“You good?” he asks when I give up on the bench press early.
“Fine. Why?”
He shrugs, handing me my water. “You seem distracted.”
“I’m not distracted.”
“You skipped your last set.”
“Just tired, I guess.”
He stares at me with a look I can’t understand, muttering under his breath, “You’ve been tired a lot lately.”
I’ve been noticing it. The way his eyes are constantly scanning my face, looking for the truth of what’s going on, or how he thinks I feel. The comments that feel like they’re supposed to mean something.
I try to ignore him, though.
He’s probably just grumpy because I was late.
We switch positions, me spotting while he lifts, but my mind starts drifting to Mike. He was still asleep when I left thismorning, on his stomach, an arm reaching across my side of the bed. I could still be there right now.
“How are things?” Ryan asks, between reps. “Pierce still throwing parties every weekend?”
“Noteveryweekend.”
“He have anybody over last night?”
“No.”
“Night before?”
I look down at him. “What are you getting at?”
He racks the bar and sits up, grabbing his water. “I think you could do better,” he says, pausing before adding, “With your living situation, I mean.”
“I like where I live.”
“You likehim?” Ryan asks, and there’s something weird about how he says it. A question within a question. There have been a lot of those since the other weekend.
I keep my face neutral, even though internally, I’m starting to worry about where this conversation might lead. “He’s my roommate.”
“He wrote you a song.”
“I told you, he was messing around.”
“Was he?”
I move to the next station without answering because there’s nothing I can say to that without saying everything, and I’m not coming out to Ryan at nine in the morning at the university gym.
“I’m not trying to start anything,” he says, falling into step beside me. “But the guy’s not exactly stable.”
“You don’t even know him.”
“I know his reputation.”
“His reputation,” I repeat, adjusting the weight on the next machine. “You know, you’ve got all these opinions on the dude, and you’ve never even taken the time to get to know him. He’s a good person, Ryan.”
“Listen, I’m just trying to look out for you.”
