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“What?” I was completely confused.
“Caden, there’s no time. Don’t open that door yet. Jamie, come on.”
I looked at Jamie, bewildered, then glanced at my phone to see that I had three missed calls from Jeff. Jesse was already under his covers, desperately beckoning Jamie over there. Jamie seemed to comprehend it all faster than I was, and he leapt up from my bed and into Jesse’s, burrowing under the covers by the wall.
Before my mind could completely wrap around everything, someone pounded on my door, and without waiting for an answer, the person tried the knob. I slowly started to understand that Jesse had come up with a plan on the fly because everyone knew he was gay, and everyone assumed that Jamie was, so no one would question them in bed together. They would, however, question me hiding Jamie in my room alone, and my unlocked door would have just gotten us caught red-handed if Jesse hadn’t shown up.
At least I had on sweats and a hoodie, nothing suspicious. I yanked the door open. Brad stood outside with one of his dickhead friends. Of course it was him, he was the only one with the gall to actually try to open my door. “What?” I asked, annoyed.
He shoved his way past me and into my room. Oh, we were about to fight for sure. I managed to keep my fists to myself, even though they balled at my sides. “What the hell, Brad?” I gritted out, fury nearly boiling over inside of me.
He stopped right inside the room, looking around suspiciously. I noticed he had his phone in his hand. Jesse peeked over sleepily, as though we’d woken him while he cuddled with Jamie for a nap. Jamie, also managing to appear sleepy, looked at Brad warily. Jesse looked at me. “What is he doing here?” he demanded, as though I had insight that he didn’t. It was no secret that the two of them didn’t like each other, and he was really selling his whole story right then.
“Getting ready to leave, I’m pretty sure,” I hissed.
Brad whirled on me. “Seriously, Conner? You know we’re having a party tonight. The whole team is there, minus you.”
“And also the two of you, now,” I clapped back.
“We’re here to find out what the hell is going on. You’ve been acting real weird lately, and it seems you don’t care about the team anymore.” So, he was worried he’d no longer be able to ride to a win on my coattails. It was partly about his rep, and partly because he obviously wanted to hurt mine simply because he didn’t like me. “You blow off practices and meetings that the rest of us consider important. You leave celebrations early, and half the time your head seems to be somewhere else entirely. I don’t even know how you’re managing to play. Then we got a tip that just like the first time you blew off something with the team, Princess McFruit there was spotted again, this time coming into your dorm instead of going to the coffee shop with you. So we decided to come find out what’s really going on with you.”
Jesse sat bolt upright in his bed, eyes burning with righteous fury. “Excuse me, what did you just call my man? Oh, bitch, it’s on.” He started to get up, God love him. I was pretty sure he was seriously ready to fight.
I held my hand up to stop Jesse. I turned to Brad. “I share this dorm, remember, Brad? And I don’t care who my roommate has over because he’s one of my best friends. Jamie is, too. I didn’t go to the party because I felt like I was coming down with something, and we have a game tomorrow. To me, a game is exponentially more important than a fucking party. The last thing I need is to tank my immune system with a bunch of alcohol. Jeff knows where I am. You could have asked him instead of making a complete ass of yourself.”
Brad sneered. “So you’re cool with your roommate banging his boyfriend in the same room as you, then? You like to watch, or something?”
He was reaching at that point, because he had nothing definitive to use against me. “They were taking a nap. At least until your dumb ass came banging on the door.” He didn’t seem fully convinced. I knew he was still stuck on the whole coffee shop thing, and any number of times Jamie and I had been spotted out together without Jesse. Luckily, Brad had yet to figure out where Jamie worked, and no one seemed to have spotted me on the back of his bike, because I never held onto him like we were just friends. Brad had very little to go on, no matter what he thought he knew. He could prove nothing more than that Jamie and I were friends, even though a sick feeling had settled in my gut after I’d straight-up called Jamie just a friend.
Brad eyed Jesse and Jamie, then me. “You’d better start thinking about your team, Conner. Or else.”
I got right in his face because really, I’d had enough. “Or else, what? You’ll get me kicked off the team? And then what, win it yourself? Don’t forget who’s leading the team to victory right now, Brad, because it sure as shit isn’t you. Be careful what you wish for. I know you’d hate to end up on a losing team, and Jeff can’t carry your sorry ass alone.” I was one hundred percent ready to throw down at that point, and even Brad was aware he was outnumbered.
He tried to scoff but backed up as he did. “The team comes first, Conner,” he hissed, “And you need to remember that.” He turned and stalked out of the room, his lackey scurrying along behind him without a word. How that dude kept friends was beyond me.
I shut and locked the door behind him, sagging on it as I scrubbed my hands down my face. I knew Jeff was at that party, and I shouldn’t have ignored the calls because he was trying to warn me that Brad was coming. He’d called Jesse when he couldn’t get ahold of me, and luckily Jesse was seeing a guy three doors down from our room, so he’d been able to get to our dorm quickly and without being spotted.
I didn’t like how things were going at all. Brad was suspicious, and I knew that as soon as he had anything to back it up, he’d out me to the whole community. I didn’t like that I had to hide Jamie, call him my friend, and tell people he was dating Jesse. I didn’t like that Jesse had to leave his new man’s room and rush over to bail my ass out, or that I was making Jeff cover for me repeatedly. They were all going out on a limb for me, every single one of them, and I was just sitting there accepting their help without giving them anything in return. I felt like a piece of shit.
“Should I leave?” Jamie’s voice brought me out of my brooding. I looked over to the bed where he and Jesse were sitting up and watching me as I had an apparent existential crisis.
My eyes found Jamie’s. “No. I don’t want you to leave.”
He looked a little surprised. He climbed out of Jesse’s bed and came over to hug me. I hugged him back, resting my forehead on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I told him, “I wish I could just…make myself okay with everyone knowing. I just…I’m trying to let myself be me, it’s just so hard…”
“Hey,” he said softly, pulling back a little to look me in the eye, “I told you I understand. I never lied to you, Caden. It needs to be on your terms, not because some asshat forced you out of the closet. I just don’t want to cause you any problems.”
I squeezed him tighter. “You don’t cause me problems. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” That was the first time I’d ever said anything like that to him. I got a little nervous, hoping it wasn’t too much. Were two months enough to say something like that?
He just squeezed me back. “Same,” he whispered.
“Well, hell,” Jesse said from his bed, “This is the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen, and I want to give you two some privacy, but I’m also afraid to leave, in case one of the bigot bunch comes back.”
I laughed, “Jesse, thank you for being such a great friend. I appreciate you more than you’ll probably ever know. But did we interrupt your plans? Or, more plainly, did we cut into your humping time with your new boyfriend?”
“Ugh, no, it’s all good. Luke’s not my boyfriend, anyway. We’re pretty casual right now. All he wanted to do today was study because he has some big test. How boring is that? I think I was just distracting him, anyway.”
“Well,” I said with a shrug, “We were watching a movie. Come join us?” Jesse ended up squeezing onto my bed beside me, with Jamie against the wall, and we stayed like that for the entire movie. Having them both beside me, no one angry with me, made me feel like everything could be ok.
