Page 51 of Talk to Me

“Thanks!”

We laughed and continued on our way. All of the people running around us on the path forced us together out of sheer self-preservation. If we were going to get knocked down, we were going down together. I hoped that if one of us got shoulder checked or bumped in some way, the other one would be quick enough to grab them and keep them upright.

I couldn’t blame the students of Midway University for their excitement. I’m a pretty big Halloween guy myself. Candy, costumes, spookiness, pumpkins, a nice hayride—what’s not to love? Desiring a little more care and safety wasn’t too much to ask of my fellow college students, though. Either way, I was glad that I had Theo to buddy up with for the bonfire. With Collin still not talking to me, or even acknowledging I still existed, I was grateful for the friendship.

“So,” I said, glancing over at Theo briefly, “I think a brief dance video in costume for Peepers isn’t totally out of the question.”

Theo didn’t break stride, but he gasped and turned his head to look at me.

“Really?”

“Sure,” I said with a shrug. “Arthur will absolutely lose it when he sees it. That makes my inevitable humiliation worth it, I suppose.”

“Let’s do it now!” Theo said, stopping in his tracks.

“What?” I asked, suddenly nervous.

Theo spun around, looking at our surroundings.

“Yeah,” Theo said. “If we wait until we get to the bonfire and there’s a lot of people around, you’re going to chicken out. If we do it now when there’s not a huge crowd, you won’t feel so self-conscious about it!”

I couldn’t argue with Theo’s logic, but he was wrong. I could easily feel ridiculous about anything I did, wherever I did it. I’d seen me do it. It was a gift.

Before I could think of an argument, Theo had grabbed my hand again and was pulling me towards Midway Roasters. I hadn’t noticed that we were passing the coffee shop since I’d been thinking about the bonfire and the video Theo wanted to do.

Theo dragged me over to stand under the exterior lights of the coffee shop, which had closed in preparation for the bonfire. Since the shop was dark and empty inside, all of the outdoor seating was empty as well. Students weren’t going to be sitting around if they didn’t have a coffee to drink. I stood by the table Theo stopped at as he pulled out his phone and used a napkin holder on the table to prop it up.

Nervously, I shuffled my feet as I watched Theo tap the screen and prepare Peepers to record the video for us. As I waited, I began to have second thoughts. Being on Theo’s channel on Peepers was different than letting a random friend include me in a video they made. Most of my friends got a few likes and reposts from other friends. Their reach was small. With Theo, millions of people would see me doing a dance with him and judge the two of us.

Not caring what people thought was a pretty decent skill I had, though I hadn’t perfected it. However, I’d never dealt with practicing it on a large scale. Not caring what a classful of students thought was one thing. Millions of people? That was a completely different ball of wax. But then Theo grabbed my hand once more and was pulling me away from the table, and I no longer had time to think about it.

“Okay,” Theo said as he pulled us ten feet away from the table. “Let’s do this.”

“When?” I asked nervously. “How? Do we need music? What’s going on?”

Theo laughed.

“We’re just going to do the dance,” he said. “Then I’ll cut and edit and all that stuff later. And add music. Peepers is already recording.”

I looked over at the phone on the table quickly, nervously.

Theo reached up, grabbed my chin, and pulled my face back to stare at him.

“It’s no big deal,” he said. “It’s just a silly video. We’re supposed to look dumb doing this. The dumber we look, the better the video.”

A shaky breath escaped my mouth.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Theo smiled.

I nodded.

“You go back, I go forward first?” he asked.

I nodded again.

“Okay,” he said. “One, two, three.”