Acquired Tastes

Chapter Sixteen

With a bit of time having passed since either of them had drunk anything, Neil felt a bit more tied to reality, which only made him more aware of how drunk he was. He didn't know if he was just overthinking out of anxiety, or if Roman really had a significantly higher tolerance, but he found himself feeling far drunker than Roman seemed to be, which terrified him each time he thought about it. The thought was always fleeting, though, cut short by something Roman said or did or Neil erupting in giggles for reasons he couldn't really remember later. Sometime around Roman standing on a bed to see his full body in the mirror, hoodie sleeves pushed up to his elbows, holding a skimpy two-piece cheerleading outfit up and inspecting how he'd look in it, there was a sound downstairs. Neil froze, terror shooting through his veins. In the moment it took for Roman to drop the outfit and slide softly to the floor, Neil went through every stage of grief, unsure how he'd put himself in this position, where he'd have to get himself out of a house he was trespassing in while drunk. Why had he done this? What if he got caught?

And then Roman was wrapping his fingers around Neil's arm and tugging him toward the bedroom door. There was shouting and scuffling downstairs, and Neil found himself unable to think about much else as he mindlessly let Roman pull him toward the stairs, hurrying down them. Neil felt more aware of how drunk he still was now than even moments before, his entire body feeling heavy and clumsy as Roman pulled him toward one of the rooms they'd explored earlier- the one where they'd kissed. Roman yanked open the sliding glass door onto the little balcony and hurried out, climbing over the railing and dropping onto the ground not too far below. Neil followed, vision blurring and wobbly as he slid down, the wood of the railing scraping up his stomach as he dropped. Roman jerked him to his feet and took off for the small bit of woods at the back of the properties. As soon as they were out of sight from the house, Neil dropped onto the ground, nauseous, dizzy, terrified. Roman paused for a second, catching his breath, then straightened up. "I'm gonna grab our stuff," he said.

"What? Wait, no, Roman-" Neil stopped as Roman sprinted out of the woods, back toward the house, and at once Neil knew that he was going too have to spend the rest of his time in the program alone, knew Roman would be caught, knew that he would find himself in all kinds of trouble when he made it back to campus and began to go to events alone. But he also knew that he would be no help to Roman, not like this, not when he was barely sober enough to walk in a straight line and Roman was still talking in full sentences and bursting with an infuriating level of confidence. All he could do was wait.

The next few moments felt like years. Neil leaned back against a tree, arms wrapped around his legs, and tried to regain his mental footing. It felt like so much had happened, not just tonight, but over the past week, over the past month, and he didn't know what to do with any of it. All he knew was that this had never happened before; he'd never gotten all caught up in feelings for someone that everyone liked, someone he had no chance with. The few crushes he'd had had all been for people he'd known for longer, people more interested in him. He didn't know what to do with the fact that Roman was someone who never would have looked at him if they were in high school together, and he would never have been looking back, anyway. And yet here he was; after a few short months of knowing Roman, and even nearly hating him for the first portion of their relationship, he'd found he was not unique. He was not above all that. He was, like everyone else that had ever met Roman, a little dizzy at the thought of him, and he hated it.

Before he could work through his feelings, Roman appeared beside him, panting, and dropped Neil's backpack onto his lap. Neil looked up, shocked, and pushed himself to his feet. "How'd you do that?"

"I'm great at sneaking into places, Martin," Roman said, grinning at him. They started off toward the road. "I'm great at a lot of useless things, actually, just none of the ones we get graded on, so you're welcome for that."