Page 5 of Oblivious Roommate

“Hungry?” Cass asks when he parks his old Jeep in the parking lot, and it’s like he’s reading my mind.

“Starving! I’m buying today, so choose wisely.”

Cass grins and steps out of the vehicle. “I’ll make sure to get the most expensive thing on the menu.”

Were he someone else, I’d start worrying, but Cass is the kind of person who likes working with his hands and sleeping on the ground, not someone who finds pleasure in eating fifty-dollar steaks.

I look around the quaint street where lots of people our age are out and about. The evening chill isn’t bad enough to chase everyone indoors, but I still push my hands into the pockets of my hoodie.

“What’s your favorite place? I want to know everything.”

Cass hesitates, but eventually nods toward the nearby buildings. “There’s this cafe, Rainbowology. They have amazing food and a good atmosphere. They’re the local gay spot. But we could also go to the sports bar.”

“No!” I quickly say. “I want to see where you hang out—Unless… they don’t let straight people in?” I’m not sure how these things work. It’s not like good food discriminates.

Cass laughs, already heading in the direction he previously indicated. “Nah, it’s popular with all students, but the owner and all the employees are queer.”

“Cassian! Wait up!” I hear a female voice and when we turn around, two girls walk up to us, holding steaming cups of coffee. “Hey! I just wanted to tell you I passed my exam with flying colors,” one of them says with a bright smile.

“You’re still tutoring? He was always good at that,” I say, nudging Cass with my elbow, but then it dawns on me. Right. Cass is gay. He doesn’t need or want to be talked up in front of women.

“But if any of you need swimming lessons, Matt here is your man,” Cass says, squeezing my shoulder. He introduces us to each other, and it turns out that Amanda is a biology sophomore, and her friend, Claire⸺an exchange student from France.

She’s making eye contact with me in a way that usually means a girl is interested, but the last thing I want to do is ditch Cass when I’m only just reconnecting with him. So after a bit of small talk, and finding out Claire was a teen champion swimmer, we exchange numbers and that’s that.

“You sure you don’t wanna go hang out with them?” Cass asks in a hushed tone as we walk away.

I shove him a little and laugh. “Oh, come on! I moved today. I wanna chill. Girls can wait.”

“Someone’s afraid of cooties,” Cass says, leading me down the street, toward the colorful sign reading Rainbowology Cafe.

I laugh louder. “Those days are over. You on the other hand… Maybe that’s what being gay is. You can sense the cooties.” I shake my head at the idiocy of this conversation, already curious about the place where my friend loves to hang out.

The warm light inside is inviting and I can’t wait to eat something and treat Cass as well.

As we enter, classic rock worms its way into my ears. The music is discreet, just loud enough to turn people’s conversations into nondescript noise. I can see two rooms filled with tables and wooden chairs in different colors, but despite its size, the interior feels cozy and inviting. As Cass promised, young people occupy most of the seats, some chatting over food, others studying, reading, or working on their computers. I do notice a rainbow flag on the door, but the cafe itself doesn’t look all that different from the one I used to frequent during my previous two years of college.

I smell cooked tomatoes, and my mouth waters at the sight of a bowl of eggs in red sauce on someone’s plate. It reminds me of the hunger that’s been twisting my stomach for the past thirty minutes.

It seems everyone knows Cass around here, because he even gets a wave from a blond guy in his thirties, as well as a nod from a waiter carrying a whole tray of coffee cups.

I stop and stare a little too long because while the older guy behind the counter is nothing out of the ordinary, the waiter is like a glittery, pastel sparkle, whizzing through the place on old-school roller skates. I doubt I would have been able to safely carry this many beverages while walking, and he makes the task seem effortless on wheels. At one point, a half-eaten cake slides off the plate he’s carrying, yet he manages to catch it on the one in his other hand as if he were a juggler. His baby blue hair is pinned down with a number of colorful pins, and he smiles at us on the way back with an empty tray.

“Hey, Cass, grab that table by the window,” he says and his voice is so sweet I can’t place his age for the life of me. He could be both seventeen and twenty-five. “You’re staring, cutie,” he adds and winks at me.

“Oh, God. So sorry!” I say. “You’re just, like… wow.”

Cass opens his mouth, but the waiter shushes him and offers me his long-fingered hand, as if he’s the queen expecting a kiss from her subject. While his nails are short, they’re painted with a glittery polish. “Kai. And if you’re nice, I might consider giving you my number,” he says and blows a stray hair out of his face.

Cass laughs. “You’re barking at the wrong tree.”

I smile nervously and kiss his hand, not knowing what else to do. “Yeah, I’m Matt, but I play for the other team.”

Kai laughs and pulls his hand away. “Oh, my God! I’m just messing with you. Here’s a menu, and I’ll be with you in a sec.”

With that, he zooms away.

“Did I mess up?” I whisper to Cass, who shakes his head.