I blinked open my eyes and propped myself up on a couch that smelled like sour beer. I pushed aside a pile of half empty red solo cups on the coffee table until I uncovered my chiming phone. I rubbed my eyes as I silenced my alarm.
10:00am.
I didn’t know whether to applaud the earlier night’s forethought to set the alarm in the first place, or to curse out my once sober self. I couldn’t be sure, but it had to be well after 5:00am when I crashed on this couch, which meant I hadn’t had nearly enough zzz’s to power through the combination of a headache and nausea running through me. I felt dead.
I had a series of missed texts all from Marshall. The last one simple said, “Really? Again?”
I texted back a skull emoji and stood to find a bathroom, stepping past a frat guy asleep in the hall. Whose house was this again? Sigma Chi? Didn’t matter. What mattered to my security detail was it was off campus where I wasn’t cleared to go without them.
Luckily, at this stage Marshall and I had an understanding…
He requested I reach out to him any time I wanted to go off campus, I ignored that request. – He got some sort of alert when I went off campus and demanded to know my whereabouts, I reasoned that he could undoubtedly retrieved that information easily on his own. – He sent a series of angry texts throughout the night, those also went ignored. – I alerted him I was alive the next morning, he huffed on his own and we went about our lives.
I had failed at the morning after text once and had awaken to the Royal Guard staging a full on siege of the apartment of the unlucky girl I’d had the misfortune of accompanying back to her apartment the night before. Shut down a whole city block and everything. Wouldn’t be making that mistake again.
After relieving my alcohol-filled bladder, I went back to the coffee table and found my hat amid the debris. My skateboard was stashed in the hall closet. I stumbled outside and shielded my eyes as they winced against the sunlight. Today was not going to be a good day. At least now just one thing stood in my way of a day of lying on my couch, eating, and binging shows. I popped in my headphones and hit shuffle on my music and cranked the volume to near max to drown out… everything.
A few minutes later, I saluted the guards at the campus gate and was pushing my way to the freshman quads. Part of me didn’t know why I’d offered up time on the weekend when we could have worked out something between classes or at lunch. Maybe part of me wanted to know what Cassara Downey got up to on her days off. She’d definitely never been to any of the parties I’d been too.
I skidded to a stop in front of Sullivan hall—my stomach rolling slightly. I’d need to get food soon if I didn’t want to upchuck whatever was in there on to the grass, but I could get through this first. I sent off a text and sat on the bench outside her dorm to wait. A minute later the door opened.
“Hey.”
At the sound of her voice I stood and turned to face her. She looked at me as if I was a puzzle she was trying to decipher. Her gaze lingered a moment longer and then, as if she’d uncovered all she needed to, she turned and walked into the building holding the door open for me as she went. I shuddered as soon as her back was turned. What conclusions had she drawn behind those hazel eyes? She hadn’t been remotely surprised to see me giving zero fucks. Why did she always make me feel as though if she could look at me long enough, she’d be able to read every secret as if it was written in plain sight?
Sullivan was looking much the same as it had when I’d visited the girl’s only dorm a few times my freshman year. The lady’s only college restrooms had made for a few awkward encounters in past mornings. I shook off my memories as she ushered me into her room. Her side of the space was obvious even before she’d pulled out a folded purple chair. It was so full of… color. The other half of the room had a black duvet with framed photos of black and white magazine covers. I’m sure some would call it artsy, but to me it looked lifeless. I sat down in the purple chair and looked at the rainbow-checkered bedspread, the bright green lamp by the bedside, and the collection of prints of famous artists covering the wall. She had a print of De’Olio’s Galaxies. Little did she know, the painting was hanging in the palace gallery. I could show her sometime…
My gaze fell on her. She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.
“What?”
She didn’t answer and instead got up and went to the fridge. A moment later she was shoving a bottle of water into my hands. I hid my surprise with a long drink.
“Narrowing down possible bands…” she said with an air of impatience.
My stomach was behaving in the face of distraction, but it wouldn’t last long. Time to focus.
“You have a list?” I asked.
She pulled out a notebook and I waved it over.
One glance and it was obvious she’d basically copied the top 40’s playlist. Boring, boring, boring.
I couldn’t hide a laugh as I said, “Top of your list… Pepper Dime? Really?”
“What? She’s super popular right now.”
I shook my head. “She sucks.”
After a moment, she replied, “Well, I mean, I don’t think you’re wrong.”
Now that had me surprised. I studied the list again, “Second on the list, Chatman? This is going to take longer than I thought.”
“I’m trying to please the masses!” She rolled her eyes. For me or for the masses, I couldn’t tell.
“No, screw that. We’re not bringing some pop band that all sounds the same here. We need true artistry.” She was studying me again, but I pushed forward, “Please tell me somewhere on this list is at least one respectable band.”
“Here.”
She held out her hand so I gave her back the notebook. She turned a few pages and then held on to it for a moment, studying the page in front of her. She looked up and I arched an eyebrow. Well?
She passed the notebook back to reveal a page with a much smaller list. A list of bands most people hadn’t even heard of. Who was this girl?
I looked up and could see the concern written across her face, so I offered, “Okay, now this list doesn’t totally suck.”
She almost smiled before she rolled her eyes again and said, “Ha. Thanks.”
I was starting to wonder if maybe she didn’t realize how much she rolled her eyes. Then I realized I was staring and turned my focus back to the page. A few were real potentials, “Young Emperors, Brokenhearted Blue Jays, okay, okay. Not bad.”
Near the bottom of the list I spotted a name that gave me pause, “You like Inner Oceans?”
I looked up and this time she did smile. She lit up as she said, “Yeah, I stumbled across them a year ago. ‘WILD’ I practically listen to on repeat.”
Maybe it was her reaction that made me say, “Their guitarist is a friend. He’d probably do me a favor.”
“For real?” she exclaimed.
Her excitement was infectious. Like I’d just made her day with such a small decision.
“Let me text him.” I shrugged.
I pulled out my phone and set a reminder to reach out to Charlie. Wouldn’t dare text him now, it’d spark a series of questions I wasn’t in the mental space to process. As I was saving the note she said, “Wow, Roger was right, your royal connections did pay off.”
I wondered briefly if I’d just missed another eye roll.
“Don’t remind him. If he asks it’s your friend in the band, deal?”
She laughed, “Deal.”
I looked up. She had a nice laugh. We locked eyes for a moment as a smile lingered at the corner of her lips.
Abruptly, I stood and drained the last of the water. As I tossed it in the trash, the remnants of the smile fell. Her eyes lingered on the trashcan and then on her hands in her lap. Was she… disappointed?
She stood as I turned and reached for the door. But something made me stop and I heard myself say, “Kind of desperate for some grease to line my stomach. I’m gonna hit up Ziggy’s for some breakfast. You want to come?”
Part of me wanted to reclaim the words the moment I said them, the other part didn’t know how to feel.
She was studying me again. What could she read on my face?
“We could figure out where on campus to have the concert.” I added.
That was good. A reason to keep talking. Good, good. As if I hadn’t pulled the original suggestion out of thin air. Good.
“Sure.”
Tension I didn’t even know I was holding left me and I walked out of the room. I should have waited for her, but I needed to move, to let out whatever this was… this anticipation that was crawling under my skin. She caught up to me a moment later as we walked in silence across campus.
Elise Scanlan 