"Baby gay! Oh fuck, that's perfect. G, you've been studying!"
The party continues, loud and chaotic. I can see my friends getting overwhelmed, slowly migrating toward the door. We end up on the back porch, where it's quieter, the guys huddled together like survivors.
"We need to make a pact," JP announces suddenly.
"What?" Max looks confused.
"Look at Seb! He put himself out there and got..." He gestures at where Gavin's talking to Wyatt just inside. "That… We're in college! We need to stop hiding in our house playing video games!"
"I want what Seb has," Luca admits quietly.
"We all deserve what Seb has," a voice says from behind us.
We all jump. Elliot's just... there.How does he do that?
"So we make a plan," he continues in his quiet way. "Strategic dating approaches."
I can hear Gavin chuckling from the doorway. "I know a whiteboard at the frat you can commandeer. James won't mind if you erase his cryptocurrency tracking."
"He tracks crypto on a whiteboard?" Leo asks.
"He tracks everything on whiteboards. It's a problem."
My friends look at each other, and some kind of silent communication passes between them.
"I think we're gonna head out," Max says finally. "This was... a lot."
"But good!" JP adds quickly. "Just... a lot."
Gavin immediately looks concerned. "Did something happen? Besides Bradley being a dick?"
"No, just... volume. And people. And volume," Luca explains.
"I'll walk you guys back," I offer, but they wave me off.
"Stay with your man," Leo says with a knowing grin. "We're good."
They file out, leaving Gavin and me on the porch. He looks worried, probably thinking he fucked up somehow. The Switzerland letter burns in the side of my mind.
I'm watching my friends walk away when he softly steps closer to me. "You good?"
He doesn't wait for my answer.
"Should've known this would be too much," he says, running his free hand through his hair. His expression is all wrong, tight, worried, those brown eyes darker than usual.
"The frat house is way calmer most nights. I should've warned you better about what these dorms are like. All the noise, the shit-talking, Bradley being?—"
"Gavin." I reach out and grab his hand, cutting off his spiral before it can really take hold. His fingers are warm, slightly calloused from weights and sports. "It's fine. Really. They're just not used to... any of this." I wave my hand between us, at the house, trying to capture everything about tonight.
"The volume, the crowds, the football player energy. Neither am I, honestly."
His thumb brushes over my knuckles. My stomach flips.
"You sure?"
"Positive. They had a good time, they're just peopled out."
"Okay. Good. That's—" He exhales. "Want to get out of here? Just us?"
