Page 8 of Septembers

“Shush. This is my favourite band.”

The trio on stage were playing battling kazoos. Dae’s concentration was flawless, but that was unmistakably another joke. Two in one day! Was Dae funny? It wasn’t exactly laugh-out-loud, but it was charming.

Wait.

Was Dae charming?

The next couple of acts were okay, but Theo found himself distracted, sneaking glances at Dae to see his reactions. A girl doing celebrity impressions while juggling things she’d set on fire made him laugh, tight-lipped and quiet, and a beatboxer made him nod his head to the beat. At intermission, he left and returned with two hotdogs, handing Theo one and pulling packets of ketchup, mustard, relish, and mayonnaise out of his pockets.

“I was hungry and eating alone would’ve been rude.”

“So rude.”

Theo’s exuberance must’ve been too much for him, because he averted his eyes and nodded to the condiments in his hand.

“What do you like?”

“Sad music, hazelnut lattes, and videos of dogs growling at their reflection in the mirror.” Dae’s brain broke again. Theo loved breaking his brain. “Oh, you meant these? Mustard, thanks.”

Maybe it was because he’d skipped dinner, but Theo had never tasted a better hotdog.

Jordan was the penultimate act of the night. Theo tried not to whoop when she sat on the stool with her guitar—he really did—but the sound slipped out of his mouth of its own accord. The first notes were simple, soothing, lovely. Then she started to sing and… What. He didn’t recognize the song. Had she written it? It was haunting and beautiful, and it seeped into his soul making his chest ache. Jordan was it. She sang three songs, each with a distinct sound, raw and emotional and mind-blowingly brilliant. Theo felt bad for the last act of the night who had to follow her because he could barely pay attention, even as the noise faded and chatter returned to the Circle. Jordan’s voice had him drunk, high, spiralling. He stared at the empty stage, buried inside himself until Dae said his name.

“Tell me I didn’t imagine that,” Theo said, probably with too much intensity.

“The singer?”

He laughed because his body needed to do something, then turned abruptly, causing Dae to tense. “Sorry. Let’s go. Do you want to go? Or walk? Do you want to walk?”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes and no. Walk?”

He nodded and they started on a stone pathway winding through flowerbeds and overhanging trees. Twinkling lights highlighted the colour of the flowers—mostly purple with some yellow and white. Theo thought the smell would be overwhelming, but it was subtle and pleasant, like warm honey. He was so lost in his excitement about Jordan that it took him a while to realize they’d been wandering in silence.

He wasn’t sure if it had been comfortable silence before, but it sure as shit wasn’t anymore. Which was absurd! All he was doing was walking down an (okay, fine, objectively romantic) pathway with his roommate, and he couldn’t think of a single thing to say? What was happening to him? He was Theo ‘social butterfly’ Walker, this nervous nonsense was not him.

“Thank you for coming,” he finally said.

Dae nodded, and it took him a few breaths to answer. “I had fun.”

“I could tell. Tone it down, please.”

Dae didn’t even crack a hint of a smirk, which made Theo worry that he thought he was making fun of him. Which he sort of was but not in a mean way.

“I meant⁠—”

“I don’t not like you.” Dae winced as if it physically pained him to use a double negative. “You said before that I don’t like you. That’s not true, and um…” He studied the ground as if it were telling him what to say. “I’m sorry I made you think I did…not like you.” His blush was instantaneous. With anyone else, the pink crept in, working its way across faces or climbing necks. But with Dae, one moment he was a normal flesh-coloured human being, and the next, his cheeks and ears were glowing.

It was adorable, and Theo was tempted to milk it so the blush would continue, but he also desperately needed to put the poor guy out of his misery. “No, I jumped to conclusions. You don’t need to apologize.”

“Okay.” It seemed like he wanted to say more, but also that he really didn’t want to say more. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his hoodie so hard that it pulled on his shoulders. No wonder all his clothes seemed stretched out.

They walked in silence a little longer, and Theo was surprised to notice it wasn’t uncomfortable. “So, are you against social media?”

Dae blinked, perhaps thrown off guard by the question that seemingly came out of nowhere. “No, not really.”

“But you’re not on it.” Every few months since Dae’s disappearance from their school, Theo would get curious and try to conduct some light cyber-stalking, but all he ever found was Dae’s sparse, expired profile on their own school directory, and a years-old article about him winning some art award.