-Mason-
"Did you scare him off again?" Eric asked while pacing beside the main entrance of the gym, loudly scoffing when I just walked right past him. "Did he reject you, then?"
I turned back and flipped him off before heading towards my car, contemplating just leaving him here before remembering that he'd been the one to encourage me to drive over and ask Bennett for his number in the first place.
Besides, if I truly did abandon Eric here, he'd just barge into the gym and bother Bennett instead, which was the last thing I needed. If a typical Eric was already prone to embarrassing me, there was no way I was leaving an unsupervised, scorned Eric anywhere near the gym I frequented.
So, I politely unlocked both sides of the car, rolling my eyes when Eric shot me a sheepish grin before getting in.
If anything, I was surprised that he'd managed to coerce me into following his advice in the first place, especially on a night that I was genuinely busy. To be fair, I spent the better half of the night trying to ignore him while glancing through my notes and study guide.
But then he'd spewed some 'it's now or never' bullshit rhetoric about how waiting until next week might cause Bennett to change his mind... And, of course, the fearmongering had worked like a charm; I'd hastily driven over and caught Bennett right after class, begging for his number like a total loser.
In all honesty, I was still reeling from when it seemed like Bennett was actually going to turn down my suggestion to exchange numbers, my stomach still viciously in knots at the thought. But really, all I could do now was wait.
"I'm still trying to understand how you went into this wanting to be his boyfriend and ended up being his personal trainer," Eric chuckled, shaking his head. "Just... how did we get here?"
"I told you already; I panicked."
"Clearly," he retorted, pondering to himself. "But no, this is good. Like I explained to you last night, any step forward is progress; at least you'll be able to get closer to him now, right?"
I sighed. Well, perhaps... if I hadn't weirded him out. "If he doesn't bail on me."
Eric frowned. "So, he didn't give you his number?"
"Kind of? He actually said he doesn't have a phone right now," I explained, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. "So, I gave him my number instead. And now we wait, I suppose?"
Eric tilted his head, giving me a conflicted look. "Who doesn't have a phone?"
"Bennett."
"No, I mean... who just doesn't have a phone nowadays?"
I shrugged, snorting at a memory that popped into my brain. "Remember last year when you threw your phone off the Golden Gate bridge and had to wait until we came back from our trip to get a new one?"
Eric narrowed his eyes. "When I threw it?"
I snorted, stifling a laugh while nudging him. "Put on your seatbelt."
"When I threw it, huh?" he yelled while attempting to force me into a headlock. "I dropped it when you tried to throw me off the goddamn bridge!"
"I wasn't actually going to do it!" I burst out laughing while leaning away from him, signaling towards the front. "I'm going to drive now! Let go, Dirk!"
"You're still parked," Eric retorted while roughly tousling my hair, which earned him a harsh pinch on the torso.
Eric let go with a yelp, grumbling under his breath while rubbing at his side. "You giant bully..." He was going to try something again, but then a couple walked past my car, both frowning at us. Eric had the decency to look somewhat embarrassed, even if he did try to fight me again.
I turned on the car and pulled out of the parking space before he could try to force me into another headlock, rolling my eyes when he opted for changing the playlist on his phone, which was boldly connected as the primary device to my car's Bluetooth. "You got a phone upgrade out of it, didn't you?" I reminded my friend, trying to suppress a laugh.
Eric rolled his eyes. "That's because your parents adore me. As they should."
I rolled my eyes, though he wasn't necessarily wrong. They always gladly invited him to all of our gatherings, and they even encouraged him to tag along on our family trips, covering his expenses like he was one of their own. Which, that did remind me... "Mom asked if you're sure about not joining us this weekend."
Eric sulked a bit at the reminder, shaking his head. "I wish... I need to stay on campus to meet up for a group project, though," he lamented, shaking his head in annoyance. "I hate teamwork. We had all semester to work on this, but they kept procrastinating on their parts until the professor declared there'd be no extensions. And now, five weeks after the fact, I have to babysit a bunch of idiots or they might not get it done by the due date."
I nodded my head, understanding too well how stressful it could be to work with others. At least when they were lazy. Typically, I didn't have any issues intimidating others into getting their share of the group projects done, though. "Did you tell the professor?"
"I ain't no snitch," Eric retorted, though he did seem to at least consider it. "I do plan to hunt them down all over campus if we don't have it completed by Sunday, though."
I chuckled while slowly halting for a red light, suddenly frowning when I realized we hadn't eaten yet and it was getting pretty late. "Are we eating on campus or should I stop somewhere beforehand?" I asked while pointing towards the nearby burger joint.
Eric sighed. "Campus is fine. But can we go get Ricky first?"
I nodded in agreement, glancing back before signaling right, shifting lanes just in time to turn towards Ricky's apartment complex, which was thankfully nearby. "Does he know you're coming to kidnap him?"
Eric just nodded while texting away on his phone. Then, he let out a loud, dramatic sigh while turning to look at me. "Bro, Bennett totally made that up," he abruptly stated, as if we hadn't already changed topics about five minutes prior. "But that doesn't mean all hope is lost."
I huffed. "Shut up."
"To be fair, I didn't see him on his phone at all yesterday, so maybe he's being forreal," Eric debated with himself, suddenly narrowing his eyes as he realized something. "Wait! How the hell am I going to text him about the party, then?"
"Can we just... not talk about this right now?" I asked through gritted teeth, wishing to just take Bennett at face value. There was no way that overthinking about this would help. And besides, I didn't like the idea of distrusting Bennett, especially when I had no real reason to.
"Why?"
"You're giving me a headache."
"Hey, jerk." Eric poked me, scoffing once more when I didn't pay him any attention. "Why are you mad at me again?"
I huffed. "I'm not... I'm just nervous. And kind of embarrassed."
"Aw, c'mon..." Eric cringed, rubbing my shoulder in his feeble attempt at comforting me. "I was just kidding. I'm sure he's—"
"Eric, please."
He groaned, but nodded his head, kindly turning up the music and letting us drive in what was more or less relative peace. Well, aside from him enthusiastically singing along whenever a song he particularly liked came on, which was every single goddamn song since it was a curated playlist blasting. But that was entertaining, at the very least.
Once we parked outside Ricky's place, I waited in the car while Eric headed in to get him, complaining about how he needed to drag Ricky out himself or we'd be waiting forever. I just rolled my eyes, knowing damn well he was going to raid his pantry.
"Steal me something to eat too," I yelled out.
Eric just grinned back mischievously in response.
I tried to distract myself with music, sighing with relief when they walked out after ten minutes or so. I flashed Ricky a small smile as he walked up to my window, chuckling as he patted my shoulder and handed me a bag of microwaved popcorn.
"You caught him?" I snickered before opening the bag and eating a handful.
"He even told me to microwave it for you. To be fair, he got distracted."
I snorted in response. "Did he now?"
"Mason!" Eric called out while getting into the backseat, dragging Ricky along with him. "Guess what?"
"Huh?" I asked, noticing Eric was beaming. Oh god, what now?
It couldn't be anything too bad, at least. Ricky was great, and he had more logical limits. He was originally a friend of Eric's since they were in the same major and shared some classes, but we did get close from hanging out together so often. He was quite entertaining to have around, especially since he was usually on my side whenever Eric was being irrational.
"Ricky's mom sent me pupusas. I'm going to cry," Eric exclaimed while lifting up a container, nearly teary eyed as he cheerfully clung to it. "I love her so much. Ricky, does she know how much I love her?"
Ricky just laughed, giving him an amused grin. "We had a party last night, and she told me to take some leftovers with me. She even set something aside for Eric since she knows how much he loves her food," he explained, which meant his fridge was probably stocked full of delicious Salvadorian food. Pupusas, though, were Eric's favorite, which explained why the container had 'Eric' scribbled atop it with sharpie.
"What is it about this jerk that makes parents love him?" I questioned Ricky in disbelief, eating some more popcorn before pointing at him accusingly. "Do you bribe them?"
"I'm handsome and charming," Eric retorted with a serious expression, trying his hardest not to grin at me. Ricky just shrugged in defeat, nodding in skeptical agreement. "My mom did ask me to invite him next time..."
I snorted. "Of course, she did."
Eric was too busy beaming down at the container once more.
And I'd usually laugh at his excitement, but he had a pretty solid reason to be grinning like a fool. Ricky's mom owned a restaurant, which we'd gone to a few times, and the food was always great. Unfortunately, it was two hours away from here, so we couldn't frequent it.
I chuckled, digging into the bag of popcorn once more only to realize I'd almost finished it. I sighed before downing some more, still hungry. "Can we go back to the dorms now?"
"You should just skip studying for today," Eric pointed out as I merged back into the street, still hugging the container. "Why don't you join us instead? After eating, we're going to the nearby karaoke place with Mel, Ella, and a few others."
Ricky rolled his eyes, nudging him. "Stop being a bad influence, Eric. He's busy."
Eric just pouted, huffing to himself as if he wasn't asking me to skip studying for an exam that was about 30% of my grade. "Oh, c'mon! It's Friday. Can't he just study tomorrow?"
I shook my head. "Family trip this weekend, remember? We were just talking about this."
Eric pouted. "Fine."
"I will gladly take a few pupusas, though."
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A/N: Thank you for reading. Please consider voting and commenting; I appreciate it immensely.