Out for the Night (Browerton University #4)(16)

"Hand or mouth?"

"That's not what I mean." Coop made sure nobody was listening. "That Asian guy who we've found hanging by our door is paying me to be friends with him. And a little more." 

Rafe sat up straight, like fun time was over. "A little more? Like you're an actual prostitute."

"No!" Coop motioned for him to keep his voice down. "I'm just supposed to befriend him a little and distract him until his grades go down."

"What? That's kinda messed up, Coop."

Ya think.

"I need the money, okay." Coop picked at loose fabric on his towel.

"For Copenhagen?"

"Yes," Coop lied. He wasn't ready to share stories about his family's financial situation or other extremely personal details. (He had no problem talking about it with Matty, though he blamed that on the night.) He could still hear his dad cursing on the phone. "It's just a little harmless flirting."

"It's one thing to be a plus one to a party, but you're full-on messing with this kid by pretending to be his friend."

"But what if I'm not pretending?" Coop asked both Rafe and himself. That was the most frustrating part of this. The more time he spent with Matty, the more the lines blurred. "I had fun with him last night. A lot of fun."

Rafe observed another piece in the Coop art collection.

"What?" Coop asked.

"Maybe that's what scares you the most. I think you've got a crush."

I've got more than that. I have it bad. Coop rubbed at his forehead. He now had the Sunday headache he was missing. He just didn't need alcohol to make it happen.





Chapter 14





Matty





Matty tried to be good on Sunday. Even though he got to bed extremely, extremely late, he made himself get up by nine to study. He had a test in Chertok's class Monday morning. He pushed himself to block out everything that had had happened with Coop on Saturday. He promised himself he would think about it later. Sunday was study time.

But exhaustion got the better of him. He fell asleep in the library for a solid four hours and was groggy for the rest of the day. He couldn't fall asleep until past midnight because of his screwed-up sleep schedule, and at that point decided to take a Tylenol PM to ensure he got rest. The pill knocked him out like a bear hibernating, and he was still recovering from its power in class Monday morning.

In class, he stifled a yawn as he went to work on the test. All of his classmates looked so prepared, so well-rested. Especially Kelvin.

Matty wouldn't think about him. He concentrated on the next question, which involved them reading through part of a research paper. It seemed to be a law of academia that research papers had to be as dry as sandpaper. Matty's concentration clung to the question like it was Spider-Man on the side of a building.

He imagined Coop slowly prying concentration's fingers off the ledge and letting it plummet to the ground.

Coop.

Matty couldn't figure out what Saturday meant. He had never had a night like that, where he felt himself getting so close to somebody. I told him too much. Why would he want to kiss me back after I spilled my guts about having no other good qualities except being smart?

But he did kiss me back!

"Matty?" The professor looked up from his papers. "Are you talking to someone?"

Matty turned redder than a bushel of beets. His classmates gave him quick glances before returning to their tests. He went to the multiple-choice section of the test. First question: Was Coop spending the night flirting with him, or was that all in his head?

He remembered glimpses of Coop smiling at him, taking an extra second to hold his eye contact. Coop was a popular guy with lots of friends. Why did he give up his Saturday night to Matty? Matty replayed the night, wondering if he made a major misstep.



       
         
       
        

But he kept coming back to the undeniable fact that when he kissed Coop, Coop kissed him back. It only lasted about three or four seconds before Coop pushed him away, but something was there. What if I was a terrible kisser?

Matty wasn't used to this complexity. He could handle calculus and physics because they were grounded in finite rules. This social stuff was a whole different beast, and there was no textbook he could read to better educate himself.

"This is your five minute warning," the professor called out. He set an egg timer to make everyone even more frazzled.

Matty forgot about Coop. His brain went into panic mode. He read through the rest of the research paper sample and made himself understand it, like squeezing juice out of an orange. He scrambled to answer as many questions as possible. He never had to hurry like this. He usually had time left to check his answers and perfect his penmanship to ensure that the professor could read his numbers without any doubt.

The egg timer was silent, but Matty heard it tick in his head. Each tick was like a tsk tsk. How did he let this happen? How could he get Coop out of his head?

Kids walked up their papers, and they all eyed Matty, except for Linh who shot him a quick supportive smile. He tried to ignore them.

Only one minute remained on the egg timer. His pencil worked double-time, cramping his hand as he wrote in as many answers as possible. He hit up the last remaining multiple choice and short essays. He scanned his mathwork on the problem sets and sure, they looked okay and mathlike.

"Time! Please hand in your tests," Professor Chertok called out.

And that's when Matty saw a sight so grotesque that his bones felt like toothpicks about to snap. There, at the bottom of his test, was one question that he didn't answer. One unanswered question, staring at him like he was a parent ostracized from the PTA.

He handed his test to the professor and managed a weak smile. One unanswered question. After the events of this weekend, it seemed all too fitting. Apparently, robotic engineering had a delicious sense of irony.



Matty didn't go to the library after class. He needed to lie down and take a nap and forget that one unanswered question. Both of them. Not even the hockey game happening on his floor bothered him. He welcomed the distraction from his distractions.

He got up and went to his computer. He opened up a new email for Coop. The cursor blinked at him. Your move. Matty's hands were on the keys, but his mind went blank. No, his mind ran for cover. Coop said he wanted to be friends, but that's just a line. Matty wasn't as versed in social situations as him, but he could take a hint. He wanted to focus on his studies, but Matty had never had social drama like this, and it was a tractor beam to his attention. 

He needed a new distraction from his distractions. Matty emailed his Catan group and asked if they wanted to play tonight.



That night, they gathered around the board and set their sights on playing, not chitchatting, just as they'd always done. Tom drank his soda, and Matty couldn't stop thinking about what he learned about him. Tim adjusted him ropey-looking bracelets, and Matty wondered if he'd gotten them at some environmental protest. Akash made his usual jokes about someone going for longest road whenever they built.

"I emailed Coop to see if he wanted to join us," Akash said.

Matty's ears perked up. "What'd he say?"

"He said he couldn't make it."

"Too bad," Tim said. He hunched over the board and spun one of his game pieces like a top. "He was fun. We should make him a regular member."

"He said he had his own Catan group," Tom said.

"He could double dip." Tim munched on a handful of potato chips.

"I don't think he'd want to," Matty said. "He made it very clear that he, uh, had another group. I think we have our answer."

But did they? The cards in his hand went out of focus. He didn't have his game face on, and he didn't care to find it.

"You never know. He could be open to it," Akash said. "Does anyone have any wheat that they could trade? I'd give you a brick or a sheep."

"Do you think so, though?" Matty put down his cards and looked Akash hard in the face. "I mean, if he was open to it, he wouldn't have used such definitive language. But if he wasn't open to it, then he wouldn't have kissed...kissed onto our schedule. It's an Indian expression."

"No, it's not." Akash pointed at himself, like he was saying "Fellow Indian here."

His co-players averted their eyes, and a quiet unlike any he'd ever felt descended over the Catan table. It was worse than the time Akash claimed he won but only had nine points.

Tim nudged him with his elbow. "It's cool."

"It is?" Matty asked, so hopeful. He found only smiles and encouraging nods surrounding him. He was still terrified that he had just come out to more people, but their reaction was the greatest gift.

"Is Coop your … boyfriend?" Tom asked.

"Were you guys pulling a con on us the other night in order to win?" Akash asked jokingly.

"We're friends. Or we were. I don't know." Matty pushed back from the table and hung his head back. "We were hanging out this weekend, and we kissed, and then he said that he just wanted to be friends."

"Then what happened?" Tim asked. They waited eagerly for Matty to continue.

"Then I left. Do you think he actually wants to be friends? I mean, that's just something people say, right? You can be honest."