Fight Club ⚣ ✓

11

Sammy

I watched as Dante hoisted himself up from the metal ladder to the wooden beams of the ceiling, all the while insisting that he needed to get closer to take a better look at the decayed wood. He had left me standing in my living room, watching him Tarzan his way up there to the leak. My heart stopped beating entirely every time he reached for another beam.

Dante had a pretty slender build. He wasn't necessarily buff or anything, but I had to give it to him... his strength was awfully impressive. He pulled himself up effortlessly with one hand, as he moved to the next beam.

Fuck, this exposed ceiling was high.

Way too fucking high.

I noticed there was some discomfort when Dante raised his arms up above his head. With all of the 8 months of medical school knowledge I had to my name, my guess was it had something to do with his posture. Maybe he wasn't sleeping right?

I remembered Grayson got all cramped up like that when we had our camping trip last fall. He was irritated that we didn't bring any blow up mattresses, but Kassie explained for the nine gazillionth time to him that he was the one who lost the pump and refused to replace it from the previous camping trip.

I think Chris then said something about how sleeping on the ground brings you closer to Mother Nature's spirit or something of the sorts, and Grayson shut the fuck up after that.

Those three days screwed him up so terribly, I made him go see a chiropractor before stepping foot in my gym again.

"Yeah it looks like it might be from the chimney." Dante replied, pulling me from my thoughts. "You were right about the decaying, too. Looks like most of the wood here is bad, and will need to be fully replaced. I'd also recommend adding more support beams here. It'll help the overall structure and stability of the roof." Dante was pointing to things I knew nothing about. "I won't lie to you, it'll take some work to fix, and definitely on the pricier end if you were to hire someone. I'm speaking from my experience down in Texas though, I'm not sure how much it would be here."

"You still got that extra Kidney man? Now might be the time for me to get in touch with that guy I know." Grayson spoke suddenly, as he walked into the living room. I saw Dante jump slightly from his post up above, and he almost lost his footing on one of the beams.

"Hey, watch it man." I snapped at Grayson.

His eyes glanced up to see Dante stabilizing himself again on the rickety beam. "Oh shit my bad. Sorry man, I didn't know you were up that high."

"I-It's okay." Dante said a little shakily. By his voice, it was clear he had been startled. He gave Grayson a genuine smile however, and that put me a little at ease. "But this work would usually cost around $600 to $800 depending on materials and labor. So... I don't know if you need to call your guy? Or..." he drifted off.

That made Grayson and I crack a grin.

"No, I'm not selling my extra kidney on the black market... but I'm also not too particularly keen on spending that kind of money for this. The leak will ruin my living room floor if I don't do something about it, though. It's already started to warp the wood." That last part made me smile as I remembered Dante's initial reaction to finding out I lived above the gym. He was startled when I walked him up into my living room to take a look at the roof.

This top floor was really more of a very large studio. Everything was open so my bedroom lead to the living room which lead to the kitchen. There was a half wall however, that separated one other area of the home. It was on the opposite side of my bed. I didn't really know what to do with that area because the wall only extended to about where my bed ended, the rest was completely open.

I just threw an extra bed in there and called it a second bedroom for any friend who got too drunk to make it home from Tidal Wave.

My train of thought came to a screeching halt, when Dante started his decent from the beams.  I watched on nervously as his feet kept up with the rest of him, slowly lowering themselves onto the top of the ladder.

Grayson turned to me with an eyebrow arched.

I gave him a slight understanding nod. I knew exactly what he saw because I saw the same.

Dante had great control of both his upper and lower body. He made his movements seem so fluid, Grayson and I couldn't help drool. We were always going to be scouters at heart.

It wasn't until Dante's feet landed safely on the floor, did I finally let out a shaky breath. I fucking hated heights.

"Thanks for taking a look for me." I spoke as soon as he was on leveled ground with Grayson and I.

"No worries at all. My dad used to do this sort of stuff for a living so I kinda know my way around it." Dante explained, but quickly stopped himself short. As soon as those words left his lips, his body seemed to tense up. I wasn't sure what had happened, but you could feel a slight shift in his expression.

I decided not to push it. Instead, I did something else completely on impulse.

"How would you like to earn some extra cash?" I asked.

A blind man couldn't miss the immediate confusion that ran across Dante's face. "As you can clearly see here, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing in terms of fixing that roof." I continued. "You however have said so many words I don't understand, but have sounded so right." A smile tugged at Dante's lips. One of the dimples on his right side deepened, which caught my immediate attention. "I can't offer you $600-$800 but I can do $400 and a free gym session-"

I felt Grayson elbow my rib cage very aggressively.

"Okay, a few free gym sessions." I added.

Dante's face was a weird mixture of confused, but also genuine curiosity. He looked to be seriously contemplating my very sudden offer. After the longest ten seconds I have ever experienced, Dante finally gave me a slow nod.

"Sure. I wouldn't mind."

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