Page 21 of Oblivious Roommate

He parks abruptly enough for me to have to grab the handle above the window.

When I’m too choked up to speak, he turns to face me. “The point is that you now know you’ve got a shot with the guy you like. If you saw Logan with another guy and then Cass kissed you back, then maybe they’re not doing well as a couple. Maybe it’s the right time to tell him what you just discovered about yourself?”

“I can’t tell him I backed him into a corner and kiss—”

Aaron blinks, looking past me, and when something knocks on my window, I turn to see a group of drunk students. One of the guys lowers his pants to show off his ass, and one of his friends almost falls over from laughter.

Can I not have a serious fucking conversation here?

Aaron sighs. “Come with me.”

I grab my clothes so I can change in his room, but we don’t speak when he leads me to his dorm. I now feel inadequate in the foam muscles and armor. Like I should be having fun, but I’m not.

The room is small, meant for a single person, but while most students use decor to transform the standardized spaces into a home, Aaron’s is on another level. There’s a flurry of cushions in dark colors at the headboard, and the bed itself is covered with a thick, plush blanket the shade of red wine. Stacks of books occupy every flat surface and the walls are a gallery of framed pictures in various sizes. A Persian rug rests on top of the standard gray carpeting, and a gramophone stands on a Grecian column in the corner, alongside a collection of vinyls. I attempt to touch the device, but Aaron slaps my hand away.

“What if I tell him Logan is cheating, and he resents me for it?” I finally say, dropping to his bed. “Wow. This is a really soft blanket.”

“My cat loved it,” Aaron says and slides off his top before dropping it to the floor. I watch him open the closet and put on a black turtleneck. “The blanket, obviously. But yes, I’m not sure how Cass would react to the bad news coming from you.”

I’m glad that he confirms my worries so I don’t feel like I’m going crazy, but it doesn’t make my position any less precarious.

“I’ll just… I need some time to process this. It’s like trying pineapple on pizza for the first time, and everyone’s always told you it’s awful, but you taste it for yourself, and it’s the best thing on the planet. Actually better than the other ingredients you tried before.”

He shoots me a skeptical look. “Pineapple on pizza is revolting. Being gay is…” he trails off, and I’m glad even he doesn’t have the capacity to put it into words. “Keep talking, I’ll go wash this off my face.”

He enters the bathroom, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Doors bang in the corridor, and I hear people having fun, but all I can feel is the whirr of emotion deep inside. And while it keeps spinning, there’s no outlet for any of them.

Could it be that Cass and Logan had broken up just before the party, and I was meant to be his rebound?

“Guess what, by the way! Logan was cheating with the other Spartan guy.” I snort and roll on the bed, hugging the blanket.

“Typical. Guys like him always go for their twin,” he says from the bathroom, but I wait with my answer for the water to stop making noise.

“They do?”

“Yeah. There’s some guys who think only one type of person looks good. This is why they try to look a certain way and then get together with a dude that has the same style. And then it looks like they’re fucking their own twin. No judgment, of course,” Aaron says judgmentally as he steps out of the bathroom, still drying his face with a towel.

Do I think Aaron's hot?

I cock my head, shocked by the doors now opening in my mind. To rooms I never knew existed in there.

“Is that why I’m not your type?”

Aaron blinks away excess water, staring at me like I’ve just grown a second head. “Excuse me?”

“Because you want a slender… err… poet?”

“I never said I want my twin, I said some guys do. And Cass isn’t exactly your carbon copy, so you should understand the concept, right?”

“Okay, okay! Jeez…” I raise my hands in surrender. “I’m just, like… My mind is racing, you know? Do I have the hots for other guys? Do I want to suck a dick? I have no idea.”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Aaron says, and his hand makes a wave-like motion toward the door. “If that’s what you want to know, download a gay dating app and meet up with someone tonight. But if you want Cassian, calm down and see what you can get out of him. What would he do if you casually dropped that you think you might be gay?”

The thought of saying that to him makes me curl into a ball around the bunched-up blanket. “I don’t know. He’d be understanding. Probably. But giving someone a pat on the back is different to wanting to kiss them. Or do… other stuff.”

Aaron lets out an exasperated breath. He opens the cabinet with tiny wooden legs, then opens a… hidden compartment inside. There are several bottles in there, and different types of glasses, two sets of each. Aaron takes out two large goblets and fills each with red wine. He offers one to me before settling in the swivel chair with the other. “It is, but you aren’t that different from Logan, type-wise. You’re both tall, fit, stereotypically masculine guys. If he knew that maybe you’d be open to a man—” He ends on a high note and opens his eyes wide as if nothing else needs to be said.

“I’m not a stereotype.”