“What’re you up to–oh it’s Friday, isn’t it?” She asked.
“Yep,” Luis said after a swallow. “You forget?”
“Long week,” she groaned. “Had to spend a few late nights in the lab. You got time? I’m just calling so I don’t get murdered on my walk to the car.”
Luis tossed the snack bar wrapper. ‘Walking’ her home was a tradition between them. “A few minutes, so walk fast,” Luis said as he poured himself a glass of water.
Cassie snapped her gum with a grin. “I miss you actually being here to walk me home.”
“You’re pretty safe on campus, aren’t you?” Luis asked. He’d toured the university campus with her last year, and it had seemed nice enough. Certainly more well-lit and wealthy than where they’d grown up.
“Yeah of course. Called mostly to see your face, loser. I miss you.”
He thought,miss you too,but didn’t say it. He knew his voice would waver if he tried the words. Cassie had been worried about him before she’d moved away for her doctorate, and Luis didn’t want her to know just how much it sucked, being without her. Being left behind.
He and Cassie had been friends since middle school when they’d been paired together for a class project and discovered their mutual obsession with the band Saw Blades of Grass. They’d been inseparable since.
Except now there was four hours of driving distance between them.
He missed her so much sometimes it was a physical ache inside him. Outside of Cassie, Luis had never been very good at making and keeping friends. Closeted gay and shy and religiously sheltered, it’d been a potent combination that people had steered clear of. The few other opportunities he’d had at friendship, his mother had quickly stomped out.
“Good to see your loser face too,” Luis said as he took the phone to the bathroom. He didn’t think the cut was still bleeding, but best to check.
“Getting ready to go out?” Cassie’s voice perked up. “What’s the fit? Show me.”
Luis sighed, but propped the phone up on the counter and stepped back for inspection. Cassie squinted at the screen. “Are you really going out in that?”
Luis picked up his toothbrush and covered it in toothpaste. “What’s wrong with it?”
“You’re wearingsweatpants.” She emphasized.
Luis looked down at them. “They’re comfortable.”
“They look like you’ve given up.” She eyed him meaningfully. “Have you given up?”
“What? Given up what?” He squawked. “You’ve never had a problem with sweatpants before.”
“Yeah, because it’s fine when it’s me and you hangin’ on the couch. But you’ve been going out every week to a fancy vampire bar with fancy, hot vampires. Please tell me you haven’t been wearing stuff with holes in.”
Instead of lying, Luis stuck a toothbrush in his mouth.
“Oh my god,”Cassie said with feeling. “Luis, I say this with all the love in my heart, but like, you’re not going to get a vampire boyfriend if you look like you just rolled out of bed and fought a racoon for your clothing.”
“I’m not trying to get a vampire boyfriend,” he garbled through toothpaste. “They’remarried.”
“Uh huh, and you said they flirt with you.”
“That’s not what I said!” He pulled his toothbrush out of his mouth just to point it at the phone screen. “You’re twisting my words.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Karim ‘bickers with you’,” Cassie made sarcastic air quotes, “in a way that’s one sexually charged argument away from nasty wall sex,I’m sure, and you and Julien have some kind of ‘movie club’ where you nerd out about old movies and their missing-scenes while making eyes at each other.”
“Mise-en-scène,” Luis corrected.
“Gesundheit,” she rolled her eyes. “But be so for real.”
“They’re married,”he said for the hundredth time. He wasn’t sure if it was for himself or for Cassie.
Cassie gave him The Look, the one that said she knew he was being purposefully obtuse. “And? Please tell me you’ve heard of open relationships and polygamy. I know your mom tries to make you live like a nun in a convent, but you do have Beyonce’s Internet.”
