"A lack of any immediate need to sleep," Krem said, mostly deadpan about it, because his lack of sleep was often a subject of concern and confusion for most of his friends and the people he cared about. But he hadn't collapsed from exhaustion yet, so he figured he was doing all right.

"I thought," he continued, and smiled a little, heading down the beach slowly and lacing his fingers with Thomas's, "that we could go swimming? It's cooler now, but there's less people."