Room 307, Sunday Morning

[dollpocalypse]

There was one thing that no one had warned Topher about before he left for his college interview on the mainland, and that was the matter of what to wear. So out of a desire to avoid being judged childish by the alumni interviewer, he had gone all out and put on a suit. After lint-rolling away the glitter still lingering on the shoulders from the last school dance, of course.

Other than the awkward moment when the interviewer asked why he was so dressed up ("Uh... church," Topher replied after a long enough pause to make the lie obvious), the interview had gone well, he thought. Sure, he could have made the answer to the question about his biggest weakness sound less obviously rehearsed, but he got in the right amount of self-promoting and even got a grin or two out of the interviewer when he answered a question about his inspirations with a Space Battles quote.

So he was feeling pretty good about it when he got back to his dorm room and tossed his suit jacket to the floor before flopping on his bed. Now there were only two more weeks to go before he found out Stanford's decision, and then he could stop feeling all twitchy and nervous and start feeling twitchy and excited instead.

[[door and post open!]]

Comments

[selfhelphero]

Billy, looking much healthier than he had a few days ago, knocked on the door when he saw that it was open. "Hey, how did your thing go?" 'Thing' was a totally valuable alternative to 'potentially life changing interview.'

[dollpocalypse]

"Pretty well, I think," Topher said, adjusting so he was laying on his side and could look at Billy. "But there's a chance I was overdressed."

He was wearing a tie, so yeah.

[selfhelphero]

"Hey, it's better to be overdressed than underdressed. It shows you're responsible," Billy said. "I bet you did great. Did they ask any awful questions?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Well, at one point there was a question about my thoughts on--" he made some air quotes-- "'the Obamacare debate,' which I have never heard of before," Topher admitted. "But other than that, I basically got to brag about myself and talk up their programs and quote Space Battles. The guy seemed to respond well to that."

[selfhelphero]

It was a sign that Billy had been around Topher for long enough that he wasn't terribly surprised he was unaware of current events that didn't have an effect on him. "Good. He should be impressed. Stanford would be lucky to have you," he insisted, going to sit down on the bed.

[dollpocalypse]

"You're not sick anymore, right?" Topher asked to make sure, but he still scooted over to make some room, kicking his shoes off in the direction of Bay's side of the room. Oops. "Anyway, that is what I keep saying," he said. "Fortunately, there are only 482 hours until I know for sure." Yes. He had done the math. "And then I can start wearing all the Stanford hoodies and sweatbands and stuff I bought online."

[selfhelphero]

"No, I'm good. I would have like, texted you or something if I was still sick," Billy promised. "Do we need to set up like a countdown or something? Ooh, we should do something fun to celebrate once you hear back."

[dollpocalypse]

"Dude, yes," Topher said, pointing at Billy decisively. "Celebrations are awesome. Especially ones where you attend, germ-free." A thought struck him. "Should we get a keg? You know, like, as practice."

[selfhelphero]

"Do you think they have a lot of keggers at Stanford?" Billy asked with a smirk. "I'm not sure where we'd even get one. We could like, go to Caritas though if you want to practice drinking."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, I'm not sure I could carry a keg," Topher admitted. "Caritas would be a good idea, though. Except, technically, that wouldn't be an accurate re-creation of the college drinking environment, since I won't be able to drink in bars until my senior year unless I get a fake ID. Or telepathic paper." Someone still had Mister What on the brain. "Close enough, do you think?"

[selfhelphero]

"I think it'd be close enough, especially if the drinks were on me," Billy offered. "I think it's awesome you're trying for a school that's so good."

[dollpocalypse]

"Thanks," Topher said after the slightest pause. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that I'm in their league. I just really don't want to be bored for four years, you know?"

It was a subject that he had spent enough time babbling about that everyone probably knew.

"What are you doing after we get out of here?" he asked a moment later, sounding as though he'd spent a fair amount of time wondering this.

[selfhelphero]

"Um. I think I'm actually going to put off college for a bit," Billy admitted. "I've been thinking about it a lot and I kind of talked to Tommy about it when he came for Parents Weekend and... I think we're going to look for our mom." That didn't sound as awesome as Stanford in this moment.