“Aren’t you already practically blind? I’d say it’s worth the risk. Not that there’s anything wrong with your glasses, but I get the impression you like to hide behind them. Am I right?”
Even though I’d never really thought of that before, there was something to it. I did always feel a sense of comfort with my glasses on. If the eyes were a window into someone’s soul, then glasses were like a mini-shield.
I looked at the clock. “Shit!”
“What?”
“I missed my ten-thirty class. By the time I get there now, it’ll be half over.”
“So, skip class. I do it all the time.”
“I have no choice now.” I sighed. A moment of silence ensued until I attempted to find out more about him. “Moses said you’re a poli-sci major?”
“Yeah. Grad school. It’s the only thing my father would fund.”
“Why?”
“My dad is Michael Morrison, the senator from Virginia. He’s been grooming me for years to follow in his footsteps.”
“Do you plan to?”
“Between you and me? He thinks I am, but the truth is that I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing. I felt like I needed to get away from home for a while, so I took the opportunity he gave me once I got into the Boston College program.” He pulled out a seat and nudged his head for me to sit in it. “What’s your major?”
“Elementary education.”
He raised his brow. “Education?”
“Yes. Why do you say it like that?”
“You’re allergic to people, and you’re studying to go into a field where you’ll be in front of a bunch of snotty-nosed kids all day?”
“Actually, kids don’t scare me.”
“Really? They even scare the fuck out of me.”
“Yeah. I don’t really know why they don’t bother me. I suppose it’s because I perceive them as non-judgmental. They haven’t been tainted by false ideals and expectations yet.”
“That’s a valid point, I guess.”
I looked at the clock again then back at him. “Don’t you have to be somewhere?”
“You trying to get rid of me, so you can go back to being a hermit?” He winked, and I swear, I felt it right between my legs.
“I’m just asking.”
“I do have to head to class in a little while, so I’ll be out of your monkey hair. Any other questions you want to ask me?”
“Why were you walking around naked in the middle of the night anyway? What happened could’ve been avoided if you’d just had some clothes on.”
“I’m allergic to clothes like you’re allergic to people.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“Actually, I just sleep better in the buff. You should try it sometime. Just put something on before you get up, because your blind ass could end up roaming the streets buck naked.” He looked down at my chest. “You have a mysterious white substance that looks suspiciously like cum on your shirt, by the way.”
Great.
I looked down. Apparently, I’d eaten the yogurt so fast earlier that I’d spilled some. “It’s yogurt.”
He laughed. “I know. Just trying to get a rise out of you, since you make it so easy. It’s just…it looks very comely.” He snorted.
We were both laughing now.
As nervous as he was making me, there was a growing part of me that was warming up to this guy. It was an odd contradiction to feel both nervous and comfortable at the same time. I guess the idea of him had been far more intimidating than the actual person.
I got up, opened the refrigerator, and noticed a full carton of eggs. “Whose eggs are these?”
“They belong to Moses. Nothing in there is mine. I never eat here.”
“Why not?”
“For one, I don’t cook.”
“You’re mom always did everything for you?”
“That’s a joke and a half. No. My parents were too busy for family dinners. I don’t think my mother ever cooked one meal. I did have some pretty nice nannies, though.”
“That sucks.”
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” he said.
“At least you had both of your parents.”
Mack cocked his head to the side. “You didn’t?”
“No.”
“Someone die?”
I really didn’t want to talk about this.
“No…well…I don’t know. It’s possible. I never knew my father. He abandoned my mother when he found out she was pregnant with me. They were teenagers.”
His expression darkened. “Oh. I’m sorry. That sucks.”
“Well, you can’t miss something you’ve never had, right? I don’t know anything else, what it’s like to have a dad.”