By the time I’d done my first circuit, I was alone. I did another three before I finally stopped. I had to lean down, hands on my knees. I tried hard to catch my breath. The air was cold and burned my lungs. I coughed a little. I hadn’t ever pushed that hard before. Hard enough that I almost thought I was going to throw up for a second.
I made my way back to the locker room and washed up quickly. I dressed with shaking legs. I was so tired all of a sudden. The sun was down completely as I walked across the campus. The lights along the walkways were so bright I couldn’t make out the stars. I gingerly took the stairs up to our room, hoping that maybe Keaton was already asleep. Or out. He had to get a social life at some point.
“Hey,” Keaton said, looking up as I went in. “You were out late tonight.”
I closed the door with more force than I intended. “Practice ran late,” I lied. Well, sort of a lie. It was just my own practice that had gone later.
“Oh, right,” Keaton said. “I was going to ask if you wanted to watch a movie, but I guess it’s probably too late now. Well, I was actually going to try to film something for the documentary, but it’s definitely too late for that.”
I glanced at the clock. It was Saturday. I had practice tomorrow but nothing else. “We could still watch something,” I said.
Keaton brightened up. “Yeah? I didn’t know if you would want to. You know, if you would think it was too nerdy or something.”
I smiled weakly. “Nerdy is exactly what I need to be right now,” I told him. “What film were you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” Keaton said. He considered it for a moment. “I don’t like action movies, just so you know.”
“I don’t like romcoms,” I countered.
Keaton tilted his head and creased his forehead.
“Before you say it,” I said. “You assumed I like action movies because I’m a jock. So, I can assume you like romcoms because you’re gay.”
“Don’t you like action movies?”
“Yes,” I said. “Do you like romcoms?”
Keaton’s mouth twitched up into a smile. “Yes.”
“Then it’s all fair,” I said. I tossed my jacket on top of my dresser. “Well, what’s left?”
“Horror?” Keaton suggested.
I nodded. “I could live with horror.”
“Great!” Keaton said. He reached for his laptop. “I’ll set it up.”
I glanced around the sparse room. There was a desk and our beds but not much else. I couldn’t see us both managing to fit in at the desk to watch that little screen. “Where will we watch it?”
“Oh, uh.” Keaton glanced around. He shuffled across his bed until he was sitting sideways. His back was against the wall. He reached out and patted the bed beside him. “Here, I guess?”
I nodded. My heart was racing all of a sudden. I was just tired out from my run. “Uh, yeah. That’s fine.”
I sat down next to him. This was somehow different to sitting together to work in the library. Or when I worked at the desk and he watched me from his bed. Our bodies were aligned next to each other. Our backs were against the wall and I couldn’t help but notice his legs were shorter than mine. Our arms, though, sat right at the same level.
So close that when he moved the laptop to equally balance between us, his arm brushed over mine.
I fought back a shiver.
I was just cooling down after all that physical activity on the field. That was all.
I was just cooling down.
“What do you want to try?” Keaton asked. “I’m logged into my friend’s account. He said I could use it to watch anything.”
I looked at Keaton sharply. “Your friend?”
“Yeah,” Keaton grinned. “Ace. He’s in my film class. I told him I don’t have any streaming subscriptions, so he said I could use his. Isn’t that nice? I, ah. I think he’s loaded, or something.”
