Chapter 3
Oliver
“Come on,” I growled. Pulling my lip between my teeth, I tightened my grip. “Just a little more. Almost there. Yes! That’s right. Suck my dick, you fugly bastard.”
“How did you even manage that?” Carson asked, his voice loud in my headset after how hard I’d been concentrating.
“He’s Oli,” Remi said. “Always has lady luck on his side.”
I snorted and collapsed backward on the couch. I stretched out my fingers, which ached from how hard I’d been holding onto the controller. We’d been at this for hours, and after stocking shelves all day and counting inventory, I’d given my hands a workout.
“I’m not lucky,” I argued.
“You leveled up right before he attacked, otherwise you’d be dead. You always manage to land yourself right where you need to be in the nick of time.”
“All of you went down in his last attack, and I had to finish him off with no healer, bro. Level up or not, that’s skill right there.”
“How much health you got left?”
I snickered as I looked at it. “Five.”
“Five! Uh-uh, man, that’s luck. At least a little bit of it.”
“I think you’re kinda jealous. I got the cuirass you wanted.”
“Bastard,” Remi grumbled. “Let’s go again. I’m gonna sacrifice you to it this time.”
“I should probably get off. I have class in the morning.”
He said something, but my phone vibrated beside me, so I picked it up. I was a little surprised, then I realized it was a mass text.
Brooks: Hey, fellow humans. I’m sending this to everyone I know on campus. Hopefully someone will come through. There’s a guy looking for a room to rent. He’s cool and has my stamp of approval. If you fuck him over, I’ll probably have you assassinated. You’ve been warned.
That was a funny threat to make. Coming from Brooks, at least. I wanted to steal it, but I didn’t know if it would land right.
“Oli?”
“Just load it up,” I replied after I checked the time. Class was in a couple of hours anyway, so I’d already screwed myself by staying up this long. I didn’t work until the evening shift, which meant I could come home after school and take a nap. Easy as pie.
As I ran through the dungeon, I looked at my phone again, then at the closed bedroom door.
It was sitting there, unused. If someone needed a room, I had one, but did I want a roommate?
I wasn’t opposed, really. It might be nice to have another person around, plus it would help me save some money.
There was this One Piece Lego set I was dying to get my hands on.
Me: I have a room
Brooks: Wait, for real?
Me: Yeah. Why are you shocked?
Brooks: Not shocked. Excited.
Me: Ok. Have him text me
Brooks: Will do. You’re a godsend, Oli.
Chuckling, I tossed the phone to the side and focused on the game. There was sunlight coming in through the curtains, and I was already regretting that I hadn’t slept. I had to stop doing this eventually, but it was pointless to dwell on now.
Remi leapt out of the way just as a creature attacked him, which gave it a direct line to me. The thing took out a quarter of my health in one go, and as soon as I was out of its jaws, I ran up to Remi’s character and swung at him.
“So touchy,” he teased.
“I’m gonna have you assassinated.”
“Whoa.”
“What?”
“That was dark.”
“Dude, it’s a joke.”
“You said it super seriously,” Carson noted. “Remi, you got a good lock on your door?”
“Sure do,” Remi replied. “Got a go bag and a Glock ready too.”
“Damn, that’s extreme.”
“You don’t grow up like I did and just get comfortable. Right, Oli?”
“Pretty much,” I agreed. “But you’re more on the crazy side of things.”
“You won’t even sleep in your bedroom.”
“Why do I need a separate space just to sleep? The term ‘living room’ literally encompasses everything.”
“Still weird.”
“Shut up and focus on not dying this time.”
He muttered something I didn’t catch but ended up doing as I said. By the time we reached the final battle, my eyes were heavy and I’d sunk so far into the couch that I could easily go right to sleep.
We barely made it through the fight, and when we did, Remi was still upset because the boss didn’t drop the cuirass he wanted.
Before I logged off, I transferred it to his character, then I shut everything off.
I got to my feet and threw my arms in the air, groaning when my shoulder popped in the best way.
Grabbing my phone off the couch, I checked the clock, then swore.
I had just enough time to shower and grab a yogurt on my way out.
Once I was in my car, I realized that I didn’t have a spoon, but it was too late to go back up, so I peeled the top off the container, then immediately whipped out of the parking spot.
The foil slipped from my fingers, landing somewhere on the floor.
Hopefully it wouldn’t start to smell if I forgot to look for it later.
Since I didn’t have a utensil, I stopped at a light and dumped the yogurt into my mouth all in one go.
I froze when the taste registered. It was off.
Very, very, very off. There was nothing for me to spit it in, so I rolled down the window and hung out the side of my car as I spit everything onto the asphalt.
Someone honked, so I hurriedly situated myself and raced through the intersection.
The lingering taste of that rancid yogurt was still on my tongue as I pulled into the university.
That oughta teach me to pay more attention to the things in my fridge, not that I actually would.
I was under the impression that things lasted a lot longer than their expiry dates claimed. Clearly, yogurt was an exception.
I had to ask five people if they had gum on my way to Pritchard’s class before someone finally gave me a piece. And it was cinnamon, which was my favorite. Maybe it was one of those luck things Remi talked about.
If I had luck on my side, life would’ve been a lot easier for me. I didn’t have it as bad as Remi in my youth, but it was a major stretch to think fortune had smiled upon me. All I’d done was manage to avoid some of the really bad things.
I wasn’t lucky, but maybe I wasn’t unlucky either, and that was something I could appreciate.
I’d barely sat at my desk when I spotted Brooks making his way over to me. He wasn’t intimidating, but he was unpredictable enough that I stayed wary when I didn’t know what was on his mind. There was something playful in his expression, and the way Tilian watched made me wonder what was going on.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“You should come sit with us since we’re in the same group. Melissa said she doesn’t mind.”
My gaze moved over his shoulder to where a girl was grabbing her stuff. When I saw where she’d been seated, my stomach fluttered.
“Uh, yeah, totally,” I said quickly, already on my feet. Brooks grinned, but I didn’t really care if he was playing a game here.
As soon as I sat down, I felt nervous. There was no reason to, except maybe there was. When I’d tried to do something nice with the discount, Dean had been dying for a chance to bolt.
So why did I take this seat?
Dean walked in the door, and I had my answer in the way my heart sped up. Immediately, he froze, which reminded me of his weird feelings about me.
Obviously, this was just simple attraction. The guy was solid muscle with a square jaw, deep brown eyes, and dark hair that I wanted to run my fingers through. I was willing to bet he was one of those dudes who growled.
I knew that I was attracted to men, but I’d never explored it. I wasn’t even sure if I was bi, necessarily. What I could positively say was that it was more than just his face and body that had me intrigued.
Dean came off as serious, but he was playful with his friends. He also had the air of someone who took care of people. That was a trait I respected, and I also wanted to understand it more.
What made someone that way? Why did he seem like he’d give the shirt off his back without hesitation? Had he been taught to be like this, or did it come naturally?
Why was he into breeding?
Why didn’t he like me?
Why didn’t he want to breed me?
That was not a question I should’ve considered.
When he sat down, I leaned closer. My impulse control was pretty lacking, to say the least.
“Hey.” I held back the urge to pump my fist in the air when my voice came out stronger than I felt.
He offered me a chin-up like the overtly masculine jock he was. “What’s up?”
“Same shit, different day.”
“How original.”
At this point, some people would probably decide to bail. It clearly wasn’t doing any good to make conversation, and he was coming off dry and detached. Either he was more boring than I’d assumed, or he really wanted nothing to do with me.
There was this thing about me, though, that often told me to keep pushing at things for some inexplicable reason. I found myself staring at the side of Dean’s face, trying to pick him apart piece by piece until I uncovered his reasons for existence and how they differed from mine.
He turned, then his brow furrowed when he saw me staring. Not sure what else to do, I smiled before I focused on my textbook. I had no idea what Professor Pritchard was going on about, but I’d figure it out.
“I want you to work with your groups for the rest of the class.”
Well, that was a load of bantha fodder. Or was it luck?
Immediately, I scooted my chair closer to Dean.
Brooks and Tilian did the same, then the entire class was filled with the sounds of desks scraping along the floor.
When it finally quieted, I looked at each of them as I brought my pencil to my mouth.
I chewed on the end for a moment before I cleared my throat.
“Are we still into the survey idea?” I asked.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Dean replied.
My eyes widened. “You do?”
“Uh, yeah, why not?”
“As long as I can stand in the back and not talk to anyone,” Tilian said quietly.
Dean looked at him with a frown. “People might be more comfortable talking to you, though. You’re the least intimidating.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Do you want to be intimidating?”
Tilian’s nose wrinkled. “No, you and Oliver can keep that title.”
“Me?” I laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You are, though. You’re . . . huge.”
“Dean’s bigger.”
Brooks hung his head, laughing softly. When he looked up, he perched his chin on his hand and looked back and forth between us. “Dean’s a teddy bear.”
Dean scoffed. “Bullshit.”
“I bet you tuck a girl in at night and make sure she has water on the nightstand. Then you big-spoon her and snarl at anyone who threatens her.”
Tilian hummed. “Sounds sweet to me.”
“It is. Just saying, that’s how Dean is.”
I cocked my head. “What about me?”
“You wanna be tucked in and big-spooned.”
My lips curved upward as I tapped my fingers on the desk. “I might have to crawl in your bed, Brooks, cause you strike me as the cuddling type.”
“Sure, but I’m just as likely to handcuff you to the headboard.”
“Dean it is, then. When are you free, big guy?”
He snorted but didn’t look up from his phone. I peeked at it and saw that he was scrolling through a job-hunting app. That sounded just about as unsavory as eating another container of rancid yogurt.
I’d been at my job for five years, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Not until I graduated, at least. My boss, Marty, was awesome, and the people who came in regularly always checked in to see how I was doing.
Of all the places in my life, it was one of the few where I felt like I was a part of something.
“Well, I can start brainstorming questions for the survey,” I offered. Since I was studying psychology and our project was on the college’s mental health resources, it seemed fitting.
“Dope,” Brooks said. “Tilian, since you aren’t gonna talk to people, you can compile information about what Harmon currently offers so we have our baseline. Dean, what are you good at?”
He rolled his lips a couple of times as he thought about it. “I’ve already been looking into the research about what programs are actually helpful on campuses. I can put together an ideal, then we can compare it with what the college already has, combined with the results of our surveys.”
“Love a man who’s prepared. We good to go?”
We all agreed, then Brooks got to his feet and flashed us a peace sign before he headed out.
Such a strange dude.
Other people were shuffling out too, so I got my stuff together. “It might be beneficial for us to work on our parts together,” I suggested, glancing at Dean briefly. “They sort of go hand in hand.”
“Yeah, definitely.”
His easy response surprised me. Deciding to keep the momentum going, I set my phone in front of him.
“Let me get your number and we can figure it out.”
He added his contact information, then passed it back to me. I lightly tapped his bicep with my fist before I left, ignoring the way he pursed his lips. I’d barely sat in my car when my phone buzzed. It made me pause with my key halfway in the ignition.
Dean: Hey, I got your number from Brooks. He said you have a room to rent. Can we talk about it sometime this week if it’s still up for grabs?
I stared at the message with my mouth open. It was kind of odd for him to text me now. Why didn’t he just say something about it in class?
I probably would have mentioned it if I’d known he was the one Brooks was talking about this morning. If Dean seemed fine with the idea, I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. He was willing to consider rooming with me, which meant he couldn’t despise me that much.
Oh, God, I needed to clean. I hadn’t thought about it before, but now that Dean freaking Kennedy was going to be looking at the place, I felt self-conscious. I didn’t want to give him a reason to go back to looking at me like I was an alien.
I turned on my anime fight scene playlist and took a breath.
“Set your heart ablaze, Oli,” I said as I pulled out of the lot.
It was all going to work out.