Page 16 of Solo Stan

Elias slowly settled back into his seat, his excitement having dissipated.

“You don’t want to go to the show?” he asked, confused.

Then he understood. “You do. You just don’t want to go with me.

” His inner gentleman took over, and he put his credit card on the table despite insisting earlier that Dakarai be the one to pay.

He then leaned back, crossing his arms as well.

“That’s not it,” Dakarai assured him. “I meant it earlier when I said I wasn’t upset with you.

It’s me that I’m upset with for falling for it.

I always seem to…fall for it. But it’s a habit I’m trying to break.

” He quickly looked down to conceal an embarrassed smile.

“We’ll be working together, and things got a little weird today, but I think we’re at a point where we can turn back and forget anything happened. ”

Elias’s stomach lurched with guilt. This was exactly the sort of person he shouldn’t have led on. That had been obvious when he found Dakarai crying, yet Elias had done it anyway. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t think of what, and the two fell quiet for a moment.

The server came to take Elias’s credit card, and while they waited for her to return, Dakarai busied himself with his phone. Elias had no idea what Dakarai could be doing on that ancient thing—perhaps texting in Morse code.

“Sorry,” he said. “My best friend just landed in California. He’s checking in.”

The best friend again, huh? Elias thought.

They must have been close if they talked this much. Nia was Elias’s best friend, but he couldn’t say that he talked to her by phone once a day, much less twice.

Dakarai had a peculiar way of texting with his left index finger and right thumb, and he silently mouthed every word as he typed it. Each time Elias stared, Dakarai’s eyes met his, causing Elias to quickly look away.

“I still can’t figure out how you do that. It’s wild,” Elias said, rubbing his chest. If he could feel eyes on him, he would have seen Dakarai at the park all those years ago. “How does it feel when people are looking at you?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what it feels like to be stared at.”

Elias drew closer, resting his elbows on the table. “Who stares at me?”

“I don’t know. People,” Dakarai replied, gesturing around indiscriminately.

“Do you?”

The pupils of Dakarai’s eyes quivered slightly before he cleared his throat and said, “I mean, you’re attractive in a certain light,” and paused before he added, “a really dim one.”

Elias gripped the edge of the table and leaned in. “Why did you draw me, then? Tell me the truth this time.”

He would have assumed it was the dimples—those were what everyone always noticed about him—but Dakarai had inexplicably left them out of the sketch.

“I don’t know. I just did,” Dakarai replied.

Elias regarded Dakarai with curiosity. “And what about the first time? That day in the park five years ago.”

“How did you…? I, um.” Dakarai looked up at the ceiling, spinning his earring around before he said, “The way you were with that little girl was—I don’t know. You were just so gentle with her, and you seemed kind.”

“Gentle? Kind?” Elias repeated with a disbelieving laugh. “No one would agree with you.”

“Maybe you don’t properly show people who you are.”

He really sees the best in others, doesn’t he?

Elias thought. If it wasn’t so endearing, it’d be annoying as hell.

Dakarai had to have been at least six and half feet tall with a name that got the squiggly red line treatment on Microsoft Word, and yet he made no attempts to blend in.

There was no way the world was any kinder to him than it was to Elias, so how did Elias end up like this and Dakarai end up like that ?

“Everyone’s already made their minds up about me,” Elias said, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

Dakarai’s stare bored into him. “That’s not true. You’re the one who tried to make up my mind for me.”

The server returned with Elias’s credit card, and the conversation paused until she left again.

“Look,” Elias said, stretching his arms above his head.

“You’re right. I’m not the person I was all day today at work.

At least I hope I’m not. Just get to know me tonight, and if you still hate me, then we can just be coworkers, no hard feelings.

But maybe,” he continued, releasing a deep breath, “if you decide differently, we could be friends? You said you only draw people you want to know better. Well, here’s your chance.

I’ve got a phone from this century that can download apps; you’ve got knowledge of this city.

Let’s start over—clean slate—and do the scavenger hunt together. I want to know you better too.”

Dakarai tightened his already-folded arms. “You do?”

Elias nodded.

“It would make this summer so much easier if we could be friends,” Dakarai said, seemingly thinking aloud. “But you have to promise no more flirting with me.”

“ Flirting? Me? What kind of girl do you think I am?” Elias’s mouth split into a smile.

“No smiling either,” Dakarai warned. “If I see even one of your dimples, I’m getting on the bus and going home without you.”

Elias saluted Dakarai. “Yes, sir.”

He gestured broadly, his tacit way of telling Dakarai to lead the way.

He quickly signed the check and slid it to the edge of the table before grabbing his things.

Opening the app as he followed Dakarai out of the restaurant, he was prompted by a screen that said Do not click until you’re ready to begin the scavenger hunt.

You will only have five minutes to complete the first action.

He looked for approval from Dakarai, who merely shrugged.

With unsteady hands, Elias clicked the start button.

A timer instantly appeared in the top right corner, along with an envelope icon in the center of the screen.

The descending timer struck panic into him, like he’d slept past an alarm or was late for school.

He swallowed his anxiety as best he could and clicked the envelope.

Random Act of Love

Hug someone for 10 seconds.

“Yeah, no,” Dakarai said flatly, turning on his heel. “I’m out of here.”

A smile spread across Elias’s face—he knew he liked CYPHR for a reason. “It’s just a hug,” he said, gently stopping Dakarai by grabbing his arm. He took a deliberate step in front of him, raising his eyes to meet Dakarai’s.

Dakarai bit his lip, hesitating for a moment before releasing a breath. “If we’re going to do this scavenger hunt together, all of that,” he said, waving his hands over Elias, “is what we’re not going to do. Don’t look at me like that.”

Elias’s lips twitched into a sly smirk. “Where am I supposed to look, then?”

“At the floor or the back of your eyelids.”

“Fine,” Elias said, his eyes fluttering closed. His hands felt heavy and useless by his sides, his increasing heartbeat pulsing through his ears, slowly drowning out the din. “Is this what you want?” he asked.

“It’s somehow worse.”

Elias’s eyes shot open at the cool touch of Dakarai’s hand on his.

He could see the hesitation on Dakarai’s face, but also the curiosity—the slight change in breath and a flicker of his gaze to Elias’s lips.

Hesitantly, Dakarai gently pulled Elias forward by the hand and then wrapped his arms around him, holding him in an embrace that felt as if it might be their last.

Elias blinked hard, trying to make sense of the situation, when Dakarai’s voice, close to his ear, asked softly, “Are you going to take the picture?”

Acting on pure muscle memory, Elias raised his phone and tapped the shutter button, easing farther into the embrace each second as he counted down from ten with the timer, their heartbeats a metronome.

The photo snapped and automatically uploaded into the app, revealing two new envelopes.

Dakarai abruptly broke the contact, forcing Elias to plant his feet firmly to resist the innate pull he felt toward him, the desire to continue being held.

But with a deep breath, he refocused, redirecting his attention to the first of the two envelopes. Inside was only the number 0 .

“The hell?” Elias muttered, puzzled. But he and Dakarai didn’t have much time to dwell on its meaning; as soon as Elias clicked on the other envelope containing their next task, a timer immediately started.

Random Act of Mindfulness

Don’t miss your chance

At seeing the beauty of Raleigh

Like you’ve never seen before

Take a look at the stars

Over the skyline of the city

Naming me to get to the top

With the clock now counting down from ten minutes, Dakarai’s forehead wrinkled in concentration as he scanned the words. Elias, on the other hand, found his mind wandering, the urgency of the moment unable to cut through.

“The spacing is kind of odd, isn’t it?” Dakarai asked, tapping his chin. “And there’s no punctuation.”

“CYPHR’s got me, a straight B-minus student, doing homework for fun on a Friday night,” Elias mused.

Dakarai glanced at Elias from the corner of his eye. “Focus.”

Clearing his throat and rolling his shoulders, Elias examined the clue for a moment. Running his finger down the left side of the words, he noticed the first letter of each line. “Does ‘Dalton’ mean anything to you?”

Dakarai lit up. “The Dalton is a hotel maybe five minutes away where you can see the whole city from the rooftop,” he said. “We’d have to walk fast, but we can probably make it within the ten minutes. Want to go?”

He really did.