Page 2 of They Were Roommates

Frankie frowned at him. Diego was usually aloof, but never evasive or mean. This was verging on both, and it pinged some alarm bells in Frankie’s head.

Frankie was a rather tactile person, so he didn’t think twice about reaching out and laying his hand on Diego’s arm. Diego visibly flinched back from the touch, and when Frankie didn’t let go, Diego glowered. At least the expression wiped the sad, haggard look from his eyes.

“Hey man… are you okay?” Frankie asked. “You look really worn out and you’re right, I’m not prepared for this conversation. Honestly, I was sort of worrying about you for the past twenty minutes and totally spaced.”

An unreadable expression passed over Diego’s face, but it was there and gone before Frankie could decipher it.

“I’m just… stressed. I may have to miss several classes in the next month, and finding accommodations has been harder than I was expecting.”

Frankie’s eyes widened. “The college isn’t going to accommodate you? Is it… like… a family thing?”

Diego’s eyes narrowed and his hand clenched around his pen.

Frankie tried again. “Or… like… a medical thing?” The flash in Diego’s eyes made Frankie think he had hit the nail on the head.

“It’s a private thing, Franklin. Thank you for asking,” Diego said with his teeth clenched.

Frankie sighed dramatically and leaned back in his chair, refusing to let go of Diego’s arm. It was banded with a surprising amount of muscle, which made Frankie rethink his original assessment of Diego’s body type. Was he all muscle under his neatly pressed button downs and chinos?

“Okay, I got you, no worries. Are they accommodating for this class at least?” Frankie said. What hedidn’tsay was, “‘because I’ve noticed you seem to really like it, and for some reason, I have the urge to offer to help in any way I can.” Because that would be lame.

“No, actually, this is one of the most problematic classes. Three of my other five classes have a volunteer scribe already signed up with the university, so I’m going to be able to get notes from them without a problem. My fourth class is missing a scribe and has a lab that doesn’t permit scribes, so I may be out of luck there. This class doesn’t have a scribe either.”

Frankie scrunched up his face. “A scribe? Can’t you just ask one of the other students to give you their notes?”

Diego leveled an unamused look at Frankie and then gazed out across the room. “I… don’t want to burden anyone. It means they can’t be late, and have to attend every single class, paying the utmost attention throughout.” Diego cast a cursory glance at Frankie who let out a disgruntled huff.

“Also,” Diego continued, unperturbed, “scribes get special accommodations and aren’t asked to participate in discussion if it would take away from their note taking. I believe they also get study materials to share with the student and extra credit if they help them study, so… it’s a bit more involved than just asking for notes.”

Frankie tightened his hand around Diego’s arm, making him flinch. “Well, if you’re done being a dick about me being late, I’m more than happy to take notes for you, or I can even apply to be a scribe or whatever.”

Diego blinked at him like he’d just offered him half of a moldy sandwich instead of a clear and easy solution to his problem. “Why would you do that?”

Frankie shrugged. “It sounds like you’re in a bit of a bind, and I’m happy to help. It might help me focus better anyways and encourage me to stop messing around between classes.”

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Diego used his other hand to pry off Frankie’s grip from his arm. “Yes, well… perhaps don’t say that to the student resources center when you apply to be a scribe.”

“So, you accept?” Frankie asked, pulling his hand back, only to place it on the armrest between them and lean into Diego’s space.

Diego sunk back against the other side of his chair. “Yes, I… I mean, I don’t really think I have much of a choice– oh my god, can you please get out of my personal space?”

Diego tried to bat at Frankie’s chest, which made Frankie laugh until a thought struck him, hard. He pulled back and gave Diego a skeptical look. Diego immediately went on the defensive, his shoulders curling up and his body shrinking in on itself.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“So…” Frankie began, not sure how to say this, “if I do this scribe thing, we’ll probably have to hang out, and talk about class and study and shit… right?”

Diego slowly nodded, still looking uncertain and a bit worried.

“And that means we’ll be spending time together outside of the classroom, which we’ve never done before.”

Diego’s head tilted to the side in question, and he squinted at Frankie. “And… that’s a problem?”

“I mean… is it? Do you… I know you saw my lanyard that first day, and I’ve been none too subtle about flirting with pretty much any and all of our classmates. It’s not going to be a problem, right?”

Diego let out a short breath somewhere between a huff and a scoff. “That… you’re queer?”

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