He sat back in his chair, sweating for reasons that were only half related to exertion. It was fine. Nobody could track that list back to him unless they knew his handwriting. Nobody knew his handwriting well enough. Well, nobody except?—
“Hello,” said a gravelly, measured voice next to him.
“Shit!” Jacob jumped, and turned to see David Stanton sliding into the seat he always took next to Jacob. “David. Sorry. Hi.”
“Hello,” David repeated, surprised. He looked Jacob up and down. “Are you alright?”
“What? I’m fine. Just… didn’t want to be late.” Jacob tried in vain to stop panting, but it was impossible. He wiped at his sweaty forehead, grimacing as he had to dry his hand on his shirt. “Thank you,” he added, never one to forget his manners. Unless it was with Felix, of course.
David paused. Jacob wondered if he would keep asking. They weren’t friends, he and David—they were just guys who sat next to each other in class. Jacob got the feeling that David appreciated Jacob’s maturity. David was older than the rest of the class. Not much—maybe five years. But he acted even older. It was refreshing. It was also a little boring, which was one of the many reasons why Jacob had never tried to be actual friends with him. The main reason being, of course, that Jacob had never put much effort into making friends. He had Felix. That had always been enough.
David started setting out his class supplies: binder, pencil case, and highlighters, lined up neatly on the desk in a way that made Jacob annoyed that he didn’t bring his own binder today.
“So,” David said as the rest of the class filed in. “Have you been considering my offer?”
“Your offer? Oh, right.” Jacob rubbed his face. He must be really out of it if he’d forgotten the offer that could fix his living situation for the rest of the year, at least. “Yeah. I think I’m in. I’d have to see your place first, but it sounds like a good idea. You had a list of requirements, right?”
“I can send them to you,” David said, taking out his phone. “I prefer having these things in writing so we can refer back to them later. It is not an extensive list—like we talked about, I simply want someone who is quiet, clean, and polite.”
“Right,” Jacob said. “Great. Thank you so much.”
“What is your phone number?”
Jacob’s heart rate was already calming as he recited the numbers. David might be boring, but maybe boring was what he wanted in a roommate. A roommate who owned his ownhouse, no less. And seemed genuinely interested in being quiet and clean. Two things he would never find with Felix.
Thinking of Felix made Jacob wince. He rubbed his sweaty forehead, wishing he was the kind of guy who carried deodorant. He already carried Chap Stick, why not deodorant? Why hadn’t he considered that he would have to sprint away from what was surely going to be a mortifying situation?
“I have texted you,” David said, because sometimes the guy talked like Spock for no reason. “So you have my number. Are you feeling sick?”
“No,” Jacob said sharply. Then he winced. “Sorry. No. Ignore me, I’m just tired.”
David nodded and turned back to his binder. Jacob watched as the rest of the class took their seats, the teacher trailing inafter them with a cup of coffee, looking almost as hungover as the freshmen Jacob almost knocked over earlier.
“Okay,” the teacher said as he plugged in his laptop. “Anybody do the homework? Come on. Raise your hands if you did the homework.”
Jacob raised his hand. David did the same.
“At least I can count on you two,” the teacher said, already sounding bored. He paused to take a long sip of coffee from the shittiest on-campus café, then started tapping away on his computer. “Give me a second to get the PowerPoint up.”
A familiar voice rang out through the class. “I’ll give you more than that!”
Jacob’s heart fell into his ass. Felix was in the doorway, panting, holding something over his head that looked suspiciously like the list Jacob had dropped. He stared at Jacob pointedly, jerking his head out the door.
Jacob shook his head, heart pounding. Oh, god. ItwasThe List. What the hell was Felix doing?
“Uh,” said the teacher. “Are you in this class?”
Felix ignored him and lowered the paper, clearing his throat. “Hello! My friend Jacob—that really tall guy sitting in the front like a nerd—has a list he wants me to read out. Number one?—”
Jacob shot out of his chair so fast he knocked David’s highlighters to the floor. He didn’t even stop to pick them up, he just ran down the line of chairs and toward the doorway like his life depended on it.
“Sorry,” he yelled back to David. But he didn’t take his eyes off Felix, grabbing his arm and hauling him into the bustling hallway until they were out of earshot of the classroom where Felix had almost aired Jacob’s secret desires.
“What are youdoing?” Jacob hissed. “Were you really going to read that shit out?”
He grabbed for the crinkled list. Felix smacked Jacob’s hand away, then twisted around the paper protectively when Jacob tried again.
“I tried to get you to leave and you ignored me,” Felix hissed as they wrestled. “You can’t just show up at your best friend’s dorm, tell them you want them to take your special flower?—”
