Page 57 of The Sound of Us

I could see the moment understanding dawned on her face. Her laughter, bold and beautiful, rang out around us. “I did justsay that. You’re a bad influence. But you have a deal. I’m up for an adventure. You take a bite and I’ll come with you.”

I would do anything for Skye, so after we got our food I took a bite of her pizza, holding her gaze as a disgusting combination of tangy sweetness and salty cheese assailed my taste buds.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Do you have a bucket?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE“Ho Hey” by the LumineersSkye

Of all the places I had expected Dante to take me to reveal his hidden secrets, the university’s engineering science building wasn’t even on the list.

“It’s after hours,” I pointed out as he took me around to the side entrance. “The doors will be locked.”

“That didn’t stop me when we played hide-and-seek.” He pulled a thin wire from his wallet and jimmied open the door.

“I see the whole ‘bad boy’ persona you’ve got going on isn’t for show.” I took a quick look around before walking inside. “You are, in fact, truly a bad boy.”

“When we get to where we’re going, I’ll show you just how bad I can be.” He pulled me into his arms as soon as the door slammed closed behind us, kissing me with a desperate hunger that left us both breathless and panting.

“Is this just a sex thing?” I wrapped my arms around his neck, every shred of my previous resolve gone the moment his lips touched mine. “I thought you were going to show me secrets I hadn’t seen before.”

“I am,” he said. “I just needed to get that out of my system.” He took my hand, and we walked through the quiet, empty corridors, occasionally stopping to look through the windows of the science labs.

“I was never good at science.” I peered into a lab filled withblack tables and stools and shelves piled high with beakers and boxes and rubber tubing. “My brain doesn’t work that way. Too many protocols and methodologies to follow. Too many tests and theories and failed experiments. I wanted the whole story, something I could follow from beginning to end.”

“You’re a big-picture kind of person,” Dante offered.

“I don’t mind asking the hard questions, but when I ask them, I want definitive answers. You can’t tell a story when the facts are changing, or when a tiny mistake can have huge consequences. My tenth-grade chemistry teacher cut a stick of phosphorus on his desk instead of in water and set the entire lab on fire.”

“My eleventh-grade chem teacher blew off one of his fingers,” Dante said. “He liked to show us his half finger before every experiment as a warning to be careful.”

“Is that why you chose to major in finance?”

“Finance wasn’t a choice. It’s a means to an end.”

We left the labs and walked up the stairs, our footsteps echoing in the stairwell. Except for our hide-and-seek adventure, I’d never been in an empty building at night, but there was an intimacy in the darkness. No one could see us. No one could hear us. I could share my secrets, and no one would ever know.

“Basketball wasn’t a choice for me either,” I admitted. “My father made it to the NBA but he kept getting injured and he had to drop out after only one season. He wanted a son to live that dream for him and when my parents were told they couldn’t have children, they applied to adopt. He was bitterly disappointed I wasn’t a boy and wanted to send me back. I’d already been through several foster homes and was terrified of being rejected again. I played basketball to make him happy so he wouldn’t send me away. I thought if I made his dream come true maybe he would love me.”

“Jesus, Skye.” Dante wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave me a hug. “I can’t even imagine how hard that must have been.”

“I wasn’t naturally athletic, so I had to work twice as hard to be half as good as everyone else,” I continued. “My dad was all in as a coach, but he was very tough to the point of being abusive.” I toldDante about Jonah and how devastated my father had become when he found out Jonah would never be able to do competitive sports. “My dad became unbearable. It was all about him. My failures were his failures. I was never good enough.”

“I know that feeling,” he said quietly.

“It’s not like I hated playing ball. I liked being part of a team and I enjoyed the competitions and pushing myself to be the best I could be. It really helped me grow as a person. It gave me strength. It’s just… I would have liked to feel I had a choice, that I wasn’t on the court simply because I was afraid of being sent away.”

We reached the end of the stairwell and Dante led me into a small engineering library. He jumped over the turnstile and held out a hand to help me.

Laughing, I hopped over the turnstile, unassisted. “I may not have wanted to be a baller, but I can still jump.”

We walked past the tall metal shelves, breathing in the slightly musty air as we headed into the reading room.

“Get ready to be amazed.” Dante pushed on a built-in bookcase on the back wall, and it swung open to reveal a hallway framed in dark wood. “This is one of the secret passages I was telling you about.”

“Oh my God. This is the coolest thing ever.” I turned on my phone light as Dante pulled the door closed.

“The latch to open it is here,” he said, pointing to a small handle. “I’ve explored all the secret passages from the previous station manager’s map, but this one is my favorite. It’s where I come when I need to get away.”

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