“It’s open.” The voice from the other side was only slightly muffled and just deep enough to…
What? Deep enough to what? “Tickle” the senses?
Katt suddenly felt lightheaded; what the fuck was wrong with him?
Franco opened the door and entered before Katt, who hesitated a beat before following him inside.
Todd emerged from behind the large desk. The boy he was at thirteen was still recognizable—mainly by his eyes and mouth—but his face had become more defined with age, and his body...
Katt tried not to stare at his athletic build, with muscles highlighted under his tight shirt and form-fitting pants.
“Thank you, Franco,” Todd said. “If you’ll excuse us…” He gestured toward the door.
Franco nodded, then cast Katt a small, encouraging smile, and left the room, closing the door. Katt had kind of hoped he would stay. Then again, if Todd happened to mention “the fort”… maybe it was better if no one else was there. Katt didn’t need rumors of him being “gay” to start floating around campus.
“Katt.” Todd leaned against the front of the desk, a cool smile forming. “It’s been a long time.”
“Yeah.” Katt cleared his throat. “It has.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again.” Todd gripped the edge of the desk. “Now, here you are, at my college.”
Katt glanced toward the window, needing somewhere to look besides Todd’s chiseled face. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“If you had known,” he asked. “Would it have influenced your decision to come here?”
“I…” Katt shrugged. “Why would it?”
“No reason,” Todd murmured.
Katt finally met his stare head-on. “Why do you want me to join your fraternity? We’re not friends anymore. We haven’t been friends since…” Katt’s throat locked briefly. “… since youmoved away freshman year.” He cleared his throat. “This is a big campus. We don’t even have to see each other.”
Pursing his lips, Todd looked at the floor, nodding. “Is that what you want? To never see me?”
Had he hurt Todd’s feelings? That seemed hard to believe. Even as a kid, Todd wasn’t easily offended. Why would that change over the years?
“Not… necessarily. I just meant that just because we used to be friends when we were kids, it didn’t mean we were obligated to be friends now because we ran into each other by chance.”
“Hey.” Todd pushed off the desk and splayed his hands. “If you have no interest in reviving our friendship, that’s cool. Like you said, you’re not obligated. It’s just…” he sighed, but didn’t continue.
“It’s just what?”
“Well…” Todd shrugged. “I just thought maybe we’d never really stopped being friends. Deep down, you know? Maybe I was wrong.”
Katt’s brow pinched. Was he serious? Todd was the one who ended the friendship. He hadn’t come right out and said it, but he’d distanced himself from Katt until it was clear he no longer wanted them to be friends. Katt thought about pointing that out, but didn’t want to risk reviving other memories Todd might have forgotten.
“No,” Katt mumbled. “You’re not.” It was true; deep down, hadn’t he always thought of Todd as his best friend, even after Todd was gone? Hadn’t a part of him wished for the chance to see him again, to be friends again? Hadn’t he missed Todd all these years?
Yes.
Honestly? He’d been a little afraid to see Todd again, fearing he would pretend not to know Katt. Even worse—actually not remember him.
“Great.” Relief flickered across his face. “When I found out you were here, I wanted to invite you to join my fraternity. Maybe give us a chance to… reconnect.”
Katt fidgeted. “I’d like that. But I never really saw myself as a frat guy. I don’t know if I’d fit in.”
“Of course, you would.” Todd flashed a confident smile. Even as kids, Todd had been cool. It was no surprise he’d ended up as president of a college fraternity.
In high school, Katt had been cool in his own circles, leaning into the badass bad-boy persona, but he was pretty sure now that most of it was an act. Standing before frat-boy Todd Jacoby, he didn’t feel like a badass. He felt… nervous.
