Ren

THE RESTAURANT WAS packed like usual, but as always Maddy and I managed to score a booth near the back. We sat next to each other, both on the same side of the booth, so we could watch the game on one of the big TVs mounted in the corner.

He was right about football being pretty simple to follow, once you understood the rules and everything. I’d watched a bunch of games with him since that first one where he’d taught me about it. But I still kept a little cheat sheet I’d typed out on my phone for when I got confused. When he caught me glancing at it, he shook his head, smirking.

“You are such a nerd.”

I grinned, placing it face down on the table. “Just trying to make sure I understand everything!”

“You could just ask me.”

“Maybe I want to be the student that surpasses the master,” I retorted, popping a salty fry drenched in ketchup into my mouth.

He scoffed, rolling those blue eyes I loved staring into lately. “Good luck with that. Nerd.”

I just laughed. I was pretty sure I smiled and laughed more with him than any other time in my life I could remember. Being with Maddy just felt so natural and easy. Everything felt perfect. Well, almost everything.

It seemed he was echoing my thoughts on the one little issue with our… whatever we were in, as he stared at me with that look on his face. I knew that look perfectly now. It meant he wanted my tongue in his mouth, and possibly some other more interesting places. But the place was packed, and a lot of the people here were students I recognized from the school. It was loud enough that we could quietly flirt back and forth and no one could hear us, but there was no way we could kiss or anything like that.

It kind of made me want to live in his bedroom with him, where we could do whatever we wanted without anyone seeing, but at the same time I didn’t want to be a hermit. Mostly. Maybe sometimes. But I really, truly didn’t blame him or resent him for it. I couldn’t bring myself to ask, but my instincts told me that if it wasn’t for all the issues it would bring with the swim team, he wouldn’t have been totally opposed to being public with me. At least, I was pretty sure. I didn’t want to think about it too much.

As we chatted back and forth about the game and how our classes that day had gone, a family at a booth across the floor from us got up and left. I wouldn’t have noticed, except that their space was immediately claimed by a group of guys that I recognized at least a couple of. Three of them were the guys from the swim team that had talked to us in the library before, and then another two I didn’t recognize. They were already being louder than everyone else. When I glanced over at Maddy, he was watching them too, with his eyes narrowed.

“Jackasses,” he muttered. It was clear that he really, really didn’t like them. I didn’t blame him. From everything I knew about them, they were just complete nuisances, holding views that I could politely call problematic. If I wasn’t feeling so polite, I’d say they were straight up bigots. It was no wonder Maddy didn’t want to deal with their judgment of him.

My faced-down phone lit up with a notification, the light reflecting off the polished wood of the table. I picked it up to see a new text from someone I hadn’t spoken to in awhile. The sight of Gwen’s name on the screen made my stomach clench with anxiety.

Your mom told me you were asking about me. You know if you miss me, you can just text me. You don’t have to be such a dork about it.

I hadn’t asked about her. In fact, I’d specifically discouraged my mom from telling me anything they’d talked about when they’d apparently met at the grocery store. I knew my mom had probably relayed this lie to her in hopes that we would reconnect, but it still hurt.

I didn’t ask her about you.

I sent the message, then immediately felt guilty for being so short. When I glanced back up, I noticed there was a girl who’d been trying to walk by the table of the swim team guys, that they’d intercepted. She looked uncomfortable, like she wanted to leave, but one of them had reached out to hold her wrist. They were all razzing and teasing her flirtatiously.

I immediately thought of the conversation I’d had with Kelani about how a lot of the girls would warn each other about staying away from the guys on the swim team. Was harassing girls like that something they did often? I wanted to stand up and tell them to leave her alone, but I didn’t want to cause issues for Maddy. Relief washed over me when another girl walked over and tugged her friend away. I couldn’t hear anything she was saying to the guys, but her body language wasn’t very positive.

The next text from Gwen came through. Suuure you didn’t. Are you already that lonely in college? You are kind of bad at making friends on your own, so I’m not surprised.

My anxiety sharpened as I considered her words. She was basically right about that. I’d gotten lucky having Aspen as a roommate, since he’d been willing to introduce me to his friends. Without him, would I be stuck in my dorm room alone? My fingers clenched a little on the side of my phone as I moved to answer her.

“Hey.” Maddy’s voice was sharp, pulling my attention up to his face. He grabbed my phone out of my hand, tucking it into his jacket pocket and out of my sight. “She’s a stupid bitch. Just ignore her.”

“Maddy.” A shocked laugh burst out at his crude descriptor. “Come on.”

“I’m serious,” he said flatly. “Ignore her. It’ll drive her crazy if she thinks she isn’t bothering you. And you know she’s full of shit, anyway.”

“Well… Technically, I haven’t really made any friends on my own, so-”

“What about me?” He interrupted. “Aren’t we friends?”

“Are we friends, Maddy?”

He smirked, raising an eyebrow. “Of course, bestie. What did you think?”

“Now you sound like Arie.”

He laughed. “That’s probably the first and only time anyone will ever say that to me.”

“Are you going to give me my phone back?”

“No. If I promise to make you forget about your phone, do you want to get out of here?”

“Mm…” I pretended to need to think about it, until he scoffed, playfully shoving at my shoulder in mock offense. “I’m kidding. Let’s go.”

We went the long way around the restaurant to avoid the swim team, paying our tab so we could rush back to his house.

Later, after my soul had been sucked out through my crotch, I lounged on Maddy’s bed with him. He’d set his laptop up on his computer chair, streaming the game so we could finish it.

“So did you forget about your phone?” He wondered.

“What phone?” I answered, grinning when he laughed. I really, really liked his laugh.

When he pulled me to him, locking our lips together so he could tease me with the tip of his tongue, I slid my hand up his side, resting it in the indent of his waist. His skin was always so warm and smooth.

“Aren’t you going to miss important plays or something?” I asked, growling appreciatively in my throat when he nipped at my bottom lip.

“Don’t worry. I’m a very, very good listener.”

Well, I couldn’t argue with the logic. And if he kept this up, he was going to get us both horny all over again. Not that I wasn’t completely fine with that. His fingers tensed on my jaw, stroking my skin as we made out. After a few minutes of that, my mind was on another planet and my dick was stiff and ready to go for round two of whatever Maddy wanted.

When his phone rang, I almost didn’t recognize the sound. He groaned lightly, panting a little as pulled his delicious mouth away from mine.

“Shit, it’s my dad,” he said, fumbling a little as he tried to pick it up off his nightstand.

“Do you have to answer it?”

“He’ll call a billion more times if I don’t,” he said, rolling his eyes with obvious annoyance. “Just… Hold that thought,” he said, stroking his hand down the front of my boxer briefs in one quick motion.

“Holding,” I responded obediently.

“Hey, Dad.” I didn’t want to eavesdrop on his conversation, so I turned my attention back to the game on the screen, but in such close quarters it was kind of impossible to tune him out. “Yeah, it went fine. I placed second for freestyle… Yeah. It’s fine. Whatever.”

I assumed that part was him telling his dad it was fine that he hadn’t shown up for his swim meet, which I personally thought was kind of lame. We hadn’t been talking at the time, and I hadn’t had a way to get there anyway, since it had taken place a few hours away, but there was no way I was missing the next one.

“ This weekend?” He asked after a stretch of silence. “Dad, it’s Thursday night. Have you considered that I have a life and might have plans?”

He might have had plans, but I was fairly sure those plans probably just consisted of studying and hanging out with me.

He sighed, and I could tell he was irritated. “Are the twins coming? … I’m going to be bored out of my mind the whole night.” He paused, tilting his head as if he was considering what his dad was saying. “Bring a friend?”

I sat up at those words, putting my face directly in his line of sight, wiggling my eyebrows at him. He snorted out a laugh, pushing my face away from him.

“Uh, yeah, fine. I’ll bring somebody… Uh-huh.”

From that point, the conversation consisted of the logistics of where he would pick us up from. I patiently waited for the conversation to end. When it was over and he’d hung up the phone, he took a deep breath.

“Alright, so my dad is having a party or some shit on Saturday and he says I absolutely need to be there, for whatever reason.”

“Are your brother and sister going?” I wondered. I hadn’t been able to deduce what the answer had been when he asked.

“Nah. When I asked, my dad said that I’m an adult now so there are certain things he wants me involved in. I have no clue what he’s talking about,” Maddy answered, honestly sounding perplexed. “Anyway, he said I could bring a friend. We’d take a bus over, he’ll pick us up from the bus stop, we’ll stay over Saturday night and then head back here on the bus on Sunday evening.”

“Oh,” I said, injecting a note of surprise into my voice. “Am I the friend you’re going to bring?”

Snorting, he gave me a dry look. “Shut up. You know you want to come with me.”

“Of course, bestie ,” I said, imitating him from earlier.

He laughed, reaching out to twine his arm around my neck, pulling our bodies together again. “Did you hold that thought, like I asked?”

“I held it very securely,” I answered. “It didn’t have a chance of escaping.”

Grinning, he shook his head at me. “You’re such a dweeb.”

I might have been a dweeb, but I was a dweeb making out with a smoking hot, half-naked guy. In his bed. After we’d already gotten each other off. Which was a hell of a lot better than most people were doing, even the socially competent, cool ones.

So all in all, I didn’t really mind being an awkward dweeb anymore.