Three years earlier...
I had finally escaped the noise—the relentless thumping bass, the squealing and screaming people—and made my way out onto David’s back porch. It was quieter out here, thankfully, although the music still tried to pry its way through the walls, pressing against the windows and slipping through every crack like it couldn’t bear to be contained.
Normally, this wouldn’t be my kind of scene. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Crowded house parties, sticky floors, drunk strangers grinding against each other—it just wasn’t me. But after David started showing up at my gym, we got to talking. He wasn’t the guy I had expected him to be. There was something about the way he carried himself—laid back, a little more grounded than the typical party crowd. Then he started bringing in
