Page 15 of Bolivar

I only had a thin sheet on, since I'd turned up the temp in Bolivar's house to a comfortable level for myself. He'd always kept the house a bit cooler, but since it was just me I chose how warm I wanted to be. There was snow outside, or more of it, anyway. I fell asleep watching the snow falling outside on the back deck.

My bed dipped, instantly jostling me awake. I sat up quickly, but someone put an arm around my stomach, stopping me cold.

"Go back to sleep," Bolivar mumbled.

"What are you doing back?" I snapped at him. Never mind what he was doing in my bed?

"This is my house," he snapped back at me.

I reached for the light, but he moved his hand from my stomach to my wrist, halting my movements completely. "Don't turn on the light."

"Are you hurt? What's going on?"

He laughed, and the sound was much higher pitched than anything I'd heard him make before. "I'm fine. I'm just…young is all. I guess. I missed you. Can we get some more sleep? It's only just after four."

"Sure." I lay back down, feeling weird as he curled up behind me. But it was nice in a way too to have Bolivar there against my back. He wasn't under the sheet with me, so maybe he knew that I was naked. Or maybe he just didn't care.

"I'm dating a guy, so don't get any ideas," I told him. I was mostly joking anyway.

"I look like I'm in high school, so I doubt it matters." Hesounded annoyed about it too.

I snorted and reached for the light again, but just as before he stopped me. "C'mon, it can't be that bad."

"I have zits," he grumbled, pulling closer to me. "What's your boyfriend's name?"

"Jeffrey." For some reason that made him laugh.

"What?"

"Jack, now Jeffrey? There are dozens of other letters in the alphabet to date from. What's next? Jim. Then James?"

I elbowed him in the ribs to get him to shut up. "Hey, he's a nice guy. Lay off." But maybe it was weird all the same that I kept going for guys that had nearly the same names.

"Do you love him?"

My answer was easy and I was glad that I could be honest about it. "No. But he is a nice guy and I do have fun with him." I sighed then. If he wasn't willing to come out I wasn't sure how much more fun we would actually be able to have.

"What's wrong?"

"Would you ever date a guy who wasn't out?"

Bolivar let go of me to be able to sit up in bed. I sat up next to him, pulling the sheet around my waist. Even though the room was dark I didn't want him to see me naked. "As a dragon, I've never had to worry about that. It seems to be an entirely human issue."

I was afraid of that.

"But, if it was me, and this is just me, I like being able to go out with the people I care about. So no, I would not date someone who I could not be open with, and who could not be open with me. But that's me, and not you. Is he out with you on campus?"

I nodded. "Yeah. He is. And that's something. Right? I guess I'm just confused and a bit hurt since we hold hands all the time when we're going around to our classes. And we kissin front of people too. But then, out of nowhere, he calls me his friend when we're in front of his parents." I sighed deeply and wished dating was a whole lot less complicated.

"Most of your life is on campus, though, so stay with him and enjoy what you have while you're there. Maybe he’ll come out on his own at some point, and maybe he won't. You can't force someone to come out and you can't pressure them to, either. Do you see yourself staying with him for a long time?"

I got what Bolivar was saying, and I knew where he was going with his question, too. "I don't. I can't picture us being together for even a year honestly. And I feel terrible about that. But he just doesn't give me that craziness that I've been looking for. So maybe just being together on campus will be fine, since I'm not in this for the long haul anyway."

"Or you could cut him loose and stop wasting his time when you're just looking to have fun."

Bolivar sounded pissed, and when he rolled away from me I knew that he was for sure.

"What's wrong?" I demanded. He didn't get to be mad at me for having a social life, or for dating who I wanted to, or how I wanted to.

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