9
Trevor
It was eerilyquiet when I got home from my study group. The lights in the commons area were out, which usually meant no one was there. But Gabe hadn’t mentioned anything about leaving tonight. I’d been ready to come home and grovel for leaving right after his big meltdown about feeling like we were drifting apart now that I was busy with stupid little things like keeping my grades up.
I flipped on the light in our room, possibly for the first time since we’d moved in since Gabe was almost always there when I got back to the room, and I saw the note he’d left for me.
Heading to a meeting with Seth. He needed a bit of moral support. Be home by nine if I can.
It annoyed me more than it should that he was out with Seth. I hadn’t realized they were close enough that Gabe would be the one Seth turned to if he needed support. Gabe wasn’t the person most people would go to if they were having a rough time. He didn’t deal with tense situations well at all.
I took advantage of the peace and quiet to get a bit more research done for my psych paper. It was the easiest class I had this semester, so it’d be a breeze to blow through this assignment before Thanksgiving break even though it wasn’t due until the first week of December.
Gabe and Seth practically fell through the door to the commons area a while later. Something was obviously funny, but I was the outsider without a clue. I hated that feeling, because I was supposed to be the person Gabe laughed with.
“Oh, hey, Trev. You been home long?” I closed my laptop and joined them in the commons.
“Nope.” Rather than sit next to Gabe on the couch, I took one of the club chairs to subtly let him know I was irrationally annoyed with him right now. It wasn’t the fact that he’d been out, but the fact that he and Seth seemed much closer than I’d realized. If I made a new friend, I let him know because I wanted him to know about my life. Obviously, that wasn’t a two-way street.
Seth seemed to pick up on the tension between us first. “Thanks for coming with me to the meeting, Gabe. I’m going to head back to my room and try to read my assignment for tomorrow.”
“Cool. Did you wanna head down again next week?”
What in the heck was next week? They were making standing dates now?See, I was completely irrational, but I blamed that on the jealousy I wasn’t used to feeling and didn’t know how to cope with.
“Yeah. Tonight went better than I expected. Thanks again.” He waved on his way out, leaving me with more questions than answers. But I didn’t want to turn intothatboyfriend. I didn’t want Gabe to think I didn’t trust him, because I did. Was I jealous of the time they’d spent together? Yeah, but that was mostly because I didn’t realize they’d gotten close.
“Hey, you okay?” Gabe asked once we were alone. He walked across the room and started massaging my shoulders. This had become one of my favorite parts of every day. The time Gabe had spent playing sports and managing the teams had taught him how to use his hands for a heavenly massage.
“I’ll be fine,” I told him. And I would, as soon as I figured out how to rein in these unwanted, and unwarranted, emotions. Gabe could have friends. Heck, I’d even encouraged him to get out of the room before I’d left. It wasn’t his fault he’d taken my suggestion.
“I’m sorry I didn’t text you to let you know I was taking off,” he said softly, still working at the knots in my shoulders. “I didn’t want to interrupt your study session. Did you at least get my note?”
“Yeah, thanks.” I was sitting here trying to dissect his motives for not calling or texting, and it turned out he was trying to be considerate. That made me feel like a steaming pile of crap.
“Are you mad that I went with him?” he asked, sounding uncertain. Gabe didn’t think twice about ticking off most people, but he’d never dealt well when he’d upset me. I knew this, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to let him off the hook completely.
“I’m not mad that you have a life outside of us,” I assured him, before laying on a thin layer of guilt. “But I was a little hurt that you’d never mentioned you and Seth were friends.”
Gabe shrugged as if it wasn’t a huge deal. “We weren’t, not really. A few nights when I felt sorry for myself sitting around the dorm, I asked him if he wanted to grab dinner together. Tonight I was going to see if he wanted to head to Port Java, but he had other plans and invited me to tag along.”
“Can I ask what you did or is it some big secret?” I closed my eyes and allowed my head to fall forward. “I’m trying really hard to not be intrusive, but I am curious. If it was something he wouldn’t want me to know, don’t tell me. I’ll respect your decision.”
“Babe, I’m not going to keep secrets from you,” he insisted. “I mean, if it was something really fucked up and he asked me not to tell you, I’d have to figure out what I’d do, but I’m not going to get in the habit of keeping shit from you.”
He was infuriating when he got flustered. There was something about their evening he didn’t want to tell me, but I had no clue what it might be. And I’d promised I wasn’t going to pry, so I was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I reminded him in case this was one of those situations where he wasn’t sure what Seth would want him to say.
“No, it’s nothing covert or anything. We just… okay, so when I got to his room, he was heading out to a club meeting and he invited me to go with him.”
“It was a Magic: The Gathering club meeting, wasn’t it?” I teased. He chuckled, and I knew that’d been the right approach. “Gabe, I know every embarrassing thing there is to know about you, including the time you came down from your bath butt naked, not realizing Pastor Simms and his wife were there to make sure everything was okay because your parents hadn’t been in church for a while.”
“You weren’t supposed to speak of that. Ever.” It was one of those moments far too hilarious to let him ever forget. It might not have been so bad if Gabe hadn’t been in a phase where he was obsessively interested in his penis and thought everyone else should share his wonder.
“Man, I thought my dad was going to piss himself laughing when your parents told mine about that.”
“Do. Not. Speak. Of. It.” Every word came out clipped and terse, but I was laughing too hard to stop myself.
