05-02-2018, 06:12 PM
By the time they stepped off the bus in downtown Seattle, the sky had folded in on itself and hung fat and dripping above their heads. Dexter used the Columbia Tower, an ominous black lobe of a skyscraper, to maintain his bearings as Harmony led him toward Pioneer Square. If the sun was out and Columbia Tower wasn’t surrounded by other buildings, Dexter calculated, they would be standing in its shadow.
“I’m on academic probation,” Dexter said. The words tasted like metal.
“Probation? You? What the hell for?” Harmony asked, suddenly interested.
“My physics professor has no sense of humor.”
Harmony nodded. “And you took any opportunity you could find to make him look like an idiot in front of the whole class, right? God, Dexter, I love you, but there’s too much going on in that fucking head of yours. I’m surprised you don’t fall over with the weight of it.”
Dexter stopped listening after the word love. A deep black hole opened in the center of his stomach and it threatened to pull him inside-out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noticed she was still talking. In her tirade, she hadn’t even noticed what she said. To Harmony, just like everything else, it was inconsequential.
To Dexter, it threatened everything he had ever known.
“I’m on academic probation,” Dexter said. The words tasted like metal.
“Probation? You? What the hell for?” Harmony asked, suddenly interested.
“My physics professor has no sense of humor.”
Harmony nodded. “And you took any opportunity you could find to make him look like an idiot in front of the whole class, right? God, Dexter, I love you, but there’s too much going on in that fucking head of yours. I’m surprised you don’t fall over with the weight of it.”
Dexter stopped listening after the word love. A deep black hole opened in the center of his stomach and it threatened to pull him inside-out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noticed she was still talking. In her tirade, she hadn’t even noticed what she said. To Harmony, just like everything else, it was inconsequential.
To Dexter, it threatened everything he had ever known.