Yeah say that and then make solid plans to do something else with him if he doesn’t get accepted. Like, “Hey, in any case, we can still play video games every Thursday” or something else you’re in the habit of doing. If you don’t already do stuff, maybe you could be like, “Hey if it doesn’t work out, do you want to go to the Space Musuem with me in July? I wanted to do that anyway.”
To kind of make it not such a big deal.