There we go.

"I take it you don't want me to?"

"I don't think I get an opinion on that.  Just—you've been here a while, the accommodations aren't great, I assume you have a life other than this?  Possibly including homework?"

"I'm telling you to tell me what you want."

"I want you to go?"  He does not sound certain about that.

No but it's a preference! Has Jeremy expressed many of those? ...positive ones, that is, not saying things he doesn't want? Jake doesn't think so.

"Alright. I'll go, then, and I'll—I guess come back tomorrow after school?" Jeremy probably needs some time.

He nods and wipes his eyes.  Sniffles.

"—oh, but, first—regarding YouTube, I'd—lightly recommend against browsing too much? Maybe just use YouTube Music? You might not have the, like—brain antibodies? To detect when a video is completely fake or AI-generated or, like, trying to prey on your emotions and manipulate you, people have gotten really good at that. Or just like try to avoid videos that aren't just music or, I don't know, videos about space or something. ...do people lie about space? There's people who think the Earth is flat I guess."

"I can keep to music.  Or leave if I don't have the capacity to change what's playing."

"It'll probably not autoplay anything that's not music if you're just listening to music, or if you just play an album, so it's probably fine.

"Anyway, uh... yeah. Okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Can you write down for me the things to press on the keyboard?"

"Sure." He'll do that.

"Thank you."

"Of course." He'll put his shoes on—actually, he'll wash his feet first because this house is incredibly grubby—and then he supposes he can go.

Or linger at the threshold, a bit, he guesses. For some reason.

"...Tomorrow after school?" Jeremy confirms in response to the hesitation.

"—yeah. Tomorrow after school."

He'll... go, he guesses.

He can do that.

Yeah. He can.

By the time he's back at the dormitory this weird funk he somehow got himself in is gone, replaced by his usual cheer. The boys tease him about his new boyfriend who is maybe a ghost, Jake confirms that he is indeed a ghost and can do magic, the boys don't believe him (or, if they do, they keep it to themselves), and the interaction is so—normal—it makes the weekend feel a bit like it was just a dream. Here's some kids the same age as him, who were born this century like him, who know what YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and Spotify are and who probably didn't murder anyone.

They're... really fucking boring.

So is homework. So is school. The boys he wanted to flirt with have lost their shine—none of them have magic, none of them are Jeremy ghosts—and the classes feel more pointless than ever, when he's just definitely not going to use any of them for anything ever. Like before he thought maybe he could, he doesn't know, major in engineering or something? But now he's just gonna do something entirely different.

Time takes for fucking ever to pass.

"After school" takes for fucking ever to arrive.

Jeremy is waiting for him, in front of him, the moment he steps over the property line.  "Hey."

"...hi. You—doing okay?"

"Jake.  I—

"I think we should take a break."

...oh no. "A break? From what?"