“Shh!” Celeste hisses. “Your roommates are going to think we’re actually fighting.”
“Maybe we are!” Max snaps, lightly punching my arm.
I shove Max into Celeste, and they burst into giggles. Eventually, Max closes his eyes and leans fully into Celeste, who lovingly ruffles his hair. A twinge of jealousy threatens to surface, so I turn away. God, it’s barely been nine hours since I was in Nikki’s arms—am I seriously this touch-starved?
Admittedly, I’ve always been a bit envious of Celeste and Max’s friendship, too. They’ve been best friends for most of their lives. I only entered the picture a mere five years ago,and while they’ve never intentionally excluded me, I know deep down I’ll always be the third wheel. This is especially apparent when they’re physically affectionate. She would never admit this out loud, but my attraction to women has always made Celeste less inclined to share any physical intimacy with me, even platonically. It sucks, but I get it. She has too many creeps who get the wrong idea. I feel the same way around straight guys.
I try not to think about it.
“Are you guys ready to meet my roommates?” Max asks after a while.
“I guess,” Celeste groans. “If we must.”
Max tosses a plushie at her. “You must. Now, come on, before Jude’s social battery goes dead.” He winks at me.
I roll my eyes. “You’ve got thirty minutes. Twenty if I get stuck talking to the straight one.”
“Noted. Now, let’s go!”
By the time Theo, Caleb, and I return from our grocery (and communal silverware) trip, the living room looks completely different. Colorful throw pillows and blankets drape across the couch and armchair. Two red floor pillows sit by the TV stand, and the two walls adjacent to the windows now feature several framed movie posters:The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Birdcage, The Shape of Water, The Matrix,and some film I don’t recognize calledI Saw The TV Glow.
Damn, Max wasn’t kidding about decorating. I’m impressed.
“Harrison is almost here,” Theo announces. “I’m going to head down to get him.”
“Cool,” I answer, tearing open the box of new silverware. It was the least opinionated of all the silverware we could find. I waste no time, dropping each piece directly from the box into the dishwasher's utensil holder.
“Do y’all need a hand with the food?” Caleb asks Theo before he disappears.
“Nah, we should be fine,” he says. “Can you help Oliver with the groceries?”
“Of course!”
Lucky for us, Theo’s older sister Grace has already spent a few years in college and has beengracious(ha) enough to share some great tips. The best recommendation so far has been to buy a portable wagon for hauling groceries, so we don’t have to make multiple trips to and from Theo’s car. Fucking genius.
After Caleb and I unload the little wagon, I fold it up and tuck it behind the dining room table. Hopefully, one of us will remember to take it back to Theo’s car before our next grocery run.
“Oh, fuck off!” a muffled voice yells in what I hope is a playful tone. It sounds like it’s coming from Max’s room. I glance at Caleb, who shrugs. Several separate voices laugh, and I’m quickly relieved. They must be the friends he mentioned he’d be having over.
“So, Max seems nice, right?” Caleb says softly, gesturing to Max’s door.
“Definitely,” I agree, returning to the kitchen to continue putting groceries away. “He’s also one of us, so that’s nice.”
Caleb goes still, then looks at me curiously. “One of us?”
“One of y’all, I mean,” I clarify. “But that sounds weird to say out loud.”
“Oh, right,” he concedes. “Yeah, that sounds weirdly aggressive when you say it like that.”
“Exactly.”
“But, I mean, you’re basically one of us, too,” Caleb adds. “Like an honorary queer person.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” Caleb continues thoughtfully. “You definitely don’t give off straight-guy vibes to me. You’ve always felt like a safe person to be around. Not that all straight guys are unsafe, but you know.”
“Yeah. But what about Harrison?”
