I walked inside and right up to one of the single beds, dumping my bag on top of it. I figured it didn’t really matter which bed I took, but I went for the one closest to the door.
Closest to the escape.
I figured I was about to spend a few days avoiding the room – and my roommate – as much as possible.
“I know you probably wanted to stay with someone else,” Brody said. There was hurt in his voice, but maybe a little bit too much. If he thought I was going to be sympathetic to him for being picked last, he was talking to the wrong person.
“Yeah, well, I was hoping for Xavi,” I shrugged. “We’ve shared a room before. I guess he has something else on his mind.”
“Oh?” Brody asked.
I turned and looked at him. He was Cade’s ex-boyfriend, so I knew he was gay. He really couldn’t guess? “Taeho,” I clarified. “He wants to fuck Taeho.”
“Oh,” Brody said, this time with a completely different tone. A little red color flashed its way up his neck. “Um, right.”
I gave an incredulous half-laugh. “Don’t tell me the infamous playboy is actually a prude?”
“I’m not a prude,” Brody scowled. The red traveled further up his neck, over his ears, traveling towards his dark, heavily styled hair. Image was clearly very important to him. “I just wasn’t expecting that.”
“You must not know Xavi very well,” I said with another humorless laugh. Because I did.Intimatelywell. I’d kind of been thinking we might use this weekend to carry on the tradition. Clearly, though, he had other plans.
What pissed me off the most, if I was honest, was that I’d been eyeing Taeho as my backup, too. My mom would probably approve of me bringing home a Korean guy to Thanksgiving, even if we were just fucking and not actually serious – and maybe with me being half-Korean, I could help him out with his parents, too. Though I doubted a more traditional Korean family would be as accepting as my mom was.
Oh, well. Us guys didn’t get to see each other as often now that we’d all graduated, but there would be another get-together. I could still keep my eye on Taeho further down the line.
“Is he known for that, then?” Brody asked.
I looked up to see him studiously going through his bag and not looking at me.
Oh, so it was like that, huh?
“Don’t bother,” I told him with a smirk. “There’s no way he’ll even look at you.”
Brody looked up and frowned. “I was just asking. I wasn’t trying to dig for anything.”
“Good,” I said. Truth be told, though, I wasn’t sure Xavi did actually have enough of a moral code to ignore Brody. If Taeho didn’t give him what he wanted, he would be out on the prowl.
I would just have to make sure that I was the one to intercept in that case.
Or maybe move in on Taeho once the door was open.
“Look, I’m sorry,” Brody said. He threw something down on the bed with a sigh. “I know you wanted to share with anyone but me. Maybe I should just… go.”
I stared at him. For a moment I felt bad. Maybe I’d come on too strong. Maybe I should have shut Xavi down instead of letting him badmouth Brody right in front of him.
I’d just thought that the asshole probably deserved it.
Then I remembered that he’d already proven himself an attention whore and shook my head, going back to opening my own suitcase. “I thought you were trying to convince everyone you’re not an asshole anymore.”
“I am,” Brody said. “That’s why I should leave.”
“Okay, well, sure, if you want to hurt the most friendly and welcoming and darling man in the entire world,” I said pointedly. “Because I’m pretty sure that Keaton will be upset if you go. Which would make you a giant asshole, putting your feelings over his on his special trip.”
Brody swallowed visibly. He did kind of suit sadness. He had a tortured artist vibe about him – long, pale limbs, dark eyes, way too much effort in his hair, and that leather jacket on his frame. He looked like a poet who rode a motorcycle. If I didn’t already know his history as an asshole, he would be the kind of guy I might hit on in a bar.
Shame we weren’t in a bar, and he wasn’t the kind of guy I had any interest in whatsoever.
I turned away, starting to grab clothes out so I could hang them in the small closet space we had to share.
