Chapter Seven
Ezra
Irving drove us north through Seattle, cruising up and down the hills and holding the steering wheel tightly. The radio played some quiet static, occasionally glitching out a squeak. From the passenger seat, I could see how furrowed his brow was, like he was studying for a math test or something.
He actually was pretty cute, though. Those shorts did him quite a few favors, and even though his muscles were slim, I could tell he must be pretty strong.Flexible.
“Why a garage sale in North Seattle? I never go to North Seattle.”
“They had some computer components listed on Craigslist that looked interesting to me. They didn’t know enough to answer any of my questions, so I’m going to check it out in person.”
He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye after he said it. Then his mouth popped shut, his lips pressed close together.
I leaned my seat back, scrunching up and playing with the little button that made the window go up and down. Irving hadn’t forced me out of the car, which was good, but he wasn’t exactly welcoming the conversation I was trying to offer. I didn’t even know what I hoped to get out of him. I just knew that he had been talking to Brick, and they had been looking awfully chummy, and if Brick was talking to a guy like Irving, what did that mean for me?
Like, seriously, Irving and I kind of even looked alike. We had the same cheekbones, for one, which were to die for. And we were both similar types of cute, with full lips and long eyelashes, although he frowned as much as I grinned. We were slender and on the shorter side, andgoddamn it, why wasn’t Brick flirting with me?
“Computer components. I don’t really know anything about that.”
Irving shrugged, steering the car around another winding curve. “It’s my thing,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, everyone else at the shop handles the computers. My moms raised me in the middle of the woods, and they allowed me to borrow one movie from the local library every weekend, but nothing more than that. There were absolutely no video games allowed, and the only time I got to use a computer was at school. Some people thought it was messed up, but I really liked it. I think it’s why I got so into drawing and illustration. And hiking. And a million other things.”
Irving bit down on his bottom lip, his eyes still on the road. I almost started talking again, but then I noticed his mouth. It was barely opening and then shutting again. Maybe if I gave him some time?
“I spent all my time with computers,” he finally said. “My parents were just glad I was distracted.”
I couldn’t believe I had actually gotten him to chat with me a little and share something. “Do you mind if I fiddle with the radio?”
When he nodded, I started punching the buttons to find my favorite station. Awkward silences were much less awkward with some music playing, and if I was going to run away from the shop with only a text to Clark to explain myself, I might as well try to make the trip go smoothly. I landed on the station and an ‘80s song about wearing sunglasses at night bounced through the speakers.
“What’s so special about this computer component that you’re driving across town to get it?”
He nodded his head a little to the music, and I bit down on my tongue while I gave him time to talk. Finally, he answered. “It’s a component for a game. A few different components, actually, although I can’t tell which games.” He kept driving, and I kept biting my tongue. “I played a lot of games. I didn’t have a lot of friends, either.”
I snorted, and all my words came tumbling out. “Tell me about it. High school wasrough. People were not interested in the weird new gay kid with the weird gay parents, come to find out. That’s when I really started hanging around in comic book stores and finding a crowd of people I liked. It wasn’t just that they had a bunch of comics there—the place in my town had gaming nights, too, on top of a bunch of cool crap and weird imported toys. But no one from my high school hung out there. It was just other weirdos, you know? Of course, then I moved to Seattle for art school and found Northstar, and now I feel like I’m not even weird anymore.”
I strummed my fingers against the dashboard, bobbing my head and singing along to the song. “Don’t switch the blade on the guy in shades,oh no! Don’t masquerade with the guy in shades,oh no!”
Irving spit out a chuckle. It was a deep laugh that rose up from his chest, even though he tried to bite it back. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, then frowned down at himself. “Sorry.”
“Why? You can laugh.” I tapped my glasses, the transition lenses having gone dark. “Even though I’m the guy in shades.”
He smiled. “Oh no,” he replied, humming it like in the song.
A joke from Irving!I was really getting somewhere.
I kept my mouth shut, and the song faded to an end. Irving gripped the steering wheel, then started up again. “Yeah, I made some friends when I moved to Seattle, too. I just don’t see them anymore.”
“What happened?”
He slowed the car down, steering it to a side street. The driveway of a small red house was filled with folding tables, old exercise equipment, and cardboard boxes, and Irving headed straight to it.
“One guy was my boyfriend, and the other was my roommate. Now they’re boyfriends, and I live peacefully alone.”
Irving parked the car, and I took in what he said, blinking a few times. By the time I processed it, however, he was out of the vehicle and strolling through the tables of junk.
I hopped out to follow him, nodding to an older woman who was sitting with a cashbox. Damn, if I were ever dumped by my boyfriend for my roommate, I would have a serious problem not looking like a sad sack, too. Granted, I hadn’t actually had a boyfriend, not unless you count the several sex toys I had ongoing relationships with. But I could understand how a thing like that would take the fire out of a guy.
