That first summer they end up extending their stay at the cottage, and by week three their friends are getting curious about Shane and Ilya’s whereabouts. Shane’s parents are obviously aware he’s not on a silent, nor solo, retreat. But Hayden is wondering why he’s not back in Montreal yet, and his texts are getting increasingly nosy.
Hayden: Hey man, thought you’d be back in town by now. Everything ok?
Hayden (an hour later): You wanna come over for dinner this week?
Hayden (the next day): Dude I’m not trying to be weird but did you fall in the lake or something?
Marleau is also getting curious, so he’s snapchatting Ilya like ten times a day with random updates about his workouts, nights out, etc. Getting no response isn’t exactly out of character, but it does seem like a long time without Ilya sending a photo of himself in a gym mirror and shit talking in the caption.
After a few days of this, Shane is really anxious about not responding, so Ilya suggests they have a little fun. They challenge each other to come up with ways to give updates that aren’t exactly lies, but that obviously don’t tell the whole truth.
Ilya angles a snap of two glasses of wine and his pack of cigarettes on an outdoor table, but in a way that almost makes the lake in the background look more like a tropical coastline. He captions it, “no worries buddy.”
Shane texts Hayden back: Sorry man, started a new workout plan that has me doing doubles and a lot of meal prepping.
He includes photos of his cottage gym and containers of prepped food on his counter. The barbells are set with Ilya’s weights (he lifts a little more than Shane), and the food is clearly too much for one person, but Shane knows Hayden isn’t one for details.
Ilya snaps his feet poking out of the sheets of a mussed up bed, the background blurs of green and blue through floor to ceiling windows. Marleau messages back, “who you messing those sheets up with, brother?”
Shane sends Hayden a new smoothie recipe he’s been trying out, saying everyone loves it. Who the everyone is? Hayden doesn’t even think to ask.
