Sound Carries

31.

February reading week was a somber affair.

Cecily's aunt, who lived in Calgary, came up to Conolly to whisk Cecily away for a weekend of skiing, leaving me in an empty room. Oliver stayed over most nights, even though the bed wasn't big enough for both of us. Though I hadn't expected it, those skin-on-skin-limbs-tangled nights inspired a closeness between us I hadn't felt since that very first night we'd been together, and as the chill between us dissipated, I felt myself start to relax, bit by bit. Maybe it would be alright, after all.

I fell asleep every night with my cheek against his chest, dreading Cecily's return. I'd forgotten how safe it felt to be so near to him, how it could almost make me forget, warmth in my bone marrow, between my lungs, in every place I touched his skin. We didn't talk, at night. It was easier not to talk.

At first, we didn't talk during the day, either, but conversation came back to us slowly, and in the open space of a free schedule, we returned to normalcy there, too. It felt like the further we got from Hannah's death, the easier it was to pretend like it hadn't happened, at least, not as it mattered between us, and slowly, I started to see the side of Oliver I had liked so well when we'd first dated: laughing, joking, flirting even when we were alone.

One day, in the library, as I desperately tried to stuff the lines of the last act into my drowsy and reluctant brain, Oliver sighed heavily.

I looked up.

He stood in the space between the stacks, one hand resting against the wooden frame.

"What?"

He sighed again, looking perturbed. "I think Gabriel is cheating on Audra."

I blinked, repeated. "What?"

Oliver looked a little sheepish as he repeated himself. "I think... Gabriel might be cheating on Audra."

"What, now? Or generally?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

I shrugged, waving him off in a vague gesture. "Why do you think that?"

Oliver leaned against the bookshelf. "The other night, I ran into Audra when I was coming back from the practice rooms, and then when I got back to the room to grab a different binder, Gabriel told me not to come in."

I raised my eyebrows. "So?"

"So, he only does that when he and Audra are... well, you know."

"And that works?" I flattened my palms against the table. "You just... don't go in? Why haven't we done that?"

Oliver flushed, shook his head. "You're missing the point. Gabriel only does that in that specific situation. 'Don't come in' is sort of Gabriel code for 'I'm getting laid'."

I understood. "Oh. And you saw Audra, so she can't have been in there."

"I just – I've been thinking about it, and I can't think who it would have been."

"What, besides literally anyone?" I responded dryly, looking back down at the script.

"What does that mean?" Oliver sounded indignant.

I looked up at him, eyebrows raised. "Come on. Gabriel would go after anything that moves."

"I mean, maybe he used to be like that, but I thought he'd evened out, since... you know. Hannah. We talked about it. He said... he was serious about Audra."

I couldn't help the scoff that escaped as I picked up a highlighter and attacked a paragraph.

"No, really. He said that it just made him realize how short life is."