Page 55 of The Friend Scheme
“You started it.”
“That’s fair.” His smile fades. “But seriously, Matt, I just want you to know you’re hot. You’re too good-looking to not know that about yourself. I feel that way about all my friends, actually.”
“Thanks. So are you, in case you doubt it. You’re, like, so hot. Seriously, man, it’s, like,whoa, sometimes.”
“I’m glad you think so. But hey, if you want to put on some muscle, we could work out together sometime. You could get a guest pass to my gym, and I could show you the basics.”
“You’d do that?”
“’Course! It’d be fun for me, too.”
“Cool.”
He takes a step lower into the water so it reaches his waist. I wince, bracing myself, and follow him. He waves his fingertips through the water.
“I have another deep question,” he says.
“Go for it.”
“What do you want to do after school?”
“Like, for college, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
I decide to be honest. I’ve never told anyone this, but I guess that’s pretty typical when it comes to Jason. He just has this way of making me open up, like it’s easy.
“Um. I like the thought of studying film.”
He nods. “I should’ve guessed that.”
“I dunno. It’s a long shot.”
“No way, I can totally see you doing that. You clearly have the passion for it.”
I let myself fantasize for a second. “Being a movie critic would bereallycool. It’s so hard, though. It’s, like, who do I think I am, you know? It’s so competitive, and I’m not naturally talented. I don’t have a chance.”
“Don’t worry about that, everything is hard these days. Promise me right now you’ll at least try to make it.”
“Ha, sure thing.”
“Shake my hand on it.” He offers his hand.
“All right, if I ever…,” I say.
“Not if,when.”
“Okay, sure. When I make it, I’ll call you and thank you for that time in the pool when you told me to follow my dreams.”
“You better.”
I like the thought of that.
Us, still friends, even as adults. I’m not even sure how that’d work, though. By that point, we’ll both be full-fledged membersof our respective families. We’ll have all these responsibilities. Dad doesn’t have any friends; he doesn’t have time for it. His whole life is about his family.
We shake hands. Our grip lingers maybe a second longer than normal, so I pull my hand away.
“How about you?” I ask.
