Page 4 of Before the Summer He Found Her

Jeff: Don’t say no, dude. Your job can spare you for a few hours. I haven’t seen you in a month.

Meh. It isn’t that I don’t like Jeff’s company. Hell, he’s one of my only friends, and I’ve known him since I moved to Seaside. It’s simply that I can’t be bothered with the energy required to attend a social event. And I hate parties. I’d much prefer seeing my friend one-on-one, staying in, and bingeing Netflix. He’s introduced me to the ways of wrestling, and I’ve shared with him countless hours ofBabylon Five.

Jeff: It’ll only be a few people. We can binge movies next time, my man. You need to get out more before you go bat shit crazy.

Good god. Can this man feelallmy inner thoughts?

Sigh. He’s right though, and his suggestion mirrors what I told Channah the other night. Come Monday, she might ask me what I did this weekend, and it’s not exactly kosher for me to expect my employees to take a break if I myself can’t set that example.

With all that in mind, I send my response.

Me: Text me the address and meeting time. Want me to bring anything?

* * *

Real-life,beatbox music blasts through speakers in the background with a rapper singing incomprehensible lyrics over top of it. The sound trumps every other noise as I push through a massive crowd, imagining a slew of insults I will lob at Jeffrey once I find him. As I have no idea how to dress whilepeopleing—yes, a word I’ve added into the dictionary in my mind—I’ve dressed in business slacks and a polo shirt. A choice that I’ve only now realized might have been the wrong one, noticing how everyone else has dressed in T-shirts and jeans. Of course, I had expected no more than ten people, and I’m in the middle of a house with at least fifty. The small, single-story home reeks of booze and weed—and I’m grumbling, anxiety welling at the pit of my stomach.

This isn’t a few people.

I find Jeff in the kitchen, seated on a stool by the island, his stocky body hardly fitting in the seat. He’s already drunk, a thick arm hanging around Sasha. Her dark eyes appear less than pleased with my friend’s inebriated state.

“Ezra!” Jeff yells. “What’s up, my man? Thanks for showing up, brother!”

“Quite the small get together,” I say, arms over my chest.

Sasha rolls her eyes. “Tell me about it. I’ve never had so many people I don’t know in my own house,Jeff.”

He smirks, waggling his brows. “Hey, who am I to stop people from inviting their friends?”

“Mmhmm,” Sasha says, her expression serious as always. She and Jeff make quite the pair. He’s rowdy and outgoing and large and never serious. She’s the tiny, soft-spoken scientist he fell in love with. “Anyway, welcome to the insanity, Ez. You and I are already the only two people sober.”

“This is actually my hi and bye,” I admit. Ihatecrammed spaces and being around tons of strangers, and this is both those things. “You’re both welcome to binge Netflix at my place next weekend.”

“Hi and bye?” Jeff’s eyes flash with concern. “Nah, man. I haven’t seen you, and next weekend is the Polar Bear plunge. Don’t leave so soon. Sasha, let’s show our boy here what you’ve been working on.”

“Jeff,” Sasha grits.

“What?” he asks. “You should be proud, love. Go on. Show him. He likes videogames, and he’s exactly your type of dude to test this. Into science-ie things and shit.”

Sasha’s face whitens. “It’s not a game.”

“Sorry, babe,” Jeff says. “You know that’s not what I mean. I’m proud of you, and you should show Ez. He once spent an entire night proving to me he could name every single episode of the originalStar Trek, and he listed the episodes forward and then backward He’ll appreciate this.”

Sasha glances at me, her thin lips pressed into a tight line. She’s assessing me, seeing if she can trust me with whatever this is. She hasn’t been dating Jeff long, about five months, but in the time I’ve known her, she’s had some interesting things to share and say. She’s never been entirely forthcoming with what she does at the lab, but I know she works in quantum physics. As a connoisseur of all things sci-fi, I’m intrigued. Open to seeing whatever this is. Enough to stay at a crowded party with a bunch of obnoxious individuals.

“Fine,” Sasha says. “I guess there isn’t any harm in showing you, Ez.”

“He’s going to like this, Sash,” Jeff says. “I know it.”

The three of us thread through the crowd, with Jeff stopping to hug random people and make brief small talk with a few others. All the while, I’m silent, as is Sasha, the two of us introverts handling the party like our own personal warzone. While Jeffrey basks in all the attention, each wave from a partygoer fueling his energy.

Once we’ve made it through to the other side, where there are fewer people, the tension inside of me releases. We walk down a hallway, and Sasha guides us to the door that leads to the basement.

At the bottom of the steps, the damp space sends a chill through my body. Half of the basement is finished, the other half unfinished. There’s a sofa with a rug on one side, and some boxed items on the other. The rest of the area is empty save for a medical spa chair and what appears to be a VR headset, hooked into a computer stacked on a rack. A few other machines rest beneath the computer with a million blinking lights. There are drawers near the middle. On the top of the rack, a tablet rests on a stand, with some app that seems to be monitoring the vitals of the machines.

“Not a videogame?” I inquire as the three of us reach the object. Distant music from the upstairs floor booms with muted notes.

Sasha shakes her head. “You want to try it or not?”

---