Jacob scoffed. He could feel the beer hitting his head, suddenly all too aware he’d been too nervous to eat a proper dinner. He would have to drink water later, but for now he chugged his beer and resurfaced with a gasp.
“You do,” he insisted, wiping his lips clean. “You say you won’t, then you ditch me!”
Felix stared at him, incredulous. “I leave for a few minutes. I always come back and look for you!”
“You do not!”
“I do!” Felix insisted. “I always do. Sometimes I just lose track of time.”
“Oh,sometimes.” Jacob felt like a little kid, pouting because his friend left him alone at a party. But he couldn’t help it: getting left alone in a group of people he didn’t know was torture. He never had to do it before college.
He waited for Felix’s usual spiel: that Jacob should learn how to talk to people, that people would like him if he opened up, yadda yadda. But Felix just stepped closer, leaning up so Jacob could hear him over the noise.
“I talk to a lot of people,” Felix said. “But who do I watch movies with, dude? Who do I spend all my time with?”
Jacob’s face was suddenly hot. Which was weird, since he’d been in this humid party for a while and he hadn’t started overheating until now. “That’s not?—”
“I don’t want other people. Just you.”
Jacob wanted to argue that wasn’t what they were talking about. He was talking about his own inadequacies. Hell, he was grudgingly hoping that Felix would drag him into a group conversation and teach him how to feel like he wasn’t getting his skin peeled off. That was what this party was about right? Growth. Whole new Jacob.
But there were other ways to get there. And Jacob had never been interested in making new friends. Not when he had Felix.
Felix’s words rang in his head:I don’t want other people. Just you.
Jacob shivered for reasons he didn’t care to identify. “Felix.”
Felix gazed back, eyes wide and expectant. “Jacob.”
Jacob had to look away so he didn’t get distracted. Felix always had a distracting face, even when he wasn’t doing stupid shit with it.
“You know that thing on the list,” Jacob said.
Felix’s eyes went back to normal. For a moment he almost looked disappointed. Then he gave a sly, easy grin that Jacob could never emulate.
“Yeah?” Felix said. “Which one?”
“The… thing. About the party.”
Felix’s grin widened. He toyed with the top button of Jacob’s button-down, and Jacob was seized by a powerful urge to watch those eager fingers open his shirt. He’d never had someone take off his clothes like that. He wanted to know how that felt.
Felix asked, “You mean the one about fooling around at a party?”
Jacob nodded. He looked around, but no one was paying attention to two guys whispering at each other in the corner.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Felix admitted.
“Horndog,” Jacob told him. He tried to make it teasing, but it was hard to be flippant when Felix was pushing his finger underneath Jacob’s collar, touching skin that nobody else had touched.
“Only for you,” Felix replied.
Jacob laughed.
For some reason, Felix didn’t.
Felix found them a bedroom. One with a lock, even.
“Voilà,” Felix said as he clicked it shut. “If there was no lock, would you shove the dresser in front of it?”
