Page 16 of Oblivious Roommate

What’s the worst that can happen? If Cass ends up recognizing me, I can always lie that the girl I was meant to be with tonight stood me up.

“He can’t recognize you though.” Aaron shakes his head, and all the balloon grapes tremble as he moves. “Test your troll voice on me.”

I take a deep breath. “Toll!” I exclaim in a low raspy tone that’s nothing like mine.

Aaron places a finger on his chin and nods in approval. “Not bad.”

I puff my chest out despite not feeling confident about this at all. Am I really about to steal a kiss from my best friend? Am I a dumbass, or a genius? The jury is still out on this one.

When we enter the house, the party is in full swing. I smell beer someone must have spilled on the wall that sports a large damp spot, but I didn’t come here for fun. This is a serious undertaking, and I’m intent on treating it as such, no matter how nauseated it makes me.

“You’re sure this is the place Logan told you they’d be at?” I shout into Aaron’s ear so he can hear me over the music.

“Definitely. It’s not a LGBT party, but it’s gay-friendly,” he says, dead serious. The angry eyebrows only make him appear more determined.

A girl in a generic cat girl costume pats Aaron on the shoulder. “Oh, my God! Are you wine?”

I see emptiness and pain in Aaron’s eyes, so I step in.

“No, he’s Grapes of Wrath. You know, like the book.”

She nods, but we can both see she has no idea what I’m talking about. She smiles, gives Aaron a thumbs up and flees.

“I’m surrounded by idiots,” Aaron mumbles, but I’m not offended.

Poor guy has just realized his clever costume doesn’t work and needs to let off some steam. I’ve been there when I dressed up as a sausage, and Cass as the hot dog bun. We thought it was funny. Everyone else at school thought I was a dildo, and I ended up getting called into the principal’s office.

Trying to blend in, we each get something to drink and drift through the rooms, searching for the familiar green costume.

This Halloween, Cass is Robin Hood, and if I wasn’t trying to fool him into believing I’m someone else, I’d be proud to play his Little John. But it is what it is, so I focus on the task at hand while pretending I’m here to have fun, not undermine my best friend’s relationship.

“You see them anywhere?” I have to lean down a lot for Aaron to hear me, but he’s busy staring at some tattooed, bare-chested… sexy zombie guy surrounded by several women in skimpy outfits. I snap my fingers in front of his face. “Focus, Aaron, focus.”

He looks back at me and I don’t know if he’s scowling or if it’s just the makeup that makes him appear angry. “I’m always focused. There they are. See?” He points to Cass and Logan walking out of the kitchen.

Why am I not surprised that Logan is dressed up as a Spartan warrior? Only the most generic costume for a guy who has abs for days.

Cass’s legs look amazing in the tight green leggings, but the belted tunic covers his upper half, preventing the costume from being too revealing. Not that there’s anything bad about being hot, but there’s a line between that and the kind of look-at-me outfit Logan’s wearing. He has a bow, too, and the elongated hat with a feather, and while he decided to complete the costume with a fake mustache, he’s still very much recognizable as his smiling self.

For the briefest moment, I wonder whether he’s missing my company at all, but then Aaron pulls on my sleeve and leans in, barely containing a laugh. “Look over there. Logan has a twin!”

I snort laugh. Another half-naked warrior eyes Logan from afar with raised eyebrows. What are they gonna do? Wrestle for supremacy over Sparta? Highly doubtful.

But back to my Robin Hood. Not mine. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

I don’t even know if this is what I want. I’ve had a few days to adjust to the concept of kissing Cass, but it’s still all very alien to me. He has no idea what’s going on with me, so things have been as usual at home, but since the idea of touching him has been planted in my head, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at him.

We live together, so I often see him in just a towel, or push past him in the kitchen. He is so well-built. From the firm thighs to the pronounced back muscles, he is male perfection. When his hair was wet the other day, and he stood with his back to me, I barely stopped myself from leaning in to lick a drop of water off his nape.

But that was just a thought. A thought is nothing without action. I once wondered what it would be like to swallow a worm I found in the dirt and didn’t like the effect of putting that thought into action.

Though maybe I shouldn’t compare Cassian, or any part of him, to a dirty worm.

“Oh, they must hate having identical costumes. I think that’s the exact same product too. Which is why I chose this, you know?” Aaron says with a satisfied grin and rubs the balloons sitting on his chest.

“Okay, Aaron. Now’s your big moment,” I say after inhaling deeply a final time. Go distract Logan—”

I stop in my tracks, because Logan’s talking to Cass about something, and after Cass rolls his eyes, Logan goes off toward the other Spartan. I have no idea what’s going on, but all that matters is that Cass is now on his own.