"I- I don't. I mean I- I've never met him." I stammered out. Embarrassing. I wished I could been more easy going around November, but at the same time, I had a crush on November. Nervous was how I was supposed to feel.
"Hmm. Well he's pretty cool. He plays setter on the team." November pointed behind him, at the volleyball court.
"July is my best friend" He continued, then laughed to himself. I could see in his eyes he was remembering something funny.
"What?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, there was this one time, not long after we first met, July tried to teach me guitar." November told me. The ease with which he talked was endearing and allowed me to relax a little. The sound of his voice carrying through the small storage room was pleasant, and I was delighted to have an excuse to just sit and listen to November.
"We were at a New Year's party, me and July. It was kind of crazy. I had never been to something so over the top like that before, but July had. He's a few years older than me, so he's had some more time to get into those sorts of things.
This must have been a few years back, because the November I knew of was definitely the type of person who went to all kinds of over the top parties with a whole bunch of over the top teenagers.
"So we were at this party a few years ago" I was right. "and it was so loud. I was trying to talk to July, but we didn't know each other very well and he was talking to this girl, August, a lot. He wasn't trying to avoid me, I don't think, but he definitely didn't notice I was feeling left out. Eventually I decided to wander off. Make some new friends, you know? I eventually made my way over to the alcohol."
Uh oh, I thought, and he must have noticed my expression shift because he let out that airy laugh again that I found so entrancing.
November shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you this."
"Well you can't stop now! I'm too invested!" I said, halfway joking, and probably too quickly. The truth was I didn't want him to stop. I was enjoying the sound of his voice too much.
November grinned, and continued. "Well, you can probably imagine what happened next. I got drunk. For the first time, mind you. I started doing some crazy stuff, like talking to other people. Like talking to girls."
"One of them took a pretty strong liking to me. Looking back she was really over the top. And desperate. And just a little to old for me at the time. But drunk November didn't pick up on that. So we stood there I talked to her and her friends for a while, then later we sat down and I talked to her and friends for a while longer. She was sitting really close to me. I hardly even noticed. I was having a hard time focusing on anything."
I had never been drunk before. I didn't know what that was like, but I didn't say that. I didn't want to interrupt November's story.
November grinned to himself. "I was having such a hard time focusing that I didn't even realize what was happening until the girl was half naked in the bedroom of whoever had been hosting this party."
Second hand embarrassment is a weird thing, because suddenly I had found myself blushing. I guess November talking about his sex life had been a little too on the nose for a boy with a huge crush on him. But what made it even worse was November noticed, and he started laughing, which made me even more embarrassed, which made him laugh even more until finally I broke down and started laughing too, breathy and nervous at first, but soon my laugh turned real and genuine. November's laugh was infectious, and so adorable.
I suddenly felt similar to how I felt around June. Like I could be myself, and for the first time I found myself surprisingly comfortable around November. Like he made everything just a little bit easier.
