Chapter 2
It takes about an hour for the remaining crew to haul up Theo’s belongings and unpack the essentials.
There’s a lot of chatting and teasing through it all, though—none of Theo’s family is in any hurry to leave.
But when the time comes, Kora, Grace, and Nathaniel reluctantly say their goodbyes to Caleb and me, and Theo walks them down to the parking lot.
The send-off must be emotional, because when Theo returns to the dorm, his eyes are glossy.
While Caleb goes to comfort Theo privately, I focus on setting up the Nintendo Switch in the living room.
If it were anyone else, I’d be playfully teasing Theo for the waterworks.
But Theo’s close to his family. They’ve been through a lot in the past two years, and it’s actually really sweet that they’re going to miss each other so much.
I suck at dealing with emotions—or at least that’s what I’ve been told.
When Theo first came out a couple of years ago, I was informed that my reaction was “weird” and “made everyone uncomfortable”.
It’s not my fault that we grew up in a small, mostly conservative town in the South where being queer isn’t acceptable.
Excuse me for being terrified for my closest friend in the world because he had a crush on a boy, and I knew his parents were going to lose their shit over it.
And—not to be that guy—but his dad did lose his shit over it, and it was a disaster.
Thankfully, Kora divorced his homophobic ass, and the rest of Theo’s family loves him exactly how he is, just like we do.
But yeah, I don’t do serious conversations anymore. I can only hope that my friends know that I still love them and would do anything for them. Well, anything except properly communicating when it comes to heavy, consequential topics, of course. But what nineteen-year-old CIS man is good at that?
“Need any help with that?”
I jolt at the deep, unfamiliar voice behind me, nearly knocking the Switch to the floor. “Shit—”
“Oh, sorry, sorry—” the voice continues. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
I turn to face my assailant—a slightly stocky, scruffy guy with warm, golden-brown skin, thick black hair, and rimless glasses—who stares back at me with a furrowed brow. I manage an embarrassed laugh. “Holy shit, you really snuck up on me.”
The stranger’s mouth hangs open awkwardly for a moment before speaking. “That wasn’t my intention. I’m sorry–”
“No worries, man, I must be more zonked than I thought.” I stand to my full height and extend my hand to him. “You’re Vimlesh, right? I’m Oliver.”
He blinks in surprise, and I can’t tell whether it’s because of my height or because I knew his name. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, Vimlesh Panikkar. I’m in room B.” He gives my hand a stiff shake and drops it.
“Dope, I’m in C. Nice to meet you!”
Vimlesh nods. After a beat, he clears his throat. “I, um, moved in this morning. When I heard people coming and going, I figured I should stay out of the way.” He peeks around toward mine and Theo’s side of the dorm. “Was it just you that moved in, or room D also?”
“Theo’s here, too,” I answer. “He and I are buds from high school, so we got here together.”
“Ah.”
There’s another uncomfortable pause, but before I can fill it, Vimlesh gestures to the Switch. “Do you need any help setting that up?”
I chuckle. “Nah, I think I got it. We’re probably going to play some Mario Kart or something soon. Do you want to join? I think I have an extra controller in my room.”
“Oh, um,” his gaze drops to the floor. “Maybe another time. Thanks, though.”
“Anytime.” I crouch back down to make sure all the cords are where they’re supposed to be before pressing the “on” button. I’m relieved to see the Nintendo logo flash up on the TV screen. Hell yeah. “So, do you play anything on the Switch, or do you prefer—”
I stop when I realize that Vimlesh has already vanished as stealthily as he appeared.
“Who are you talking to, Oliver?” Caleb asks as he and Theo reenter the room.
I glance wildly around the room, exaggerating my confusion for the bit. “Guys, I think one of our roommates might be a ghost,” I whisper loudly.
Theo rolls his eyes. “Is that so?”
“He was just here. Didn’t you see him?”
“Must have missed him.”
“I swear! He was standing right next to me, and then, poof! He disappeared!”
“Whatever you say, dude,” Caleb says, plopping down on the rather dingy-looking sofa that came with the dorm. “Do y’all want to order pizza or something?”
“Way ahead of you,” Theo replies, phone in hand as he settles into Caleb’s arms on the couch.
“Should I go ask the ghost if he wants some, too?” I ask, taking a step toward Vimlesh’s door.
Caleb peeks up at me with a puzzled expression. “Wait, really?”
I gently tap on the door of bedroom B. “Hey, Vimlesh, we’re going to order some pizza. Do you want some?”
No answer. I wait for a beat, then clear my throat to speak a little louder.
“Or we could order something else if you’re not a pizza guy.”
Silence. I lean closer.
“Vimlesh?”
“No, thank you,” Vimlesh’s muffled voice finally answers. “I will eat later.”
“Cool, okay.”
I step back into the living room, where Theo and Caleb watch expectantly. I shrug. “Guess not.”
Caleb frowns, but Theo’s shoulders also rise and fall casually. “It’s cool. We can meet him some other time.”
“Unless Oliver’s still fucking with us and no one’s even in there,” Caleb says softly, a cheeky grin creeping across his light features. “I didn’t hear anything, did you?”
Theo snickers. “No, not really.”
“I guess we’ll never know,” I whisper with a smirk. “Now let’s order that pizza. I’m fucking starving.”
“Can I ask you a serious question?”
My heart immediately sinks to the pit of my stomach. I glance over at Theo, only to find that his gaze is still trained on the TV screen where our game of Super Smash Bros. is paused as we wait for Caleb to return from the bathroom.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” I answer evenly as I also turn my focus back on the TV. Theo knows how I feel about serious questions. I’m surprised he even asked.
“Oh, come on,” Theo presses. “It’s not like…super serious.”
I chew on my bottom lip. “Only if I can reserve the right not to answer,” I reply.
“That’s fair,” Theo says.
“Okay, fine. Shoot.”
“Are you interested in dating at all?”
I exhale softly, relieved. That’s not a serious question at all. “Of course. Who isn’t?” I answer flippantly.
Theo shifts in his seat, and when I turn to look at him, his dark brown eyes are boring into mine. “Are you, though?”
I snort. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know,” Theo continues. “You haven’t really seemed interested in anyone since, like, ninth grade.”
“So?”
“Look, it’s okay if you’re not,” Theo holds his hands up defensively. “But if you want to get back into dating, and you’re just not sure where to start… I don’t know, maybe Caleb and I can help.”
“Help?” I scoff. “How could you help with something like that?”
“I don’t know, dude, I’m just…” he trails off, rubbing the back of his neck. Theo always does that when he’s nervous, but it’s annoying knowing I’m the one causing it. “I just want to make sure you’re happy.”
“Do I not seem happy to you?”
Theo considers my question. “No, it’s not—no, you seem fine, but—”
“Exactly, because I am fine! More than fine—I’m excited! About living here with you, about starting school, about experiencing freedom and fun and all that college shit.” I pause until Theo’s eyes are back on me. “I’m good!”
Theo breathes out a sigh and shakes his head. “Yeah, no, you’re right. Sorry.”
“It’s cool, man,” I say with a smile, lounging back into the couch cushions. “Besides, I’m about to meet a ton of new people this week at school. Surely there’s someone out there who can handle all of this.” I gesture down at my lanky body with a confident grin.
Theo laughs and throws his empty soda can at me.
“Uh oh, what did I miss?” Caleb says, his eyes bright with curiosity as he returns to his spot on the sofa.
Theo retrieves his controller from the coffee table. “Nothing, we—”
“We were just debating on which of the Pikmin is the cuntiest,” I interject.
“What!? No, we weren’t!”
Caleb bursts into giggles. “Well, damn, I picked the wrong time to take a bathroom break!”
We all have a laugh, and before long, we’re back in the game, and all is as it should be. I try not to dwell on Theo’s unexpected invasiveness, but it’s hard not to.
The truth is, I have been interested in dating before, but I realized it wasn’t quite worth the hype. But given how much my friends obsess over that sort of thing, I decided not to bring it up with them until it got serious. Lucky for me, nothing ever did.
But maybe things will be different now. In some ways, they have to be.
It’s the start of a new chapter in my life, and pretty soon I’ll have to start making actual decisions about my future.
I have some time, but eventually I’ll have to declare a major and build my class schedule around it.
I’ll need to find a real job, and maybe even an internship.
God, I’ll probably have to show up to professional events to “network.” I feel like I'm about to break out in hives just thinking about it.
On second thought, maybe dating is the last thing I should care about. There’s already too much other shit to deal with.
For tonight, all I have to worry about is virtually beating the shit out of Theo and Caleb until we get bored or fall asleep. Everything else is a problem for future Oliver to deal with.
That poor bastard.