Oh Boy! (BL)

29 - Hope (2/3)

The incident with Kenner stayed on my mind until our lesson was over. How much had Kenner seen? How much had he heard? So, when I received a text from Cooper with an eye-rolling emoji followed by "Your sex life is eating at my ego, boss," I couldn't even feel embarrassed about it.

"Hmm..." Clay drew in his brows and cast a troubled look out of the windshield. The moment I got into his passenger seat, I had told him about my worries. Some of our fellow students had watched me curiously when I headed for Clay's sedan after class – it was the first time in almost two weeks that we drove together after all. But most of them ignored it.

"I could talk to him..."

"No," I barged in and reached for his upper arm. Clay's beautiful grey eyes met my gaze. "Maybe I'm just overreacting, right?"

Right?

Clay regarded me for a moment in which he appeared to consider whether we shouldn't worry about it or confront the situation. He chose alternative number one when he lifted one side of his mouth and started the engine of his car.

"So...um...where exactly are we going?" I asked while we drove off the school premises.

Clay smirked. "It's a surprise."

Uh, now I was curious. "C'mon, tell me!"

But Clay just put his left index finger over his mouth.

A few minutes later, my phone announced yet another text by Cooper.

Make him use a condom, my son!

I snorted but glanced over at Clay anyway. He bit his lip and his fingers that drummed on his steering wheel revealed that he was excited for whatever we were going to do. Which wasn't what Cooper thought...was it?, I wondered when noticing that Clay had turned onto a street that could lead us to his home address.

Uncomfortably, I shifted in my seat. "We're not...going to your place, are we?"

Clay briefly glanced in my direction. There was a sadness in his eyes that tore at my heart, but he just extended his right hand and intertwined our fingers while driving his car steadily through the afternoon traffic. "No, we're not going home."

Thank goodness.

I realized where we were heading when the buildings turned from mainstream into historical monuments that were embraced by tall pine trees. My eyes wandered over beige façades, beautiful lawns, and students who walked cheerfully on the pavement next to the parking lot we were approaching. "The uni? That's where we're going?"

Clay failed to hide his secret smile, though, his gaze was focused on the car in front of us. "Surprise!"

"What are we..."

"Hi, there!" A lanky college student with pale skin and freckles on his slim face knocked at Clay's window. When Clay opened it, we were embraced by the cold December air. "Welcome to the University of Washington! My name's Simon, what can I help you with?"

I bit my lip because it was super obvious that he'd learned those words by heart.

Clay reached over my lap to open the glove compartment. I didn't see what he got out of there until he gave a white envelope to the student. "We're here for the campus tour. The coach said I should give this to the parking guide, and you'd show me where to put my car."

Simon seemed a bit startled when he opened the envelope. I knew that I was startled when he made wide eyes that jumped between Clay and whatever he was holding in his hands. "Um...yeah...sure. Wait a sec..." Simon jogged back to the tiny cabin in the middle of the street where his colleague was devoted to staring at her phone instead of tending to the cars waiting in line after us.