Chapter Fourteen
July 2018
Benjamin
Soma’s house is nice. Not in the way the Archer house is, but in the way all white picket fence houses in the movies look. It’s comforting, even if I’ve never been in one before now. His bedroom is simple—one full bed in the corner, a dresser with a TV on top of it, and a shoe rack. There’s a closet as well, the doors conveniently made into mirrors.
His mom is very nice, if not a bit too lenient with her son. She doesn’t seem to be concerned with me being over all the time, staying the night.
We haven’t exactly told her we’re dating, but it’s pretty obvious in how we act, I’d think. The IHOP waitress gave us a couple’s discount last week and I don’t think we even touched while in the building.
But Soma’s mom doesn’t seem concerned with my presence at all and is gone most of the day for work. So, we spend most of our time there. I feel bad bringing him to the Archer house too much. I think it’s hard for Aaron, who has been a little strange lately. And Felix is either with Aaron or Kayla, so it’d just be us most of the time anyway.
Soma pulls up to the house and sends me a text. We don’t have big plans today, so I don’t bring much. On the way out, I run into Aaron.
“Hey.” I greet him, opening a verbal pathway for him.
“Hey.” His stare is blank, empty. Like he feels nothing. Like he’s not even here. I hate it when he looks at me like that.
“What’re you doing today?” I’m pushing, but we never talk and I thought that after his graduation we would go back to being cordial with each other. Aaron shrugs.
“Not much.” Cue awkward silence. He’s holding an apple in one hand and a water bottle in the other—my mind jumping backin time to two memories, one night. It feels like so long ago now, yet I remember it so vividly that I can almost feel his touch, hear his voice in my ear.
I look up from his hands and he’s still staring at me like I’m a wall, or a pillow.
“Right. Okay. Bye, then.” I try to slide around him to the door he’s blocking. The space in the hallway isn’t large and Aaron’s kind of a huge guy. He doesn’t lean away to make more space, forcing my chest to touch him as I slide past.
“Bye, then.” He mumbles, walking away once I reach the door. God, he’s being so weird. My skin is vibrating from where we touched.
Soma smiles sweetly when I get in the passenger seat, leaning over to kiss my forehead quickly.
“Sup, Ravi. How’s your day?” He pulls away from the curb and starts the fifteen-minute drive to his house. He drives thirty minutes round trip because he doesn’t want me to take the bus. Soma’s blue eyes are focused on the road but his hand snakes over to my side of the car to rest on my thigh. I let him tuck himself in between the two of them, admiring his tanned skin, broad shoulders, straight brown hair. It’s grown out a bit now that the swimming season is over. I can almost put it into a baby ponytail on the top of his head.
Soma loves to do things like this—picking me up and dropping me off. Or taking me to get food even if we have food at home. Getting my water, rubbing my back. And he’salwaystouching me. He looks at me like I gave him the sun. He says I did. He makes me feel safe. I can’t remember the last time my head was too loud, and my wrist almost never bears a mark. I owe a lot to him—my sweet boy.
Soma walks us into his house and back to his room. He shuts the door, even if his mom’s not home. I don’t ask why, and he’ll do it even if we'renotdoing something intimate. He throws his gym bag on the floor by the closet.
“I’m going to shower—I came straight from the gym. Wait here for me?”
“And where else would I go?” He grins, leaning down to where I sit on the bed and kissing my lips slowly, gently, open-mouthed but keeping his tongue to himself. Then, like nothing happened at all, he stands back and smiles sweetly, leaving me flustered.
“Be right back, then.”
I lay on my stomach and text Felix. We don’t see much of each other right now because he needs time with Aaron before he leaves, so I like to text him when I can.
Bear
any signs of life?
Fe
life is present
Bear
what r u doin
Fe
