I make it up to the apartment, panting for breath from bounding all the way up several flights of stairs, and pause to dig out my keys. That’s when I hear the booming bass beats of the kind of music Paige plays at her shows. The volume is loud enough that I’m sure we’ll have neighbours complaining any minute now, but above the noise, I can just make out the sound of—
It almost sounds like laughing.
Oh god, I knew she was probably murderous, but what if she’s full-on sadistic?
I get the door open and burst into the living room to find a sight even more unexpected and incomprehensible than DeeDee wrapped up in the shower curtain.
They’re dancing.
Beer bottles and chocolate bar wrappers are strewn across the coffee table. There’s a scarf thrown over the shade of the floor lamp to cast the room in a deep blue glow, and there, right in front of me, Paige and DeeDee are busting a move. Paige is smiling.
DeeDee spots me out of the corner of her eye but doesn’t say anything until she finishes doing what I think is an advanced form of twerking.
“Zachy Zach! Where’d you go?”
That gets Paige’s attention, and she immediately goes stock-still as a look of pure mortification comes over her, like this hit to her stone-cold reputation is the most embarrassing thing in the world. Two seconds later, she’s sitting on the couch with her arms crossed in the sleeves of her ever-present giant hoodie, typical stoicism back in place.
“Uh...I was at work?” My brain is still trying to figure out if this is actually happening.
Paige reaches for her phone, and the volume of the speaker set up on the coffee table lowers until it’s just background noise.
“Paige came home,” DeeDee informs me in a statement of the obvious. “She’s really not as scary as you think.”
“Hey. Let’s not be hasty.” Paige turns to me and raises an eyebrow. “So, I hear you let DeeDee sleep in my room?”
Okay, this is the moment where she murders us.
“Paige, I’m really sorry,” I admit. “I should have asked. I really crossed some roommate lines here, and you deserved more respect from me.”
Whether she’s going to kill me or not, I mean that.
She shrugs. “It’s no big deal. DeeDee told me about what happened. I’m glad you gave her somewhere to stay. You’re a good dude, farm boy.” One of her blink-and-you’ll-miss-it half-smiles appears. “Plus, DeeDee is pretty fucking cool.”
“Yeah I am!” She plops down on the couch next to Paige and reaches to tug the scarf off the lamp so I can see them both in better light. “Look at Paige’s hair!”
At first I don’t notice anything other than the fact that it seems to be wet, but then she shifts her position, clearly uncomfortable with the scrutiny, and I notice the subtle purple hue of the shiny black strands.
“You dyed Paige’s hair?”
“Ouais! Isn’t it génial? It’s only semi-permanent. I was thinking of doing a purple ombre a few months ago, so I had it with all my stuff. It’s perfect for Paige! I have never seen hair like this before.” DeeDee lifts a plum-tinged lock up and rubs it between her fingers. “It is so soft, but also...also...Ben, I don’t know the word in English, but Paige thinks it’s because her mom is from Vietnam and her dad is from...?”
“Puerto Rico,” Paige mumbles.
DeeDee looks back up at me. “Did you know Paige speaks four languages?”
I can’t help the bemused smile that spreads over my face. They’ve been in this apartment together for less than five hours, and DeeDee has already convinced my iron wall of a roommate to divulge personal information, dye her hair purple, and dance unashamedly on the living room carpet.
DeeDee Beausoleil is an unstoppable force.
“I did not know that,” I admit, shaking my head.
“We ate your chocolate,” Paige informs me. “Figured you deserved it, given the whole unexpected guest thing, but we saved you some beer.”
“How gracious.”
It sounds like an invitation to hang out, so I decide to just take every unexpected turn of the evening in stride. DeeDee doesn’t seem to be having any trouble acting like the entire shower incident didn’t happen, and I’m not about to announce, ‘I can’t hang out with you guys because I think about seeing DeeDee naked and dripping wet every time I look at her.’
I grab one of the folding chairs we keep up against the wall for the rare occasions when we have too many guests to fit on the couch. Things get a little easier after I’m halfway through my beer. DeeDee keeps up a constant stream of chatter, coaxing Paige into sharing a few details about her trip to Toronto and making us both laugh so hard at her commentary that we’re in danger of spitting out beer.
There’s something magic about this girl. There’s no other word for it. She wiggles her fingers, and the whole world walks her way.
Everyone who sets eyes on her sees it, but that’s the thing; I don’t want the girl everyone else sees. If these days with her have made me more sure of anything, it’s that. There’s something deeper to DeeDee, maybe even something darker, and I want it. I want every piece of her: the good and the bad, the ugly and beautiful. I don’t want hints and half-moments. I want to grab on with both hands.
I get quieter and quieter as I sit there, letting the two of them handle the conversation while I watch DeeDee’s hands flutter around to illustrate her anecdotes, watch the cute way she wrinkles her nose just before she’s about to laugh. I know all her gestures, her quirks. I have the start of this story memorized, but we never seem to turn to the next damn page.
“And that is how I ended up without any shoes on in the Toronto bus station,” DeeDee finishes, while Paige doubles over with laughter.
“Oh my god, I’m taking you with me next time I go.” She takes a few calming breaths and goes to swig her beer only to find it empty. “Damn, that’s my second one. What time is it, anyway? I’m pretty sure my sleep debt has hit all time highs this week.”
“Quitter!” DeeDee teases as she reaches for one of the few remaining bottles on the table. “One for the road?”
Paige snorts. “The road is like two steps to my bedroom. I’ll pass.”
“Oooh, Paige,” I warn in a foreboding tone, “nobody passes on DeeDee’s one for the road offer.”
Paige shrugs and pushes herself up off the couch.
DeeDee turns to me. “Guess you’ll have to drink it, Zachy Zach.”
Warning bells start going off in my head, but I’m tired enough from my shift that a single beer has already made me mellow. I find myself reaching for the bottle opener.
“If I must.”
“By the way,” Paige calls out from her bedroom door, “I told DeeDee if she wants to take the couch until she gets her new apartment, it’s fine with me.”
Paige’s door closes, and it’s like the thud of the wood against the frame shifts the balance of the atmosphere. Something’s lying dormant here, something waiting for an excuse to wake up.
When DeeDee speaks, her voice is soft, eyes lowered to the coffee table.
“I don’t have to stay.”
“I want you to stay.” Even I’m startled by the force in my tone, so strained it’s close to anger. “I just...”