CHAPTER 1
“I’m not moving in with you next year,” Jacob announced.
Felix choked on his beer. Then he wiped the spill off his chin and sucked his fingers, because he’d paid full price for this beer and wasn’t about to let it go to waste. And because he knew it was guaranteed to get a reaction out of Jacob, which was the main reason Felix did anything.
“You mean this year,” Felix said, grinning at Jacob’s disgusted expression.
“At the end of the school year,” Jacob replied, narrowing his eyes as Felix wiped his sticky hands on his jeans. “I’m not doing it, Mess.”
Mess was short for Felix’s last name, Messer. Jacob had given Felix the nickname in grade school, but he only pulled it out when Felix was being particularly obnoxious. Or the rarer times when Jacob wanted to be openly affectionate. Like right now, while Jacob’s glare softened with genuine regret. Nobody would have been able to spot that softness except Felix.
Felix groaned, shaking Jacob’s shoulder so hard Jacob had to put his beer down. “Come oooon!”
“No,” Jacob snapped, grabbing a napkin to wipe up the spill on the bar that Felix had caused by jostling his shoulder. “We’dkill each other! We almost kill each othernow,and we live in different dorms—oh, thank you very much.”
Jacob directed the last part at the bartender who had taken over his napkin-mopping with a cloth. He was an incredibly sweet guy, Jacob. It baffled everyone, depending on whom they met first—Jacob alone, or Jacob-with-Felix. People who met Jacob alone thought he was a serious, mild-mannered stats major who wore a pocket protector unironically. People who met Jacob-with-Felix first thought he was a loud, snappish guy who loved to argue. Both were true. People contained multitudes, as Felix liked to tell classmates who expressed surprise at the switch.
Except Felix, of course. He did his absolute best to portray himself as a one-dimensional sexy goofball, and foiled any attempt to glimpse past that.
“But this was always the plan,” Felix said, grabbing Jacob around his shoulders, which was a high reach even when they were sitting down. “Get the hell out of Pennsylvania. Go to Liberty Heights in the glistening city of Indianapolis?—”
“Glistening?” Jacob repeated, looking around the dingy surroundings of The Last Call bar, a short walk from Liberty Heights campus.
Felix ignored him. “And then move in together! Best friends forlife!”
Jacob sighed. Felix allowed himself a rare moment to enjoy the broad stretch of Jacob’s shoulder under his arm, which was always risky business. He’d been appreciating Jacob’s tall, dark form long before he was tall. But he couldn’t let himself get caught up in it, no matter how much he wanted to. Jacob was off-limits.
“I’m going to be your friend until we die,” Jacob said. “But if I move in with you, that’s going to be six months from now.Because I’ll strangle you to death after you forget to do your choresagain.”
“I can do a chore chart,” Felix whined.
“I’ve seen you try to mop your parents’ bathroom,” Jacob said. “Even if you try to clean, yousuck.”
Felix moved past the obvious blowjob pun—hedidsuck, often and expertly—and insisted. “I can learn! I’ll watch so many YouTube tutorials!”
“It’s not just the cleaning,” Jacob said. “You can’t cook. You’re nothouse-trained. Your nickname isMess, for fuck’s sake!”
“Then give me another nickname,” Felix cried. “Wait, you said we. When WE die.”
Jacob frowned. He had a beautiful frown, his forehead creases denting into wrinkles that no twenty-year old should have, his dark eyes fixing on Felix. Felix wanted to kiss him so badly it hurt.
“Obviously I’d kill myself after I murder you,” Jacob said impatiently.
“Aw,” Felix crooned. “Jacob! You’re so sweet.”
He reached for Jacob’s cheek. Before he could pinch it, Jacob slapped him away. Felix pretended to be stung, but he’d expected it. Jacob only let him pinch his cheek when he was incredibly drunk or happy, and right now he was neither.
Felix settled back into his seat, cradling his damp beer glass. “You just wait, man. We have onewhooolesemester left for me to convince you. We’ll be watching cartoons in our pj’s in October.”
“Good luck with that,” Jacob muttered. “You can move in with Shane and Nate. No way they’ll be able to find a one-bedroom, they’ll have to get roommates.”
“I don’twantto move in with Shane and Nate,” Felix complained. “Have you seen them lately? I know I told them toget over themselves and date already, but I kind of wish I hadn’t! They’re unbearable!”
“Well, you’d better get used to them.” Jacob took a large sip of his beer, then made a face. Which made sense, because he hated beer.
Felix eyed Jacob’s almost-empty glass curiously. It wasn’t the only sign that something was wrong—Jacob never suggested they go down to The Last Call, even on Thirsty Thursday. And he kept looking around like he was worried someone would overhear, even though it was crowded and they had to raise their voices to hear each other, let alone anybody else.
“You’re jumpy tonight,” Felix said.
