enticed
"You know it's pretty cute you let him get to you."
"The fuck you talking about?" I asked Harley. His words had me staring at him incredulously.
"Noel. I think you like him."
I knew why Harley was saying that. We'd just left the lecture hall for the math class we shared, and had run into Noel on our way out of the same building that he was heading into.
All he'd done was send suggestive brow wiggles at me, looking between Harley and me with a smirk. I'd rolled my eyes and flipped him off which only made Noel laugh, the sound drifting away after his retreating back.
"You're a moron. He's my roommate. Even you--"
"Yeah, yeah. I remember what I said." Harley waved me off. "But that doesn't stop it from being obvious that you're into him."
I pursed my lips. I didn't like Noel. He was hot, duh. He was cool, definitely. He was either having sex with or nearly having sex with a girl in our room just about every other day.
I didn't like Noel. I admired his spirit and moral freedom.
"I don't because I can't," I told Harley firmly.
"Is this because of Jason?"
"Oh my God. Not everything is about Jason," I snapped. "I'm over him."
"Usually having to say that means you're not."
He gave me a pointed look that I wished I could smack off his face.
"You're impossible today. Did Dante piss in your cheerios this morning?"
"He did and they were delicious."
I wrinkled my nose. "You're disgusting."
Harley's face was solemn. "You're deflecting." He paused. Then he casually said, "I know Jason messaged you again last night."
My eyes widened. Turning to face Harley, my stomach flipped. I grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop on the sidewalk. A short girl yelped as she narrowly sidestepped us, shooting me a glare.
I looked at Harley, raindrops softly falling on his cheek before he adjusted his hood. "How?"
"You forgot to sign out when you borrowed my iPad last week."
I pushed away the sinking feeling in my stomach. I forced my face into an expression of neutrality. "Snoop."
"You didn't tell him to get lost."
I felt uncomfortable, my skin itching, thinking back on the night before.
Noel hadn't been in the room. I was laying in bed, restless and bored. And because I had stupidly unmuted Jason a few days prior, I got the notification when a message came through from him.
At first he just wanted to know if I was busy. When I didn't answer, he said he had an emergency. I had warred with myself for a few minutes on whether or not to open the chat. And when I finally caved and did so, Jason sent a picture of his hard dick tenting his boxers. I recognized his hand with a small scar on the back as his thumb rested on himself over the fabric.
Harley was right. I didn't tell him to get lost even though both then and now I knew I should have. I felt like shit, remembering how amazing I felt laying in bed and jacking off to thoughts of Jason, the picture open on my phone where it sat next to my shoulder. It was hardly anything--he wasn't even naked--but I'd felt so alone.
Now, I felt ashamed knowing Harley had seen our conversation. I wondered how far back he read...if he thought I was as pathetic as I did.
"Nate, I'm sorry." Harley's voice was soft. "I shouldn't have brought it up."
The pity in his eyes made me feel sick. I shrugged forcefully, making my lips turn up into an unwanted smirk. "What? It's not a big deal. He was horny, so was I. Shit happens."
I started to walk again, tightening my hood around my neck. Harley didn't say anything as he followed after me. The rain picked up a little and I was glad for the noise it made. It meant we didn't have to continue a conversation to avoid silence.
"I don't really feel like running today," I said as we finally stepped into the shelter of our dorm's lobby. I gestured at the rain on the other side of the glass doors. A thin fog was settling over the ground in the distance. "Wanna come over and play video games?"
Harley smiled. "Sure. I just gotta run upstairs quickly."
Quickly was forty-five minutes and I wondered if he and Dante were hooking up again. Judging by the fact that Harley's hair was still wet from something while mine had completely dried from the rain, I figured they had. I didn't mention it, though.
Harley pretended it hadn't taken him ages to come down and jumped onto my bed next to me. I put my phone away and grabbed two controllers out from the storage box underneath us.
"What do you wanna play?"
Harley shook his head. "I don't care, your pick."
Over an hour later of playing Mario Kart, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I paused the game, earning a shout of disapproval from Harley, and checked the message.
At first I was hoping it would be my mom. I still hadn't heard from her and even though I wasn't surprised about that, I was disappointed.
"Shit, Noel wants to come back." I stood and hit the off button on the console followed by the TV. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving anyway."
"Hey, I was winning!"
I sat on my bed and quickly pulled my shoes on. "Well now you're not. Come on."
"Why do we have to leave?"
I blinked at him. "Because I said I would."
"That's so stupid. It's your room too." He sounded defiant and I thought, oh boy, here he goes. "You know what your problem is?"
With a sigh, I stood and stared at him. "No, please share your profound wisdom. But do it while you get your ass off my bed and put your shoes on."
Harley did as I asked but he took his time, huffing. "You're whipped."
"Whatever." I grabbed the door handle and pulled only to come face to face with Noel. He looked breathless with swollen lips, his hand attached to a beautiful brunette's. She reminded me of one of the girls I'd seen him bring back the week before as we crossed paths in the lounge.
"Shit," I muttered, gesturing wildly for Harley to hurry up. I smiled apologetically at my roommate. "Sorry, we were just leaving."
Although he didn't look all that concerned, there was something unreadable in Noel's eyes as he looked between Harley and me. The look was gone as soon as it had come and he sent me a wink as we switched places--the girl and him now inside the room while Harley and I were in the hallway.
"Text you in a bit," he whispered before shutting the door and locking it.
I turned to Harley who looked annoyed. "You're lucky I'm hungry."
I didn't say anything as I followed him down the hall.
*******
"What's his deal with afternoon sex?" Harley grumbled as we sat down in the cafeteria. I wasn't feeling hungry, so I didn't get any food. Harley's plate, on the other hand, was overflowing with carbs.
I sighed. "What?"
"Like is he afraid of the dark or some shit?"
"You're so stupid."
He fixed me with a stare. "Seriously. I don't get why he's constantly bringing a new, random girl over every day--
"Not every day."
"Every day. Once or twice, fine, cool. Three or four, whatever, I guess. But he does it multiple times a week and he leaves you having to scrounge up something to do. It's a total dick move."
I shrugged. "It doesn't matter. At first it was weird, yeah. I mean I fully wasn't prepared to see him naked like that." I thought back to that day, how right before the situation had sunk in, I was stuck on stupid at how hot he looked with a sheen of pleasure over his face while he was inside Nina. I shoved the thought away again, locking the memory in its designated place in the back of my mind. "But it broke the ice. And now I'm just used to it. It's routine."
"You and your damn routines. Why do you have to be so fine with everything? It's okay to be upset and annoyed, especially when I can tell that you are. You hide everything these days."
I narrowed my eyes. "Trust me, I feel annoyance."
"Shut up, Nate. You can't honestly be okay with this. Don't you like him?"
I groaned. "Why do you keep saying that? I don't. And you bringing it up every five minutes isn't going to change the facts."
"Right. The facts. The ones you've got wrong."
"You know what, Harley? How about we look at your facts. Did you or did you not just fuck Dante before you came to my room?" His mouth gaped open at me. I nodded sardonically. "Oh, that's what I thought. You wanna talk about hypocrisy, look in the damn mirror."
"Nate, the fuck!"
Harley looked shocked, offended, and a little hurt by my accusation. I didn't have it in me to feel bad.
"Fuck you, I'm not hungry anymore."
I stormed away.
I began walking around campus for a while. Eventually the rain became too much and I was shivering too hard to keep going. I made it back to my dorm building almost an hour after I left Harley and just sat in the lounge. I didn't have any of my things, save my phone, and Noel hadn't texted me back yet to say the coast was clear.
I grew bored of scrolling through my socials pretty quickly and I shoved my phone into my pocket. Leaning against the backrest of the chair, I kicked my feet up on another one and contemplated taking a nap if that wouldn't be too weird.
I didn't get to make my final decision because a pair of pretty green eyes caught my attention when I heard a familiar ding from the other side of the room. Theo came out of the elevator that was about twenty feet away but straight across from me. He noticed me after I sat up and waved my arm.
His face went from being flat to pleased in a second and knowing that it was because of me made my chest swell. I cursed myself for being so eager.
"Hey...I didn't catch your name," Theo said with a frown as he got closer. I figured that was a lie. My library account that he looked at when I checked out books had my name on it.
I just smiled. "Nate. Do you live here?"
"No, my friend does."
I tapped my fingers on the armrest as I searched for what to say next. "Did you do the reading for geography?"
"Not yet. I figured I'd get around to it tomorrow before class."
I stared at him. "Oh."
"Not everyone is such a diligent student as you, Nate."
"But you work at the library."
Theo laughed, the sound deep and attractive. He had very dark brown hair that contrasted well with his eyes and his skin tone. He was so fucking cute. "Yeah, because it's a good way to pay for tuition. And books are easy. But that doesn't mean I wanna sit and read eight hundred of them a day."
"Fair enough." I smirked, beginning to consciously flirt with him. "So I guess asking you if you wanna study sometime wouldn't be a good idea?"
"For you?" He tilted his head, eyes scanning my body slowly. He met my gaze again and matched my smirk for one of his own. "I'd be down."
He was blunt. I really liked that.
I pulled out my phone and raised a brow at Theo. "Number?"
He held his hand out and I passed the device to him. I watched him type his number in and then I heard the familiar buzzing sound as he held onto it. Theo's brows rose, and I knew he read whatever flashed across the screen, but didn't say anything until he was done and handed my phone back.
He was still smirking. "Noel says you can come back. Whatever that means."
I cleared my throat, feeling awkward. "Uh, thanks."
Theo stood and gave me a wink. "I'll text you when I feel like studying."
I watched him walk away, a smile on my face. The guy was interesting, flirty and sort of aloof, and I wanted to get to know him better. As I walked to my room I was already thinking about whether or not I should text him in a few days or just wait and see if he would.
When I got to my door, I jokingly covered my eyes with my hands and stood in the open doorway. "Knock, knock. Is it safe for my virgin eyes?"
Noel laughed deeply and through the spaces between my fingers I saw him laying shirtless on his bed. That familiar, worn-down paperback in his hand as he had his head turned to watch me.
"I don't believe for a damn second that you, Nat, are a virgin. Get your ass in here and shut the door."
I dropped my hands and raised a brow at him, but did what he asked. "Aye, aye, sir."
Noel chuckled and when I looked at him again, he was climbing up onto the window sill with a cigarette and his lighter held to his face. At least it wasn't weed, or we'd really be toast if someone noticed.
"Speaking of. You hooking up with anyone?" Noel asked, blowing smoke out the window. His Adam's apple bobbed and the hairs on my neck stood up.
I sat on my desk chair, swiveling to the left and right while I looked at my roommate. His hair was extra voluminous today, wavy instead of curly and poofing out in all directions on the top of his head. It was short on the sides, but he looked like he needed a trim.
"I thought we discussed this," I pointed out.
"Yeah yeah, you don't kiss and tell. I heard you, prude."
I scoffed, meeting Noel's brown eyes. "I'm not a prude, I just...like to keep things on the down-low." Which was true now, whereas just a couple years ago, I knew I was obnoxious to my friends about how often I got laid by a hot girl. I didn't miss those days.
"So what I'm hearing," Noel said, inhaling from his cigarette and then pausing to blow it out. "Is that you're not hooking up with anyone."
I rolled my eyes. "Why do you care anyway?"
My tone was light; I wasn't annoyed, just curious. He shook his head, studying me for a second. "You just seem...tense, a lot."
I was going to shoot back a retort but before I could, Noel was cursing quietly, picking his phone up from the window sill next to his thigh. He dropped the cigarette into a cup of water he kept handy--I heard the satisfying sizzle as it made contact--and put the phone to his ear.
I watched him as a bright smile took over his face, eyes drifting off to focus somewhere else in the room instead of on me. "Hola, Lita! Si, si, bien. Cómo estás?"
I didn't know why, but Noel speaking Spanish caught me by surprise. He looked happy in a way I hadn't seen him before and that made something flutter in my stomach. Noel looked purely joyful.
After a moment, I made myself look away, giving him a small sense of privacy for his conversation, even though I had no idea what he was saying. I understood yes, no, and good, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
I sat scrolling through my phone at my desk while Noel chattered on in the background for another ten minutes. His voice in the accent he used seemed deeper, the words swiftly rolling off his tongue much quicker than when he spoke English.
Everything sounded so romantic.
When he was done, Noel lit another cigarette. The spark of the lighter had me peeking over to see him looking at me already. "Sorry, that was my grandma. She lives in Spain and we don't talk all that often."
"Isn't it late there?" I asked, surprised.
"Yeah, almost midnight, but she's always been a night owl."
I hummed, watching Noel smoke for another minute. He was staring out the window, the cool breeze making his hair bounce every now and then. He scratched at a spot behind his ear absently.
"I didn't know you spoke Spanish," I said, wanting to keep a conversation up with him.
I felt like we never really spoke for long and we were already nearly to midterms. I found him way too interesting to go a whole year as his roommate without knowing anything about him.
Noel looked back at me, eyes still bright. "Yeah, but not all that well. My mom spoke it when I was growing up, but I was a little shit and didn't fully appreciate the beauty of my family history until it was a little late. I've got the vocabulary of a middle-schooler, but that's about it."
"You seemed to be doing just fine."
"That's because I assume you don't know any Spanish yourself."
I made a tchh sound with my teeth against my cheek. "Got me there."
Noel finished smoking and closed the window. Again, the cigarette butt hissed as it fell from his fingers into the water cup.
He came over and leaned against the wall next to me. I looked up at him as he spoke, answering questions I was weirdly too shy to ask.
"My mom's family is from Barcelona. My grandfather was a businessman for some company back in the eighties and when my mom was little they moved to southern California. She met my dad in community college and then they moved up here right after they got married and had me. Mis abuelos moved back to Spain when I was seven. "
"That's...so interesting," I said. When Noel snorted I kicked his shin lightly. "No, for real. My family is boring. We're Jewish, but we aren't really the practicing type. We're a mishmash of european things, but I couldn't definitively tell you any of them."
Noel smirked, studying me. "I bet you're...like Dutch. And French and..." He squinted his eyes, pretending to scrutinize my face. "Maybe Italian with your dark eyes and hair."
I shook my head, amused at his guesses. I humored him. "Yeah, I think somewhere down the line Italian comes into play on my dad's side. Long-lost, of course."
"Oh, of course."
I didn't know what to say next, so I just sat there staring for probably too long and then felt my ears burn when I realized what I was doing.
Noel's amused eyes lingered for another moment on my face and then he smiled before pushing off of the wall and going back to his bed. I swiveled my chair, eyes following him as he sat down and snatched his book back up.
"What are you always reading?" I finally asked. The curiosity had been getting to me over the last few weeks. "I swear it's been the same book for over a month."
Noel looked up at me with that smirk of his I was beginning to know so well. "That's because it has been." I furrowed my brows. He clarified, "It's my favorite book. I just keep rereading it."
"How?"
"What do you mean?" he asked with a chuckle. "I read it...finish it...start again when I'm in the mood...?"
I shook my head, not getting it. This was the same guy who never seemed to sleep with the same girl twice. Yet he read the same book over and over again? I was struggling to understand how he was programmed.
Deciding not to say all that, though, I simply nodded. "Right. I forgot how books worked."
Noel snorted in amusement but his attention was already back on the page he had open, somewhere in the middle of the text.
Conversation time was clearly over, so I sighed quietly and laid down on my bed, feeling like I needed a nap.