The Fixes Read Online Free PDF

on his way home. He looks at all the boats out on the sparkling water. He sees party pictures on Instagram and Snapchat, club nights and camping trips and bonfires, sees Jordan living it up with Paige Hammond and Haley Keefer, and it’s hard not to feel just the tiniest little twinge of,
    you know,
    FOMO.

45.
    Whatever, though. Eric figures he can party—
    (or at least relax)         
    â€”when he’s president.
    For now, there’s work to do.
    (Monday.)
    (Tuesday.)
    (Wednesday.)
    (Thursday.)
    (Etc.)
    And on and on, until Thursday night, Eric’s online doing problem sets out of his first semester statistics textbook—
    (This is what passes for a social life when you’re Student of the Year.)
    â€”and his phone buzzes with a new message:
    ThaINfamous.
    Jordan Grant.
    (And Eric forgets about statistics.)

46.
    JG: You still up?
    EC: (After a long pause and a few lame false starts) Ya.
    What’s up?
    JG: Cramming for calculus. The exam is tomorrow.
    EC: How’s it going?
    JG: Bad.
    EC: You need help ?
    JG: You still down?
    EC: Sure, why not? I’m always down for whatever.
    Pause.
    Long pause.
    (During which Eric curses himself for his inability to have, like, just one interpersonal interaction that doesn’t turn horribly awkward.)
    JG: Rad.

47.
    Jordan shows up at the back door a half hour later.
    (Eric can hear his BMW from two blocks down.)
    He’s wearing a hoodie and board shorts, and his hair is artfully messed up and he’s tanned, and he’s grinning his cocky, mischievous grin. Just the sight of him gives Eric butterflies.
    â€œSo this is your place, huh?” Jordan says as Eric leads him into the kitchen. “This is where the Student of the Year magic happens.”
    Eric follows his gaze, sees everything the way Jordan must be seeing it, and feels instantly self-conscious. His parents have a nice house, but, you know, his dad’s a politician , not a studio executive.
    Jordan doesn’t seem to care, though. He looks around, takes in the kitchen, the dining room, the hallway to the TV room. “Where do you want to do this?” he says.
    ( How about the bedroom? Eric thinks. Then he thinks about how messy and embarrassing his bedroom looks right now.)
    â€œHow about the dining room?” he says. “That table right there?”

48.
    â€œWhat were you doing online?” Jordan says. “I hope you weren’t, like, G-chatting with an underwear model or something.”
    (They’ve been working for an hour or so. It’s going fine. Jordan is way behind and kind of lost, but he picks up concepts quickly. Eric can tell he’s actually pretty smart, no matter what kind of laid-back slacker vibe he puts out to the world.)
    â€œNot really important,” Eric says. “Just doing some statistics problems.”
    Jordan looks up from his calculus textbook. “What, like, homework? Are you in summer school or something?”
    â€œNo, no,” Eric says.
    â€œI thought you were Student of the Year.”
    â€œI am.” Eric searches for a way to say the next part without sounding like a supernerd.
    (It’s impossible.)
    â€œIt’s for college,” he says finally. “I looked up my courses online and downloaded all the textbooks already. I was doing some problem sets.”
    Jordan looks at Eric like he’s from Mars. “It’s. Summer.”
    Eric blushes. “I know, but, like, I want to get a head start, you know? This way, when college starts, I’ll be sure I really know everything.”
    â€œYou could be doing anything in the world right now.Traveling to Europe. Racing cars. Learning to fly. And you’re doing problem sets ?”
    Eric hesitates.
    (It sounds really stupid when Jordan puts it that way.)
    â€œI need to keep my grades up to get into Stanford Law,” Eric tells him. “It’s important. I can have fun later.”
    Jordan makes a