Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
LANCE
The sudden rush of people walking this hallway felt like it was sent by the universe to punish me for knocking on the wrong door this morning.
By the time I finally pushed past the people and exited the student center, Kevin was nowhere in sight.
I let out a frustrated sound that had nearby passersby shooting me a strange look, but I didn’t have the mind to spare for them right now.
I’d already fucked up by serenading Kevin this morning with a song meant for another man, and now I’d made things worst somehow.
It was na?ve of me to think I could just blurt out that I liked him and everything would be all right. Of course, he didn’t believe me when my confession was so insincere.
A part of me wanted to storm to his dorm room with a bouquet of roses and camp outside his door until he realized just how serious I was about this; just how serious I was about him if he’d have me.
But I knew any more rash decisions wouldn’t win me any favors, so I trudged my way back to the dorm. I needed to gather my thoughts and reassess the situation.
I hated how Kevin thought my confessing that I liked him was done out of sympathy, but I hated knowing he was hurting even more. Even worse was that I was the one who caused it.
I had to fix this in any way possible, but how would I even do it so that he took me seriously? I didn’t want him to think any attempt was because I was feeling sorry for him or something. That would be disastrous.
The house was filled with people when I returned. Last night’s partygoers seemed to have finally emerged from their beds and were now hanging out around the house. I was surprised to find Bernie slumped on the couch between Stuart and Collin.
He looked like shit, with dark circles taking up half his face. He practically melted into the couch as Stuart and Collin talked to each other over him.
Collin nudged Bernie, who peeked an eye open to give him a soulless look. “Where’s your twin?” he asked.
They earned the nickname ‘ twins ’ since they were always together, and Kevin and Bernie were similar in height and size. They both had black hair and brown eyes, but while Bernie’s were a darker brown, Kevin’s were a light caramel color that I could get lost in. And, of course, there was the whole Bernie being Chinese, and Kevin not.
I had thought the nickname was weird before, but it made so much more sense now that I knew they weren’t dating.
Collin shot a quick glance at me, and the mischievous look in his eye told me Stuart had mentioned this morning’s incident.
My heart pounded harder, but I tried to keep a straight face as I glared at him. He wasn’t fazed as he turned his focus on Bernie.
“Called him before I got here. He’s hungover and wants to be left alone.” Bernie leaned his head on the back of the couch, but a second later, he popped his head back up. “Though when I called him like two hours ago, he told me he was meeting up with someone. I wonder what happened with that?”
Both Stuart and Collin slowly turned to stare at me. Bernie glanced between the two of them, then followed their gaze to land on me as well.
I loved my bros, I really did, but there were moments when the urge to throttle them consumed me.
If I thought those little old grannies loved to gossip and meddle, it was nothing compared to a group of bored, hormonal college boys.
“Why are we all staring at Lance?” Bernie asked, looking genuinely confused, and that made the guilt inside me well up even more.
Everything that happened today was because of bad luck and enough coincidences and misunderstandings to film an entire season of Hallmark movies, so I couldn’t be entirely blamed for this…and yet, I still felt like Kevin’s hurt was something I needed to fix.
I never claimed to be the smartest kid on the block. This definitely wasn’t a problem I could fix on my own, and Collin and Stuart seemed keen on butting their heads into my business anyway, so I enlisted their help.
I retold the story of this morning’s incident to Bernie. He started out with his brow furrowed, confusion clearly written on his face. When I got to the part of me blurting to Kevin that I liked him and him completely not believing me, Bernie’s face twisted, and I thought he was going to be furious at me. I was sure he was weirded out that one of his bros was crushing on his best friend.
To my surprise, Bernie laughed. He laughed so hard that his head tilted up toward the ceiling.
I frowned. Collin and Stuart were wearing amused smiles as they watched Bernie. I didn’t miss the way Collin’s eyes kept flicking over to Stuart and… was he checking him out?
Collin and Stuart were close, but that was mostly due to them being siblings. Not real siblings. They weren’t blood-related or anything, but our fraternity had a system where all older members took new initiates under their wing.
The Big/little relationship was a mentorship of sorts, but our fraternity took this family sorting very seriously. It wasn’t against our bylaws, but it was very frowned upon to date someone within your own frat family lineage.
Stuart was Collin’s Big, so I hoped I was only imagining it, because if Collin really did have a crush on his Big, then things were about to get a lot more messy around here.
“Are you two grade-schoolers? I can’t believe I’ve had to watch this song and dance game you two have been playing for what feels like forever , and you still haven’t fucked yet.”
Bernie’s voice had me focusing straight on him again.
“What are you?—”
Bernie snorted.
“You two are so dense. Everyone in this house can see you both have the hots for each other. It’s so freaking obvious that even I’m getting blue balls from how agonizingly slow you’re moving. Why do you think I bring him around all the time? I’ve been waiting for one of you to grow some balls and finally ask the other out, but I guess I was expecting too much.”
He gave me a look of borderline disgust. The other two looked like they were holding back laughter.
I balked at them.
“You guys knew I liked Kevin?”
They all nodded in sync like it was an obvious answer.
“And you’re saying Kevin likes me, too?”
They nodded again. I kinda already knew from the way Kevin acted this morning, but hearing it from someone else had the little flutters in my stomach starting again.
I groaned and rubbed my hand over my face. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I’ve been keeping my distance because I thought you two were dating this entire time,” I said and glared at Bernie.
He stood, walked to my side, and flicked my forehead.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?” I muttered and jerked back. I rubbed the spot he’d flicked to ease the dull pain.
“For being such a clueless idiot. I was baffled when you asked if Kevin and I were dating last week, but I thought you’d finally get your shit together and ask him out after realizing he was single. And now I find out you delivered some other dude’s romantic gesture to him? Honestly, I’m not even sure I want to give my best friend to you now. He deserves someone who’ll fight for him.”
He turned to leave, but I gripped his arm to stop him.
“Everything you said is right. I know I’m an idiot and I messed up, but I want to make things right. I really like Kevin. I will fight for him to give me a chance, and I’ll treat him right. You tried to get us together before, so will you help me one more time?” I pleaded, giving him my best puppy-dog eyes.
Bernie let out a long, drawn-out sigh, but agreed in the end.
“Fine, but if you fuck up again or hurt him, so help me god,” he warned with a finger pointed in my face.
“I won’t,” I promised, and I meant it. Because if I hadn’t royally fucked too much for Kevin to give me another chance, I’d prove to him he was all I wanted.
Bernie held my gaze for a minute, then nodded. I let out a breath of relief.
Collin and Stuart got up from the couch and walked toward us. They each patted one of my shoulders.
“We’ll help too,” Stuart said, a little too loudly and purposefully.
And…
“Help with what?”
Right on cue.
Another one of my bros popped his head into the living room to see what was happening. More of my brothers came from the dining room to check what was going on.
I sighed. Now that the pack had been summoned, there was no way they would leave without getting every singlesordid detail about what was happening.
Bored frat boys really were the worst gossips. But my brothers also had hearts of gold, and I knew they would be willing to give it their all to help me.
If I wanted to pull off the ultimate romantic gesture that would make Kevin take me seriously, then I needed all the help I could get.