Page 44 of Nights Without Night
The next few days are busy with preparations. Isadoro has taken care of almost all of it. It’s like the mission has brought him back to life. I know the stilts this provides are temporary, but that’s life.
One step first.
Iva invites me out for a celebratory get-together before we leave. Isadoro stays home, but I’m eager to go out and drink the previous few weeks away.
Everybody is buoyant and worried. Although Iva is younger than Joaquin and Ezra, we’re all finishing college this year together due to the different lengths of our majors, the future looming in front of us.
“It’s an online thing,” Ezra explains, referring to the job he’s landed. “It’s a crappy position but it has a good ladder, you know? I’m more than fine with slumming it for a while if there’s something to move towards, you know?”
“The position isn’tthatcrappy, not for a graduate,” Joaquin interjects. “And the online magazine is amazing.”
“Well…” Ezra says, colouring slightly. As confident and flirtatious as he can often seem, he’s distinctly uncomfortable with praise. He lights up under Joaquin’s, though. “The article book you and Iva put together definitely helped.”
“The writing in the article—that you did—definitely helped, yes,” Joaquin counters. Ezra rolls his eyes, but their fingers lace together. I see Joaquin squeeze back.
Joaquin hasn’t been quite so lucky in the job department, but he got an unpaid internship he says he’ll probably accept, having avoided the full depth of the student-loan trap by his football scholarship.
“Well, we can’t all be Moore,” Ezra says, smiling as he refers to their friend’s talks with the NFL. A teammate of Joaquin’s, but considerably more dedicated to football, he’s already off to some training program despite the fact that exams just finished.
“The boy just doesn’t stop,” Iva says, grinning proudly. It’s sort of surreal to know someone, even tangentially, so poised for fame.
“Okay, what is with this music?” Iva says suddenly. “I swear they’ve playedShe Wolflike ten times since we got here.”
“Isn’t Dex DJing?” Ezra asks. Iva goes off to investigate.
By the time I get home, I’m in the stumbling level of drunk, and happily so. I stagger to Isadoro’s room and throw myself onto his bed. It’s late and he shifts beside me.
“Wow. You smell like a brewery.”
“Mmmm, brewerery,” I slur. Isadoro snorts beside me. I open my eyes to look at him. “So pretty,” I say, pawing at his face. “Sooo pretty.”
Isadoro catches my wrist as he laughs.
“Wow,” he says.
“No wow. Yes yes. Let’s make out.” I open my mouth as wide as it’ll go.
“Never thought I’d say no to that but it’s gonna be a hard pass this time, buddy,” he laughs. I close my mouth and pout.
“You are mean. Mean. You’re a meany beanie baby.” I fall forward and kiss his face, leaving a sloppy trail as I mash my lips to his cheeks.
“Oh my God,” he says, catching my face in his hands and pulling it away. I look at him imploringly. He sighs through a grin, shaking his head, and presses his lips against mine. I make a happy sound and he does it again and again, soft, sweet presses. I stick my tongue out and poke it against one of his nostrils. Isadoro rears back so violently he knocks against the bedside table.
“What the hell was that!” he shouts, scrubbing at his nose madly. I cover my face with my hands, rolling around in the bed.
“It wasn’t me!” I wail. Isadoro starts laughing.
“You are out of control,” he says, catching me on one of my rolls.
“Let me go! You’ve rejected me and I’m moving to France to be acroquete.”
“How do you even come up with this stuff?”
“It’s the Goose. The Vodka Goose. It talks to me in my head.”
“Well that’s terrifying,” he says.
“Mmm. You are so soft. Hard, but soft. Like an enchilada. Let’s make out.”
