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He held his breath for a second, waiting until Caleb turned.Do-do?
Caleb’s lips twitched in a smile like the answer should be obvious. “You need to sleep off whatever you had at the bar. You seem pretty drunk.”
Bodhi’s face burned. “It wasn’t a lot. Just two of something my brother ordered. But I never drink.”
“Neither do I,” Caleb said, then gestured at the bed. “Get in.”
Bodhi held firm near the bathroom door. “You have a guest room.”
Caleb pulled a face and Bodhi couldn’t quite read it, but he knew it wasn’t a happy expression. “You’re not sleeping in there.”
Bodhi took a couple steps closer. “I don’t mind. I sleep in a dorm.”
Caleb laughed, his lips parted slightly, shoulder shaking. “I get that. But…” His fingers hovered in the air for a long beat of silence. “Cameron slept in there a lot. I don’t want you in there.”
Bodhi wanted to argue. His grandmother would have lost her absolute mind if she knew Bodhi hadn’t resisted harder against taking another man’s bed, but he was so tired. And overwhelmed. And his body felt completely drained from holding back a meltdown.
When Caleb motioned him over, Bodhi lost the fight. His feet shuffled across the carpet, and he let out a soft sigh when Caleb took his elbow and eased him gently down to the edge of the bed. He was offered the water first, which he sipped to be polite, then the croissant which he declined with a firm shake of his head.
“You need something in your stomach,” Caleb insisted.
Bodhi felt green. “I’ll throw up again and I really don’t want to. Please.”
Caleb held his gaze for a long while, then set the plate back on the nightstand, then sat down next to him and brushed fingers over his cheek. “You’re clammy,” Caleb told him.
Bodhi’s brain took a second to process the fingerspelling, but when he did, he laughed. “Yeah. Sick.”
Caleb nodded and gestured for him to drink more, so he did. When his stomach started protesting, he handed the glass back and twisted his fingers between his parted legs until the urge to stim calmed down.
“Do you think you can sleep?” Caleb asked.
Bodhi shrugged. Normally the answer would be no. He’d gone through hellish weeks of insomnia after moving into his dorm. It wasn’t until he found the perfect weighted blanket, and the perfectly shaped pillow, and got used to all the new smells that he was finally able to rest.
But he’d also never been through a night like this before. Letting go would be tricky, but he also felt like he could sleep for a week.
“Do you have class tomorrow?”
“At two.” Bodhi’s answer was very nearly interrupted by a yawn that took over his whole body. His spine arched, his jaw popped, his arms stretched out. It felt good until he realized what a spectacle he’d made, and his face went white hot until he glanced over to see Caleb smiling softly and maybe even a little sweetly. “Sorry.”
Caleb rolled his eyes and shook his head, gesturing for Bodhi to climb under the covers which he’d turned down. “We need to figure out how to get you to stop apologizing constantly.”
Biting his lip, Bodhi hesitated before he slipped his feet between the sheets. He braced himself for the horrible, scratchy feeling against the bottoms of his feet—something he hated almost as much as light touches. But Caleb’s sheets were perfect. He had no idea what kind of fabric they were, but the sensations against his skin felt so good, he had to physically keep himself from squirming.
“You okay?” Caleb asked.
Bodhi realized how he must have looked, trying to hold back. “Yes. Sor—”
His sign was aborted by Caleb grabbing his wrist and squeezing down until Bodhi’s arm relaxed. “Don’t.”
Bodhi grinned.
“Don’t,” Caleb warned again, squeezing once more for good measure.
Bodhi put his free hand up in surrender. “Okay. Okay.”
Caleb cautiously removed his grip and shifted over slightly, but he made no move to actually get up off the bed, and Bodhi wanted to tug him beneath the sheets so he could be held. It was a random and almost terrifying thought because the only person he’d ever let close to him like that was his brother, and they hadn’t done that in years.
His grandparents had moved Ravi into a new room on the night of their sixth birthday and every time they snuck into each other’s beds, they were punished for it. Bodhi always got it worse because it was a surefire way to get Ravi to comply, so Bodhi just accepted he wasn’t allowed to have certain types of comfort.
