Scott exhaled smoke. His dry mouth was starting to taste tangy and bitter from the weed and alcohol. He passed the joint to Carver, who inhaled hard, hollowing his already hollow cheeks.
“Carver and I actually met when he tried to tutor me in geometry,” Scott told Sana. “We had mutual friends, and somebody suggested it.”
“I think I was the mutual friend, no?” Letty said.
“You connected our friend groups, but you didn’t introduce us, that was Bryce.”
Carver shook his head. “I was a shitty tutor.”
“I was a shitty student.”
“I was impatient, though. I kept rushing.”
“I didn’t care enough, or try hard enough,” Scott said.
He remembered his ability to perform geometry had fallen apart when trigonometry got involved, and he was embarrassed by how lost he suddenly was, so he’d opted to slack off to protect his ego. Carver was right that he’d been a lousy tutor — he didn’t seem able to comprehend Scott’s inability to comprehend— but Scott never gave the tutoring a real chance. He was more interested in Carver. He remembered sitting in the library and watching Carver work himself into a lather explaining something, bright-eyed and gesturing voluminously while Scott watched his lips move. He didn’t even mind when Carver got frustrated with him, he just found it funny and endearing. He should have known then that he liked him in a certain way, but he was a dense 15-year-old.
“It’s ancient history,” Scott said. “You guys are getting married tomorrow, let’s talk about that.”
Letty and Sana looked at each other, their eyes mutually twinkling. Everyone fell quiet for a moment, and the sound of the crickets became obvious again. The smell of imminent summer was on the breeze.
Summer was Scott’s favorite season. He loved when it was warm enough at night to roam around freely and sleep outdoors, when the world was its most wild and alive. He didn’t even mind the heat. He liked the way it brought his blood to the surface.
His phone buzzed in his pocket again, and Scott pulled it out to glance at it. It was a reply from his former drummer, Joe:yeah give it 2-3 months and they’ll be begging for me back lol. how are things going on long island or wherever?Scott slid the phone back into his pocket.
“I’m a little nervous,” Sana said. “Not about getting married, but the public speaking portion.”
“Just ignore the crowd and talk right to me,” Letty said, touching her arm. “That’s what I’m gonna do.”
“I don’t know how to ignore them, though. They’re all right there.”
“We can ask them to leave if you want.”
Sana laughed.
Carver ashed the joint into the ramekin and passed it to her. “You want some Xanax?”
Sana looked at him with wary interest in her bright eyes. “Hmm. Maybe.”
“You don’t need aXanax,” Letty said, laughing.
“Just half of one,” Carver clarified.
“I think I’m okay,” Sana said, hitting the joint then passing it to Letty. “But if I’m a wreck tomorrow I might take you up on that.”
Carver nodded. Again, to Scott’s surprise, he turned to him and said, “What’s it like in Hoboken?”
“Uh, it’s good,” Scott said, and cleared his throat. His high had him feeling warm and tingly. “It’s chill. Hoboken is actually pretty nice, and I have a good setup right now — a buddy of mine bought a fixer-upper townhouse with his wife, and then they split up and he had to choose between affording contractors and affording the mortgage. I have construction experience, so he asked me to move in and help him fix it up, in exchange for a good deal on the rent.”
“They’re actually doing a really good job,” Letty said. “It looks professional.”
“Well, we fucked a million things up first,” Scott said. “Lot of trial and error.”
“Who’s the buddy?” Carver said.
Scott glanced at him. Carver wore that look of curiosity that he sometimes got, his eyes two bright clear planets bolded by the dark lashes and brows that rimmed them.
“Uh, George,” Scott said. “He works at a label I was with for a while.”
