Page 37 of Burning Up

Toby’s hand went to his hair, fiddling with it. “We were just going to lay around, maybe watch a movie, try to force ourselves to work out. Nothing special.”

“You could do that here.” Bryce wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing. Prolonging the inevitable? Surely he wasn’t going to suggest they let this… whatever it was continue.

“You’d let us stay?” Matt asked.

“I’d… uh… like you to. I mean, unless you?—”

Toby dropped his hand to his lap and beamed at Bryce. “We’d like it too.”

“We can still go get your car if you want. I don’t want you feeling like you’re stuck.”

Matt shook his head. “It’s fine. I want to spend the day with you.”

“Me too,” Toby said.

Bryce nodded, not sure he could think of the right words to add to this uneasy conversation.

“What movie should we watch?” Toby asked, seeming to take spending the day together in stride, unlike Matt and Bryce.

Bryce shrugged. “You can look through my collection of DVDs or load up Netflix.” Toby started to speak, but Bryce held up his hand. “No jokes about how only old people have DVDs. I’ll make some popcorn.”

Toby snickered, but Matt stared at him like he was crazy. “We just ate a huge breakfast or brunch or whatever it was, aren’t you full?”

“Yeah, but it’s a movie. We need popcorn,” Toby answered before Bryce could.

Matt rolled his eyes. “Fine. But you do not want to leave Toby in charge of the movie or we’ll be watching Sharknado Meets Godzilla.”

“That would be epic,” Toby yelled from the living room where he’d already opened the cabinet under Bryce’s TV where he kept his DVDs. “If you leave it up to Matt, we’ll just be watching baseball.”

“No matter who’s playing, baseball is better than the shit movies you come up with.”

“Don’t listen to him, Bryce!” Toby hollered.

“Go save us,” Bryce said, gesturing for Matt to join Toby. “I’ve got this.”

Bryce heard them arguing in low tones, but he couldn’t really discern their words, especially over the sound of his mind freaking out.

What are you doing?

Making this last as long as it can.

So it will be that much harder to break it off?

And that much harder to see them at work tomorrow? Yes. That.

You know you’re crazy.

Yes, but I’m going to pretend I’m not, so shut up.

When the popcorn finished, he called out, “Spicy popcorn or caramel or plain?”

“Spicy.”

“Caramel.”

Bryce laughed. “I don’t think spicy caramel is quite the thing, although it does sound like a new hipster appetizer.”

“I’ll pass. Spicy’s fine,” Toby said.

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