Page 3 of His Sound
Clearly the universe didn’t agree with me. In an inhumanely cruel twist of fate, Stéphanie bumped into Ace one day in Parc Lafontaine, and he clearly found her as entrancing as everyone else does. I’ve now spent almost a year being forced to listen to the man whose posters I used to have taped to my wall have sex with my roommate on the other side of it.
It’s a fun time.
Justine must be able to tell the direction my thoughts are turning in because she lets out a loud and exaggerated sigh.
“Molly Myers,” she chides, “don’t go getting all emo on me again. I’ve told you a million times already—your hideous and obnoxious roommate does not deserve Ace’s hot rock star ass, but until he figures that out, I want you to get the hell over yourself and take pictures of him shirtless for me. The internet needs this, Molly! Do it for the fans.”
I appreciate her effort, but we both know Stéphanie is the opposite of hideous and obnoxious. She’s a gorgeous, leggy blonde who teaches dance classes for a living and volunteers at a meditation centre in her spare time. She’s basically sunshine personified, and she’s never been anything but kind to the weird and awkward dweeb she shares an apartment with.
So kind I can’t even hate her, and part of mereallywants to hate her.
“Look,” Justine continues, after realizing I’m not convinced, “I know you probably, like, pledged your virginity and everlasting fidelity to Ace or something, but I think you’re failing to realize that you’ve now got prime access to the threeotherinsanely attractive guys in Sherbrooke Station. You should be focusing on getting one of them to bang you, or at the very least, bangme. What I wouldn’t give for a piece of Cole Byrne’s hot black ass, which”—she holds up a finger—“I am allowed to say, because I also have a hot black ass.”
I can’t fault her there.Everyass in Sherbrooke Station is hot. With their brooding bassist Cole, their infinitely charismatic drummer Matt, and their wild, man-bun sporting keyboardist JP, Sherbrooke Station is like one extra hot, tattoo-covered cake, and Ace Turner is most definitely the icing.
“Hey!” I protest, once the rest of Justine’s words catch up with me. “I amnota virgin.”
She smirks. “Sex toys don’t count, Molly.”
“I have had sex with an actual dick!” I shout.
There’s a laugh from the other side of my bedroom door.
“Turds,” I whisper-hiss, whipping my head around to face the noise.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Stéphanie announces from behind the door. “I was about to knock.”
I jump off the bed and lunge for the handle, revealing Stéphanie standing there in all her blonde and radiant glory, grinning from ear to ear.
“I’m hanging out at the park with Ace and some friends today,” she tells me. “I was just wondering if you wanted to come? I’m leaving in about ten minutes.”
“Oh, I, um...” I glance down at myself and realize I’m still in just my tank top and underwear.
God, she must think I’m a freak.
“S-studying,” I stammer. “Have to study. We...study.”
I gesture between me and my laptop like the grammarless caveman I turn into around all but five people in this world.
“Does that studying involve actual dicks?”
I go rigid with horror, rapidly replaying the last few minutes of Justine and I’s conversation and wondering at exactly which part Stéphanie started to overhear it. She knows I like Sherbrooke Station, but giving her direct vocal confirmation that I used to have a pathetic crush on her boyfriend would be reaching a new level of embarrassment, even by my standards.
The laugh that follows her questions fades when she notices I don’t join in. She reaches out and pats me on the shoulder.
“Sorry, Molly. I’m just joking around. I hope you’re able to study in this heat. I’ll see you later, okay?”
She gives me a little wave goodbye, and I only manage to return it once she’s already out the apartment door.
Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.
The sound of Justine giving a pointed cough emits from my laptop.
“Hey. Still here.”
I whirl around and collapse onto my bed again.
“WHY?” I shout, stretching my arms up to the ceiling as I lie on my back. “Whycan’t I communicate like a normal human being?”
