He played Hacky Sack with Pete Petrow, one of the baritones, to kill some time before practice started. Last night, before leaving the library with Ezra, Ezra had asked Jake if Jake might talk to Sean today and find out if he was seeing anyone. Jake promised he would, then he took a long, hot shower and some Tylenol. Ezra was a socially awkward mess, but he’d given Jake some hope last night near the end when he finally understood that talking to your crush about murderous insects and bird orgasms was a big no-no.
So, Jake got up early today so he could be in the choir room earlier than usual, because Sean usually was. Ezra typically slipped in through the back entrance unnoticed and went straight to his seat without speaking to anyone. He never left his music on the shelves—which were labeled with all their names—in order to avoid socializing, at least that was Jake’s guess.
Jake was balancing the Hacky Sack on his foot when Sean walked in. Jake watched him go over to the shelves to get his music. Did Ezra really think Sean was so cute? Sure, he had that curly hair and all, but his nose was kind of crooked. Andhis forehead was a little lopsided. And Ezra might be onto something about his ears. But really, it all added to Sean’s handsomeness, and Jake hated to admit it.
But Jake still thought he’d win Best Looking—if there ever were such a thing for the men’s choir, which there wasn’t, and Jake didn’t really think there needed to be, since he hadn’t thought about it all that much or anything.
Sean said hey to a couple of other guys and went to take his seat. Jake absently launched the Hacky Sack off his foot and right into Pete’s face.
“Hey, watch it,” Pete exclaimed as Jake snatched up his music folder and went to sit next to Sean.
Sean glanced at him. “Sup, Fallon?”
“Hey, Sean.” Jake watched Sean flip through his music. He did have weird ears, now that Jake was up close and could see. They were almost pointy at the top, like Sean could be a sexy elf. But that didn’t help Jake understand why Ezra liked them any better.
“What?” Sean said, noticing Jake was staring.
Jake cleared his throat. “Nothing.” He looked down at his music for a second, then over at Sean again. Jake’s interactions with Sean had been minimal all semester, even though the guy sat right next to him. There’d been some comments about the music they were singing, or some shared eye rolls at something Dr. Martin said, but that was about it. Jake barely knew the guy that Ezra was crushing on, and it weirdly made Jake curious about him.
And kind of like Jake was now the one not knowing what to say.
“So, um,” Jake said, “Have you always sang bass?”
Sean looked at Jake all confused for a second, then he shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I mean, I can sing tenor if I need to.Just that bass is more in my vocal range.” He raised a brow. “Why?”
It was Jake’s turn to shrug, only it was a nervous kind of shrug, because for some reason Jake’s hands were getting sweaty. “Just wondering.”
“Okay.” Sean gave Jake a strange look, then shifted his eyes back to his music folder.
Jake noticed Sean was wearing baggy jeans today. Jake had never really thought about it, but he bet Sean had a big dick. A big dick a whole lot of guys were begging him for every ten minutes. So, it was probably unlikely Sean was single. He probably had lots of boyfriends. Jake guessed there had to be a few gay guys on campus, but he didn’t really know.
Sean noticed Jake was staring again. His brows knitted together, then he smiled smugly. “Are you checking me out, Fallon?”
Jake felt his face heat a thousand degrees and his laugh was unnecessarily loud. He cleared his throat. “You wish.” He flipped through his music for no reason. He cleared his throat again. “So, uh, this is sort of out of left field, but… um…”
Sean turned to him with an eyebrow raised.
“Are you like… seeing anybody?”
Sean grinned all smug again. “Why? You interested?”
“No, no, no.” Jake shook his head vigorously. “Just, um, just wondering.”
“Okay?” Sean chuckled, shaking his head.
“So…?”
“So what?”
“Are you seeing anyone?”
Sean snapped his folder closed and stretched. “Nope.” He stood up. “I gotta take a wiz.” He walked out of the choir room, and Jake watched him go because he wanted to see if Sean even had a nice ass and the fucker did.
“Pssst!”
Jake startled and dropped his folder. He turned to see Ezra a few seats away.
“When did you get in here?” Jake asked.
