Caelyx
“AREN’T YOU AFRAID of getting rabies?” I wondered, watching the plump seagull devour the little pre-cut chunks of salmon Che had prepared and carried out in a little plastic bag.
Che gave me a strange look, tilting his head. “From Eugene?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, what if he accidentally bites you when he takes the food out of your hand?”
“Only mammals can contract or transmit rabies,” he informed me softly, while suppressing a grin, probably at my ignorance. Well, he was the wildlife biology major, so I guess he’d know.
Eugene the seagull eyed me with disdain before letting out a single, indignant squawk, like I’d offended him with my assumption.
It was a cold, gray and dreary day, with dark clouds that threatened to pour down freezing rain any moment, so the central quad on BBU’s campus was mostly empty.
Che and I sat on one side of the table, while Arie painted Kelani’s long nails on the other.
She was Cyprian’s twin sister, and in the same cosmetology program as Arie.
From what I understood, the major was business management related, but there was a concentration in esthetic, hair, and makeup courses, too.
I hadn’t had many conversations with her, but I knew she was friends with Aspen.
Once the salmon chunks were devoured, Che pulled the lid off a plastic cup he’d filled with gross, dried worms. Twisting the cap off a water bottle, he poured it in to make a vile sort of soup for the bird, who began chomping at it with voracious greed.
“Where does he put it all?” I wondered, with a bit of awe.
“High metabolism and specialized digestive systems,” Che responded, reaching out and stroking a finger over the seagull’s white chest while it devoured mouthful after mouthful of dried worms. I remembered the year before, he would barely speak a word to me, even if I asked him a direct question, so I took it as a good sign that he seemed a little more comfortable in my presence.
“Plus, they don’t have a gag reflex, so they can swallow food whole and digest it later. ”
“No gag reflex?” Arie echoed as he painted another layer of deep burgundy onto Kelani’s nails. “Sounds like you, Che.” Kelani rolled her eyes and shook her head at his comment.
“Arie, stop,” Che responded in a cute whine. Even through the russet tones of his skin, his rosy blush was evident.
“Keep your freaky comments to yourself,” Kelani agreed.
“Did you guys ever end up looking into that porn idea?” I asked, and Arie scoffed, while Che lightly groaned, pointedly keeping his eyes on the bird and not on me.
“I don’t think Mr. Doom and Gloom is going to be very happy about you asking that,” Arie said in a sing-song voice.
“What, you mean Aspen?”
“He seems like he’d be the secretly jealous type,” he confirmed.
He had a point on that one. The way Aspen had pouted about that girl I’d gone to a party with was so adorable I’d wanted to squeeze him and kiss him all over, reassuring him a million times that I had absolutely zero interest in anyone but him.
Unfortunately, a stunt like that wouldn’t do anything but piss him off. We’d get there eventually.
Smirking a bit, I shrugged. “Maybe. How’d you even know about that, anyway?”
“Everyone could tell he had something going on,” Kelani cut in, looking slightly amused. “He’s been so… Soft lately.”
I wondered how shocked everyone would be if they knew how soft he’d gotten with me the other night, cuddling into my chest and literally falling asleep on me like an exhausted kitten. But that was something I was pretty sure would stay between us forever.
“I know you guys were fucking last night,” Arie added. “It’s obvious. But I knew before anyone, in case you don’t remember.”
I knew what he meant by that, the fact that he’d repeatedly brought up what he’d considered to be obvious sexual tension between us, long before Aspen had ever actually started warming up to me.
I wasn’t sure if there was any truth to what he’d said.
I was fairly positive Aspen hadn’t been secretly pining for me the whole time I’d been not-so-secretly pining for him.
But I liked Arie, so I’d let him have this small victory, whether it was exactly true or not.
“I remember.” Shifting my butt on the bench, I propped my elbow up on the picnic table and set my chin on it.
“Are you guys doing anything for winter break?” I asked, mostly because I wanted to change the subject away from Aspen.
I was pretty sure I’d done enough damage inadvertently spreading the news that we’d been hooking up, and I wasn’t sure how much he’d appreciate it.
He hadn’t expressly forbidden me from saying anything, but…
I knew how much he hated for everyone to know his business.
“Just family stuff,” Kelani responded, blowing gently on her nails to help the polish dry. “Cyprian cooks for, like, all the parties and I always end up helping him, so we keep busy. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a vacation.”
Cyprian was getting his degree in hospitality management, because he wanted to own a restaurant.
He was an incredible cook, and spent a lot of his free time trying out new recipes and watching cooking shows and videos online.
Lucky for me, he was always happy to let me partake in the testing of his culinary creations, or else I might have starved.
I’d never needed to know how to cook. I’d always had kitchen staff available to me at home, and the meals at my elite prep school had definitely not warranted any complaints.
I couldn’t imagine laboring over a stove during a holiday.
Then again, I might have been willing to sweat a little just to avoid spending another Christmas alone again.
There was no avoiding it, and I’d never expressed to anyone how miserable I’d been the year before by myself, but truthfully I was dreading the repeat.
“What about you guys?” I asked, directing my question to Che and Arie.
“Oh, you know,” Arie started with a little gesture. “Just Hanukkah. I’ll come back to school ten pounds heavier, as always.” At my confused look, he went on. “My mom’s a menace with the fryer that time of year.”
“Oh. Is that, like, a thing?” I wondered. I didn’t know much about it.
“It’s a thing,” he confirmed, flipping his pink bangs. “Celebrating the oil in the temple lasting and all that.”
“Right. You do all that stuff, too?” I asked, turning to Che.
“Of course,” he replied, watching Eugene as he finished up the last bit of snacks in the cup. “I love Hanukkah. We don’t really gain ten pounds, though,” he added, giving Arie a wry but amused look.
Che lived with Arie’s family, which had seemed crazy to me at first, but I’d later learned, partially from the conversation with Aspen I’d overheard, that Che’s family was terrible and he’d basically needed somewhere to escape to.
I knew that Che and Arie had been together for years, even before starting high school, so I supposed Arie’s family had just…
Welcomed him in. It was a nice thought, though I probably wouldn’t ask either of them for details about it.
Again, like when I watched Ren and Maddox for a little too long, I felt a brief pang of envy for the idea of having someone next to you that would always be on your side, no matter what.
It was quiet for a few minutes. Che said goodbye to Eugene by giving him a little finger pat on the head, before the bird let out a few howling farewell squawks and flapped off.
“You guys like going home for break?” I asked.
“Mostly,” Arie confirmed. “It feels weird sometimes, though. We have to kind of shift back into PG mode when we’re at home.”
“Oh, you mean you can’t dry hump on the dance floor for a certain-” I stopped, suddenly realizing Kelani was at the table and she probably didn’t want to hear about her brother drooling over the two of them grinding on each other.
To support my statement, Arie’s eyes widened before briefly darting over to Kelani meaningfully, which she thankfully didn’t seem to notice. When they snapped back to me, they narrowed. Che was suddenly very preoccupied on his phone, though that rosy blush was glowing on his skin again.
“For what?” She asked, tilting her head, looking genuinely confused by the way I’d halted my sentence.
“For, um, just… Guys. General sluttery,” I finished, trying not to clear my throat from the awkwardness. “You were there,” I added. “You saw them, right?”
“Yeah I saw,” she confirmed, though the puzzled look on her face let me know she hadn’t seen what I’d seen.
“Hey!” Arie said suddenly, pointing and directing our attention to a nearby table in the quad. Only one guy was sitting at it, poring over a textbook, paying us no attention whatsoever. “Isaak! Hey, Isaak!”
When Arie called his name, the guy looked up, blinking in surprise before raising his hand and giving a hesitant wave.
“Come over here!” Arie urged him loudly. “That’s Isaak. He’s a TA,” he informed us. “We met him at that GSA party.”
“Oh, yeah,” Kelani noted. “I saw him there, too.”
It was a pretty good distraction ploy, I had to admit, glad I hadn’t accidentally made things awkward between Kelani and the two of them.
When Isaak got to our table, I squinted a little, tilting my head.
He was thin and sort of frail-looking, with big brown eyes and sandy hair.
There was nothing particularly noteworthy about his appearance, other than the thick-framed glasses and argyle sweater vest, but his appearance was sparking something in my brain.
“Hey, do I… Know you?” I asked, and he blinked a couple of times, staring at me shyly.
“I… I don’t think so,” he finally said. “I don’t recognize you. Maybe just from around campus?” He suggested.
“Maybe,” I agreed, but I wasn’t convinced. “Well, anyway, I’m Caelyx.”