Chapter Two
Jo had him meet her at a Thai place downtown, which turned out to be about a block away from more gay bars and clubs than he had even visited in his life let alone seen in one place. Another reason he could add to the list of why he had made the right decision. He planned to take an obnoxious number of selfies to send to that best friend of his. That would definitely make him regret not moving with him.
Over dinner he brought up Lionel, partially because he knew keeping things like this to himself tended to make him a little obsessive about them and partially because he wanted to milk her for information.
Unfortunately, she only knew of Lionel from seeing him around campus. The only information she could provide on the matter was, devastatingly, that she was fairly certain he was dating the obviously jealous guy Gregory had seen him with twice.
“He didn’t seem happy to see him,” Gregory said, loathing the optimism in his voice.
Jo shook her head, tsk-tsking. “Well, it sounds like a lot of drama to me, whatever it is. Is that what you’re looking for?”
He already loved her for her bluntness.
“No,” he responded emphatically though his sigh told them both that he didn’t actually want to let it go. He stared at the wall behind her head, letting the artwork bleed together as his eyes unfocused momentarily. He had been involved with drama and it was no fun and never worth it. He nodded his head as if responding to the thoughts in his head. Jo smiled, as if this were perfectly normal behavior and stood up abruptly, a huge grin on her face.
“This means that we have to go out and find you some cute guys to grind on and make out with!” she said, demonstrating the grinding in a comedically awkward way.
“And what about you m’dear?” He affected a posh-sounding accent and offered his hand like a gentleman to a lady as he stood.
“Let’s focus on you tonight and maybe you can owe me a trip to the lesbian bar? How’s that sound?” she responded, letting him kiss her hand and then tucking his arm under hers and dragging him out of the restaurant and down the street.
***
“The good ones are always taken.”
“Someone was in gay boy heaven last night. Ugh, why wasn’t it me?
“Wake up and pop some pain pills. I want to tell you what I think of Prince Smirking and Lady Joanna.”
Gregory’s head didn’t feel too bad, for which he was grateful. He mostly felt sleepy despite having gotten home by eleven and sleeping until nine. The three messages from Wilson were waiting for him when he checked his phone for the time. He was distracted by them and halfway through his response when he realized he had a class that very minute.
He leapt out of bed, which his head did not thank him for, scrolling at lightning speed through his phone’s photos. He and Jo had taken nearly one hundred last night so it took forever until he reached the one of his class schedule. He would definitely need to write it out and stick it to his mini fridge, he thought through his panic.
“Shit,” he muttered, dropping his phone on the bed. He poured water from a bottle onto one of his navy hand towels and wiped as much of himself as he could, slathering himself in deodorant, pausing just long enough to strategically spray his cologne so that he wouldn’t walk in smelling like an over-priced mall store, threw on clothes, grabbed his bag and phone, and sprinted the twenty blocks to his class.
Waiting for the elevators gave him a moment to catch his breath and smooth his hair, which was doing what hair does after a night of sleep, no grooming, and a near-mile sprint. He was using the silvery elevator doors as a mirror when they opened and he found himself grooming himself right into the face of Prince Smirking himself.
“Good morning, Starshine,” Lionel smirked, living up to his name by teasing Gregory about his vanity. It seemed not to matter that Gregory was hardly a morning person because he perked right up at the obvious flirtation. He deflated quickly when he remembered the mystery man acting like a jilted lover outside of their classroom hours after assaulting Lionel’s face with his mouth.
I need to get a boyfriend ASAP so I don’t swoon every time his royal smugness looks at me.
“Morning, Little Lion,” he responded, marveling once more at his own smoothness. Lionel scowled but looked anything other than actually displeased. Gregory’s pride swelled even more.
Lionel was holding the door to the elevator open, and after a moment, several people ran to pile inside, giving them both annoyed looks when Lionel did not move immediately. Gregory moved past him, careful not to actually touch him and grateful that he hadn’t gone too overboard with the cologne but that he had remembered it at all. He could smell Lionel, the same sandalwood scent he had detected yesterday, and he felt his mind go momentarily blank with the headiness of it. He’d smelled similar scents on dozens of guys but there was something about Lionel that enhanced it.
“I have to get to class,” he said lamely with a half-hearted shrug. He didn’t want to not talk to Lionel, but he knew he shouldn’t want to talk to Lionel and he also, actually, had to get to class.
“Of course. Well, try to pay attention to the teacher and not your reflection if you can. It might make learning easier,” he let the elevator door go with a wink and Gregory glared at him, incapable of fully hiding his smile.
***
“It sounds like he doesn’t want to be with the Duke of Desperation to me,” Wilson’s face froze momentarily in the middle of his sentence.
That’s what I get for using loan money to dorm instead of finding an apartment—crappy shared Wi-Fi.
They’d been on video chat for over an hour now, their conversation starting with how much life back home sucked for Wilson without Gregory there, going through the night with Joanna, and finally, into full detail about Lionel and the mystery man who kept interrupting their flirtation and who was keeping Gregory from falling head over heels for Lionel.
“Yeah, but the Duke clearly wants to be with him,” Gregory responded, minimizing the video chat window and reopening it to see if that helped the picture quality. He couldn’t remember who of the two of them had started the nickname thing, but they had been doing it almost as long as they had been friends.
“And you’re not that kind of guy. I know, I know,” even with the video freezing again, Gregory could hear the eye-roll in Wilson’s voice. “Maybe you should be though. New city, new college, new you?” he said it playfully but with little conviction. They both knew Gregory preferred to stay as far away from drama as possible.
“Look, if he’s interested, he’ll just have to take care of whatever is going on there before…before...”
“Before he can get a look at your saber?” Wilson teased. Gregory rolled his eyes this time, but a small smile appeared on his lips. “You can’t fool me. Even through this crappy quality video, I saw that. You like him.”
“I told you. Cartoon prince. Like, happily ever after face. I wasn’t exaggerating.”
“Okay, you have to get a picture of him ASAP. Is he online?”
Gregory sighed, getting up to pull a soda out of his fridge. “I don’t know, Wilson, probably. Isn’t everyone our age?”
“I met a guy once who claimed he wasn’t,” Wilson shrugged like he didn’t believe this for one minute.
“Well, I don’t know. I don’t know his last name yet. I was going to give him my number but then…”
“The Duke so dutifully interrupted you. Yeah, I know. Since when do you need a last name to scope someone out? How many Lionels do you think go to that artsy-fartsy school of yours anyway?”
Gregory chuckled. “Do you remember when I said I didn’t want to obsess about this?”
“Yes,” Wilson responded innocently. Gregory rolled his eyes again.
“What about this line of questioning do you think is conducive to that strategy, Willy?”
“Nothing,” Wilson shrugged, still sounding innocent but with a devilish look in his eye.
Gregory glared at him, reminding himself of the interaction with Lionel earlier today. “Look, whatever you find out, I don’t want to know right now, okay?”
Wilson groaned, “Oh, you’re no fun.”
“And yet you still hang out with me, so…”
Wilson rolled his eyes. “Fine, I won’t tell you. But, please tell me you got phone numbers last night.”
Gregory let his silence answer for him.
“So much for not getting obsessed.”
“I’m not!” Gregory protested. “I just didn’t like any of the guys I danced with enough to make it a thing.”
“Sure, sure, whatever you say dahling,” Wilson taunted. “I’m definitely finding this guy. I need to know who it is who has this kind of power over you so quickly. You haven’t acted like this since Ken Jenkins said he didn’t mind that you were gay.”
“Shut up,” Gregory screeched, blushing.
“The only thing I heard about all of sophomore year was how cute Ken Jenkins was, how cool Ken Jenkins was, how much it sucked that Ken Jenkins was straight.”
“I hate you,” Gregory huffed, smirking against his will.
“That’s not true and you know it.”
“Okay, well, I’ve got to get to my homework, dear,” Gregory said glancing at his pile of books and sighing.
“Nice excuse.” Wilson teased, sticking his tongue out. “That’s okay. I have some homework of my own now. Is Lionel spelled in the traditional way?” He smirked.
Gregory rolled his eyes, barked “Bye Wilson!” and turned the chat off. He hated the small voice in the back of his mind that was now genuinely hoping that Wilson would find something out about Lionel and let it slip. He shook his head to try to dispel the thought and opened one of his textbooks at random, trying to find anything to distract him from the firm jaw and full lips that were permanently planted in his mind’s eye now.