Page 65 of The Sound of Us

“What do you mean Isla thinks he’s seeing someone else?” I demanded the moment the customer moved aside.

Haley shrugged. “She says you’ve never invited him over for the night, and the closest she’s ever seen him get to a PDA was when he gave you a piggyback ride at the park and then at the bar when you were talking to him and he touched your hip.”

“He said Noah wouldn’t approve given our roles at the station, so we have to keep things hush-hush.”

“Noah doesn’t give a damn about people getting together,” Haley said. “People are always hooking up at the station because we’re all the same kind of people. Siobhan dated last year’s intern, and someone caught them going at in the lounge.”

Her words shook me to the core. “Noah didn’t care?”

“He was happy about it, actually. He said Siobhan needed a little love in her life.”

My breath caught as I grabbed my purse from beneath the counter. I tried to rally even though I felt like I was dying inside. “I need a little love in my life, too, so do I care what this is? No. All I care about is that I’m having fun right now with someone who makes me happy. Even if it has to be a secret.” My voice rose in pitch, wavered. “Why can’t I have that? Why is everyone trying to take it away?”

Haley stared at me with a horrified expression. “I’m not trying to take it away. Of course I want you to be happy. Just ignore me. Sometimes I read things in my textbooks and I get excited about applying them and I forget real people with real feelings are involved. You do you and fuck anyone who isn’t with you on the journey.”

“I have to go and meet Blake.” And then because I knew shewas still upset after my outburst, I said, “I’ll tell him you’re single and fabulous.”

Haley brightened. “Tell him I like blond blue-eyed dudes who are tall and into sports. You can tell him to listen to my show, or better yet tell him to come to the open mic atThe Gilded Lilytonight, but don’t tell him about my donut addiction.”

Blake had managed to find a quiet alcove in the student lounge, a large, open space lined with mismatched couches and chairs, some with cushions torn and stuffing spilling out. Groups of students huddled together under brightly colored posters and flyers from various events, their faces lit up by the glow of their laptops and phones.

“So, what’s the scoop?” I asked, handing him a free apple to keep him sweet.

He looked around and then leaned forward, lowering his voice. “I heard something I thought you might be interested in, but I’m not sure because it’s a bit heavy, and you were asking about people getting shitfaced or DUIs or hooking up with profs and stuff.”

“I’m interested in everything,” I assured him. “Heavy, light, and in between.”

“I was wondering… I mean… um… Would you…” He stuttered and stammered for a few more words until I realized he wanted something in exchange for his information.

In that moment I felt like a seasoned reporter. How should I play this? Favors? Bribes? Arm-twisting? “What do you want?”

His cheeks reddened. “Maybe we could go for a drink some time.”

“I… uh…” I’d just told Haley I didn’t want to put a label on what Dante and I had, and whatever it was had to be secret. So, what did I say?

“You’re seeing Ethan,” he said quickly. “I get it.”

“Ethan? No, I’m not with Ethan.” I’d seen Ethan at the gym a few times over the last few weeks, and we’d chatted briefly, but other than that, the spark between us seemed to have died after I’d blown him off outside the bar.

“He told us—the team—you were off-limits,” Blake said. “I figured that’s because you were together. Are you with someone else?”

Why was this coming up again after I’d spent weeks keeping the issue of our relationship conveniently buried away? Things were good with Dante. I didn’t want to ruin them with awkward questions about the status of our relationship and whether we were exclusive. The little girl in me who had been so desperately terrified of being sent away had decided that willful blindness was the way to go if it meant I could have a little happiness after eighteen months of utter despair.

“Maybe?” I shrugged. “Sort of. It’s a casual thing.” The strange feeling in my stomach belied my words. Why had Dante lied about Noah? Was this all just a game to him? Was he seeing other people?

Blake’s face fell. “Sure. I get it.”

I mentally chastised myself for being such an idiot, and gave up trying to sort out all my conflicting emotions in favor of doing what it took to get the scoop because I was a journalist, and I wasn’t about to lose a source because I couldn’t get out of my own damn way. “I’d love to have a drink sometime.”

“Cool.” He smiled briefly and then leaned closer. “I’m not the kind of guy who would rat on my team, but I heard something that really got under my skin, and I need to know if it’s true. I remembered you telling us at the bar how you didn’t miss basketball that much because you loved everything about journalism, and you wanted to dedicate your life to finding the truth. I thought this might be right up your alley.”

I was almost vibrating with excitement. I had a gut feeling that whatever he was about to tell me was something good.

“You can share it with me, and I won’t tell anyone it came from you,” I said. “I totally understand how you feel about the team. They’re family.”

“I knew you’d get it.” He swallowed hard and lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “I was in the locker room late one night because I’d stayed to practice my throws, and I overheard two seniors from the football team talking. One of them, I’ll call him Dave but that’s not his real name, had hooked up with a girl who used to be a personal assistant to one of the basketball coaches. She told him that there had been a big cover-up involving a member of the basketball team. Apparently, the dude had done something so awful that the university was going to kick him out, but the head coach convinced the higher ups to let him stay because he was pretty much guaranteed a spot in the NBA and—”

“That’s everything for the university rankings.”

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