Infinite Jest

by David Foster Wallace

‘Hey Hal?’ ‘And of course you’re hurt, Boo, that I’ve tried to hide all of it from you.’ ‘I’m zero percent hurt, Hal.’ ‘And of course you’re wondering why I didn’t just tell you when of course you knew anyway, knew something, the times hanging upside-down in the weight room with a forehead Lyle didn’t even want to get near. You sitting there letting me say I was just really really tired and nightmare-ridden.’ ‘I feel like you always tell me the truth. You tell me when it’s right to.’ ‘Marvelous.’ ‘I feel like you’re the only one who knows when it’s right to tell. I can’t know for you, so why should I be hurt.’ ‘Be a fucking human being for once, Boo. I room with you and I hid it from you and let you worry and be hurt that I was trying to hide it.’ ‘I wasn’t hurt. I don’t want you to be sad.’ ‘You can get hurt and mad at people, Boo. News-flash at almost fucking nineteen, kid. It’s called being a person. You can get mad at somebody and it doesn’t mean they’ll go away. You don’t have to put on a Moms-act of total trust and forgiveness. One liar’s enough.’ ‘You’re scared your pee might still flunk after one calendar month.’ ‘Jesus it’s like talking to a big poster of some smily-faced guy. Are you in there?’ ‘And you can’t use a Visine bottle of pee because the man will be right there looking at your penis, and Trevor and Pemulis’s penises.’ ‘….’ ‘The sun’s thinking about coming up in the window. You can see it.’ ‘It’s been like forty hours without Bob Hope and already I’m bat...