David hasn’t seen his own hotel room in days, hasn’t done more than sleep and shower there in — he can’t even remember. He really should go back to the hotel.

“Okay,” David says, and follows Jake home.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Pick a movie, any movie,” Jake says.

“You know I don’t care,” David says.

“Please,” Jake says. “Just once, pick the movie.”

“I’m fine with whatever you want to watch,” David says.

“David Chapman,” Jake says. David thinks he’s trying to sound stern, but he isn’t very good at it. “I’m begging you here: pick a movie.”

Jake’s phone rings practically on cue, which gives David more time to decide. Not that it’s likely to help: he’s sure he’d be capable of picking a movie if he was invested in watching any of them, but he isn’t.

“Give me a sec?” Jake says, holding it up, and David nods, scrolling through the movie options as Jake disappears into his room.

It’s probably his parents. Jake’s on the phone with his family a lot. It wasn’t something David noticed last year, but then, David wasn’t spending all his time at Jake’s last year, just the evenings. Presumably he spent just as much time talking to them then, just did it when David wasn’t around, and, admittedly, David’s around him most of the time now.

Jake’s always talked about being close to his family, but it was one thing for David to acknowledge that was probably true, another thing to see it in practice, how often he talks to them, how often he talks about them. It seems excessive, but then, David talks to his agent more often than his parents — significantly more often than his parents — so he probably isn’t the best judge.

Jake doesn’t come out of his room for a while, long enough that David starts to wonder how much he could possibly have to say. He was on the phone with his father yesterday, one of his sisters too, David can’t remember which one. Jake can’t have much to report: he’s just going to camp every day, spending the rest of his time with David, and David’s sure they don’t talk about that. They may not be ‘just buddies’ as he thought last year, but it’s certainly not the sort of thing Jake’s going to be telling his family about.

David has scrolled through the same movie options at least half a dozen times before Jake comes out of his room.

“Your parents?” David guesses.

“Allie,” Jake says. His eldest sister. David thinks she was the sister he was talking to yesterday, though he isn’t positive.

Jake sits down beside David, blows out a breath. “Did you pick a movie?” he asks, eyes on the TV.

“Is something wrong?” David asks.