I internally beam. “Can I sit with you?”
She slowly nods her head. “Sure.”
I grin so big it hurts my face, and it makes her smile even though she tries to hide it behind the rim of her cup.
“After you,” I say, gesturing for her to enter the room. Once she is safely in front of me, I turn to my shit friends as they pass through the door in disbelief. I smirk and mouth to them, ‘Did you record that?’ while saluting them the double bird.
“My chai!” Reilly groans. “But, on the upside, I’m ten bucks up.” He flashes Mitch and Lewis with a grin as they climb the stairs.
Taking a seat next to Rachel, I’m content that I’m once again sitting next to her. I was getting over staring at the back of her head all through class and hearing nothing the professor was saying.
Lewis and Reilly take a seat in the row in front of us, and I watch Mitch and Lewis pass cash to Reilly, then Mitch leaves.
“How is Sam? Has he been practicing anything I showed him the other day?”
She nods her head, and I get excited that he is taking what I taught him to heart. “Really?”
“Yeah,” she seems reluctant to say more, but I think she can see the joy it brings me.
She takes a deep breath and releases it over the rim of her coffee. “He hasn’t stopped talking about it. Dragged my dad out to the backyard and pretty much told him everything you said word for word.”
Her words light up my face, and for the first time in a long while, she looks at me the way she used to. Bit by bit, I watch the wall between us begin to crack.
“You made his day, honestly. So, thank you again for that.”
“I want to take you and Sam out again. It might not be to the stadium, but I’m free to go to the park whenever.”
She nods as the professor clears his throat and starts talking. “I’ll think about it,” she whispers.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I whisper back as I settle into my chair.
34
Randy
I hear footsteps enter the living room as I furiously write on my tightly clutched notepad.
“What are you doing?” Walsh questions.
“I’m writing a tersely worded letter to Netflix over the amount of sex scenes they have in this series,” I say, pointing toward the television. I feel his eyes flick to the television as if I’m joking. It’s paused on a sex scene, withSex/Lifewritten on the top left of the screen.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, there are way too many sex scenes; seriously, have you seen this?”
“Can’t say I have, but you realize it’s calledSex/Life, right?”
“It’s, it’s…”
“Dude, you need to get laid,” he chuckles as he leans against the large doorframe.
I can’t control it as the pad springs from my hand followed by my pen that falls hard into the floor. “Fuck, I know. This is driving me insane! I thought that now she is showing me attention again and we are talking I would feel better. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, great even, I love being around her. But now being close to her again, her smell, her voice, the outline of her silhouette that I study every minute I’m around her. Her touch,”I moan, my head falling back into the sofa. “Oh my God, her touch, she lightly brushed my hip bone the other day and I swear I almost came in my pants.” I look back to Walsh as his dimples pop at my pain. “You know what this is? This is cruelty to dumb animals, that’s what it is.”
My jaw tics, and my pained eyes study Walsh’s face, his almost caring, concerned face soon slips into a shriek of laughter. “I’m sorry. So sorry,” he cries, grabbing at the wall.
I sigh at him. “Shut up, man, this is a serious problem.”
“Oh, I can see that.” He piggy snorts, only making him laugh harder at my pain.
