Dreaming in Digital

I applied and got hired back at my old grocery retail job, but instead of a store, we were all inside an old house in the suburbs, and we were more students than clerks and cashiers.

There was a man in the garage. After introductions with him, I asked, "who runs the store now?" Knowing I meant, 'what's the hierarchy of power like?', he told me Shortbread and two others were (managers were just there for show). As I was talking to him, I felt someone's tall shadow creep up on me. Turning around, I was happy to see Honeycrisp. I squashed him in a long hug. Instead of his regular Swiss Army backpack, he had a messenger bag in black; it reminded me of a (fictional) day I rewrote his notes to a legible state. 

After the hug, I took his hand and we went into the house, and to a cramped bathroom. I sat on the toilet seat cover and he laid his head on my lap. I folded my torso over and sandwiched him in a hug. We stayed like that for a little while, enjoying each other's... aura? Presence? I missed being around him. 

Whether or not this was a school or a store, I kept my eye on my watch until it was time to get started. He got up and left, and I left a couple of minutes after to a classroom we both were required to attend. 

Everyone in the class didn't care about rules, or what everyone else was doing. They just needed to show up. The professor put a movie on a screen hung on the wall, but no one paid attention. This was normal and expected. I walked in, past Honeycrisp, pretending I didn't know him. I sat alone in a corner. The prof asked, "what are you going to do, (name)?" in an accusatory tone. I shakily replied I was going to learn today.