Page 32 of Talk to Me

He rolled his eyes, but I could tell Theo was amused.

“Don’t believe me.” I shrugged. “I don’t care. You can’t prove me wrong.”

Theo frowned at me and reached up to run a hand through the flop of hair on his head, pushing it to the side and out of his eyes.

“I can prove you wrong,” he said slowly, as if thinking hard.

“How?”

A grin bloomed on Theo’s face and he grabbed his phone from the bed where he’d laid it next to his knee. He tapped the screen and unlocked it, then scrolled on his phone for a moment. Finally, he tapped the screen once, brought his phone up level with his face, and began to speak.

“Hey, everyone!” he said to…God knows who. “I’m playing late-night Uno with a friend. We’ve been beefing over whether or not you are allowed to play a Wild Draw 4 on another Wild Draw 4 or not. My friend says you can—because he’s a cheater. I say you can’t, because I read the official rules. Who allows this nonsense? Or are you like me and know the actual, official Uno rules?”

Then he tapped the screen again. I laughed as both hands went to Theo’s phone and he set up the video to post on Peepers.

“I’ll take a poll,” Theo mumbled as he worked.

“The one you pulled out of your ass?” I asked innocently.

Theo shot me a grin over the top of his phone as he posted the video. I finally heard a whooshing noise, and I assumed the video was posted.

“Now we’ll see,” Theo said. “We’ll find out how many people agree with each of us, and you’ll be begging for my forgiveness before it’s all said and done.”

“Like fuck,” I said. “You’re just going to embarrass yourself.”

Theo chuckled, then screwed up his mouth.

“Well,” he said, “I mean, it is likely that most of the comments will be insults, but maybe some of my followers will give real answers.”

I reached out, intending to pat his knee, but pulled my hand back.

“Hey,” I said. “Some people are dicks, right?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I won’t worry about it.”

We both sat there, the pile of cards, the deck, and our two hands between us on the bed. When I glanced at my phone, I realized that it was after midnight, and I suddenly realized how tired I was getting. When Theo did his best to hide a yawn, I knew that we needed to call it a night. Even if we were having fun and didn’t want to end things, sleep can’t be avoided forever.

“I saw that,” I said. “It’s late.”

Theo smiled. “Yeah. I’m getting a little sleepy.”

“Should we call it a night?” I asked.

I didn’t want to chase Theo away. Spending time with a new friend is always exciting, but if I didn’t sleep, I would fall asleep in the middle of a round of Uno. Surely, that would not look good.

“I guess,” Theo said. “I had a really good time today, Josh. Thanks.”

“Me, too,” I said. “So…thank you.”

He chuckled.

“I just hope my roommate hasn’t hotboxed the room again,” Theo said, sliding from the bed. “He thinks that toilet paper roll and dryer sheet trick keeps everyone from smelling the weed, but he’s too stoned half the time to realize it doesn’t. Thank God our advisor looks the other way.”

“Gross.” I turned my nose up.

“Yeah,” Theo said. “I keep all of my clothes in the wardrobe tied up in trash bags, but sometimes I still have to Febreze the shit out of them before I can wear them. It’s the worst. Smelling it all day and night sucks.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of having to keep one’s clothes practically hermetically sealed in a closet to avoid having them smell like weed.