Piece, Peace, Promises

City dormitory buildings are different from dormitory buildings elsewhere in the country. The campus is barely big enough for all the administrative and academic buildings, so often dorms are a few blocks away in converted tenement blocks. 'Maddy' waited on the stairs, feigning interest in some conversation. Though there were other girls out on the large grey steps leading up the dormitory building, Dante thought he had picked her out from a block away. He was right.

She approached the two of them, Abigail absently laughing at another joke and Dante smiling confidently but not presumptively. Dante had noticed that he was getting some curious looks from the first years outside the building, a few he recognized just from being on campus.

"Well here we are." Abigail said, trying to not sound put-off.

"Here you are!" Maddy came down the stairs. She had short blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and tanned skin, she was clearly athletic but not bulkily so, Dante figured her for a soccer or volleyball player in high school; not in college though, as athletes stayed East Campus by the river. She was a bit shorter than Abigail but a slightly bit wider and more firm. It was hard to deduce how her body looked in gym shorts and a high school hoodie (Dante did everything in his power not to crack another freshman joke).

Abigail, unsure how to react, tried a formal introduction. "Maddison, this is Dante; we met at the library. Dante, my friend, and roommate Maddison."

Maddy smiled, it was not pretentious or fake, in fact, Dante suspected that she had checked him out a bit. "My friends call me Maddy; it’s nice to meet you. This one," she gestured to a stiffening Abigail, "I thought would never bring home a guy." She smiled at her joke, and Dante grinned politely. Abigail turned as red as she did back at the library, which was now becoming something of a turn-on for Dante.

"Well, unfortunately, she hasn't yet, I didn't make it inside and I need to go get ready for work." Abigail was deciding how to take that when Maddy intervened, "Oh, do you work on campus?"

For the first time all night, Dante was caught off-guard.

"I-, yes actually, but not tonight I-"

"What do you do on campus?" Maddy pried, her eyes narrowing slightly. Dante decided that he liked her more than he thought he would. He knew that he might as well come out with it.

"Oh, I'm a graduate assistant, so I teach a few undergrad classes." Abigail seemed more curious, of course she had known Dante was in the grad program but didn't know he was also G.A.

"Which ones?" This girl wasn't going to quit.

"I teach a class on the Silk Road for the History department and 'Sociology and Trade' for my department."

"Oh wow, a grad student. That's cool, you said you were doing your other job tonight," she eyed the pizza box Dante was carrying. "You don't look like a pizza boy."

This got a genuine laugh from him, and Abigail stopped giving significant looks to her roommate to nervously join in on the joke.

"No, Abigail mentioned that neither of you had a chance to eat tonight, so I brought you back a few slices." Another pause, as Maddy was hawkishly waiting for Dante to answer her implied question.

"I work for a few bars and nightclubs, nothing special, just some promoting on the side..." He hadn't mentioned it to Abigail, though he had intended on bringing it up at this point anyways. He handed the pizza box to Abigail and reached in his bag. A few of the other freshmen at the door must've overhead because they were not-so-subtlety eavesdropping and exchanging looks. Dante pulled out a small stack of flyers for a nightclub. He handed Maddy one, which she began to read over with some scrutiny. He was about to put them back in his bag when he had a thought.

"Here, actually, Maddy maybe you can do me a huge favor. We've got a new DJ at the club tonight and he doesn't have that big of a following. Would you mind handing some of these out to your friends in the dorms? It's free entry with one of my flyers." Dante pointed at a watermark with a 'D' on a corner of the flyer.

Maddy was speechless for a moment, which Dante deduced was a rare occurrence. "Lava Lounge on 83rd? Isn't that 21 and up?" Dante gave her a knowing look.

"Give the flyers only to people with a convincing fake, then." Dante shrugged, "If you don't think they're cool enough or that their fake sucks, don't bring them. I'll get into trouble." Dante wouldn't, but they didn't know that yet. He was not so much speaking to her, but he was making sure that every student on the stairs heard him. He continued, "I know it's Friday, and you guys probably have plans, but you'd be doing me a huge favor. I'll repay you of course..." He came out of his bag again with a marker and a loose flyer that had escaped the stack. Dante wrote his cellphone number on the back of the flyer and set it on top of the pizza box Abigail was still holding.

"Club opens at 10pm, the 'cool crowd' gets there at 1am but the line is gonna be long, and since there's gonna be a lot of fakes, try to get there early so the bouncers will just be trying to fill the place. Check the dress code online..." He beckoned the girls to come closer so that the rabble on the stairs couldn't overhear him. A passing ambulance helped him there. "Text me from the line and I'll come get you guys. Try to keep the amount of guys you invite to a minimum, bad for business."

Dante backed up again, "Anyways, I'm gonna be running late. I am glad I got to meet you both."

They did not have much time to ask questions or make better arrangements. He was rounding the corner by the time they blinked.