• Jaiden leaned back in his seat, slamming the back of his head repeatedly into the headrest. What. The. ********] He shook his head and looked to where Christian had been sitting just moments before.

    “I’m jealous of your attraction to her.” Christian had said.

    Christian was jealous of the girls Jaiden liked? What the hell did that mean? Jaiden shook his head again, slapping a hand to his forehead and groaning in pain at the stinging pressure. He waited for the pain to subside, which it did rather quickly despite how much he believed it had hurt him, and got out of the car, darting for the dorm almost before his car door was closed behind him.

    He burst into the dorm, panting a bit at a loss for breath from both confusion and fear at the implications of what had just happened.

    “Chris!” he shouted toward the bedrooms, stomping toward his best friend’s door on instinct. If the smooth a*****e went anywhere, it’s in there. He pounded his fist on the door, shouting incoherently at the man on the other side of the door.

    There was no answer for a long while, and finally Jaiden let his hand fall back to his side and thumped his head against the door.

    “Chri-isss,” he groaned. “Get your a** out here so we can talk about whatever the ******** it is you said back there!”

    A moment passed, and then another.

    “Please? I don’t hate you for it.”

    There was a shuffling sound beyond the door and Christian opened it quickly, catching Jaiden as he fell forward. Jaiden straightened himself up quickly and looked Christian right in the eyes.

    “So?” he asked slowly, drawing the o out as long as he could in one breath.

    “So,” Christian said, nodding, “I like you. How tough was that to figure out?”

    The gruff, angry tone in Christian’s voice set Jaiden off-balance a moment. The other man may have admitted his feelings, but that hadn’t taken its toll on him.

    How long? Jaiden thought, unsure of whether he should voice this question.

    As if reading his mind, Christian shrugged and moved to his bed, saying, “Since about ninth grade. Back when you joined the drama team and did that performance in Prisoner of Second Avenue.”

    “And, you liked me? Or were attracted to me or something?” Jaiden asked, moving to sit next to Christian on the bed. “What… Where exactly are these feelings?”

    “In my gut, dipshit,” Christian said, smiling softly at him. “You know… that fluttering of butterflies girls talk about getting when they see a really cute boy?”

    Jaiden nodded slowly.

    “That’s the feeling I get every time I’m near you. It pisses me off, because I know that you don’t feel the same way for me, you know? I mean, I know, because you’re constantly telling me… In a way.”

    “What do you mean?” Jaiden asked, tilting his head to the side.

    “I mean, you’re always talking about girls. ‘This chick’ that. ‘Some hoe’ here…”

    Jaiden laughed suddenly, slapping a hand to his mouth. “There were so many things wrong with that sentence. One, I’ve never called a girl a hoe, no matter how slutty she obviously was. Two, of course I’m always talking about girls. I thought that was what I was supposed to talk about.”

    Christian looked up sharply, blinking. “What the… Hell does that mean?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

    Jaiden linked his fingers in his lap and studied his knuckles. “You ever wonder why I jumped on the wagon so quick to be roommates here? I don’t even go to college, but I jumped at the chance to stay in the same dorm with you. And I do everything with you, no matter how boring I think it is. Didn’t you notice that too?”

    “Okay, make it simple for me?” Christian said, letting out a breath of air and wrinkling his nose in confusion.

    “Simple?” Jaiden asked. “Okay. I. Like. You.”

    He lifted blue eyes to meet Christian’s hazel ones then, a small smile splitting his lips as he tried to hide his blush. “I only talk about girls and stuff because I’ve been trying to hide it. I get kinda… flustered whenever I’m around you, so I just keep talking. I guess I don’t know when to shut up. It’s like this impossibly annoying need to just fill all the vacant spaces with words so I don’t have time to concentrate with how quiet it i-”

    His words stopped dead when lips covered his own. Christian was kissing him, chastely and seeming almost frightened of the act. As quickly as the kiss had started, it as over, and Christian was leaning back again, eying his friend closely.

    “What… was that?” Jaiden asked, blinking.

    “That… was me showing you another way to fill the silence?” Christian blushed heavily, casting his eyes to the pattern of his bed’s blankets.

    “I’ll have to practice it some more,” Jaiden said suddenly, startling his roommate. “Because I’m not sure I’ve got it down. Is… Is that okay?”

    Christian grinned and nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

    “Good.”

    A moment passed into two again, and slowly, Jaiden began to laugh. Christian looked up, confused, but started to laugh as well.

    “Do you realize,” Jaiden started, trying to stop his laughter, “that we’ve been avoiding our feelings for each other for a while now because we each thought the other was straight?”

    Christian laughed harder and put his head to Jaiden’s shoulder. “Dude, when we come out to our parents, let’s not tell them that part?”

    “Works for me,” Jaiden laughed again.