Breathing Room (Waiting Room #2)

Chapter 7: Movie Night (Part 2)

Jacky had no idea who he was looking for. He had zero memory of Hot Cam. He cursed himself for not asking Billy anything about Cam. Like, what color hair did he have? Was he tall?

Braedyn had gone to save some seats, right in the middle of the theater, dead center in a row, and while Brandon had immediately gone to get food, Braedyn kept turning around to look at Jacky standing near the door.

Jacky had assumed that he'd vaguely recognize Cam when he showed up, but he didn't realize how much he had assumed Cam would look like Ryan until a lighter-skinned Black guy with close-cropped hair and a scruffy beard sauntered up. Jacky had found his eyes drawn to the guy, since he had a bit of a swagger and an open smile and was drop-dead gorgeous. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a stylized red spider on the front underneath a red plaid shirt and a sherpa-lined jean jacket.

Then the guy walked right up to Jacky, still smiling. "Hey," he said.

This had to be Cam. Jacky's mouth was suddenly dry.

His brain was stuttering with how hot Cam was. How had he managed to talk to this guy at the party, about fucking Captain America of all things? And why would Cam have talked to him, enough to exchange phone numbers? Surely there had been other hot gays there. Jacky was certain Billy would have had no issues with jumping Cam's bones.

Unless this wasn't a date.

"Hi," Jacky said, managing not to croak. He cleared his throat just in case, and then he started babbling. "You want to get anything to eat before we find some seats? One of the guys in my hall is here, I think he grabbed seats for us. I'm not really hungry but a soda would be good. I think we have some time before the movie starts."

"Yeah, let's grab a snack," Cam said with a chuckle. "I don't want to miss any previews. They'll have previews, right?"

"I hope so. I love previews." As Cam started to walk toward the concessions stand, Jacky briefly closed his eyes as if he could shut out how stupid that sounded. I love previews. Good thing this wasn't a date, and Jacky had already made that clear by saying they'd be sitting with some random guys from his dorm. Cam definitely wouldn't be considering making out with Braedyn sitting right there. Or maybe he would. Jacky squeezed his eyes shut tight for a second to try to erase that awkward situation from his brain.

He slammed into Cam's back.

"Sorry!" he said, stepping back, but then Cam's hand was around his shoulder – his shoulder, Cam's hand was touching his amputated shoulder – and Jacky froze. His heartbeat sped up, but he felt every muscle in his body stiffen even as Cam gently tugged him toward the concessions counter.

"It's fine." Cam's voice was like honey, brushing up against Jacky's ear.

"I didn't think so many people would be here. I mean, it's a campus event and not a party or anything. But it is Marvel, and it's free, so I guess I should have known better." Jacky knew he was babbling and couldn't stop himself. His brain was racing with other thoughts too, like what had happened at that party? Had they hooked up? Were they going to hook up tonight? "I guess I thought after Endgame, the fandom had died off a little bit, plus with the pandemic and all the shows on Disney+, it just wasn't the same."

"I'm sure not everyone here is as big a fan as we are," Cam said, giving Jacky's shoulder a little squeeze. "Oh, I'm sorry – am I hurting you?" He removed his arm, and Jacky relaxed just a little.

"No." It took Jacky half a second for his reeling mind to understand what Cam meant. Non-amputees wouldn't know if a residual limb would hurt more or less, and it often varied. Jacky had been lucky not to have a lot of nerve damage. But he didn't want to talk about any of that. "So, who's your favorite Spider-Man?"