“No freaking way,” Matty said to himself.
“When I met you, I was paid in cash/But then I knew you, and it all turned to ash/My heart was in trouble like a car about to crash/You grew on me faster than a poison ivy rash.”
Matty walked around the stacks, following the voice on the loudspeaker. But soon, he was running. To hell with the rules! He sprinted past row after row of books laughing and gulping down air at the same time.
No freaking way.
“I knew it enraged you/When I flicked my page, too/But I didn’t know it then/When I tapped my pen/ That I was fallin’ for you/ When I shoulda been stallin’ you.”
He caught his breath at the entrance of the stacks, directly under the loudspeaker. The words boomed out, and he wanted to hug the rusty machine to his chest. He could feel his heart smiling and opening up like a window once bolted shut.
“I knew right then that you were outta sight/I loved that you challenge me and put up a fight/I’ll gladly take your bark and I’ll gladly take your bite/Just as long as we go out for the night.”
“We’re going out for the night, out for the night, out for the night,”two girls sang for the chorus.
There’s a chorus and back-up singers?Matty’s feet couldn’t carry him fast enough.
“We’re going out for the night, out for the night, out for the night.”
Matty zoomed down the long hallway, past clusters of students who stopped to listen to what was going on. He waited for the elevator. He bounced on his toes.
“I saw you luge/You saw me bomb/We took a swim/ Then I was gone.
“We played some Catan/We went to your lab/Smitty served me booze/And now I got it bad.”
He tapped his foot and bobbed his head and let the beat and the words and the feeling infuse him head to toe. He was defibrillated with music. This elevator was moving at a glacial pace. Too slow for him.
Matty ran to the stairwell and took the steps down two at a time, three at a time. Coop’s lyrics echoed in the stairwell, bounced around his heart. Coop built up to the chorus. That made Matty go faster.
“But it was based on a lie/No matter how hard I try/It’s a fact I can’t deny/It doesn’t take a sleuth/To figure out the truth.
“So I got to own up/And I gotta make it fast/‘Cause I don’t know ‘bout you/but I want to make this last.
“Here we go:
“I didn’t play fair with you/I wasn’t square with you
“Can’t say I don’t care ‘bout you/Because for me there’s no air without you.
“There’s a flat tire and no spare without you/A haunted house and no scare without you/A comb and no hair without you/A Sonny and no Cher without you.”
Matty jumped half a flight of stairs in a single step. He flew, truly flew through the air.
“I’m beggin’ down on my knees/Uncool as a hot breeze/I’m coming here as String Cheese/And I’m saying pretty please.”
Matty kicked open the stairwell door to the first level. He had no idea where to look. Where was that loudspeaker microphone? Matty followed the starers.
Kids stood up from their computers, from their tables, all looking in the same direction. Row by row, heads popped up. Matty followed the turned heads, the raised bodies.
“So we had a fight/And so I wasn’t right/But Matty, if there’s light/And before the sun gets bright/If these lyrics ain’t too trite/Then will you, will you, will you…”
And there, standing on the reference desk, a crowd cheering him on, was the guy Matty couldn’t get out of his head. The guy who squirmed into his life and wouldn’t budge. The guy who gave him love and support. His nerdy, jacked, scared, tattooed boyfriend.
“Will you come out for the night?”
The back-up singers belted out the chorus beside Coop: “Will you come out for the night, out for the night, out for the night?”
The crowd parted when Matty approached. Coop hopped off the desk.
