sorry,” David says, following Jacob inside to the living room. “My mom was really taking her time out the door. I swear, she’s almost as bad as Matthew sometimes.”

“From swim, right?”

“Yeah, the one with the hair.”

Jacob chuckles. “God, yeah, I remember you telling me that.”

They’re sitting in the living room on the floor around a coffee table, papers and other school supplies spread all around carelessly. Colin’s half-drank lukewarm Prime stands, restless, on the floor. Evan is hunched over his notes, his gray crew neck leaning mostly over the table rather than next to it. He turns around, and David watches as his eyes brighten and as he brushes that stupid shiny black bowl cut out of his eyes.

“Hey, David,” Evan says, and Colin looks up from his Instagram reels to give David a nod. “Hey,” David responds. Evan makes room for David to his side and David sits down on the carpet. The sound of Colin’s fast-paced attention-span-eradicating short-form content cuts through the otherwise silence of the room.

“If you don’t get of reels, you’re getting fucking touched,” David says, leaning back against the wall. Colin blinks, throws his phone to the side, stretches, then does the tongue flight at David.

“Come on,” Colin says. “We all know you’d rather be the one getting touched.” Evan flips a page in his notes.

“Please,” David says, grinning. “You know Lila would beg to differ.”

Jacob comes back from the kitchen, his slightly nasally voice pissing David off a little more than usual. “Okay, we’re studying. Remember what you guys got on the last test.” Jacob gives David a bitchy smirk, but David ignores it, like he always does. The clean 70 he got certainly wasn’t his best moment, but he’s done worse, anyway. David yawns and turns to Jacob:

“Nah, dude—Mr. Mitchell sucks. His tests are so hard for no reason. And I swear he doesn’t even teach anything.” David makes sure Evan smiles at that—yes, good—and thinks of something else to say:

“I swear I saw some girl crying during the last test, dude. He’s so fucking bad.” Colin chuckles, picking his phone up again to toss it in the air and catch it. “Was it Gabbie?”

David makes a face, which seems to be good enough, because Colin chuckles again. “God, she’s such a fucking loser.”

A new problem: Evan’s doing that thing again. Looks down, adjusts his black circular glasses, turns those dark dark eyes away from him. Shit. Best thing to do is to divert.

“Hey,” he says to Colin, who’s expanded from reels to Clash. “Hop off. Damn, dude.”

“David, the productive one,” Jacob says, kicking David in the back. “Who would’ve thought.”