CALVIN

thirty-seven: the axthof

For the next few days, I couldn't find Marc anywhere. I was going to the music wing so often that one day Maddy saw me in the courtyard and said, "Do you play the piano?"

"Uh, no."

"Oh. I just noticed you going to the musiktrakt all the time..."

"Yeah, I - uh - I like to use the bathroom there."

"Oh?"

"It's... cleaner."

"Oh. That's cool."

"Yep."

"Bye."

"Bye."

I was starting to lose hope of catching Marc in a good time - or seeing him at all - until I was eating frozen pizzas in the kitchen with the rest of my house mates, and Nikita said, "All of haus funfzehn is going to be at Axthof tonight." he swished vodka around in his My Little Pony glass. "Calvin told me."

"Since when do you talk to Calvin?" I said.

"Calvin and I are good friends."

"I don't remember you having friends."

"Maybe we shouldn't go, then," said Leon. Instead of pizza, he was eating a salmon which he grilled, lentils and raw broccoli.

Nikita almost spit out his drink. "What do you mean? That's precisely why we have to be there. Imagine how interesting it's going to be."

"I'm not about to split my knuckles on Neal's dense head again. They just healed."

"All the tension in the room will be sizzling," Nikita said, shimmering his fingers. 

"Cusick beat me at Fortnite last night," Jesus said. "I can't face him yet. The wounds are still fresh."

Nikita suddenly looked murderous. "No," he said. "I get it. You don't want to come with me because you're going to spend the whole night playing World of Warcraft in your bed. And you don't want to come with me," he turned to Leon, "because you're having sex with Maria tonight. Pat doesn't want to come because he's 'studying', pshh, more like fingering Louisa - "

Pat, who was facing the sink, turned around to say, "Okay, why is Leon having sex and I'm just fingering?"

" - Ehsan is ditching me for Olivia, who we all know is a psychopath, and Denis can't come because he's 'got the stomach flu' and is 'puking his guts out'."

"That's a legitimate reason - "

" - but Elias - " everyone looked at me, " - doesn't play videogames, isn't ill, and is just as sad and lonely as me. So he'll come."

I feel like everyone was waiting for me to let Nikita down with some type of excuse. So I guess I surprised them all when I said, "Yeah, I'm coming."

"What!?" said Ehsan.

I shrugged. Nikita looked triumphant. 

Leon said, "You do know Neal will be there, right?"

"And Cusick," Jesus added.

"I'll avoid them. There'll be tons of people there anyways. I probably won't even see them." What if I probably don't even see Marc?

"I'll come too," said Pat, putting his dish on the drying rack.

I looked at him, feeling my heart pump faster. "I thought Louisa was coming over."

"She can come too."