Chapter Three – Here We Go Again

The small cooktop could barely serve the purpose, but Jonathan decided to try his hand at cooking anyway. After all, boiling some pasta and preparing some sauce that didn’t come in a tube or plastic package along with the entire list of preservatives ever created by mankind wasn’t that hard as he had discovered ever since he had left home.

“That smells nice,” Ray said as he stuck his head in.

“If you’re hungry, I’ll have everything ready in about five minutes,” Jonathan said.

“Awesome.” Ray sat at the small table that could accommodate two people at the best of its capabilities. “So, JJ, you have nothing to fess up?”

“Fess up?” Jonathan turned toward his roommate. Ray was eyeing him while fiddling his thumbs, the perfect impersonation of a parent waiting for a naughty child to spill the beans about breaking his grandmother’s one-century old porcelain vase. “Like what?”

“Really?” Ray seemed surprised. “Do I have to find out from Xpress that you got paired with Maddox freaking Kingsley for your Statistics project?”

Jonathan groaned. “That little publication is starting to scare me. Why is such a thing important? Does it list who everyone else is partnering with?”

“Just the important people,” Ray said with a shrug. “When were you going to tell me?”

“Ray, Maddox is just a student like everyone else. And we happen to share a class, hence the possibility of us ending up as project partners, with a probability of --”

Ray put his hand up. “I’m going to stop you right there before you launch into some math dissertation that will make me doze off. So, did you talk to him?”

“Briefly,” Jonathan said and pretended that the sauce needed some vigorous stirring.

“Well, did he say anything about why he chose you?”

Jonathan turned toward Ray again. “What do you mean? The professor chose all the pairings.”

Ray smiled slyly. “Not according to Xpress. Apparently, a certain student had a little chat with your prof right before the lecture, insisting that he must be paired up with the new guy.”

“Stop reading that thing, Ray, I mean it. I doubt that happened.” Jonathan placed two plates on the table. When he went for the forks, his right hand did a weird thing, and the utensils ended on the floor with a loud clatter.

“Something happened with you two, and you’re not telling,” Ray accused him openly, but in the same playful manner of his.

“What could possibly happen? We barely met. All right, since you insist so much. I talked to him, I apologize for mistaking him for a drug dealer, and we hugged.”

He hadn’t intended to let that little tidbit drop, but he couldn’t take it back now.

“O.M.G, JJ, that’s awesome! So you’re friends with him now?”

“I wouldn’t say that. But we’re no longer on the brink of nuclear war,” Jonathan replied.

That if he didn’t count what took place south of his belt whenever he happened to be within ten feet of Maddox Kingsley.

“Oh, oh, oh,” Ray continued to express his excitement, slapping his cheeks and grinning broadly, “that means that we’re going to get invited to all the parties. Hooray to us and goodbye, social exclusion!”

“I had no idea you disliked it that much,” Jonathan teased him. “I’d say being invisible to the social body is not entirely a bad thing.”

“Yeah, easy to say when you’re a six point four hunk dressed in tailored clothes and looking like a classic movie star,” Ray said without breathing for a moment.

“Aw, you really mean that?” Jonathan joked and let his eyelashes flutter in a coy gesture.

“You know I’m right. I suppose you could do with a little less attention, well, provided that you don’t declare war on the BMOC on your first day of school, but I take whatever I can, thank you very much. Hey, I hope you’re not going to ditch me now that you’re popular?”

Jonathan laughed and tousled Ray’s hair. “Like I’d do that. You’re my bestie, right?”

Well, he didn’t have to believe everything Ray was reading online on that tabloid, but it did make him wonder. Had Maddox done that? And if ‘yes’, why?

***

“What are you up to?” Dex asked and pushed him with his elbow as Maddox fiddled with his phone.

“Huh?”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me. You’ve been doing nothing but look at your phone for the last half hour since I got home. You haven’t said a word.”

“Totally true,” Kane piped in. “And you didn’t even eat your tacos,” he added, pointing at the untouched meal in front of him.

“Yeah, can I have those?” Rusty reached for the plate, and Maddox slapped his hand away promptly.

“No, you can’t. And I was just checking… the weather,” he said defensively.

“The weather,” Dex said slowly.

Maddox stared at his friends, one by one. There were certain exchanges between Kane and Dex he didn’t like. Rusty didn’t appear affected, but when was he ever?

“All right,” Kane said, narrowing his eyes. “Who is she?”

“There is no ‘she’,” Maddox replied.

“Yeah, sure.” Kane continued to examine him with shrewd eyes. “She must be giving you the cold shoulder if you’re so distracted.”

“Hey, nobody gives the cold shoulder to my bro,” Rusty jumped to his defense right away.

“Yeah, thank you, Rusty. Here, have a taco.” He threw a small wrap at his friend, who caught it deftly. “I’m not distracted, but very much focused,” Maddox added and waved his phone.

Dex was quick to snatch it from his hand. “Let’s find out what you’re so focused on.”

The ping of an incoming message, supposedly the one he had been waiting for all day long, spurred him into instant action. He lunged at Dex so fast that not even his athletic friend had a chance to prevent him from snatching his phone back. In the blink of an eye, he noticed the sender, so he cradled his phone to his chest like it was a matter of national security and darted out of the room.

“Hey, what the hell, man? Who’s your sweetheart?” Dex called after him.

“Let him be. He’ll fess up sooner or later,” Kane said loud enough for him to hear it even as he rushed up the stairs to his bedroom.

He made sure to lock the door and pressed his back against it. Then, after one deep breath, he checked the message.

When is a good time for you to meet up and talk about the project?

Maddox smiled. For the entire day, he had waited for Jonathan to contact him. In the short message, he could practically hear the correct pronunciation of each word, the rich vowels, the ups and downs of that low pleasant voice. He couldn’t be the one to make the first move, especially after locking himself in the bathroom and doing the unthinkable while thinking of the guy. He was locking himself in the bedroom, which surely looked mighty suspicious to his friends downstairs, but right now, he couldn’t give a damn about that.

What he did give a damn was for Jonathan to be the first to contact him. Wait, why was he so excited? Maddox shook his head. Well, whatever happened earlier had to be a fluke. Now that he had jerked off and his balls were dried out, for the time being, he could see the guy without having any unusual fantasies. And since he was a man of action, he had to check that theory sooner rather than later. Meeting up with Jonathan and spending time with the guy would make things perfectly clear, meaning that he was a straight guy who had just had a gay fantasy by accident.

Are you free right now? Let’s meet at the library.

He hit ‘send’ and waited. Who knew seconds could feel so long. Why was Jonathan typing so slowly?

I’ll be there in ten. But I must warn you that I won’t be able to spend more than an hour on this today.

Maddox pondered and rubbed his chin in thought.

Got a date or something?

Who could snatch Jonathan so quickly? Yeah, they were no longer at war, as everyone must have heard by now, but really, who could be so fast to snatch the guy?

No, I’m working.

Phew, not a date. Wait a minute, working?

You’re working?

Why did the guy have to work? He was there on an academic scholarship and looked like some couple of one-percenters’ offspring.

Yes.

Maddox waited for a follow-up on that, but it looked like nothing happened.

Why? He sent the message quickly.

For the same reason everybody does. Money.

Maddox scratched his head.

You seem surprised, or is it just my impression? A second text from Jonathan followed.

Yeah. I mean, you reek of old money.

All right, maybe he had worded that kind of weirdly, but it was precisely what he was thinking, and he usually said whatever crossed his mind.

I see. Are you at the library yet? I’m on my way, and I don’t have that much time to spare.

Maddox straightened up and then took a quick look at his clothes. They’d do. It wasn’t like he was going on a date or something. And phone text Jonathan seemed pricklier than in real life. He sighed in content. Yeah, today must have been a fluke. This guy who didn’t care to chat outside whatever they needed to talk about was kind of obnoxious. Maddox grabbed his laptop bag and walked out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Kane questioned him as soon as he was in his friends’ line of sight.

“To the library,” Maddox quipped. “Working on a project.”

There was another meaningful exchange between Kane and Dex.

“Tell her we’d like to meet her,” Dex teased him with a crooked grin.

“Geesh, guys, just drop it. There’s no girl involved. I’m really going to the library.”

He didn’t wait for more teasing to happen and walked out the door. Well, after checking that his temporary attraction slash insanity involving Jonathan Hamilton was nothing but a fluke, he would get himself a girl. To be back into action was everything he needed, after all.

***