His Muse

How to college: a lesson on frat parties

Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved.

I've made a grave mistake.

Nic thought this that same night as he lay with his eyes on the ceiling over his loft. He could hear Leo's soft, even breath across the room, and realized that he was probably the only person in this entire goddamn hallway who was up at this hour thinking about how stupid he was. Sav was right. He shouldn't have let the fact that Kieran was ace get in the way of true love, or whatever bullshit his mind was trying to convince him off.

Nothing would exactly cure this dilemma, except for actually facing the facts and confronting Kieran once and for all. The fact that Kieran had no idea that Nic was planning absolute warfare was unequivocally hilarious. It was so amusing that Nic even smiled a little. The chances that Kieran was up at night thinking about Nic were slim to none, so why was Nic suffering like this?

He was starting to think that being asexual made life so much easier. Maybe he wouldn't be fawning so hopelessly over Kieran at four A.M.

Fuck.

When Nic finally woke up after a shallow sleep, it was to the streak of sunlight that managed to slip past the small gap in the curtains. His phone said eight o' clock. Fine, I'll get up I guess, he muttered to himself. It was Saturday, which just didn't seem fair at all, and surprisingly he found Leo already awake fiddling on his phone. He had his pillow propped up against the wall, legs crossed at the ankles.

"Mornin'," Nic said as he descended from the loft. He landed on his desk, the chair, and at last onto the floor.

"Wow, what are you doing up," Leo asked.

"Couldn't sleep," he confessed, rubbing his hands over his eyes and saying, "I saw Kieran yesterday. Sav and I both, actually."

"No kidding. How'd that go?" he asked, and Nic shrugged. His silence seemed to unnerve his roommate. "What, so you spend all week rambling about the guy, and you just drop him? Like that?"

"I am not!" Nic shrieked, voice cracking. "I'm just—It's complicated now. I don't know. We'll see what happens."

"Are you serious right now?" Leo complained. "Do we need to have an intervention? Because I am fully qualified to set one up."

Nic scoffed as he dug around in his little cubby of a closet, and started to strip. He shimmied into fresh boxers and shorts and prepared to head to the showers. "No, I don't need an intervention. It's just—I don't know. Did you know he's ace? Kieran is asexual."

"Pff, that doesn't exist," Leo said, and he was out of view so he didn't get to see the way Nic's jaw dropped. "It's biologically impossible."

"So are you suggesting Sav doesn't exist? I mean, sometimes I find it hard to believe that nerds like Sav exist because that level of nerdiness is just bizarre, but..." Nic started, and he swore he could hear Leo roll his eyes.

"It's just not a thing. Sure, you can decide you don't want to have sex and I respect that, but biologically we're all programmed to hunt for the perfect mate and procreate. That's just how it is. And yeah, I mean... I feel like we're starting to move away from the 'procreate' part because we'll all die from overpopulation if we don't, but... we're far from an asexual mindset," Leo said.

"You've lost me. It's too fucking early for this argument," Nic muttered as he stepped out of his closet to grab his phone from where it was charging up on his loft. He jumped up and snatched it. "Besides, Sav says ace is more than just not liking sex. It's romance too, and I don't know what Kieran's all about yet so I don't feel... qualified to ask him out, you know?"