"...I'm important."

"Yeah. I- I don't know."

"Fuck this. No one even-- Clay, why did no one come? You told me-- Toby told me he'd come and see me."

(His voice breaks a little.)

"Yeah, I... I don't know? I don't know. I'm just as confused as you are."

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't fucking matter." He puts a token in the machine and gets a small handful of suspiciously sticky cinnamon candies. Fuck this. "Take these, I don't want them."

"Are you sure?"

He does take them, though.

"He-- I asked him to come. You were there, right, you-- I, I told him he could come, any time today, and he could--sit with us--and that I was, I was having a party--"

"I... Yes."

"Where is he. Do you know where he is."

"...No. Unless the study group meets on Saturdays?"

"I don't-- I just-- fuck this. What do you think?"

"I... Don't know? I think-- I mean, maybe something happened. We can try and find them, if you want?"

"Toby was right there, at dinner. He was there. I just want--I want to go home, not--not the scholomance, home--"

"Do you want to go find Toby? We can--we can check the study group area, maybe, see what they've done with it."

"Can I--can I be friends with them again--"

"I mean."

"What?"

"It's not like they want to be your friends, Tommy. I-- they were all invited. Toby was invited to be with you all day. And nobody even showed up. So if you want to, to see the study group area, see if they're there--"

...Tommy crumples up onto the floor. "Let's just stay here."

"We could go find them, if you really want to."

"No. No one showed up, did they? No one cares anymore--"

"I'm sure if you asked them, they'd say they care."

"Yeah, but we invited them. And they didn't show up. We did ask them. And they said no."

"We can can still party together, maybe. There'll be more food, if it's just between the two of us."

"I'm not hungry. You can have it." It's only kind of true, that he's not hungry, but it's complicated enough that his stomach does weird stuff when he thinks about it, which is sort of the same thing. It's rounding. Like in maths.