When Freddie opened the door to his house, he'd expected a guys night filled with graphic video games and popping open two or three beers when his mother wasn't paying attention. Instead, he got a mopey man groaning into his grandmother's vintage throw pillows. He attempted to console his friend, but it was a little difficult considering Freddie didn't know what was wrong with him.
Dante, of course, was of no help. He'd just stuffed his face in the pillow, aggressively rambling into it. Freddie grabbed a cold beer from the fridge and waited for his mother to return home, figuring she would snap some sense into him. Instead, her arrival seemed to trigger a series of incoherent accusations and a lot of finger wagging in her direction from Dante.
"I see you already screwed it up," Freddie's mother replied calmly. She dropped a heavy load of groceries on the kitchen counter. "Sad, I liked her," she sighed. Dante flopped on the couch and bawled into the cushion seat.
Dante passed out after Freddie offered him his fourth beer. Freddie didn't know what was more surprising, his mother letting him get Dante drunk or that Dante hadn't drunkenly ranted about whatever was bothering him so much.
The next morning, Freddie had to basically flip the couch over to get Dante to wake up. Freddie finally sent him home when he reminded Dante that his dad had finally come home for the weekend after his long delivery.
It was Monday when Freddie next saw Dante. He wasn't avoiding Dante, Freddie just assumed he would need some time to return to normal. That's what it normally took, two days of moping around before slowly returning to his cheery self.
No such luck.
Apparently his mopey self had evolved into a more depressing, silent version of itself. It was something none of them had seen before.. Dante was the type to wear his heart on his sleeve. To see him so cold-faced was unsettling. So much so that Manny had to pull Freddie away and ask, "Dude, what happened to him?"
Freddie could offer nothing more than an unsure shrug.
Freddie drove that morning. He silently went over possible theories for Dante's dejected spirit. At the top of the list was Gloria.
"So... how long is your dad in town?" Freddie asked, attempting to break the ice.
"Thursday."
"Ah... okay then." Freddie figured any question he asked would have been answered with a similar one word reply. He decided to just drop it for the time being.
Even at work, Dante's distraction to whatever was going on in his life, Freddie could tell he was unfocused and disengaged. He would have put a nail through his foot three times if Freddie hadn't been there to snap him out of it.
Work let out earlier as planned, just as Naya approached her half built house. Her grey book bag loosely hung off her shoulder. She was wearing a baggy beige sweater over a pair of denim shorts and her hair was tied up in a high ponytail.
Freddie galloped down the courtyard steps and raised his hand in a high-five. Naya weakly slapped his hand. He saw Naya steal a quick glimpse at Dante who was frozen in place three steps behind him.
Freddie snapped his fingers between Dante's eyes to pull him out of his trance. When Freddie turned around, he saw Naya had turned her face away from Dante.
Freddie had the unfortunate experience of being sandwiched between Dante and Naya. Not a single word was exchanged, but the tension was thick. Naya stuck her bluetooth headphones in and rested her head on the rattling window, watching the trees and neon store signs pass by in a blur.
Dante on the other hand, had never been so focused on the road, but that honestly wasn't saying much considering Dante's track record. His fingers gripped the wheel tight and his face wore a grim expression. The two kept glancing at the other when they assumed the other wasn't looking, but Freddie saw it all.
Freddie wasn't used to all this pent up tension, so he continued as he usually would have, tuning the radio to the hip hop station and stretching his arms around his two friends. Naya smiled at his quirky nature and lifted her head to accommodate Freddie's arm. Freddie looked at Dante expecting a similar reaction, but Dante's eyes remained on the road ahead. Freddie chuckled nervously. "This is gonna be a fun ride home."
It was anything but.
Freddie sighed in relief when Dante finally pulled up to his house. Naya wordlessly strung her backpack over her shoulder and climbed out of the truck. She looked back at Dante, as if she wanted to say something, but thought better of it. Naya waved goodbye to Freddie before going up the porch steps into the house.
Dante lowered his gaze as the door slammed shut.
Dante sighed, "Video games at your place?"
"Uh... sure?" Freddie answered. Freddie was starting to worry for Dante. Usually he would be a mess for two days and be better the next. He wasn't used to Dante just shutting down. The morning after Dante "rekindled his romance" with Gloria, he'd come crawling to Freddie and told him every detail of the night before, including some he really didn't need to know.
This time he was holding out. Maybe because it was just too embarrassing, or maybe out of respect for the other party, Freddie didn't know. Freddie pitifully looked at his friend's melancholy face. What happened to you?
Dante proved he wasn't the best at keeping things in fifteen minutes into yelling at the TV screen and muttering under his breath aggressively. Freddie cringed every time Dante roughly jabbed his fingers into the controller, but he didn't have the balls to take the controller away from him, or, more likely, wrestle it away from him.
"Stupid.. you... dumbass... couldn't even look at you..." Dante yipped under his breath as he viciously shot and killed six bodies in the video game.
Freddie began trying to put the pieces together. He knew whatever happened had to do with Naya, probably sometime before Dante dropped her off at his house. Maybe they had a political disagreement? No... Dante didn't even know who the governor was. Maybe it was... No... he wouldn't be that stupid. Freddie shooed the thought away. Dante would never make a move on Naya. Because that would be extremely stupid.
Dante left three hours later, long after Naya left.
The next days slowly got better. Dante bagan coming out of his shell, which was a relief. He began focusing at work again. But the car rides home were still unbearably awkward. Halfway through the week, Freddie tried playing matchmaker by pretending to forget his toolbox inside, just so he wouldn't have to be stuck in the middle again, but Naya saw right through it. When he returned, he saw her leaning against the pickup truck.
"My asthma's working up again, so I would prefer the window seat," Naya batted her eyelashes and smiled sweetly, "If that's okay?". How could he say no to that! He begrudgingly took the middle seat and suffered through another suffocating car ride.
Dante continued staying at Freddie's place after dropping Naya off. One day they ran out of beer, so Dante sent Freddie to his place to steal some from his fridge. When Freddie opened the door, he saw Naya practically jump out of her seat. After realizing it was just Freddie, she sunk further in her seat, looking disappointed.
"So whatever happened freaked her out too" Freddie noted.
Of course Freddie could just ask Dante what the problem was, but he figured that might send him into a mopey mess again, which would be hell to go through again. Freddie figured it would just pass.
Then came Friday, when everything went to hell.