Chapter 3
The campus tour would be a snorefest if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m getting shown around by Cass.
He makes everything more interesting. Between the jokes we make and him going on tangents about how some particular tree should have been planted next to some bush rather than another, the sun sets.
I feel like I’ll fit in here without trouble, especially with Cass as my wingman.
Only now I see that the two years without him felt hollow.
We should have gone to the same university, and I shouldn’t have wasted two years on a girl who broke up with me anyway.
Even the University buildings are nicer here, and I’ve checked all the local maps for hiking trails, so I know I won’t be bored.
The town is small so we don’t have to drive far to get back to the area we live in, but Cass is excited to show me a few more places.
I still can’t believe he’s with me in the flesh, and each time I look over to the driver’s seat, I’m reminded that this move was the best decision I could make. Once we settle back into our routine, things will be back to normal?him and me against the world.
“Hungry?” Cass asks when he parks his old Jeep in the parking lot, and it’s like he’s reading my mind.
“Starving! I’m buying today, so choose wisely.”
Cass grins and steps out of the vehicle. “I’ll make sure to get the most expensive thing on the menu.”
Were he someone else, I’d start worrying, but Cass is the kind of person who likes working with his hands and sleeping on the ground, not someone who finds pleasure in eating fifty-dollar steaks.
I look around the quaint street where lots of people our age are out and about. The evening chill isn’t bad enough to chase everyone indoors, but I still push my hands into the pockets of my hoodie.
“What’s your favorite place? I want to know everything.”
Cass hesitates, but eventually nods toward the nearby buildings. “There’s this cafe, Rainbowology. They have amazing food and a good atmosphere. They’re the local gay spot. But we could also go to the sports bar.”
“No!” I quickly say. “I want to see where you hang out—Unless… they don’t let straight people in?” I’m not sure how these things work. It’s not like good food discriminates.
Cass laughs, already heading in the direction he previously indicated. “Nah, it’s popular with all students, but the owner and all the employees are queer.”
“Cassian! Wait up!” I hear a female voice and when we turn around, two girls walk up to us, holding steaming cups of coffee. “Hey! I just wanted to tell you I passed my exam with flying colors,” one of them says with a bright smile.
“You’re still tutoring? He was always good at that,” I say, nudging Cass with my elbow, but then it dawns on me. Right. Cass is gay. He doesn’t need or want to be talked up in front of women.
“But if any of you need swimming lessons, Matt here is your man,” Cass says, squeezing my shoulder. He introduces us to each other, and it turns out that Amanda is a biology sophomore, and her friend, Claire?an exchange student from France.
She’s making eye contact with me in a way that usually means a girl is interested, but the last thing I want to do is ditch Cass when I’m only just reconnecting with him. So after a bit of small talk, and finding out Claire was a teen champion swimmer, we exchange numbers and that’s that.
“You sure you don’t wanna go hang out with them?” Cass asks in a hushed tone as we walk away.
I shove him a little and laugh. “Oh, come on! I moved today. I wanna chill. Girls can wait.”
“Someone’s afraid of cooties,” Cass says, leading me down the street, toward the colorful sign reading Rainbowology Cafe.
I laugh louder. “Those days are over. You on the other hand… Maybe that’s what being gay is. You can sense the cooties.” I shake my head at the idiocy of this conversation, already curious about the place where my friend loves to hang out.
The warm light inside is inviting and I can’t wait to eat something and treat Cass as well.
As we enter, classic rock worms its way into my ears.
The music is discreet, just loud enough to turn people’s conversations into nondescript noise.
I can see two rooms filled with tables and wooden chairs in different colors, but despite its size, the interior feels cozy and inviting.
As Cass promised, young people occupy most of the seats, some chatting over food, others studying, reading, or working on their computers.
I do notice a rainbow flag on the door, but the cafe itself doesn’t look all that different from the one I used to frequent during my previous two years of college.
I smell cooked tomatoes, and my mouth waters at the sight of a bowl of eggs in red sauce on someone’s plate. It reminds me of the hunger that’s been twisting my stomach for the past thirty minutes.
It seems everyone knows Cass around here, because he even gets a wave from a blond guy in his thirties, as well as a nod from a waiter carrying a whole tray of coffee cups.
I stop and stare a little too long because while the older guy behind the counter is nothing out of the ordinary, the waiter is like a glittery, pastel sparkle, whizzing through the place on old-school roller skates.
I doubt I would have been able to safely carry this many beverages while walking, and he makes the task seem effortless on wheels.
At one point, a half-eaten cake slides off the plate he’s carrying, yet he manages to catch it on the one in his other hand as if he were a juggler.
His baby blue hair is pinned down with a number of colorful pins, and he smiles at us on the way back with an empty tray.
“Hey, Cass, grab that table by the window,” he says and his voice is so sweet I can’t place his age for the life of me. He could be both seventeen and twenty-five. “You’re staring, cutie,” he adds and winks at me.
“Oh, God. So sorry!” I say. “You’re just, like… wow.”
Cass opens his mouth, but the waiter shushes him and offers me his long-fingered hand, as if he’s the queen expecting a kiss from her subject.
While his nails are short, they’re painted with a glittery polish.
“Kai. And if you’re nice, I might consider giving you my number,” he says and blows a stray hair out of his face.
Cass laughs. “You’re barking at the wrong tree.”
I smile nervously and kiss his hand, not knowing what else to do. “Yeah, I’m Matt, but I play for the other team.”
Kai laughs and pulls his hand away. “Oh, my God! I’m just messing with you. Here’s a menu, and I’ll be with you in a sec.”
With that, he zooms away.
“Did I mess up?” I whisper to Cass, who shakes his head.
“You fell for the hand-kissing thing. You’re golden,” he says and sits in a chair painted bright blue. There’s a succulent in the middle of the small table, along with some spices and the drinks menu. “That’s good, since he’s the one who cuts the cake for you.”
I crane my neck in excitement. “There’s cake? Is it homemade? Order for me and make it good.”
The place isn’t packed, but it has a good buzz and interesting-looking people of all ages. This time, I try not to stare at anyone in particular, but there’s a preppy guy working on his computer, a barista who seems extremely serious about her espresso machine, and several patrons in cool clothes.
Two men kiss.
I pause, since it’s not something I see very often. It’s just a brief peck on the lips, but a tall man leans over the counter and smooches the blond cashier, who grabs the front of his hoodie to make the kiss last longer.
I don’t know why, but it electrifies me, makes the hair on my arms bristle, and that feeling in the pit of my stomach is back. Is it making me uncomfortable to see two men kiss? I don’t know. It’s not like I’m upset about what I see.
“You’re staring,” Cass says with a small smirk.
“Fuck.” I hide my face behind the menu. “I’m sorry. I’m an animal. You can’t take me anywhere.”
Cass’s hand squeezes mine, and I look up to meet his warm eyes. I might be slightly uncomfortable with the whole gay thing, but I will get over it soon. It’s just never been... this close to me.
“That’s okay. The blond guy’s Levi. He’s the owner. Knows everyone, so if you ever need to find something, he’ll be your man.”
“Who’s the other one?”
Cass’s gaze trailed the other man all the way to the door. “Never seen him. New boyfriend? Anyway, I think you need the… tuna melt, and a peanut butter cream cake. And yes, everything is made here.”
When he lets go of my hand, I’m embarrassed to find mine sweaty, but I smile nevertheless. I need to get laid or something, because it’s been a while since I’ve been touched and that’s why I’m getting so weird.
“I love everything about that order.”
I even rise from my chair to get a better look at the cake counter.
Kai rides over in a flurry of pastel hues, makes a few sly comments, and is off with our order. Cass speaks as soon as he’s gone.
“So… I suppose I was looking for a good moment to ask, but you didn’t really transfer here because of the school, did you?”
My heart stops.
I sigh and kick Cass’s boot under the table. “Is that bad? I just really miss you, man. And after I broke up with Emily, it got lonely out there. She took most of our friends, it was brutal.”
A scowl passes over Cass’s features. “Figured that might have been the case. Always the queen bee, huh?”
“You never liked her,” I point out, and the previous expression freezes on his face.
Cass shakes his head. “You deserve someone who’ll care for you more than she did.”
“Yeah, I suppose now that it’s over, it feels like I was a prop.
A handsome, wholesome boyfriend to fulfill whatever fantasy she lived in,” I admit, but it no longer hurts.
I’m young, and maybe in this new place, I can start over.
“I just don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to latch onto you,” I add with worry.
Cass is so put together, hot, cool, has all these gay friends, and doesn’t forget to water his plants.
I can only hope he doesn’t see me as a problem.
“Oh, you’re the bane of my existence,” Cass says dramatically, leaning back when one of the other servers places our food and drinks on the table.
“I literally can’t stand you, and the only reason I agreed to you moving in with me is because it’ll make me work harder at the library, just so I can be away from home. ”
I laugh and run my fingers through my hair. “I knew it. We weren’t friends. We were frenemies and I didn’t know it!” But I’m already busy digging into my tuna melt.
There’s two strips of marinated pepper in my side salad (ew), so I pick them up and push them straight into Cass’s mouth as he opens it to speak. “There, you can also get back to being my trash can.”
Cass laughs, almost choking on the pepper, but then someone whistles, and I come back to a reality of Kai standing over us with the desserts we ordered.
“Oopsie. Cassian, what would your lover boy think?” He winks, like it’s all a big joke, but I sit back down in my chair, unsure what to make of what I just heard.
Lover boy?
“I… We didn’t— We’re not—”
Kai pats me on the shoulder. “It’s okay, no need to be nervous. You can be our token straight boy.”
I dare to smile. “Do I get a discount?”
Kai snorts. “Will you kiss my hand every time you come in?”
“If that gets me a discount.”
Kai winks at Cass. “He’s hot and funny, I’m keeping him.”
“Deal. But I’ll only let you borrow him for a few hours at a time,” Cass says and shakes Kai’s hand, as if they were making a business deal. “And you always get me free whipped cream on my hot chocolate.”
Kai smirks. “Doesn’t your boyfriend provide you with enough whipped cream?”
The stupid smile freezes to my face as I space out a little. Boyfriend. Is that what Kai meant when he talked about a lover boy? My mind is about to melt and become cake icing because I cannot comprehend this.
“You have a boyfriend?” I choke out, unable to change my facial expression.
Cass freezes with his sandwich in hand, but he doesn’t get to speak because Kai does first. “Speaking of the devil...”
The bell above the entrance jingles, paralyzing me further.