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“I think what you mean is legit totally awesome!” Dale corrects, and Sebastian and Graham both crack up.
“Sweet Caroline!” Dale beams when he spots me standing at the edge of the room.
And even though I hate suddenly being the focus of everyone’s attention, I’m touched that he’s trying to include me.
“Tell this boy how deluded he is to pass up a Carly Rae Jepsen concert with his folks for the mundane chance to do whatever lame activity he does every other Saturday night of the year.”
Wow. I didn’t even know Carly Rae Jepsen was still a thing.
“Oh, um, yes,” I say, totally awkwardly. Because I don’t want to seem like I’m siding with Dale. But I also don’t want to seem like I’m siding with Sebastian, either. “Carly Rae Jepsen. That sounds… like a really awesome concert.”
Dale points his index finger and thumb at me like a gun. “Yes! Thank you. It does!” He turns back to Sebastian with a smug smile. “Three against one, sucker.”
Sebastian rolls his eyes. “Whatever. She’s just too polite to say she didn’t even think Carly Rae Jepsen was still a thing.”
He winks at me, and I don’t miss how it makes my stomach do a little flip on itself.
“Ohhh…. That is harsh, Sebby. Justharsh,” Dale says in mock offense. “Especially coming from the guy whose favorite artist,for three straight years, was… wait for it, folks!” He pauses for dramatic effect. “Carly. Rae. Jepsen!”
And I can’t stop from blurting out, “Carly Rae Jepsen was your favorite singer?”
That is a pretty shocking yet golden nugget of information. Sebastian doesn’t look minutely embarrassed, though.
“Uh, yeah. When I was like,ten,” he says, unwrapping, yup—his fourth ice cream sandwich of the evening.
“You lie, Sebastian Murdoch. Admit you still love Carly Rae.”
“If it’ll make you sleep better at night, sure.”
“No. Because it’s the truth.” Dale walks to the other side of the room. “In fact, if I put on Call Me Maybe right now, I guarantee you will not be able to hold yourself back from singing along.”
“Negatory.” Sebastian grins. But I can tell he doesn’t mind one bit that his dorky father is about to blast Carly Rae Jepsenin front of one of his classmates.
To be fair, I’m not exactly a remotely cool classmate. Not someone he needs to impress or anything. Still, it is… strange, to see how unembarrassed Sebastian Murdoch is about seeminglyanything. His grin just stretches wider as Dale makes a big production of looking up the song and then pressing play on the stereo.
When the catchy violin intro for Call Me Maybe starts up on what is clearly an awesome surround-sound system, Sebastian just keeps shaking his head, chuckling. Making it obvious that Dale is right, and he is totally going to cave in the end.
“Okay,maybethe intro,” he calls to Dale over the music, as his father turns the volume up even higher, and the drums kick in.
Dale starts singing along as soon as Carly’s voice fills the room, wiggling his eyebrows at Sebastian and hamming up his unapologetically geeky dad dance moves. He shimmies over to where Sebastian is leaning against the edge of the counter, stuffing the last bite of his fourth ice cream sandwich into his mouth. Or is it fifth, now?
But even as he chews, Sebastian can’t keep from laughing at Dale, dimple denting one of his flushed cheeks. As he swallows his last bite, he starts half-heartedly pumping his fist to the beat, with an expression that saysThere? Does this make you happy?
But the look Dale gives him in return, and the way he projects his voice even louder and hams the dance moves up another notch, makes it obvious that no, Sebastian’s lukewarm enthusiasm is not, in fact, anywhere close enough to appease him.
Sebastian throws his head back, belly laughing as Dale does a full-on spin on the smooth concrete floor in his sock feet. Even I can’t keep from laughing. And soon Sebastian takes pity on his father and nods his head along to the beat, too… starts rocking his hips just a little, in a way which, I’m not going to lie, is sort of sexy. Even though it’s to a Carly Rae Jepsen song.And how is that even possible?
When the chorus kicks in, he suddenly jumps with both feet right next to Dale, fully committed now, much to his father’s delight, pumping his fist high above his head like he’s in a dance club or at a rave or something, singing along at the top of his lungs, even louder than Dale. His gray sweatpants slide down a little on his narrow hips with his dramatic jump-entrance, and I try not to let my eyes dip to the dark waistband of his briefs and the sliver of washboard abs just above that.
Dale grabs two wooden spoons from a pot on the island and hands one to Sebastian, and the two of them ham it up even more as the chorus kicks in again, side-by-side facing Graham and me. The two of us are both laughing hard at them, because they are a riot. And clearly having a ball, as they keep trying to outdo each other with the campy dance moves and dramatic “singing into the microphone” shtick.
Andstill, Sebastian looks cool. Like a football jock, even. Like a guy people would follow anywhere.
He reaches a hand out to me and his warm fingers circle mine as he tries to pull me into the fray.
I pull away, horrified, the smile suddenly wiped from my face. Because I amnotone of his legions of fans who would follow him anywhere. Even onto a makeshift dancefloor in his kitchen. In front of his totally awesome parents.
Just—no. That is way, waaaay out of my comfort zone. In an entire other comfort-zone continent, in fact.
