After a few minutes Kristen returned and sat by me, arms resting inches away. “You hungry or anything Rob?”

“I’m good. Ate a bit at Kari’s.”

“Thought so.” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, probably unsure of what else to say or do. “So how you been?”

“Not gonna lie, could be better.” I shrugged. “Could be worse too but that’s another thing.”

“Yeah, sorry about your Mom. We thought you knew…”

“Relax. If I was mad at you about that I’ve have already raised a fuss. If anything I owe you guys for taking me in.“

“You’d do the same thing if you were us.”

“Probably.” I admitted with a laugh. “Just take the damn compliment.”

“Oh?” Kristen smirked at me, resting a hand under her chin. “Or what?”

“Well shit. You called my bluff. Guess that’s that.”

She looked pleased that she won that little exchange. Her finger came down and patted my head gently. “Well thanks anyway. Glad you’re okay with staying here.”

“A week at a girl’s house? What’s not to love?”

Without breaking her expression Kristen’s finger stopped patting my head and pushed me over, holding me in place beneath her nail. “You can try if you think if you can get away with it.” She giggled with a wink, finger gently rolling me around before pulling back.

I sat myself back up with my legs crossed, a playful look on my face. “Don’t test me. I always like a good challenge.”

“And I always like stepping on bugs.”  Kristen laughed back. “Seriously though, I am going to be busy the next couple of days. You going to be alright if I leave you here for a bit?”

“Sure. What’re you busy with?”

“A test.” My friend sighed, deflating at the word. “I need to study for my test in two days. After that I should be around here a lot more so we can hang out and stuff.”

“A test huh? What on?”

She shrugged. “On American culture during the 20th century and how it evolved into what we have now.”

“On pop culture?” My eyes lit up. This chat just got interesting. “Want me to help you with that?”

At first Kristen gave me a questioning look but then they widened with understanding. “Oh yeah, you were a film major. You know all about this kind of thing don’t you?”

I grinned, playing at being modest. “I might know a little bit.”

“I’ll take any help I can get. Tomorrow you can help me out while I’m cramming. Sound good?”

I nodded. “Sure, but what are we going to do tonight then?”

“Sleep. You have any idea what time it is?”

I did not but a quick check of my phone fixed that up. “Damn, it’s 11 already?”

“Yeah.” I suddenly noticed the exhaustion in Kristen’s eyes. “So we can pick this up in the morning. Alright?”

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s go then.” She picked me up off the table and brought me to her room, placing me near my things she spent a few minutes setting up. Despite my apparent lack of sleepiness while talking the second I crawled into my bed my body suddenly felt heavy. I glanced over to Kristen, already dressed for sleep unfortunately, climbing into her own bed. She took off her glasses and placed them nearby before flicking off the light switch. “Night Robert.”

“Night Kristen.”

I remember feeling pretty good as I fell asleep that night. I may not be able to do much but I could at least help my friend study this one time. It’d been so long since I had gone to school I actually missed the chance to test and flex my knowledge skills. I was legitimately excited to study. Isn’t that weird?

Morning felt like it took forever to come, but once it finally did we got dressed, ate our breakfast, and sat down at the coffee table again with a couple textbooks and Kristen’s laptop ready to go.

“Okay, what do you need help with?”

“Everything.” She turned a little red as her eyes looked away from me.

“Okay…” I paused to think over where to start. “You know what the Sears Catalog is right?”

She nodded, “It was the first magazine you could order stuff from right?”

“Okay, sounds like you have that down…Can you name the Big Five?”

“Uh….Those are the movie guys right? Hmm…MGM…Fox….Universal………Universal….”

“Paramount and Warner Bros.” I finished. “Alright. Let’s focus there for a minute.”

This kept going all day. For both our sakes I won’t recap it all (Unless you want a rudimentary lesson on American pop culture; I’m more than happy to oblige). At first Kristen seemed really unsure about everything but as time went on she began to answer each of my questions with more and more confidence, even correcting me once or twice. She was a very quick learner. And it felt really good to actually use my head for a bit. All my lounging around had me a little rusty, not to mention no more school so I was falling behind my peers. So a chance like this to just help someone out and show I’m not entirely brain dead was a great thing. It was only an added bonus that it was a little something I could do to help repay Kristen for taking me in. Not to mention talking about this stuff was literally why I went to college. It made me feel alive just to start rattling off all those names, the Big Five, the original great directors, music producers, cartoonists, actors. I forgot I knew so much stuff people would consider random trivia. Kristen was definitely surprised. Though by the end of it she knew it about as well as I did.

We only took two breaks to eat, drink, and watch a little bit of TV so we wouldn’t burn out. Funny enough, those breaks felt like the longest parts of the day. They dragged and I was just eager to get back to showing off. Compared to my time at Kari’s, where I sat there thinking all day and unsure of what to say, you couldn’t even tell I was the same person. It was a lot of fun and while it was all going on, I completely forgot about any problems I had. This was the kind of distraction I needed to forget being dumped and kicked out…At least for a little while. Before I realized it night had rolled on by and Kristen went out to pick up some fast food for us to munch on. She asked me if I wanted to come with but I chose to stay behind and get a little nap in.

“Back~” Her amplified voice woke me up immediately. Lazily I got up and watched her walk over and place a bag of food near me.”

“Alright! How much of it is mine?” I stared jokingly at the bag taller than a house.

“All of it. Dig in.” Kristen quickly replied, pulling out a burger and a box of fries.  Almost immediately she pulled out a fry and a chunk of her burger and placed them both near me. I didn’t need to be told twice, I got to work eating my meager little portion of the meal. It must’ve been a long time since I had cheap food because it was delicious. Salty as hell, with some of those salt crystals a third my size, but still tasty. It didn’t take long before I was done with a barely noticeable dent in the fry and piece of burger, whereas in contrast Kristen had finished all her fries and was over half done with her burger. When she finished that she asked if I was done then ate my portion too so it wouldn’t go to waste.

“I’m pretty sure you just ate enough food to make four or five buildings.”

She made a face at me then stuck her tongue out. “Next time you won’t get any then.”

I laughed. “Thanks for the meal.”

“Anytime.” She dabbed her face with a napkin, thankfully without me on it this time. “Thank you for all the help.”

I waved a hand dismissively with a shrug. “It was nothing. Was the least I could do since you’re offering to look after me. Just glad I can help.”

“Still. I’d be screwed if you didn’t help me. I owe you.”

“Weren’t you listening? If anything I owe you.”

“I owe you.” She repeated with a stronger tone.

“Alright Alright.” I sighed and let her take this one, yawning after a moment of silence.

“Tired?”

“A little. All that thinking hurt my head.”

“That just means you don’t use it enough.”

“Hey!” I glared up at her playful eyes. “What’s that make you then, Miss I-Don’t-Know-The-Big-Five?”

Her reply was swift and brutal. “Someone too busy taking care of her friend to study.”

“I showed up yesterday!”

“Your point?”

“Fuck you.”

We both laughed. “I’m feeling a little tired too honestly. I guess we can head to bed early tonight.”

“Let’s do it.”

Not even ten five minutes later we were back in her bedroom in the dark on our beds.

“Night Kris.”

“Night Rob.”

Come the next day Kristen had to hurry off to school for her big test. She made me stay behind since a Micro guy in her ear who knew all the answers seemed like too much temptation.

“See ya Kris! You got this!”

She gave me a firm, confident nod before leaving. Off to take her test for…some class I wasn’t listening when she told me which one.

I stared at the door and sniffled. “They grow up so fast…”