3. Chapter 3
In order to be available on Saturday afternoon, Jake had to switch around his shifts at the country club.
He also thought it would be better if Ezra met him at his place—a townhouse he shared with two other guys—so they didn’t get any weird looks at the library. They’d also have the place to themselves since both Jake’s roommates worked all day on Saturdays.
Jake was picking up pizza boxes off the coffee table when Ezra knocked. When Jake let him inside, Ezra walked in like he thought he might get pummeled with water balloons.
“My roommates aren’t here,” Jake assured him. “And even if they were, they’re cool. Relax.”
Ezra relaxed a little.
Once they were seated at Jake’s poor excuse for a kitchen table, Ezra turned on his teacher self, which was far more confident than who he was flirting.
Jake was so amazed by the difference; he got distracted a few times.
Ezra like this was stern, but also easy-going, and he even made some jokes that were just as funny as his shirt today.
It had a drawing of a cluster of grapes laying in a bubble bath with Grapes of Bath written above it.
And Ezra was so articulate and knowledgeable that Jake was learning far more and a lot faster than he did in his actual class. It was really amazing how smart Ezra was, and Jake said so at the end of the hour.
“Smart doesn’t always get you places,” Ezra replied, closing some books.
“I just don’t understand why you can’t be like this while just pretending to flirt with somebody,” Jake said. “You seem so confident, and then you’re not.”
“It’s a curse, I guess.” Ezra sighed. He rubbed his fingers together. “So, there’s this LGBTQ club on campus, and they’re having a dance in a couple of weeks. It’s kind of like a Gay Prom, I guess, since a lot of us couldn’t go with who we wanted to in high school.”
“Really? Cool.” Jake smiled. “You going?”
Ezra chewed his bottom lip. Jake was starting to think that was a nervous habit. “I want to ask Sean to go with me.”
“Is he in the club?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t actually ever been to any of the meet-ups or events. I just saw a flyer.”
“So, you haven’t even talked to him yet, but you want to invite him to a dance?”
“I know.” Ezra stood up and paced while he talked. “I was thinking I could talk to him in choir and then ask him on a date. Then if it’s not a complete disaster, I’ll ask him to the dance.”
“Seems pretty ambitious,” Jake said. He watched Ezra pace around for a second. “Do you even know how to dance?”
Ezra shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked insulted. “It can’t be that hard. Just kind of swaying around, right?”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Right.” He went over to the stereo in the living room and began looking through all the CDs.
“What are you doing?” Ezra asked, coming over.
Jake found a mix he’d made and had embarrassingly labeled “Kool Tunez,” but he popped the CD into the player before Ezra could see. Jake turned up the volume on “Return of the Mack.”
He gestured to Ezra. “All right, let’s see it.”
Ezra’s face turned scarlet. “What?”
“Let’s see your moves,” Jake said, bobbing his head to the beat.
Ezra still had his hands in his pockets. He kept them there as he tilted from side to side, offbeat, like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.
“You’re too stiff.” Jake moved his shoulders and arms in a wave-like motion and stepped from side to side. “Move like this.”
Ezra took his hands from his pockets and attempted to imitate Jake. He… wasn’t very good.
“Still too stiff,” Jake said. “Loosen up.” He moved his shoulders around. “Like this.”
Ezra attempted the shoulder shimmy, but he was still moving like the Tin Man, so Jake went over to him and put his hands on Ezra’s shoulders to guide him. “Like this. Just move to the beat.”
Standing this close to Ezra made Jake notice that Ezra had green eyes.
Sparkling green eyes. Well, sparkling green eye when his hair fell over his face.
But Ezra’s eyes sort of went with the Sally Jessy glasses.
Red and green. Kind of like Ezra’s face was Christmas.
And his dimpled smile would be the lights.
And Jake noticed that Ezra’s shoulders weren’t as bony as he was expecting. He wondered if Ezra lifted weights.
“Am I doing it right?” Ezra asked.
Jake blinked. He took his hands from Ezra’s shoulders and a step back. “Uh, yeah. That’s better.”
And Ezra was dancing better now, swaying and bobbing to the beat of the song. Jake smiled. Ezra wasn’t half bad now that he had the hang of it.
The song ended and “Whatta Man” by Salt-N-Pepa started playing.
Jake felt his face redden. He forgot this song was on this CD.
And he definitely hadn’t jammed out to it all summer on his Walkman at the country club last year.
And he definitely, definitely hadn’t memorized the rap verses or anything.
And he absolutely did not sometimes sing them in the shower.
“Uh, I think I burned this CD for my sister last year,” Jake fibbed. “I guess she left it here when my fam came to visit.”
Ezra nodded, only looking slightly suspicious. He was still dancing, though. “Yeah. This isn’t really my kind of music, but it’s the kind people dance to, I guess.”
“What kind of music is your music?” Jake was genuinely curious.
“Besides choral music? I like heavy metal. I saw Pantera last year when they came to Warrenton.”
“No shit.” Jake grinned. He flipped through his CD case and pulled out Cowboys from Hell .
“Yup,” Ezra said. “That’s a great album.”
“Sure is. They were up this way last year? Damn. I had no idea.”
“The only reason I even knew was because I overheard somebody talking about it in one of my classes.”
“Did they play ‘I’m Broken’?”
“Hell yeah. Dimebag Darrell was on fire. It was amazing.”
“Awesome. Hey, did you see Metallica when they were up this way?”
“No.” Ezra looked surprised. “When were they here?”
“Last year. Incredible.”
Ezra grinned. “I’m sure they were. Definitely would love to see them.”
Jake hadn’t noticed that they were dancing and talking at the same time. He wasn’t sure if that was weird, but he stopped dancing anyway, and then Ezra did too.
Jake stopped the CD and took it out of the player. “Looks like you’ve got the whole dancing thing down.”
“Cool. Thanks.” Ezra stuck his hands in his pockets again.
There was silence between them as Jake put the CD back in the case. Technically, they were done for the day. Ezra helped him and he helped Ezra. That was the deal. But Jake kind of didn’t want Ezra to go just yet.
“Hey, are you hungry?” Jake asked.
Ezra shrugged. “A little bit. Why?”
“You want to go to AJ’s? Their pizzas are pretty good.”
“Fine with me.”
So they went, and Jake got to find out more things about Ezra that he didn’t know.
Like how Ezra was born in Spain because his dad was in the military.
And how Ezra once fell off his bike as a kid and sprained his wrist. And how Ezra’s favorite movie was also Jake’s favorite movie— Mallrats —because of Jay and Silent Bob.
Jake also started to figure out the reason Ezra wasn’t nervous and had an easier time talking to him is because Ezra didn’t like Jake the way Ezra liked Sean.
It was the crush thing then. Ezra wasn’t really all that socially awkward.
And Jake wondered if Sean would even like the things Ezra liked.
He didn’t know for sure, but he would guess not.
And it made Jake feel sort of funny that Ezra didn’t like him the way he liked Sean.
Not just because Sean wasn’t all that good-looking—when you take everything into consideration, of course, like his crooked nose and weird shaped ears—but because Sean hadn’t noticed Ezra too.
If Sean thought Ezra was attractive or if he wanted to get to know Ezra better, it would be Sean here right now rather than Jake.
But Jake didn’t want Sean to be here instead of him.
He was having fun hanging out with Ezra. So much that he completely lost track of the time, and when his beeper went off, he remembered he’d changed shifts and had to be at the country club.
Jake had to split, but before he did, he asked Ezra if he wanted to hang out the next day and Ezra said he did.
And Jake was glad to have something to look forward to.
Jake met Ezra at the student center on Sunday afternoon.
Ezra said he didn’t really play pool, so they played ping-pong.
Jake was sort of amazed that Ezra was really good at it and that they were just hanging out.
They talked about music mostly, and Jake liked it when he could make Ezra laugh.
He had such a nice smile. It was a shame he always came into the choir room with a scowl.
But maybe now he wouldn’t. Maybe now he’d be a little more friendly.
And Jake supposed he should consider Ezra a friend.
He was getting to know the guy a little better, which is something he thought he’d never do, and in the back of Jake’s mind, he thought it kind of sucked that Ezra wanted to change.
Especially to change for Sean Campbell, but Jake supposed it was none of his business.
Jake also liked Ezra’s shirts, and the fact that he made them himself was so cool. The one today said Running out of Thyme and had a sprig of thyme checking its watch. Jake asked Ezra if he could make a shirt for him.
“Seriously?” Ezra said, flipping the paddle in one hand and holding the ping-pong ball in the other hand. “Why?”
“I think they’re neat.” Jake hit the ball with the paddle after Ezra bounced it over. “I can pay you. However much it costs to make.”
“You don’t really need to pay me. I—” Ezra stopped short of hitting the ball and it bounced off the table as Ezra froze in place.
He was looking at something behind Jake, so Jake turned to look and saw Sean with a couple of other people, taking a seat at one of the sofas in the lounge.
Ezra looked like he wanted to duck under the table.
“Chill, Ezra,” Jake said. “He’s just a person like you and me.”
“Right.” Ezra nodded, looking around for the ping-pong ball, finding it, then picking it up.
“You want to go say hi to him?” Jake asked. “I can go with you, if you want.”
Ezra shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet.”
Jake shrugged. “All we’re doing is saying hi, and I’ll be right there beside you. We’ll go over, say hey to Sean, and that can be it. No biggie, right?”
“I don’t know…” Ezra said. He was standing all slumped over now, like he wanted to hide.
“Come on.” Jake nodded his head toward Sean. “We’ll just go over and say hey together. It’ll take like thirty seconds.”
Jake made his way over and Ezra reluctantly shuffled along behind him. Jake went over to Sean and said, “What’s up, Sean?”
Sean had been talking to someone, but he turned to Jake and gave him a tiny smile. “Hey, Fallon. What are you up to?”
“Not much. We were just hanging out. Playing some ping-pong.”
Sean raised a brow and glanced behind Jake. “We?”
Jake turned around to see… not Ezra. He looked around until he saw a pair of red-framed glasses peek out from behind a column.
Jake turned to Sean. “Ha-ha! Just kidding! Hang on a sec.” He went over and grabbed Ezra’s elbow. “Come on. It’s okay.”
Ezra shook his head, but Jake pulled Ezra over and then draped his arm around Ezra’s shoulders. “Sean, you know Ezra, right?”
Sean nodded and smiled. “Yeah.” He gave Ezra a wave. “Hi.”
Ezra was as stiff as a board and holding the ping-pong paddle like a bouquet. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “H-h-hey, Sean. Did you know that, uh, lizards... I mean, your nose. I like it. I mean, um, your shoes. I like your shoes. They make your lips look big.”
Sean drew his brows together. He brought his fingers up to his mouth.
“Oh, wow!” Jake interceded. “Would you look at the time!” He glanced down at his wrist where there was no watch. “We gotta get going. See ya later!” He grabbed Ezra, turned him around, and walked him back to the ping-pong tables.
Once they were out of sight, Ezra took a breath and leaned on the table. “That was a disaster.”
“At least he didn’t seem mad or anything. Maybe kinda confused, though.” Then Jake shook his head. “His lips? Really?”
“You said not to talk about his ears.”
“Jesus, Ezra.” Jake rubbed his forehead. “You’ve gotta be more confident, man. I’m serious. Just relax and be yourself.”
“I can’t be,” Ezra said. “Because being myself is the problem.”
Jake sighed. “We’ve really got to work on your confidence. That’s what makes the difference.”
Ezra pushed his Sally Jessy glasses up his nose. “If you say so. But I don’t have much to be confident about.”
Jake didn’t believe that was true, but after thinking for a moment or so, he said, “We need to get you somewhere where you can just talk to people without any pressure.” He paused, thinking a bit more.
“My roommate told me about a party tomorrow night at the Phi Gamma Delta house. I think that might be a good place to start.”
Ezra’s face got a little pale. “I’ve never been to a frat party before. What if people laugh at me?”
“Nobody will laugh at you.” Jake reassured, putting his arm around Ezra’s shoulders, leading them toward the exit. “First of all, I’ll be there. And second of all, we’re going to show up after everybody’s had a little bit to drink. People are a lot less judgmental when they’re drunk.”
“People are also a lot more rowdy too.”
“I already told you. I’m going to be there. I won’t let anybody mess with you.”
Ezra sighed. “But I don’t really want to talk to other people. I want to talk to Sean.”
“Exactly. That’s why you’ve got to practice . You get so nervous around him, so talk to people that don’t make you nervous.” Like Jake apparently, but he didn’t want to say that out loud.
Ezra sighed. “Well. That might be okay.”
“Sure, it will.” Jake grinned, shaking Ezra’s shoulders. “Don’t worry. You’ll have fun.”
Ezra grinned his dimpled grin. “Maybe.”
Jake was happy to see Ezra’s dimpled grin. “All right, meet me tomorrow night at my place.”
“Okay,” Ezra agreed. “I’ll see you then.”