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I raised an eyebrow. "That’s your reason?"
"Yeah. It’s a great reason."
"So, ten years down the line, you’re okay with all these managers and agents and investors and everything being the smartest in the room?" I crossed my arms over my chest. "You’re fine with being led around all the time? You don’t want better? Fifteen years in and you get caught up in a cryptocurrency scam and your big defense is—oh, man—I forgot how to read."
"I aced my business classes last semester," Adam pushed in.
"You can make a PowerPoint? Amazing. But here you’re barely passing in basic math."
Adam sat back in his chair and stared at me with every inch of disbelief he had in them. He started to laugh but it was the most hollow laugh I’d ever heard from him. I’d really ticked him off. I’d found another button that riled him up.
"I could do this shit if I wanted to," Adam said, irritably.
"But you can’t," I retorted. "So you don’t."
He narrowed his eyes. "You’re trying to reverse-psychology me."
"How would you know? You’re almost failing your psychology class too."
Adam scoffed for a moment and shifted back in his seat. "What the hell do you care for?"
That grated my nerves. Why would I care if he was missing a class? Because he was squandering a free education for nothing. My parents would’ve been furious.
"Because if you miss a class tomorrow, you’re screwed," I snapped. "And that’s on me, your babysitter."
"Well, I wouldn’t do that." He shook his head. "I can’t miss a class."
"You could get sick or in a car accident or oversleep or—"
"Look, I get you’re a nerd and you want to hold these books tight and cuddle them or whatever the hell you do, but not everybody’s like that." Adam snorted. "I focus better when I’m there, listening. This might surprise you, I don’t do well with reading the text and going over the motions. I know myself. I’ll just wander off."
I bit my lip, mind whirling. What would my parents say to one of their students?
"What about listening to your books?" I asked.
"Here?"
"With your headphones."
"My hearing’s too good." He shrugged. "I can’t concentrate."
All these excuses.
I drew in a deep breath. "Let me see your headphones."
"My headphones?"
I didn’t repeat myself, I just held out my hand. Adam muttered under his breath for a moment but he fished out a pair of wireless earbuds, stark white with a gold sliver down the side. I took a long look at them and I could feel his eyes, watching me.
"Seven thousand dollar headphones." Adam grinned. "There’s a real gold leaf in it."
Tapping on my phone, I connected them in a couple of seconds. Listening intently, I swiped through my audiobooks while Adam told me about how they had been a limited edition deal, and how exclusive they were, and how seven grand isn’t bad to drop on something you’ll use for years. I finally slipped them out and tossed them to the table.
"These are garbage," I said and fished my pair from my backpack.
"What?" Adam laughed. "Ice princess, I spent a hell of a lot of money—"
"You wasted a lot of money. Yes. They aren’t noise-canceling. If I can hear you through my audiobook, something’s wrong. Try these."
