Page 40 of The Sound of Us

“I’m honestly surprised he didn’t order more hot dogs so he could spend even more time talking to you.”

“I’m just happy he came out to support the station.”

Dante’s forehead creased in a frown. “I’ll tell you what’s coming out…”

“Dante,” Nick called out. “I need a hand. I can’t keep up.”

“Well, that was the most interesting thing that has happened all week.” Haley picked at the knots on my apron. “Which one of the two hottest guys on campus do you want? And I’m asking for the simple, selfish reason that I’ll be happy to take your leftovers.”

“I don’t want either of them. I’m not looking to get involved with anyone right now,” I said. “I’ve got training, the internship, work at the coffee shop, and my classes to juggle. I’m also writing for the school newspaper, theHavencrest Express. Dante and Ethan are just friends.”

“Dante was right that Ethan bought the hot dogs just to talk to you. Look across the quad. He’s giving them away.”

I didn’t want to look so I focused on opening another package of hot dog buns. When I first came to Havencrest, I would have literally died if Ethan had bought four hot dogs just to speak to me, but now, even after his apology and kind words, he didn’t make my heart or my knees weak. Too bad the man who made me melt had no interest in anything more than kisses in the dark.

“And Dante…” Haley continued. “He wasn’t giving off ‘friend’ vibes. Do you want my psychological analysis of the situation?”

“No.”

“Too bad, because you’re getting it. Dante has never come to a single fundraiser in all the time I’ve been at the station. Even after Noah said it was going to be all-hands-on-deck, he somehow got Nick to agree to take all his hot dog stand shifts. And yet, here he is doing something he hates to do. Why do you think that is?”

I looked over to see him watching me. He pointed to his chest and then his eyes and then at me—the mafia gesture for “I see you.” I couldn’t fight my laughter, and his face lit up with a smile.

“Maybe he’s changed,” I said. “Maybe he just wants to help save the station.”

“Or…” Haley countered. “Maybe he’s here for you.”

The fundraiser was a huge success. We sold out of hot dogs just as the sun began to set. Although the local media didn’t show up, I took a picture of Chad in his WJPK apron with a hot dog in one hand and a professor’s baby under his other arm and promised him it would appear alongside the article I was writing for theHavencrest Express,about the importance of indie radio. After we had packed everything away, I messaged Isla and invited her to meet us at the station for celebratory drinks. She and Nick had been messaging each other since last Saturday’s basketball game and I had a feeling she would want to see him.

“Anyone interested in a Friday-night game of pick-up?” Chad asked after Haley had passed out vodka shots in paper cups.

“I think we should plan for less-volatile team-building activities,”Nick said, sliding a glance in Dante’s direction. Dante had stayed for the rest of the event and helped us clean up when it was done. I’d been expecting him to leave, but he’d come with us and was now sitting in the corner, strumming on a guitar.

“If you want to get people here excited about an event,” Haley said, “organize a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, trivia night, cosplay party, or take them on an adventure to see an undiscovered local indie band at a dive bar.”

“Haley and I told Ethan we’d be going to his frat party,” I offered. “He said we could bring friends.”

Dante gave an annoyed grunt. “Maybe you should reconsider. You don’t have a good track record at frat parties.”

“Excuse me?” My voice rose in pitch. “I went to one frat party, and it was my first time drinking that much. I get a pass.” What the hell was going on with Dante? He’d told me last Saturday that what had happened wasn’t meant to happen. But then he’d told me he hadn’t been with anyone since he met me, and I had no idea how to respond. And then he’d shown up and gotten into a pissing contest with Ethan that apparently wasn’t over.

Dante angrily strummed the first few bars of The Jeff Healey Band’s “Stuck In The Middle With You,” and all my confusion coalesced into a ball of irritation.

“You’re not stuck anywhere,” I snapped. “No one is forcing you to come to the party.”

“What about breaking into an empty building?” Isla suggested. “I’m taking an anthropology elective and my prof sent a couple of us over to the old social science building to look for a skull that had gone missing when they moved the department at the beginning of the term. It was cool being in there with no one around, and I thought it would be the perfect place to play hide-and-seek.”

Isla’s idea was met with enthusiasm from everyone but me. “How would we even get in?” I reached for another paper cup. This evening was going to require a lot of vodka, whether I went to the frat party or not.

“I can pick the lock,” Dante said.

“Why do you know how to pick locks?”

“It’s one of the many skills I developed as a child. I binged lock picking shows on YouTube and then asked my grandmother for a set of lock picking tools for Christmas to perfect my craft.”

I opened my mouth to ask more about this juicy tidbit he had bestowed about his life, but something in his face made me think twice.

“What if the building has structural problems and the roof falls on us? What if they catch us. I don’t want to get kicked out of school.”

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