A Wall Between

Chapter 6

Sasha had decided that he was going to talk to Cooper again and this time he wasn't going to seem like an idiot, if that was actually possible.

He had memorised Cooper's schedule, as far as he had one that followed any kind of consistency. Cooper would wake up earlier than his housemates every morning, go out on the small balcony attached to their apartment for a few minutes, and then go out for half an hour or so. Sasha would be ready to encounter him when he went out onto the balcony.

He'd been thinking about what he was going to say, too. Cooper had told him that almost all calico and tortoiseshell cats were female, and then he'd gone on to explain why they were female. He hadn't explained how they could ever not be. Sasha was going to ask about that and then Cooper would know that he'd been listening and had understood and that he knew how chromosomes worked.

He'd put on normal clothes, too, so that Cooper might think he didn't always wear pyjamas even though he did.

He went outside onto his balcony and waited.

#

Cooper had hardly heard a sound from next door since he'd last seen Sasha, so he was surprised when he went out onto the balcony and saw him standing there. Had he been waiting for Cooper? He looked nervous but certainly not startled.

A reflexive grin overtook Cooper's face. "Hey."

Sasha looked at him, then away, then back at him again, his lips pressing and twisting together like they were trying to repress a smile. "Hi."

Sasha wasn't wearing his cute kitty pyjamas this time. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, which was a little odd considering it wasn't even seven in the morning yet. Cooper was still wearing what he'd slept in: his boxer shorts and nothing else.

"Are you going somewhere today?" Cooper asked.

"Huh?"

"You're dressed early."

Sasha looked down at himself. "No, I— I wear clothes."

Cooper didn't know quite what that was supposed to mean, but it made him smile. "I prefer not to, but you know. Society."

Sasha nodded, but he looked pre-occupied. "Um. Last time. Before. You said almost always."

Cooper's head tilted to the side. "Hm?"

Sasha fisted his hand in his short, brown hair so viciously that it looked painful, but his expression didn't shift. "With the cats. The calico and— and tortoiseshell cats. You said almost always female."

Cooper grinned. "You remembered! Yeah, they are."

Sasha nodded. "Because of chromosomes."

Cooper liked the way he said chromosomes. Not incorrectly, but very carefully. "That's right."

"But... almost always. How could it ever be not if it's because of chromosomes?"

"Oh!" Copper said. "Oh man, nobody's ever asked me that before, probably because they do not actually give a shit about my animal facts. But I know the answer. Sometimes male cats — or humans or whatever, really — can end up with an extra X chromosome because of faulty cell division. So since it requires two X chromosomes to happen, it can work in those cases."

"So it's like— like an intersex thing?"

"Yeah! It's called Klinefelter syndrome."

Sasha was very determinedly looking at him. He had pale, brownish green eyes and a light smattering of freckles across his nose and cheekbones. "You're smart."

"No," Cooper said a little too quickly. "I'm really not. I just read a lot of Wikipedia and watch a lot of Youtube videos. I did so bad at school. I barely graduated."

"I don't think how well you do in school means anything. I'm pretty good at taking tests, but I'm still..." He shrugged.

"I'm not surprised you did well in school. You seem smart."

The look Sasha shot him looked almost affronted. "I do not."

"You don't think so?"

Sasha shook his head. "I can't even say words right half the time."

"That's social anxiety, bud. It has nothing to do with being smart or not."

"It usually makes me seem not smart, though."

Cooper made a face. "Oh, right. Sorry. That was what you said, wasn't it? I just meant that you seem smart to me. I didn't mean to tell you experiences you've had with other people weren't real."

"I know."

"Okay, cool."

Cooper tapped his fingers against the railing as an awkward silence fell between them. Was he screwing this up or was it going fine? Sasha's shoulders were hunched and he was twisting the sleeve of his T-shirt in his hand. He wasn't looking at Cooper anymore.

"Sorry," Cooper said. "I know this might be hard to believe, but I'm actually really trying to not make you feel uncomfortable."

Sasha frowned. He still wasn't looking at Cooper. "No, I can tell. I'm just always uncomfortable when I talk to people and that's not your fault."

"Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"No, but it's probably time for you to go anyway."

"Huh?"

"You always go out around this time."

There was a moment just long enough to be really embarrassing where Cooper's mind completely blanked on what Sasha could possibly be talking about, and then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing just then. "Oh, right! Jogging!"

Sasha smiled and this time he didn't try to suppress it. He had a cute smile. "Um, maybe I'll talk to you later?"

Cooper grinned back at him. "Yeah, I hope so."

#

Sasha went inside and crawled into the increasingly familiar corner of his bed to curl up. He felt... he wasn't sure how he felt. He was pretty sure he should feel good about how that conversation had gone, but that was just too foreign a concept for him to process.

Was he actually making a friend? A proper friend who he felt a connection to and who he looked forward to interacting with? Cooper even seemed like he wanted to be Sasha's friend as well, which didn't make any sense at all.

His brain was desperate to find anything in that conversation to use to torture him with shame — and there was certainly more than enough in there for it to work with — but Sasha did his best to block the thoughts out. Instead, he thought about the way Cooper had smiled when Sasha had said they might talk again later.