Hank has to do all of his online shopping at 3 AM, when his dad is fast asleep.
Eyes red and irritated from staring at a bright screen in a dark room, mouth ajar from his brain functions shutting down in exhaustion, and mind fully concentrated on the totally sick novelty Pez dispenser heads for only $22,000, the kid was in a stupor. He hadn’t even noticed someone had walked through the room to get a glass of water, until he heard the fridge door close.
Hank jumped, closed the computer faster than a fourteen-year-old whose mother just walked into his room, and waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before a wave of relief rolled over him. Thank God, it was just Dean. Judging by the time, he must have had one of his famous nightmares.
❝ Was it the one about the sexy alien-lookin’ librarian with four
arms, or the one where Pop’s face is stitched onto your belly
and you can’t wear a shirt because he’ll suffocate? ❞
Not waiting for the answer, Hank sat up, stretched, and started following his brother back to his bedroom. He didn’t exactly miss Dean waking him up when he had one of these nightmares, but at least Hank got to see him when they shared a room. Ever since Dean started getting all deep and mature, he stopped feeling like a twin and starting feeling like Hank’s acquaintance. Like Rusty. With Dean spending all of his time in his studies now, Hank was feeling almost completely outgrown. He always knew he was living in his baby brother’s shadow, but he never felt so dismissed as he did when he was trying to talk to Dean about his escapades-- his stupid girl stuff-- while Dean was getting ready to go learn highbrow philosophy and super science stuff.
So, the chance to finally kick it with his brother at 3 AM again was worth way more than anything he was going to buy on Craigslist, and he wasn’t going to let Dean go to sleep without paying attention to him for a while. He welcomed himself into Dean’s modern-y room and closed the door behind him.
It didn’t occur to him that Dean hadn’t actually gone to sleep yet, until he noticed the light of the open laptop screen, empty coffee cup and sheets of paper on his fancy full-sized bed. Was he pulling an all-nighter or something? Was that a thing normal kids did in their normal colleges? Hank was still trying to wrap his head around the customs of traditional schools. Learning beds didn’t exactly assign homework or give exams.
He lay down on the other side of the bed and quietly watched Dean work for what felt like the most boring 90 seconds of Hank’s life. He couldn’t imagine someone doing this “essay” thing voluntarily. It’s not even like Dean was dorming; he wasn’t even doing the cool part of college. Hank didn’t know much about universities, but he did know that his dad and family friends never told stories about the nights they stayed inside and did dumb homework all night.
Rolling over onto his belly and staring up at his brother, Hank kicked his feet back and forth like a schoolgirl. If Dean wasn’t going to give himself a full college experience, Hank was at least going to make him go out and party for this one night. It wouldn’t be too hard to find someplace exciting in New York. The city was like one big dangerous campus.
❝ What time does Van Wilder have to wake up tomorrow? ❞