Page 94 of Talk to Me

I grinned at him.

“And, eventually, the mouth-runner stopped running their mouth,” Arthur said. “Maybe the two of you eventually made up and moved on. But there wasn’t any of this back-and-forth shit.”

“You are feisty today,” I said.

“Well,” Arthur sniffed, “that’s what happens when a friend abandons me for a month.”

My shoulders fell.

“I really am sorry, Arthur,” I said. “I’m here now. It’s just…Theo won’t talk to me. Well, he’ll talk to me, but he won’t talk to me. He doesn’t come visit me in my dorm. He doesn’t sit with me in classes. We don’t get coffee together, study together, go eat in the dining hall together—nothing. For a whole month.”

He studied me for a moment.

“Were you two playing hide the sausage?” He leaned forward and waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Arthur!”

He grinned and sat back.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Those pictures in that video spoke for themselves. Not that I think it’s all that that boy said it was. I know you two getting together was recent.”

Rolling my eyes. “Yes. We started dating a week before that video came out. Kind of. I mean, we agreed to take things to the next level and…see how it went. But we weren’t at the…hiding the sausage stage.”

Arthur grinned wider.

“Well,” he said, “why not? Theo’s cute. You’re cute. You’re both young. You’re both available. You get along. Why not?”

“We’d been dating for a week, Arthur!”

“Is that supposed to explain something to me?”

I threw my hands up.

“Fine, fine,” Arthur said. “I’ll drop it. So, you weren’t getting in each other’s pants yet. I believe you. I don’t understand why not, but I believe you.”

“Good!” I was exasperated.

Arthur smoothed the thighs of his pants and laid his hands back in his lap.

“I noticed a few of the comments on that video,” Arthur said. “Seems like quite a few people were defending you and Theo. Telling that boy to mind his business?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. It’s not that—it’s not more bullying that’s the problem. I mean, some people have left mean comments, but mostly people just want the drama between Ben and Theo to end so everyone can move on. It’s not as entertaining anymore, I guess?”

Arthur lifted an eyebrow.

“But people are talking about it,” I said. “People are making videos about Ben’s video. Giving their opinions. They’re leaving comments. They simply won’t let it die. And it feels like it’s the hundredth time this has happened since school started. I mean, for fuck’s sake, neither of us did anything wrong. We never lied. Theo isn’t the person Ben has made him out to be. Well, not completely. I can’t tell him not to be bitter about what Theo did to him, but none of the other stuff is true. He’s trying to make something out of absolutely nothing because he’s still bitter and just won’t move on! And I know who sent at least the picture of us in bed together to Ben. Collin! No one else would have been in our room while we were sleeping. But he’s been expertly avoiding me for the longest time, too. Anytime he sees me coming, he runs the other way. I’ve tried to catch him between classes to chew his ass out, but he runs for it.”

“I guess I understand why you won’t fly across the country to whoop that other boy,” Arthur said calmly, “but what’s keeping you from beating the shit out of your roommate?”

Exasperated, I threw my hands up again and contemplated falling back on Arthur’s bed dramatically. Instead, I settled for a frustrated growl and twisting my hands through my hair.

“You have such lovely hair, Josh,” Arthur said. “Don’t do anything that will make you go bald prematurely. You’ll be sorry when you’re my age.”

Chuckling, I pulled my hands from my hair.

“Good boy,” Arthur said.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m just so fucking annoyed.”