“No teasing the new guy,” Jayden warned him. After filling his own mug, he followed Chase to the dining table.
* * *
The next night,Matt was in bed reading and I was finishing up an assignment that was due the following day, when there was a commotion outside our room. Matt sat up and I spun around on my desk chair.
“Well shit, never would have guessed the two of you were butt smuggling the salami.” Fucking lovely. Zach was drunk. Again. He’d liked going out since the start of the school year, but something had changed recently. On the rare occasions we did see him in the common areas, he almost always had a drink in his hand, and every night we were treated to the sounds of him slamming cabinet doors and the fridge as he tried finding something to soak up the booze.
That shit had to stop. It felt like we’d traded one problem suitemate for another.
“What’s wrong, Carter? Had to drink enough you forgot no one wanted your pencil dick?”
A door closed quietly, followed by the thump of something being dropped to the ground. I breathed out a sigh of relief, grateful Jayden had walked away after one well-deserved insult.
That’s when I heard someone getting slammed against the wall. I pushed out of my chair, ready to get between the two of them if necessary. “You know what, fuck you, man.”
“No, fuckyou,” Jayden shot back. A door slammed. And then another. I could hear Jayden saying something on the other side of our shared wall. I swore I’d fuck Zach up if he’d laid a finger on Chase.
“Wow, that was intense.” Matt tossed the book over the end of the bed, not caring when it slid off the desk and onto the floor. He sat with his back to the wall, arms curled around his legs. “We have to talk to Daniel. He’s the only one who’s going to get through to Zach. At this rate, we’re going to have campus police here to either pick him up for getting into a fight or to let us know he’s drunk himself into a coma.”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to him.” I shut down my computer and darted into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Now that Zach had riled the whole damned suite, it was unlikely I’d get anything accomplished tonight. Might as well spend that time with Matt.
10
Matt
I liked to think that not much shocked me. When you went out of your way as much as I had to get a rise out of people, little was truly surprising. And yet, somehow, I was unprepared for what I overheard one night when I was on my way to the bathroom to take a leak.
Jayden—the same guy who used to retreat to his bedroom after dinner and we wouldn't hear a peep out of him until morning—was talking to Chase. That in itself wasn't strange. I was pretty sure the two of them were together after Zach's latest outburst. And I was happy for them. They were one of those couples so cute it should be illegal.
It was what Jayden was saying that made me trip over my feet.
“Does your winky hurt, baby?” Jayden practically cooed.I stopped, pressing my hands against the wall behind me for support.“You know what you need to do if you want your Jay to make it feel better.”
“Please, Jay,” Chase begged. “It hurts a lot tonight. I think you did this on purpose.”
“Maybe I did,” Jayden teased.Fuck, he sounded so much like Brandon when he said that it was scary.“Who’s going to take care of you, Ash?”
Ash? Who in the hell was Ash?”
“You are, Jay. You promised you’d always take care of me if I had owies.”
“And do you have owies now, buddy?”
“Uh-huh. Will you help me?”His voice sounded almost childish. Fuck, I wished I could be cute like that.
“Where’s your binkie?”I’m sorry…his what now?“We don’t want to wake up Matt and Brandon when your Jay makes you feel good.”
It was silent for a few seconds. I took a step toward the bathroom, not wanting to get busted listening in on what was obviously supposed to be a private moment.
“That’s my good boy,” Jayden praised him.This time, I did stumble and fell against the doorframe. Fuck. That was going to leave a mark.
Holy shit. That explained so much. I tried to pretend nothing unusual had happened as I took a leak. I glanced toward their room on my way past, clenching my eyes shut just in case their door had disappeared. It was bad enough I’d heard them, I wasn’t taking any chances on seeing them, too.
I crawled back into the bed next to Brandon. He draped an arm over me pulling my back to his chest. I laid there for a long time with my eyes open, straining to hear more from their room. I didn’twant to, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Go to sleep,” Brandon grumbled a while later. I wiggled around, trying to get comfortable. But I couldn’t because my brain was zooming all over the place.
I shouldn’t tell Brandon what I’d heard. But maybe if he knew,wecould stop hiding.
