The house is quiet when Halle steps inside, and the first floor is completely dark. They take off their shoes at the door and slowly walk upstairs. Halfway to their room, the door to the office creaks open and their mother pokes her head out. "Halle?"
They freeze. "Hi, Mom."
"Why weren't you home for dinner?"
"I, uh, was visiting a restaurant," they stammer, and add weakly, "I told Dad."
She rubs her temples. "I guess he didn't tell me, then. How was it?"
They fiddle with their reviewing notebook, replying, "it was okay. The place serves a lot of food and I didn't want to get home too late, so I didn't manage to get much down. I'll definitely be going again."
Her tired eyes light up. "Maybe we can go this Saturday, after my conference call in the morning. We haven't gone to a restaurant together in a while."
"Yeah, that would be fun."
"Have you finished your homework, by the way?" Their mother glances briefly into the office before looking back at them.
"I did it before going to dinner." Halle yawns. "And I don't have any tests this week, so I don't have to study for them just yet."
"Go take a shower, then. I have three articles to write by the end of the week."
That piques their interest, and they ask, "articles on what?"
Their mother grimaces. "A feature piece on some 'self-made' billionaire who looks like he'd make sexist jokes, something about two celebrities I don't care about getting together and another piece fuelling the insecurities of university students. You know, the usual."
"Oh, yikes. I guess I have it better with only reviews to write."
"You really do." She shoos him away with a smile. "I'll talk to you more at breakfast tomorrow."
…
While their hair dries from their shower, Halle types what they can onto a new document. Even when double-spaced, the lines don't reach halfway down the page, and the word count tells them they're only at three hundred words. Right now, the passage is more of a lengthy text message than an actual review. They open another tab and begin looking through some inane online drama.
Right in the middle of so-and-so accusing who's-their-face of liking Some Guy's problematic Tumblr post from three years ago, the door swings open and Stellan walks in. He throws one of their pens onto their desk and flops down onto the bed. How was Wang's?
"Well, like the deeply intelligent person I am, I forgot to comment on the food."
He claps sarcastically, eyeing the vicious callout thread currently displayed on Halle's screen. Looks like you're hard at work copying down the review.
"Well, there isn't much to copy down. I only managed to write a page." They stretch, hearing their shoulders crack. "Anyways, enough about me. How was your day?"
I nearly threw hands with Aleksander over a poem. Again.
They snort. "Which poem?"
Auden's "Lay Your Sleeping Head". Stellan lets out a silent huff and continues, hands flying, I told him it was a tragic love story between an immortal and their lover, but they keep insisting it's just a flawed person monologuing into the night.
It takes Halle a moment to figure out what their brother is signing. "You said the poem was what?"
A tragic love story between an immortal and their lover, they sign, this time slower. I said I interpreted it like that because of the line "grave the vision Venus sends of supernatural sympathy", which is about Venus sympathising with this immortal and their doomed love.
"Huh?" They repeat some of the signs, trying to figure out what they are, before giving up and saying, "I don't think I understood half the things you said — "
I never said anything.
"You know what I mean."
Maybe. He shrugs cryptically. Henrik and I went to The Cove after class, and I forgot my bag there. Also again.
"Who told you this time?"
We were halfway to the bus station before I stopped and thought, "oh crap, my bag!". I left Henrik at the station and ran back to get it.
"So it's just a normal day in the life of Stellan Grieg. Got it."
Stellan kicks their chair. Listen, at least I remembered I left it this time. Remember when I left my wallet all the way back in Norway last year, and didn't realise until we got back home?
The laptop screen's growing dim, so Halle just closes it while answering, "at least you left it at Grandma's house and not on the streets. Who knows what would've happened to the whole two kroner you had in there."
Oh, shut up. His phone dings with the arrival of a new message. Stellan pulls it out, reads it and smiles, face lit up by the glow of the screen.
"Let me guess, that was a text from Henrik."
No, it was from Aleksander admitting that my theory about the Auden poem was more feasible than his. The words "you know what, Stell? You were right." just make me feel some kind of way.
They roll their eyes. "You are so egotistical."
I like to think it's confidence instead, he responds loftily. Stellan gets up from the bed and walks out the door, not closing it behind him like he always does.
Halle stands up, shaking the feeling back into their legs, to close the door. They can hear the muffled sounds of their father holding a call, and the soothing classical music their mother likes to put on when she's writing. All of a sudden, their phone starts to ring, and they jump. Running back to their desk, they answer the call and say, "hello?"
"Hey!" Ella greets. Somebody appears to be yelling in the background.
"Hi," they say back. "You need help with anything?"
"Why are you assuming I called just to ask for something?"
She can't see him, but Halle rolls their eyes again and stays silent. After a few minutes, Ella groans, continuing, "okay, maybe I wanted to hear about your visit to Wang's, but I also need to copy your English homework."
"I knew it." They put the call on speaker and rifle through their backpack in search of their reading comprehension paper. "Hold on, I'll send the worksheet to you."
"You're a lifesaver." A door creaks open on her side. "Did you arm-wrestle the waiter?"
"Nope." Halle takes a photo of their paper's first page. "Couldn't even finish the whole review. "
"Aw, that's a shame."
They finish taking a photo of the fourteenth and final page of the paper, and begin sending them to Ella. "We didn't have any other homework for history other than that source-based question, right?"
"Not that I know of." The pings of notifications begin ringing. "Oh, thanks. I owe you one."
A "low battery" alert pops up on their phone before they can answer. "Hey, I think my phone's gonna die."
"Why am I not surprised?" She laughs. "You never charge your phone. I'll hang up to start copying the paper now, and you should make sure your phone has enough battery to get through tomorrow. See ya!"
"See you."
Ella hangs up, and Halle rushes to plug their phone in before it can die. Setting their phone down, they go to lie on their bed and stare at the ceiling. They can still taste the wontons they had.
