-Mason-
"Am I hot enough?" I asked Eric, wincing at how ridiculous the question sounded coming out of my mouth. "I mean... you'd consider me a catch, right?"
He didn't reply.
"Right?"
Eric grumbled noncommittally.
"Come on! I'm being serious."
He grimaced in response, albeit not without shrugging his shoulders in some weak semblance of agreement.
"Tell me I'm hot, Eric."
He tiredly muttered curses under his breath, launching one of his pillows at me before using the other to cover his face. There was the faint sound of a muffled scream before he placed it back under his head. I'd been asking for some form of validation for the last half an hour or so, to no avail. It wasn't as if I necessarily liked having to ask him for his opinion, yet the question was burning in the back of my mind ever since I encountered Bennett's co-worker.
I'd never been one to doubt my own appearance, yet there was something to be said about Jonah's appearance brought it all into perspective. With a co-worker like that coddling Bennett—calling him Benny in that grossly saccharine tone—it was no wonder he wasn't even remotely interested in me.
Hell, they were probably together right now, lovingly licking each other's wounds while I rotted away beside a jerk who wouldn't even feed my ego once to humor me.
"Eric," I called out while throwing his pillow back at him, scoffing in disbelief when it didn't even reach his bed.
"You are, Mason. I swear you're the hottest bitch I've ever met," Eric mumbled unenthusiastically before snatching his other pillow from where it'd landed on the floor. "Can I go back to sleep now? I'm starting to think I preferred it when you were keeping this from me."
"Why isn't he interested, then?" I challenged while getting up, crossing my arms in sheer indignation. "I keep chasing after him like some naïve little schoolgirl with a crush. But do you think he's noticed? No!"
"Have you tried telling him how you feel? Have you asked him if he's even into guys?" Eric complained. "Also, no need to demean little girls just because you can't get laid."
"I can get laid," I scoffed.
"Then go get laid!"
I narrowed my eyes, considerably glancing at the door before rolling my eyes. A few months ago... hell, a few weeks ago, I probably would've, if only to take the edge off. But now...
Eric snorted. "You know it's not cheating if he doesn't even know you exist, right?"
"He knows I exist, fuck you!"
"At least I'm not the loser who can't get the time of day from a freshman," he mocked. God, he got mean when he was tired. "And don't try to bullshit me by pretending he's older because the gym's website says he goes to our uni—"
"Bitch!"
"You're the bitch!"
"Screw you, Eric Dick."
"It's Eric Dirk, you asshole," he corrected despite knowing damn well I was doing it on purpose, shoving his blanket off and sitting up to properly glower at me. "And that lame ass joke is almost as pathetic as those blue balls you got uselessly hanging between your legs."
I rolled my eyes. "Jerk."
He tiredly rubbed at his eyes, cursing me out under his breath before lifting his hand up in the air and waving an imaginary white flag. I snorted in disinterest, trying to glance away before realizing he wasn't going to stop until I relented and joined in.
"Fine," I mumbled, indulging him by making the idiotic flag-waving motion back, although only half-heartedly.
"Thank you. Goodnight." Eric released a sigh of relief, plopping back down and covering his whole body with the blanket, probably trying to shield himself from any more conversation.
"I'm hot though, right?" I asked off-handedly because pathetic was my middle name and neediness was ingrained in my DNA.
"If I ever suddenly realize I'm actually into dick too, you'll be the first guy on my list, buddy," Eric assured me, but he honestly sounded like he was just humoring me. "That is, unless the stud behind my presumed sexual awakening wants me back. In which case, all bets are off."
I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile. "You got it all planned out, huh?"
Eric shrugged like it was normal to conjure up such a plan. "I refuse to be caught off-guard."
I nodded my head in agreement. Eric was rather thorough with everything he did, perhaps to a fault. A few years ago, he'd found out my girlfriend at the time was cheating on me and provided me with a 20-slide PowerPoint presentation filled with damning evidence, fittingly titled 'BREAK UP WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND, I'M BORED'. The Ariana song was also booming in the background, which he awkwardly danced along to while I teared up about the betrayal.
I broke up with her that very night.
Point was, Eric was a bit too competent when it came to gathering information. And if he'd managed to track down some information about Bennett, then that probably meant he knew a lot more than he was letting on. "I'm guessing you also found out about his co-workers?"
Eric opened his mouth like he was going to deny it, but then he just sheepishly nodded his head in agreement. "I found the socials for a few of them. To be fair, I was just trying to link them back to Bennett's, but I couldn't. He's not a local, unfortunately; there are no social media accounts under his actual name aside from a Facebook profile that he hasn't used since middle school."
I shook my head. "I swear, you're so weird."
Eric grumbled in protest while reaching for his phone, quirking up an eyebrow when I didn't question him any further. "Anyways, who are you curious about?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, come on. Don't play dumb or I'll go back to sleep."
I cleared my throat. "Jonah? He's Bennett's co-worker. They're... uhm... friends, I think."
Eric furrowed his eyebrows while scrolling through his phone before chuckling under his breath. "Oh, yeah. Jonah. He's pretty good-looking. To be honest, when I first came across the staff roster, I assumed it was him you were talking about. But the names didn't match, of course."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Huh, no... nothing."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Anyways, what about him?"
"Are they—y'know—are they... close?" I murmured, nervously scratching the back of my neck. "Did you find that out?"
Eric smiled knowingly before glancing up at me. "What would you say if I told you they've been dating for a year?"
My heart sunk. Oh.
"I mean, they're not. But what would you say?"
"I—I hate you, stop! C'mon!" I yelled, my heart pounding rather painfully against my chest. Damn it, why was he like this? "They're not, right?"
Eric sent me a message with his social media links. I considered opening them before just deleting the message altogether; if I went down this rabbit hole, I probably wouldn't get out of it. "I'd rather... not. Just tell me what I need to know," I asked, knowing damn well he'd already snooped on his own if he had such quick access to them. He'd even put the links in alphabetical order.
"Fine. As for Jonah, he's single. He has been for a few months. He has a lot of group photos from this year, but only like three of them include Bennett. Oh, and those are work-related... hmm, maybe work parties? And I couldn't find anybody called Bennett following him on any of his accounts. They are likely only work-friends. He's a junior in uni, but he doesn't go to ours. He does have a few posts about LGBT+ rights specifically, but that probably has to do with the fact that he has two moms, y'know?"
I frowned, relieved despite not knowing much more than I had before. At least they weren't dating, right? Unless they were keeping it on the low, which was definitely a possibility. But then, wouldn't Jonah have been nervous when I suggested it?
"He's adopted?" I asked off-handedly.
"I think so. Maybe you guys can bond over that!"
I deadpanned. "I don't want to bond with him over anything. Shut up."
"I know, I know. I'm just teasing," Eric assured me, casually patting my shoulder before focusing back on his phone.
"And... you found nothing about Bennett?"
He scoffed all of a sudden. "You look down on me for research gathering, but then you seek said information?"
"It's stalking."
"It's all publicly available!" Eric replied defensively before flashing a grin. "What would you call what you're doing, then?"
I cleared my throat. "I—shut up. Do you think I have a shot?"
Eric frowned, seemingly surprised by the question. "I've never seen you this nervous about someone before. You really like him, huh?"
I shrugged. No shit.
"I think you have a pretty good shot if he's into guys," Eric offered, which was politely supportive but also relied so much on conditionals that I couldn't help but grimace. What was I doing, honestly? "You're a catch, Mason. I promise."
"Can you tell Bennett that, then?"
"Can I?" he suddenly asked, immediately rising up to his feet like the second coming of Christ. I swore he nearly levitated off the bed. "Can I go to the gym with you? I've been asking to for so long, but you shoot me down every time!"
I scoffed in disagreement; I hadn't—
"One time you told me you'd let me tag along, only to ditch me at the last minute; I stood there waiting in the parking lot for over an hour... over an hour!"
I winced, remembering Bennett's similar complaint just earlier that night. "I thought you said you were over that," I muttered guiltily.
"Over an hour!"
Now that I actually thought about it, there hadn't really been a time where I had given Eric the benefit of the doubt and allowed him to come along with me. Every single time he'd asked if he could join me, I'd managed to evade it somehow. It wasn't because I didn't like to hang out with him, though.
It was mostly because the gym was my space.
It was where I went to de-stress from everything that was bothering me, which sometimes included Eric as well. I felt comfortable there. And it was nice being able to go somewhere where I wasn't expected to do anything other than go through the same motions that I'd already become entirely acquainted with.
There were no expectations from me when I was there. Sure, sometimes strangers were nosy, but a single glare usually had them scurrying off and minding their business. And honestly, being able to enjoy some peace and quiet every once in a while was an added bonus.
Being Eric's roommate could be loud and complicated. We were like brothers, sure, but that also meant that I adored him just as much as he pissed me off. He wasn't quite as vexing as my actual sister, Jane, but he was still excellent at getting on my nerves... like when he broke up with his girlfriend a few weeks ago and got so wasted he "accidentally" puked on my bed and knocked over the television set.
I'd had to head over to my house and bring over the television that I'd left behind in my childhood bedroom. Which, sure, it worked alright, but it was only half the size of the one we'd purchased for the dorm. Gaming just wasn't the same anymore.
"Well, it's my space, so respect it." I shrugged. "I need somewhere I can go to get away from you. Besides, you have the university's gym, right?"
"It's safe for you because you're built like a Transformer," Eric argued like he wasn't nearly my height. He reached out to pat my pecs. "None of your flings have ever had bigger boobs than you."
I snorted while swatting his hands away. "Stop groping me!"
"And look at these thighs," he added before smacking my left leg. "You could crush someone with these. They're a safety hazard."
"I—"
"You know it's true!"
"Is this your idea of hyping me up?"
"Why? Is it working?" Eric asked, looking rather hopeful. "Because if not, I got nothing else."
I was going to respond, but I couldn't even argue with him anymore; my mind kept wandering back to Bennett's expression right before I left. He'd seemed genuinely torn up about something. I wanted to know... to understand.
How did I expect him to like me when he looked at me with such disinterest?
But then, there was the other part of me, which was foolishly naive and already dashing through the idealized scenarios I'd created in my own mind. There, he already liked me, and he was also the one who made the first move. We were already on our way to getting married and buying a house together by the second or third year, since we both accidentally proposed at the same time during a vacation to Rome where we fully realized we were star-crossed lovers, maybe even soulmates. We both considered children, but we wanted to enjoy our youth first, so we settled for a cat instead. He was a beautiful short-haired, one-eyed black cat that we loved equally and called our son. Ironically at first, but it kind of stuck. I tried to pretend it was cringy, but then I also cried once when I came home from work and found Bennett and Viper, our son, cuddling on the couch while waiting for me to get back. Eventually, we adopted a few children, two girls and a boy. And adopted four more cats. Their names were Michelangelo, Nic—
"I'm begging you to get a grip," Eric yelled while shaking me by the shoulders, trying to stifle back a laugh. I blinked up at him, unsure of when he'd even stood up. "I do think Viper is a good name for a cat, though. Very badass."
"It's short for Viperclaw. And he only has one eye because he lost the other to a rogue viper when he was a kitten. Of course, he murdered the snake in retaliation with its tiny, ferocious claws," I elaborated, fully embracing the fact that I'd probably said everything thus far aloud anyways. The least I could do was properly share Viper's origin story as well.
"Viper...claw. Yeah, makes sense. I dig it," Eric nodded approvingly before scoffing under his breath. "Alright, buddy. This is what we're going to do. You're going to head down to the gym tomorrow and ask him out. Can you do that? Can you—please—do that for me? For my sake? Because I need sleep. And I need peace of mind."
"I think he hates me, though," I muttered, somewhat embarrassed to confess it.
Eric frowned at that. "What? Why? What did you do to him?"
I threw my hands up in the air, shaking him off me. "Why do you assume I did anything?"
"You get rude when you're feeling nervous," he pointed out. "Remember in middle school when I walked over to you on the first day and asked to be friends, and you replied by shoving me to the ground?"
"In my defense, you actually asked to be brothers and then tried to bribe me with your lunch money when I said that was a weird thing to ask a stranger!"
"I—that's not the point," Eric waved his hand dismissively. "Anyways, why would he hate you for no reason?"
"I don't know. One second we were fine, and the next he was being all... distant. I don't really know why."
Eric deadpanned, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're such a child, Mason. Did you ever consider that maybe he was just having a bad day? Or, I don't know, did you even think about asking him why he was acting differently all of a sudden?"
I frowned, shaking my head. "He'd been fine before then, so I doubt it was from having a bad day. And I did want to ask what was wrong, but he more or less hinted that he wanted me to leave him alone, so I left."
"Alright, walk me through everything that happened yesterday." Eric sighed, sitting down beside me, and reaching out to wrap an arm around my shoulder. I grumbled, half-heartedly trying to shake him off despite the fact that it was, at the very least, somewhat comforting.
"Well, I woke up around—"
"When you met up with him, you absolute himbo," Eric chided, shaking me once more.
"You could've been specific," I muttered under my breath, pinching his thigh so he'd stop manhandling me. "Fine. Well, I'd just finished taking a shower when I ran into him."
"Ooh."
"Quite literally, though. He tackled me football-style. I saw my life flash before my eyes."
"Oh?"
I shrugged. "He's... clumsy. It'd probably be annoying if he wasn't so freaking adorable about it. But anyway, I helped him up and then I checked out his foot to make sure he was alright since he seemed hurt. I noticed he'd sprained his ankle, so I told him I'd go quickly put on some clothes, and then we could go get some ice for it."
Eric rolled his eyes. "You're never that nice. Maybe he thought you seemed a bit too desperate? Or Fake?" he only seemed to be joking, but I punched him in the arm anyways. Hard.
He winced. But he also knew he'd earned it, so he kept his mouth shut, signaling for me to continue.
"Anyways, then I went to change. Oh yeah, I nearly beat up some prick that was talking shit. However, I didn't want to waste my time, so I let him go and went back to Bennett. By then, though, he was suddenly acting all weird! He even had his stupid, mediocre-looking friend come and help him instead of me!"
"Jonah? You actually think Jonah's mediocre-looking? Really?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Not the point."
"Yeah, okay. Back to that whole situation with the 'piece of shit' you nearly beat up," Eric mentioned. "What exactly did he say?"
I frowned. "I don't know. He called Bennett a freak or something."
"You don't remember what he said?"
"I don't—" I started, before remembering why I couldn't remember what he'd said. I could feel the color drain from my face. "I was laughing along with him."
"You were laughing along with him? About Bennett? While he was in the room?" Eric asked incredulously, reaching out to violently shake me once more. Or maybe choke me.
I avoided his grasp by scrambling to my feet, pacing along the middle of the room while restlessly running my fingers through my hair. "No, I—I wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying. I was kind of just doing that thing that people do where they politely laugh in agreement even though they can't understand what the hell the other person is saying. It's just a shitty habit from when I used to work as a cashier last summer. I—I was just... you don't think—?"
I paused, turning to find Eric shaking his head in disbelief. "You're an idiot, Mason. Y'know that?"
"Wouldn't he have heard me threatening the man afterward too?" I pointed out a bit too desperately... as if Eric would magically know despite not being there.
Eric rubbed at the bridge of his nose, glancing up at me with all the scorn of a disappointed father who could no longer vicariously live out his pro-athlete dreams through his ex-athlete high school son that was now attention Art Institute after graduation. "You know what you have to do, right? Or do I need to spell it out for you?"
I pouted. "Yeah, yeah. I know."
"Do you?"
---
A/N: Does he?