Daydream (Maple Hills, #3)(47)

“Why do you have over four hundred unread messages? Do you not have, like, intense anxiety when you don’t open your messages, or is that just me?”

“It’s just you. It’s mainly group chats, Kenny’s offers, and women looking to hook up late at night when they’re bored and horny. Nothing important.”

She scoffs. “Yeah, my messages are definitely the same.”

I sit up a little straighter. “People looking to hook up?”

“Tons of them. It’s always the bored and the horny. My inbox is actually overflowing with that particular type of message. What an inconvenience, amiright?”

“Guys I know?” I think she’s kidding. Emphasis on think.

She gives me a pointed look, but I don’t know what it means. “Be serious. Literally nobody is texting me to hook up.”

I feel relieved and I’m not sure why. I know I’m not supposed to feel relieved considering she’s just a friend. “Is that something you want? That experience?”

“It depends what you’re asking. There’s a lot of things I’ll do for the writing competition, but hooking up with someone random for more inspiration isn’t one of them. But would I like the experience of hooking up with someone I care about? Yeah.”

“That makes sense.”

It’s a natural end to the conversation. Halle is still curled up on my lap, and any sign she’s attempting to move makes me hold her that much tighter until she relaxes again. Joy joined the equation, taking her place on Halle’s lap, and the whole image is unusually domestic for me. I like how calm I feel, and it’s making me consider skipping my afternoon classes and staying here. Well, until I remember that I’d have to face Faulkner if I did.

“I need to google why being around you makes me want to fall asleep,” she says after a long stretch of quiet.

“Oxytocin.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Neither do I. I was googling why I couldn’t fall asleep as well as I do when you’re there, but I got distracted by a pregnancy pillow ad. It arrives on Monday.”

“You can stay here whenever you like, Henry,” she says gently. “You’re always welcome and I like the company. It’s really nice having friends. Even if maybe I panic I’m going to lose them all every single day and have dramatic embarrassing outbursts when I’m hungover.”

“You’re not embarrassing. You are dramatic, though. But if it makes you feel better, you’re not even in the top three of the most dramatic people I’m friends with,” I say, squeezing her side playfully. “You broke a rule, though; please stop feeling embarrassed around me. Maybe your friendships will feel less delicate if you get to know people better. We need to give you a new experience anyway. Have you ever been on a group date?”

“I sort of have, actually. It was horrible and I felt like an alien the entire time.”

“Good, it’s better that you’ve done it before. That way I won’t have to feel bad about stealing you away the minute we get there. We’re playing away this weekend, but we’re going to the beach on Sunday when we get home.”

Halle laughs, her body vibrating against mine. “So not a group date then. Just a date with witnesses.”

“Annoying witnesses.”

When she frees herself from being curled up against me, she looks happier than she did when I got here, and I’m thankful I haven’t somehow made this worse. “Annoying witnesses? What could possibly go wrong?”





Chapter Fifteen HENRY




OF ALL THE BORING THINGS I’m required to do this week, watching Anastasia weigh cooked rice is the most boring.

I lean against the palm of my hand on the other side of her kitchen island, observing her move the glass container from the counter to the scale and back, over and over. By the time she moves on to chicken breast I’m half asleep. She occasionally turns around to stir the sauce she’s concocted for all of this food prep, but other than that, she’s a cooking robot, hardly saying anything.

“Santa Monica will be more fun than this,” I say, hoping that will be enough to convince her. The reality is anything would be more fun than this.

“I don’t have fun scheduled in my planner, so like I said, I’m going to have to pass.”

“All you do is skate and study. You need a break.”

“That’s not true. I also eat seventeen thousand times a day like a fucking shrew.” She abandons adding broccoli to her meals and leans against the counter. I don’t think she knows how tired she looks. “Did Nathan put you up to this?”

“No.” She stares at me in the way she does that makes me feel like I’m being disciplined by a parent. “He didn’t. He said you were stressed and it made me realize I hardly check in on you. I haven’t intentionally neglected you.”

“You haven’t neglected me at all, Hen. I know you have a lot going on with school and hockey, and you’re spending a lot of time with Halle”—a borderline unhinged smile spreads across her face—“who I want to hear all about, by the way. I had to find out you were dating from Mattie, and I spent our entire lecture stunned. Didn’t learn a thing.”

“We’re not dating. We’re friends.”