“That was, uh,” I fought to find a word. “Nice of him.”
“Yeah, very nice of him to bring illegal alcohol into our dorm and then leave us with it, while one of us is in recovery from an injury,” Keaton huffed.
I stared at him. My eyes slowly widened in delight. “You’ve never had a drink before?”
“We’re not twenty-one yet,” Keaton said grumpily. “Of course, I haven’t.”
“Oh, wow,” I grinned. “I knew you were a nerd, but…”
He folded his arms over his chest. “If I’m such a terrible nerd, then I won’t burden you with having to watch a movie with me.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. I’ll tell him not to bring any in the future. Can we eat and watch the movie?”
Keaton nodded. I shuffled over and dropped my crutches against the wall. I turned to pass him the plates one after the other. Finally, I maneuvered myself to sit down next to him. I took a deep breath. I was fit and healthy, but using the crutches added an extra level of effort to everything. It was taking it out of me even to go down the hall and back.
“Here,” Keaton said. He passed me my plate back and I settled it on my lap. The food Caleb had brought over turned out to be six slices of pizza each and one of garlic bread. It looked kind of appealing even though I usually liked to eat a bit healthier. This was basically a cheat week. Maybe a cheat month. It wasn’t like I could hit the gym properly.
He hit the spacebar on his laptop and the film started to play. “What about the lights?” I asked.
“I thought we’d want to see our food first,” he said with a smirk. “I’ll turn them off after.”
“Oh, right.”Idiot.
I ate a slice of pizza from the tip, alternating my attention between that and the movie. There was a thin line of space between me and Keaton. Like he didn’t want to touch me. I didn’t blame him. Not after the way I had acted.
I hadn’t heard of the movie before but it quickly became obvious it was another ghost story. Not that it was lame. It was pretty scary. By the time I started my second slice, I was already glad we’d left the lights on.
I glanced up at the cups Caleb had brought for us. It was just one cup, right? It wouldn’t do much to me. And besides, that would put Keaton at ease by getting the contraband out of the room.
Right?
I reached for one and brought it to my lips.
“Hey!” Keaton said, almost making me spill it. “What are you doing?”
“Having a drink,” I said. Wasn’t that obvious?
“You’re on medication,” he said. “You’re not supposed to be drinking.”
I made a face at him. “One beer won’t hurt.”
Keaton huffed a sigh at me. He turned his attention back to the movie. Even the movement of his hand as he picked at his pizza looked pissed off.
Great. He hated me even more. This was just going swimmingly.
It wasn’t like he was ever going to see me as anything more than the bully that had hurt him. Why bother trying? I took a deep swig from the cup and swallowed it down.
It didn’t feel much better, but I was hoping the rest of the cup would fix that.
I finished my food and set the plate aside. I reached for Keaton’s before he asked me and stacked it on top of the desk. Clean and tidy. The way he liked it.
The other cup was just sitting there. Mine was empty. Keaton wasn’t going to drink it.
“I’ll get the lights,” Keaton said.
I nodded, and when he got up to reach for the lamp, I took advantage of the moment to switch the cups out. My empty one for the full one.
Keaton sat back down right next to me – so close our elbows were touching again. I closed my eyes for a moment and then opened them to focus on the movie. I had to think straight. I had to stop thinking about his arm touching mine.
