Zelda gave Spencer a knowing smile as she and her friend got up at North and Clybourn. At this point, they were practically old friends.
The boys plopped down in the free seats and high-fived each other. The whole chain of events felt like autopilot, a game he and Patrick had been playing for months. Patrick fixed his tie so it hung straight. He was one of the few commuters who wore a tie. Spencer liked how it made him look professional and mature.
“Okay, so then who’s Alfie?” Patrick asked from their previous conversation before the seat takeover.
Spencer picked up where he left off, a common habit of their commutes. Their conversations flowed from topic to topic, with breaks for catching trains, grabbing seats, exiting at the Loop, but without missing a beat.
“Alfie is the opposite hitter on our team.”
“Wait, wait. I know this.”
“We went over positions on Monday.”
Patrick scrunched his face like he bit into something sour, trying to remember. “Opposite hitter is the guy on the right side up by the net.”
“You got it.” Spencer pointed at him with two finger guns, a corny move that he didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious about around Patrick. “Anyway, so Alfie posted this forty-five minute Instagram Live video about how he caught Bill and Austin hooking up in the bathroom of McGinley’s during a bar crawl.”
“Forty-five minutes?”
“He had a lot to say. It was oddly captivating. He said he was being a good teammate, coming forward with this information about our captain cheating on his boyfriend...”
“Who was your other co-captain.”
“But we all knew Alfie had a major crush on Bill.”
Spencer watched Patrick piece the whole sordid story together in his head, as if he were trying to solve a math problem from Good Will Hunting. He was smiling the whole time, his pink lips stretched into a thin line that was holding back laughter at this ridiculous scenario. It was making Spencer want to laugh, too.
In that moment, Spencer realized that commuting with Patrick had turned into the highlight of his day.
“So your team’s co-captains were dating, and then one of them cheated, and a totally different player not involved at all aired all the dirty laundry online?”
“That about sums it up,” Spencer said.
“Da-rama. Now I get why you don’t do relationships.”
“Alfie is a freaking CPA, and this drama completely fried his circuits. It turns people to mush, making them act like they’ve lost their minds.”
“Or it makes people move halfway across the country,” Patrick said, staring straight ahead, his smile a thing of the past.
Oh shit.Spencer got the feeling he just stepped in it. He quickly put two and two together.
“Who was he?” Spencer asked.
“A giant fucking asshole. Los Angeles is filled with them.”
“Chicago isn’t in short supply either.”
“LA has a particular breed. Extra self-absorbed, extra gaslight-y. The kind of guy who’ll put down your job because it’s not in film or television, a.k.a. ‘The Industry.’ The kind who will fuck your friend but somehow make it your fault.”
Spencer’s mind went into a white-hot rage. He could’ve ripped off his cast and run to LA to track this guy down off of pure adrenaline.
“And I got mushed. I believed him.” Patrick straightened his tie as he maintained his composure.
“You know him cheating was not your fault, right?”
“What if it was? What if he was right, and I wasn’t exciting or challenging enough?”
“That’s what he said?” The glowing ball of fury in Spencer’s chest continued to grow. It was its own power source. “That’s complete bullshit. My life has been way more exciting with you in it.”
