[Sep 9] Until they think warm days will never cease | for Caleb

Classes begin.

It isn't the studious uproar that it was the year before, the bounding joy of it all that came with the genuine surprise of his collegiate acceptance and the transcendental oddity of having classes with people he screwed around with. Instead, it's a slightly curious balance of things. Quiet campus mornings and busy working afternoons and then, in the evenings, to study and rest.

But today is the first weekend of the school year, and so his boss has given him off (You need to get into your routine, she said, I know how important that is for-- and she paused for a very, very long time before she smiled and said, For Beau! but Neil knows she means for him). Neil finds himself at a loss. Not for lack of want to do. It's beautiful out, the last wonderful gasps of summer before September turns them into Autumn, and he's done all his homework, so the world is his oyster.

It is very, very tempting to bother Caleb. But Caleb is just new to collegiate life, and also working, and Neil doesn't want to be a pain. What sort of person would he be, distracting Caleb at a crucial time in setting up routines and regularity?

Is that going to stop him from sending him a selfie, wearing his glasses like he's just given up some very difficult text? Absolutely not. Is he going to admit that he only put the glasses on because he likes how Caleb falls all over himself staring at him when he wears them? Not in the slightest.

It's just the picture, and nothing more. If Caleb's busy, then it won't matter. And if not...well, maybe he can be a bother for a little while.