Playlist

20. "Ghost in the Wind" - Birdy

"What languages do you know?" Lune crosses her legs on the couch, a glass of wine in her hand. The four of us are sitting in the living room after eating the dinner Lune cooked - lemon pepper salmon, grilled asparagus, and couscous. We're sitting, talking about random experiences and facts. Despite knowing them several months, there are things I still don't know about them, and there are things they don't know about me.
    "Other than the obvious, English, I'm fluent in Spanish, and I'm at an intermediate-level with Japanese."
    "No shit. Really?"
    "Yeah! I want to become more fluent in Japanese before taking on another language."
    "How many do you want to know?" Luke asks as he sits next to me, a glass of wine in his own hand. I don't know how people drink wine, but then again, I guess people don't know how I don't drink wine.
    "I want to learn Korean, Russian and German as well. I tried French, and I... French and I don't mix. I literally can't make the sounds necessary, so I crossed that one off my list."
    "I know Russian." Adrian adds, and my eyes light up as I look at him.
    "Really?"
    He nods, taking a swig of his beer. "Yeah. I was that weird kid in school that chose Russian as my language. Then after high school, I continued to learn it. During my service, one of the guys I befriended was originally from Moscow, so he helped me fine-tune it. My dad's side is from St. Petersburg, so that helped. I have some books you can borrow, if you want."
    "That would be rad, yeah."
    "I have never heard someone actually say 'rad'," Lune giggles, leaning against Adrian. "Rad. You're so funny, Dakota."
    I shrug and drink at my Malibu-Orange Juice concoction of a drink. It's actually better than I thought it would be. "How long were you in the military? What branch?" I direct my question to Adrian.
    "Marines. And four years."
    "That's crazy. I mean, I couldn't. You definitely have to have a certain mindset, I believe, to be in the military, especially something as front-lines as Marines."
    Adrian nods. "It's definitely not meant for everyone. I learned a lot, but I also experienced... probably too much for an 18 year old. But then again, I had to grow up a lot faster than I should have."
    "I understand that." I do, really.
    "Do you play any instruments?" Lune asks after a few moments.
    I nod my head, trying to think of all the ones I can say I "play." "I play guitar, ukulele, and piano. I can mess with a cajón enough to make it sound decent. I really want to learn cello and violin."
    "Is there anything you can't do?" Lune laughs lightly, and I chuckle.
    "Dance. I can't dance. Or skateboard, inline skate, snowboard... you know, those kinds of things. I also suck at anything history-related. The dates never change, but I can never remember the information."
    "I saw you dancing at the club. I wouldn't say you can't dance." Lune raises her eyebrows and grins.
    I chuckle again, sitting up a bit. "Dancing and shaking your ass are two different things."
    "Luke didn't seem to mind," Adrian grins at his friend, and I look over to Luke to see his cheeks ears pink. He grins at me, and I return the gesture before settling against the back of the couch again.
    "I'm surprised you guys haven't done it yet," Lune sips at her wine, and neither Luke or I say anything. "You guys haven't, right?"
My eyes fall to my drink, and I bite my lip before grinning up at Lune. "No...?"
"Dakota! Luke! Adrian, I fucking told you! You owe me. Wait, when did this happen? How did I not find out about this? I had a feeling, but I was waiting for you to tell me!" Lune's grey eyes are wide as she looks at everyone in the room.
"You bet on us?"I ask, a laugh coming from my throat.
"They do that a lot, just so you know," Luke leans over and says to me.
"No, no, don't you change the subject. Adrian, you need to get better at your snooping skills. Luke knew about our first time."
"That's because he walked in on it." Adrian says pointedly, and I can't help but laugh more. I've done that once or twice to Selene and Jacob.
"It was a traumatic experience," Luke says to Lune, and she joins in the laughter. I glance over at Luke as he's talking with Lune and Adrian, and I smile to myself. The banter they have between them is almost beautiful to watch, to hear. My phone starts ringing, and I look down at the caller I.D.: Madre. I pick it up, walking towards the back porch to talk away from people.
"Hey," I answer as I grab a cigarette out of my pack.
I hear my mom sniffle, and my heart drops. "Hey, baby girl."
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"Honey... it's Jude."
The cigarette nearly falls out of my hand. "Mom. What happened? Talk to me."
"Dakota... he's gone, Dakota. There w-was a shooting at a club in Atlanta... Dakota!" Mom sobs on the other line. I feel my knees give out beneath me. I watch the black expanse of the ocean, the waves crashing against the shore, the rocks. Jude's dead. Jude's dead, and he was supposed to be coming to visit next week. I just talked to him a few hours ago. There's no way he could be dead. My phone falls from hand, clattering against the porch. I'm going to throw up. I clamor to the railing, everything coming up. The last thing I said to him was, "I love you! Let me know when you get home :)"
I wipe my mouth, put out the cigarette, and walk into the living room. Everyone is looking at me, and tears are pouring from my eyes. "I need to go home."