Page 36 of Silver Sweet
“Thomas.” She only touches the tips of my fingers. Like she thinks I put shaving cream in my palm or something. Honestly…missed opportunity.
“Please. Welcome.” I stretch out my arm and wave around. “Inject the room with your sunny disposition. We were missing your effervescent spirit.”
Harriet looks like she might castrate me. “I bet the only thing you ever miss is the sound of your own voice.”
“I’m sure you miss it more than me. How many times have you listened to ‘Get Lost’ this week?” I name one of my old songs from my EP. Her nose crinkles. My smile spreads. Harry, here, is my biggest fan masquerading as my biggest hater. She can’t fool me.
“Whatever, dude,” she says. “I’m not here to argue with you.” She flings her backpack on the floor.
She’s lucky I’m only holding a dessert-plate-sized grudge toward her when Ishould be holding a cornucopia-sized one.
She’s the reason I’m in this position with my band.
If she’d just taken my offer to be The Carraways’ new drummer, I wouldn’t have to deal with Phoenix. Instead, she chose to stay pre-med at MVU to become a doctor. Commendable for her. Shitty for me.
Ben clasps her wrist and pulls her on the bed.
Her red plaid pants are so low-rise, I see her black thong sticking out.Why, God, are you doing this to me?I’m not even religious, butsomeoneis out to get me. I grab my guitar. “Later, Ben Pirrip,” I say. “Suck a dick, Avril Lavigne knockoff.”
“Tom,” Ben growls.
“I meantyourdick,” I say fast.
Harriet flips me off. “Get bent, MCR wannabe.”
I motion to Ben. “See, she started it.”
“She finished it,” Ben says with a growing laugh.
I smile back at him, and I think he knows I’d never intentionally cause harm to his girlfriend. Harry can handle being teased.
Right before I go, I ask him, “What coursework did you have?”
“Ecology paper,” Ben says, watching Harriet reach over for her science textbooks and a stuffed animal lion they named Son of Ben. His frat made him carry the lion around as a pledge initiation thing. He ditched Kappa Phi Delta but kept the stuffed animal.Good call.
“Ecology,” I repeat so I won’t forget.
I’m at the door when he says, “Tom.” Worried blue eyes stare back at me. “Just promise you aren’t avoiding RJ because of me.”
Harriet casts a glance at me, then over to Ben. She has a highlighter cap between her teeth, and something tells me Benhas already shared his concerns with her. She’s unsurprised, just cautious of my response. Like I hold the pin to a grenade.
I am very used to blowing shit up, but I’m not trying to hurt them. I can’t hurt them. Harriet, too. She might bug me, but she means everything to Ben, and therefore, she means too much to me.
“I promise.”
Thank fuck he doesn’t ask me to promise in French.
Silence is too loud as I walk through the hall. I’m a second from telling our stereo system to play Jimmy Eat World when I enter the dark living room, but I stop short, seeing I’m not alone.
8
TOM COBALT
The only light on—a reading lamp—illuminates Charlie in an ethereal glow. He rotates a pen absentmindedly between his fingers and flips a page in a paperback. It’s late, but not so late that the room should look like the inside of a sarcophagus.
“Let there be light.” I tug the cord of the nearest lamp.
Charlie’s golden-brown hair is disheveled, and he wears an emerald silk robe, the ties undone. Only black boxer-briefs underneath. He doesn’t even break his attention off his book.
