pulled into the parking lot and found it mostly full for the first time in…maybe ever. People had come, just like I’d promised Dee and Gaby they would. And it was still early: despite my best efforts to wait, I arrived at 8:16. The sun had set by 7:00, taking all the day’s earlier heat with it. I wished I’d brought the jean jacket I’d eagerly dug out of my closet a week before school started. Though San Diego was still very warm throughout October, the nights could finally feel a little like fall.
When I pushed open the shop’s door I was met with velociraptor-esque shrieking and piercing guitar. It took everything I had not to clap my hands over my ears. Instead I made my way to the counter and took the stool that seemed farthest from the noise. Nobody else was seated at the bar; people were mostly huddled together close to the stage, incurring hearing damage. I counted thirty-five people in attendance, and every few minutes another pair or group came through the door and joined the herd. I hoped Jamie would arrive soon—I didn’t want to be seen sitting alone for too long. Not for the first time, I cursed Ronni and Alexis under my breath for having other plans: Ronni, visiting her brother at college, and Alexis, on a first date with some boy who went to her church. (She was texting our group thread updates so frequently she couldn’t possibly have any time left to talk to her date.)
I felt a jab in my shoulder and turned to find Dee, eyes wide in a mixture of alarm and possibly regret.
“What do you think?” I shouted. She held up rock hands and stuck out her tongue, and I laughed. It was too loud to have a proper conversation, or else I would have asked her for advice on what to do or say to Ruby after the show so she’d fall in love with me. For an older person, Dee was a stud, and I’d seen her charm a dozen or more twentysomething customers since I started coming here. They’d giggle, and sometimes leave her their numbers, and then they’d come back two days later, and again a few days after that, hoping to be asked out. Which Dee almost never did. Her favorite joke was that she’d rather get a root canal than go on a first date. Jamie liked to pretend Dee was still in love with Gaby, but I didn’t think that was it. Dee just liked dogs more than she liked people. She had three of her own, all of them rescues, plus a foster or two at all times. I’d once convinced her to get Instagram just for dog content alone, and now she posted like four dog pictures a day.
“Where’s Gaby?” I yelled.
“Hiding,” said Dee. I nodded. That meant Gaby was in the tiny office across from the bathroom down the hall. I crossed my fingers and wished for her to be happy with how the night went, and then I tacked on the same wish for Dee, and Ruby, and me.
Dee pointed to the espresso machine by way of asking me if I wanted a drink, and I nodded, more because my mouth was dry than anything else. I’d have preferred a beer or a wine or anything even remotely alcoholic, but no matter how much Dee liked me, she wasn’t going to give me anything like that. When she set my coffee in front of me I swallowed half of it in one go, I guess so that instead of being slightly tired with a dry mouth, I’d be sweaty and insane. Immediately I wanted to text Ruby, again, but I’d promised myself I’d give her a break while she got ready for her show. This was turning out to be easier said than done: we had been texting more and more since our poster-making session, Ruby’s response times shortening from double-digit hours to single-digit to ten or twenty minutes. Which, don’t get me wrong, still felt like an eternity. But the point was, I told myself, she always responded. A few times she’d even been the one to text me first. As a result, I’d spent the better part of two weeks clutching my phone anytime I wasn’t in class