Suite Mates (bxb)

Chapter 4

James

Noah snatched the pizza from me the second I was back to our room. "You're a babe," he groaned.

I flopped onto my bed and grinned. "You're welcome. Now hit me up with a slice." I shoved my hand towards him and moaned when he handed me a piece of the pizza. It smelled like heaven to my poor college student ass.

"So I met your buff friend," Noah said between ridiculously large bites of his pizza.

I froze. "Say what now?"

"You know. Brown eyes, boxy head, weird curly-but-short black hair. Body looks like he could be an MMA fighter, eyes say he could be a poet. That guy." He burped. "He's a tool by the way. He woke me up from my nap."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, shut up Noah. Just because you're a monster after naps doesn't make him a tool."

Noah paused, pizza hanging from his lips. Then he wiggled his eyebrows. "You're defending him. Does James have a boy?"

"Hell no! Ryan has a boy."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Pipsqueak never has a boy."

Noah did not like Ryan. At first I'd thought it was a homophobic thing, but then I'd come out to Noah and the guy had been fine. He didn't like Ryan because of his personality. Ryan was always pretty high-energy, which wasn't Noah's style at all. Plus, Ryan was a super clingy person. Noah was a stand-alone kind of guy.

"Well, fair," I amended. "He wants to have a boy. This Derek guy."

"Then I wonder why he came knocking on your door," Noah chuckled. "Look, doesn't matter to me who he ends up fucking. I'm just sayin' if a guy picked pipsqueak the freak over you, I'll be pissed."

"Dude, be nice to Ryan. He's going through some shit."

"I don't call him that to his face!" he objected. "If I called him that to his face, that'd be mean."

I rolled my eyes and covered myself with my covers. "Whatever, man," I groaned. "I'm going to sleep. It's five o'clock and I have homework, but screw it. Who cares? If I don't give it attention, it'll leave me alone."

"...Your homework?"

"Yes."

"Absolutely."

A knock at our door made me want to end my own life. I burrowed further under the covers as the bathroom door swung open. Ryan's voice chirped, "James! I need a second to talk to you."

"Fuck right off Ryan," Noah said. "Nobody wants you here right now."

I flipped the covers off of me and sat up. "What's up, Ryan? Is this about Derek?"

Noah snorted.

Ryan plopped down on my bed and curled his feet up beneath him. "Yeah, I'm having trouble coming up with something I should do to make him love me. I was thinking a romantic gesture, but like no thank you. Too much work. What should I do?"

I did not have enough time, energy, or brain cells for this situation.

"Honestly Ryan, I don't know," I admitted. "I haven't had a boyfriend since high school. I'm probably not the best person to give advice."

He looked alarmed. "But your advice helped me yesterday. Please, James!"

I couldn't really resist him when he clearly cared a lot about this. "Okay, fine. What does Derek like in guys?"

Ryan took pause at that question. After a beat of thought, he scratched his head and sighed. "You know, I'm not really sure."

"This guy is your supposed best friend and you don't even know what kind of guys he likes?" Noah scoffed. "Wow, you guys must be joined at the hip."

Ryan put his hands on his hips and glared. "I bet you don't know what kind of guys James likes."

Noah grinned and got that weird malicious look in his eye. It only seemed to appear when Ryan was around. "Sure I do, Ry Ry. James here likes guys who are tall and muscular. He prefers brown eyes and dark hair."

Ryan gasped and slapped my shoulder. "No way! Oh so cute, we have the same type! Sister samesies!"

It took too much of my brain power to figure out what sister samesies meant. I decided to just give up and smile at Ryan. Smiling at Ryan always seemed to do the trick.

"So cute," Noah said. I glared.

Ryan squeezed my shoulder and leaned in close. "So, I have a thought. Maybe I could introduce you to Derek and you guys could become friends? I think you guys would really get along. And then you could have bro talk and try to figure out what Derek likes in guys?"

"Why can't Jeremy do all this?" Noah asked. "Or one of your theatre buddies? Or literally anyone else on the planet?"

Ryan huffed. "I want James to. He really helped me through some stuff yesterday, so we're kind of in this together. Right, James?"

I knew I shouldn't have gone into Ryan's room when he was crying. Screw being a good person. It was overrated.

"Yeah," I mumbled. Noah rolled his eyes.

"God, you're the best," Ryan sighed. He leaned in and hugged me. I patted him on the back awkwardly. "Thank you so much, James. How about we all get lunch tomorrow or something?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"Sounds like a plan!" Ryan squealed. "I'm so excited, I seriously just can not wait! Are you excited?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"Ugh, awesome!" Ryan said. "Okay, well I have some stuff to do so I should head out. See you tomorrow!"

The door shut behind him and I sighed. Noah shook his head at me. "Yeah, I don't even feel bad. I didn't realize you bought yourself a ticket onto the crazy train. You gave him advice, seriously? God, James."

I flopped back on the bed and wished I'd melt into it.

-

Happy Superbowl day for those of you in the US! (Go Pats)