chapter xi

"The test wasn't that hard," Philbert said.
Berry, between cigarette breaths, was hiding in the corner of the bathroom by the window. He watched his friend intent on biting his nails while checking his phone. It was Ivy day, which usually means that all the students who applied for one or more Ivy League colleges are refreshing their portals every two minutes. They all knew that they usually send the applications’ results in the evening, but that didn’t stop them to hope to get rid of their anxiety some hours early.
"Yes, the test was fine" Berry lied, still looking at his cell phone. The test was tricky; the professor was famous for putting his students through the wringer. And being it the last test of the year, he went all in.
Philbert told Berry that he had found a part-time job and would be starting his shift soon. All he had to do was take his history class and grab something quick to eat before he had to start working.
He was nervous, afraid that he wouldn't be good enough to follow orders and get the math wrong with the clients. Carl's words entered his head with the effect of a poisonous syringe. Maybe Philbert Beese was not only unfit for life as a college student, but also for life as a working man.
He would have liked to blame it on the hypnosis, but he knew very well that he was not a particularly skilled person even before that crazy one night stand. Carl had opened up a new option for him, the Piggy's. In the long run he could make money on it, maybe.
Caught up in the moment, he said goodbye to Berry even though there were still five minutes to go before the end of the break. He picked up his phone and went on Pigler.
He looked at the 40-year-old man's profile picture with stars in his eyes. He sighed as a new DM popped in his box.

"You up bro?"
GetYouW1de

"It's eleven o'clock in the morning, asshole."
PhilB

"What’s up?"
GetYouW1de

"I'm at school, I got a job at a bakery yesterday! You?"
PhilB

Even without being able to see his face, he knew Scott was still worried for him and would bring up an evil scheme regarding the connection between the job and Carl's hypnosis.

“Good luck, man! Get those coins!”
GetYouW1de

When he read the text, Phil remembered that Scott had his face too much into his arse to care twice for the same person’s wellbeing in the same week.

“You’re doing it for money, right?”
GetYouW1de

“Yeah. I need to get out from Indiana ASAP”
PhilB

“Come to Cali, bitch! It would be a blast to have you here!”
GetYouW1de

“I actually applied to Irvine! Not gonna get in, though.”
PhilB

“Why?”
GetYouW1d e

Philbert started walking to class. Somehow, having someone to talk to about this kind of stuff was helpful to chill out. He had applied to colleges, now he didn’t have much to do if not hoping to get some acceptance letters. He did all he could to make his applications pretty: he also managed to get a recommendation letter from the boss of this non-profit foundation for which Phil did some volunteering back in the day.

“I’m not good enough, Scott.”
PhilB

“You’re going to be fine. You’re smart.”
GetYouW1de

Phil smiled uncontrollably. It was nice to hear that.

“And you can be very stubborn too. I’m sure you’re gonna do great!”
GetYouW1de

Philbert Beese wasn’t the smart cookie of his year. He wasn’t the jock nor the class clown nor the outsider. He was so average he kind of felt sick of it. He guessed that daydreaming about being the obese kid was his way to express a desire of ending high school with a sort of recognition. But it was too late for that, school was going to be over in a couple of months.
Nevertheless, having a successful young lad like Scott Lundt giving him some encouragement felt amazing.

“Thank you. I really appreciated it.”
PhilB

“IRVINE! IRVINE! IRVINE! Can’t wait to show you all that California has to offer!”
GetYouW1de

Philbert started laughing by himself before entering in the classroom with a smile that didn’t fell off from his face for hours. Scott was not that bad, after years of friendship he cared about him and he felt so stupid to realise it just in that moment of tenderness.
Yeah, he thought to himself, with the right financial aid California wouldn’t have been so bad.