𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙣 (𝙛𝙡𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜).

                           ‘   doesn’t it give you two sheets ? i’ve never actually been in one.   ’ it’s just that he hasn’t seen anyone go in there alone, but then he remembers passport photos — but no one takes those in a photo booth do they ? there’s a lot to consider, blinking back his attention with the help of her hand in his, nearly stumbling over his toes. ‘   what if the first two pictures suck, because they might, we’ll still be warming up and stuff. or, i’ll be.   ’ 

                             ‘   i don’t know how to dance but this beat is so infectious ...   ’

                        ‘   we should do the photo booth twice if there’s no line up. so i can keep one at home and then have one for my room next year.   ’

                                 ‘   you brought your switch ?   ’ he forgoes a greeting, and he tries to convince himself that they’ve developed enough of a shorthand that he can do that — but they haven’t, and it’s weird either way, to not start with a hi to a friend he’s not seen in months. ‘   i should’ve brought mine ...   ’ his phone-case games usually do the trick in a pinch, but if he’d had known louis had his they could’ve played together. then he looks up, slightly apologetically, mostly happy. ‘   also hi. hey.   ’

                              ‘   yeah, that’s true. i don’t think it’s good obviously. but at least there’s nothing else that can be exposed. so, like, if you stayed, not you specifically, you generally, then there wouldn’t be anything else that could be used against you. unless you had secrets that weren’t exposed.    ’ doesn’t think he explained it very well, and it likens him to the kid who played devil’s advocate one minute before lunch which resulted to the teacher making everyone stay until he said his piece. he doesn’t want to be that guy. he should probably just keep his mouth shut. ‘   okay.   ’ he says again. then vows to shut up, but that’s impossible when he’s with esther, compelled to say the wrong thing whenever she’s around. ‘   that person must have made a lot of friends since they know practically everyone. i’m very curious as to who it is. like, what if it was luc. or rei ?   ’ he excludes themselves, because it’s obviously not them. he nods, slightly solemnly, as if he’s taking in the fact that he’s boring for the first time. ‘   cool. good. i mean. i’m glad we’re both mutually boring to one another.    ’ it’s times like these he’s really unsure about how they got matched and he almost one hundred percent positive that she’s thinking the exact same thing, which weirdly, puts him at ease. 

                              it’s humid in virginia but he loves it all the same, still slightly red-faced as he returns from a rigorous game of catch. noah’s stamina is not to be trifled with, especially today, where he thinks she would have just kept going had he not mentioned how at some point — he’s gonna have to go study. he’s got a bad habit of looking at his feet when he walks, the drawstring bag plopped to the floor before he looks up. soren doesn’t even remember to close the door, his gaze sliding slowly over the walls, realizes he’s letting in too much light and unconsciously reaches to close the door, his focus untouched by the soft click. it looks great, and he’s so surprised, not in the jaw-dropping, flinching way but because this is so nice. she’s so nice. an emphatic nod follows before he finally looks to her, and he can’t hide his own grin, every tooth exposed, even the ugly ones but it’s sort of dark and maybe that’ll help, but who even cares because this is the most awesome thing. ever. ‘   ingrid. it’s so cool. so cool.    ’ he standing at the foot of her, peering down, giving a small pet to the llama. ‘   hi, you.   ’ he greets — and stuffed animals may not be fully sentient but they still deserve to be treated with respect. 

                            ‘   same here. my procrastination’s gotten a lot better since high school but i’ve still had a few all nighters.   ’ self-inflicted, when he stops playing video games at nine p.m, a break that had only meant to be for an hour after dinner. ‘   oh that’s good. or i would assume. what uh, makes them hippy-like ?   ’

                            ‘   all of it.    ’ he knows she’s joking and the corners of his lips perk a little bit even though he’s completely serious. ‘   maybe it’s going to be a comedy movie next year. or a sci-fi. it would suck to miss that.    ’ the movie genres in real life ( outside of gallagher ) are drama, but the mundane kind, slow-moving and a lot of the time, kinda boring. ‘   same. do you have a lot of friends graduating this year ? or not coming back ?   ’

                             ‘   i don’t think one counteracts the others. ghosts would just fall into the realm of everything that math has yet to explain.   ’ his stance becomes clearer in that moment, on the side of everything has yet to be discovered rather than it not existing. he nods, agreeing wholeheartedly. ‘   i think so too. it sucks that humans can’t see some things. but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.   ’ the temptation to take her to play right now skyrockets, but he has to do at least a little bit of studying first. ‘   for sure. when are you free ?   ’

                             ‘   winning’s pretty great. and getting good grades.   ’ which seems unrelated, but since they’re on the topic of accomplishments, it’s not that far of a reach. his perception of hippies are taken from textbook pages and bad halloween costumes so obviously he’s intrigued. ‘   did they do a lot of drugs in the seventies ?   ’ 

                                 soren lets out a pent up sigh of relief, he’s used to being alone and would probably fare okay if that happened again, but he doesn’t want to be. now that he has friends he doesn’t want to let them go. ‘   we might be a bit crazy. but i think if i left now i’d wonder what i’m missing here.    ’ 

                               ‘   yeah, i don’t know. i guess i don’t really think about it that much. what about you ?   ’ gallagher’s a pretty great place to be for a ghost fanatic, or so he’s heard. ‘   oh. well do they have a mic on them ? most do, unless they’re the really crappy ones from dollar tree. it’s super fun. it’s basically about mining alien planets, some hostile.    ’

                              they seem to be on the same wavelength, but he’s out of sync — turning his head towards her at the same time he does, too fast, like the rapidity with which he stretches is directly correlated with how fast he’ll attain the flexibility of an owl. which is already impossible to begin with, but a lot of things seem to be until ingrid talks about them, stuffed animal case in point. his head whips against hers with a sort of side clash-bump, and he’d reach up to awkwardly pet it better but one arm is comfortably squished against hers and he fears reaching over with his other hand might send the laptop toppling. ‘   sorry. ow. sorry that ow’s not for me, it’s for you. that wasn’t very wise and owl-like of me.   ’ embarassed, but not too concerned about this being a needs-ice stat affair, couldn’t have been that hard since they were so close to begin with. ‘   i would definitely drink out of a llama mug. and i don’t even like hot drinks that much.    ’ save for some herbal teas, all the mugs he’s collected over the years have been used as storage for pens or loose change, or just displayed on his shelf. but the llama mug would be his designated drink mug if she made one. soren just assumes the vibration from her phone is a message or a notification that has nothing to do with him, because she’s popular online and assumes she’s just as popular offline. ‘   i can hold my pee for a really long time.    ’ he’s about to go on a tangent about how he has the best bladder out of anyone in his family and how the time he flew from north dakota to fargo he didn’t need the go but still went to the bathroom because he wanted to see what one on a plane looked like. but before he can, he becomes stupidly hyper-aware, that he’s talking about pee. with a girl. which seems like something he shouldn’t do, and even though he knows it’s dumb he still trails off, with a boring ‘   yeah it sucks,    ’ sympathy fo the dehydrated llama. though he can’t stay weird for long when hypothetical plans are of concern. ‘   that’s a really good idea. reparations in the form of animals is always a good idea. no one can be mad at like, a foal.    ’ even though it’s not a one stop fix for what blackthorne did, or so he assumes, if there was a test on their crimes he probably wouldn’t do so well. ‘   at least it wouldn’t hurt.   ’ although either way, being smothered isn’t ideal, by things you love no less. another teeny smile unconsciously appears at the thought of how pretty that would like, and grows a little more at the thought of it in the daytime. ‘   it would be a bit like spider’s legs in the daytime. next year i’m gonna start on my room decorating early.    ’ he likes his room the way it is now, but it took a long time to get there. he knows they’re the ones as soon as his gaze lands on the page. ‘   definitely. should we get the same colour or not ?   ’

                                 concern immediately appears on his features. ‘   i’m for sure staying. are you staying ?   ’ he presses, unblinking like he’s completely static until he gets the answer he so desperately wants to hear. he can’t lose noah. ‘   you’re staying right ?   ’ maybe if he spared her a moment to answer he’d be breathing a sigh of relief much quicker. 

                                 ‘   though sometimes i think it’s not good to have a too comfy bed otherwise it’s hard to get up.   ’ he’s succumbed to moving to his bed to finish up an essay more than a few times even though he knows the benefits of keeping work and leisure separate — but the gallagher mattresses are great, maybe a little too great. his chin points up as his head tilts, and suddenly he feels a bit bad for not remembering. ‘   oh.   ’ if he’s being honest he can’t recall any of his other roommates either. ‘   i guess we never really hung out in his room that much.   ’ or he hadn’t really cared enough but it would be bad to say aloud. ‘   cool.   ’ he nods, sort of distracted but brought back by the mention of her future plans, grounding him in the realization that she’s really leaving, and that he’s going to miss her a bunch. ‘   america should be fighting to keep you here. but once you officially get a job there’s no way they could kick you out.   ’

                               ‘   nothing better than a little bit of friendly competition.   ’ means it sincerely, because no one takes it personally when they lose. which has been his experience, because he’s never not won — but it has been a while, so he could be more rusty than he knows. ‘   how were you raised and what are your view of things ?   ’ it seems like the logical question to ask even though his curiosity sounds like a robot learning to interrogate. 

                             ‘   thanks. i always have next year. do you think people are going to leave because of this ? i can’t get a read.   ’ which implies he’s ever been able to gauge the tone of room, but he sort of fears that he’s going to go into his upper years with the student body at half it’s capacity. ‘   okay.    ’ he says, a bit awkwardly, taking it as instruction even though he can’t take back the apology now. there’s a lot of stories that aren’t just stories, but people’s lives and he’s not quite sure how to tread that line with grace so for the most part he’s just been avoiding it altogether. ‘   yeah. it’s a really big invasion of privacy. the commentary on our personalities is also a bit creepy. i guess this person has a lot of time on their hands. i wonder if they’re getting good grades.    ’ because it seems an arduous task to take on, and his social battery would be thoroughly depleted by the time he got through even a quarter of the student body. ‘   well if it makes you feel better you’re still kinda boring to me.    ’ he gives an affirming nod, despite the fact that it comes off as an insult.