Page 7 of Dire Straights

When we walked in the door, there was nothing out of the ordinary. The house was big, and people were crammed into every available space. Loud music was playing, and people were kind of shouting over it to be heard. I didn’t like that. I always got too excited and ended up talking too loudly by accident anyway. But as we made our way through the living room, I couldn’t help but let out a shocked gasp.

“Oh, hey!” I pulled on her wrist a bit to get her attention in case she couldn’t hear me. “That’s my friend Maddox over there!”

Unfortunately, the moment I opened my mouth to let her know, the song playing from the mounted speakers ended, and I’d been practically screaming. Everyone in the room turned to look at us or at Maddox, snickering. Luckily after a few moments of that, the next song started and they all went back to their respective conversations.

I wanted to turn around and walk out, but he was staring at me. His stare looked murderous, but still, he was looking. And besides, I didn’t want to waste a chance to maybe talk to him about something other than our creative writing project. I led Kelani over to him, where he eyed us both with a little bit of hesitant caution. Was he maybe more shy than I’d thought? Or maybe he thought Kelani was cute? She did look really great in her outfit, and her curl-ringed hair was shiny and pretty.

“Um, sorry about that,” I said, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my jeans. “I didn’t know the song was going to…End. Like that. At that moment, I mean. I knew it would end. I didn’t think it would go on forever or anything.” He watched me intently as I stumbled through my explanation, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes were really blue. They looked really nice and I wanted to keep looking at them but I didn’t know if that was weird or not.

“It’s fine,” he finally responded after a silence that probably felt way longer than it really was. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, um, this is my friend Kelani,” I said, gesturing to her. “She’s the one who kind of forced me to come out tonight.”

“I’m Maddox,” he said, giving her a casual head nod as a greeting.

“I know who you are,” she responded. I couldn’t tell if I was imagining it but her voice didn’t hold the warmth that I was used to hearing in it. “You’re actually living with my brother at the moment.”

“Cyprian?” He guessed, and she nodded. “He’s cool.”

“He’s a good guy,” she agreed, then turned to me. “Ren, I’m going to go grab a drink.” I could see into the kitchen where there were various types of alcohol displayed on the center island. “Should I grab you anything?”

“Uh…” I hesitated. I’d never had alcohol or anything before. My parents had been pretty lax in my upbringing, but notthatlax.

“They probably have soda and stuff,” she said, reading my mind.

“Oh. Then yeah, just a Coke or whatever they have. Are you sure you don’t mind?” I asked, suddenly realizing I was maybe being rude.

“No?” She answered, looking at me oddly. “It’s like 10 feet away.”

And then she walked off into the kitchen and grabbed a red plastic cup off the stack, leaving me alone with Maddox. Well,alone except for the 20 or so people scattered around the room. And the ones loitering on the staircase. Basically we couldn’t have been less alone. But for some reason he was all I could focus on.

“Did you want anything?” I asked him, not sure of what to say. He shook his head, lifting the half- full bottle of water in his hand I hadn’t noticed before. “Oh, you’re not really a drinker either, huh?”

“Nah,” he said, shrugging a shoulder. It didn’t seem like he was morally opposed. “Alcohol is basically liquid cheeseburgers. I can’t have stuff like that.”

“Oh, you mean because of fitness and stuff?”

“Right.”

“That makes sense but, like… Jocks drink beer and stuff all the time at like frat parties, right?” I questioned. Was he in a frat? I wasn’t sure.

“Fine for them, I guess. I don’t want a dad bod,” he said. I waited for him to crack a smile or say he was kidding or something, but he didn’t.

“Well, I don’t think you need to worry about that,” I told him honestly. He was obviously in really great shape. When he cleared his throat a bit and averted his eyes from me, I laughed awkwardly. “I mean, um, you look like you stay fit and all that. Sorry. I feel like I keep saying weird stuff.”

When he brought his eyes back to mine, I thought maybe his face looked a little pink. “Kind of. But it’s fine. It’s okay.”

“It’s okay if I’m weird?” I blurted it out without thinking. It just surprised me that someone like him might actually feel that way about me.

“Yeah,” he confirmed flatly. “It’s okay. Just be yourself and don’t worry about what other people think.”

I knew I probably looked stupid, and I probably was stupid, but I couldn’t help the big smile that split my face at his words.To try and hide how incredibly happy he had made me, I turned to face the kitchen. I saw Kelani was distracted now, talking to two other girls.

“Do you worry about what other people think?” I finally asked, once I’d composed myself enough to turn back to him.

“Not really,” he said. “If people think I’m an asshole, then so be it. I don’t really care to know.”

“I don’t think you are!” I said quickly, though he hadn’t accused me of anything. But in that moment, I’d just really wanted him to know how I felt. He looked mildly embarrassed by the statement, but cleared his throat again.

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