The Tutor

8 - Sleepover

For a few weeks, relatively the same thing happens. Some days, Jacob finds Sam in the lunch room, so he'll join him and mess with the kid for a little while before inevitably being shooed away to his own table. Even though they're friends now, Sam still seems to like some of his alone time. He'd either go to Sam's house or have Sam come to his for two days each week.

This continues until, eventually, one day during lunch, Jacob asks something out of the ordinary. He sits down at Sam's table with his lunch tray, smiling. "Whatcha reading, Sammy?"

"The Devil in the White City," the blond says without looking up from the book in his hands. He pronounces 'white' like 'rite.'
"What's it about?"
"You wouldn't care for it," he lowers to book to look at Jacob. "What did you want?"

"Well..." Jacob fidgets with the cuffs of his sleeves. "I was wondering if... If maybe you... Wanted to go out sometime?"
"Like a playdate?" Sam asks excitedly.

No. That is not what Jacob meant. But he's not going to bother correcting Sam. The kid is so excited by the idea of hanging out as a friend, he can't crush his dreams like that.
"S-Sure~"
"We could have a sleepover!"
Okay, that could actually be fun. Jacob smiles a little, nodding. "Do you have a phone? Maybe we could exchange numbers so I can tell you if my mother will let me have a sleepover."

"Of course, I have a phone. Do you know who I am?" Of course, this kid has the newest phone at all times.
Jacob rolls his eyes and gets his phone out of his pocket. "What's your number?"
Sam gives Jacob his number.
"Alright. I'll text you when I get a chance to ask my mom~ Whose house would you prefer to stay at? Probably yours. We could play Mario Kart on the big screen, and I could finally beat you~"

"Like that would ever happen~ My place is fine."
"Alright! Well, I'll let you get back to your book~"

————————————————————

A few days later, Jacob finally got an okay from his mother for the sleepover, and the two boys set it up to be during the weekend at Sam's place. His mother will be somewhere else, sealing some sort of business deal, so it will be mainly his father and the servants looking over the kids.

Around noon on Saturday, Jacob walks up to the big white doors, reaching up to ring the doorbell. He has a duffle bag hanging from his shoulder, with a second change of clothes, his toothbrush, and stuff like that for the morning.

It's not long before Sam answers the door, a broad smile on his face. "Hi~! You know the drill, make sure to take your shoes off," he says as he steps to the side to let the brunette inside. "What did you want to do first?"

Jacob walks inside and takes his shoes off, smiling as he looks back at Sam. "Mario Kart, of course!"
The blonde rolls his eyes. "Can I pick the game if it's going to be a video game?"

"Well... What would you want to play?"
"I don't know, something like Manifold Garden, The Witness, The Talos Principle... But... There is a problem with all the games like that..."
Jacob doesn't even know what those games are. "What's the problem."
"They're single-player." When Jacob gives him a disappointed look, he quickly tries to fix it. "But we can take turns! Pleeeaaase! Puzzle games are more engaging!"

Puzzle games. Of course. What else did Jacob expect? His first impression is that that will be boring and tedious, but you never know, so he might as well give it a chance. "Sure. Which one did you want to play though? You mentioned multiple. I think. Unless it was one big weird name."

"Uh... The Witness has the most basic premise. With The Talos Principle, there's a discussion of AI and the philosophical implications of morality in artificial intelligence and stuff like that—" a bunch of big words, what the hell "—and Manifold Garden deals with infinitely repeating bodies of space. Which can be confusing to some. The Witness is basically just the mazes on the back of cereal boxes but with more rules."