“You’re talking to me right now.”
“I’m giving you facts. Facts are easy.” I snapped my fingers as I stepped into the room again. “Planet facts…Earth is the only known planet with plate tectonics, Jupiter has more than double the mass of all other planets combined, Venus spins backward on its axis, and no, Pluto is not a planet. I mean, it is a planet, however, it’s a minor one and no longer listed as an official one in our solar system. Do you see what I mean?”
“I do. Pluto got robbed.”
“Maybe. It’s an ongoing debate, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s trivia gibberish and—”
“But it’s interesting. Believe it or not, I knew that about Venus being backward.”
“It’s not backward. It spins backward,” I corrected. “How’d you know that?”
He shrugged. “George was famous for spouting science shit at the dinner table. I think he got tired of Dad, Ben, and me talking sports nonstop. He voted to impose a twice a week sports ban.”
“So you talked about the solar system instead?”
Simon inclined his head. “Sometimes. Or we’d talk about movies, songs, video games…everything, really.”
“It wasn’t like that at my house. My parents are actual rocket scientists and I’m an only child. We talked science almost exclusively. Unless my grandparents came by. They said it wasn’t healthy for me to be serious all the time, so they used to make up elaborate scavenger hunts and games. According to my grandmother, games matter.”
“She sounds very wise.”
I snort-laughed. “She’s a troublemaker, and she has no respect for rules.”
“I like her already.”
“She’s very likable. And so are you, but you stress me out.” I set two fingers over the inside of my wrist to check my pulse. “This can’t be good for me.”
“You’re very dramatic, Christopher. C’mere.” Simon sat on the bed and patted the space beside him, chuckling at my put-upon sigh when I obeyed. “I feel like the voice of reason, and that’s a first for me. But if you consider this situation, it looks like we have the same problem.”
“How do you figure?”
“We’re both playing a waiting game and stewing in self-imposed anxiety.”
“True, but—”
“Give me till the end of September,” he intercepted, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Simon…”
“Hear me out. Being my academic assistant is a legit gig that will help you with your money situation, right?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’ll split the driving and meet you in Pasadena once or twice a week, so you don’t have to drive to Malibu all the time. If you need to borrow a car, I can help you out with that too.”
I cocked my head curiously. “That’s very generous, but why would you do all that?”
He studied his hands for a long moment before meeting my gaze. “I have a few reasons. I can’t stand my own company right now. I hate being alone. The silence is killing me. The idea of going back to college is nice in theory, but I’m having a hard time concentrating. Take your pick. See, on top of worrying about losing my job, I also get to worry about failing out of school too. That’s a lot of failure, Toph. It’s fucking daunting.”
“You won’t fail,” I whispered…to him or me, I couldn’t tell. I bit my bottom lip, then continued. “I’m sorry. I just—I have serious anxiety, Simon. You’ve witnessed it now. I can’t fake it for a prolonged period of time and—”
“I have an idea.” He lifted his finger in the air as if a lightbulb had blinked on, and he shifted to face me. “What if we role-play?”
My jaw dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You weren’t nervous when that porn popped up at my house. You were curious.”
“Sure, but—”
“You asked if I was into role-play, and you know what? Yes. Yes, I am.”
I gulped. I couldn’t decide if this was a dream or a nightmare. My unrequited crush wanted to role-play with me…nonsexually.
Definitely a nightmare.
“Simon…”
“What if we play characters, like…the boss and the intern, the rock star and his biggest fan, the professor and student? We’ve already been doing that last one, and it works. As long as you’re talking about school stuff, you’re in a zone. I bet you can do that for anything. Mechanic and the dude with a flat tire, the football player and the cheerleader. The possibilities are endless,” he pronounced with a self-satisfied grin.
“That’s…weird.”
“It’s brilliant. Admit it. We need each other, Toph. At least in the short-term.” He fixed me with an earnest expression I couldn’t quite read. A little desperate, a little excited. “Let’s play a game. We make the rules, no one gets hurt, and it ends in four weeks or as soon as we call it quits.”
“What kind of rules?”
“Uh, well…I think we have to set parameters first. For example, we choose our roles in advance and we should probably take turns. Say I hypothetically went first and suggested that we were strangers. We meet here or at my place and pretend we’re at a coffee shop or something, no script. We just act out a role.”