Chapter 14: School Spirit (Part 2)

Ryan

All day long Ryan felt unmoored from the world. He hadn't realized how often he checked his phone for the time. He hurried to his classes, only to find he was twenty minutes early.

He had never considered himself the kind of person who spent their days staring at a cell phone screen. Now that he didn't have one, he realized how often he had been doing just that, mostly because everyone else around him was doing it. All the students around him walked with headphones in and eyes directed down. It made him feel like there was something he should be checking.

Like his text thread with Jacky.

After his classes he headed down to the phone repair shop he'd passed on the way in, only to find it closed. The sign on the door indicated that they were closed every Friday. Ryan sighed. He didn't know what he was going to do if he couldn't get it repaired over the weekend.

Turning away, he started the trek back to the apartment. Jacky would have responded to his text by now. Hopefully he wanted to do a video call or something. But if Jacky had said that, and Ryan hadn't responded all day, he could only imagine what Jacky was thinking now. Ryan didn't even know if a call would go through to his broken phone. He could try emailing Jacky, he supposed. Ryan had Jacky's email address, although he wasn't sure how often Jacky checked it, especially if he'd gotten a school email like Ryan had. Ryan hadn't checked his own personal email in a few days.

He started to walk faster.

He could also use Pete's phone, or one of his other roommates' phone, to call to schedule a repair. Otherwise he was going to have to run back down to that store after he worked his shift tomorrow morning and hope they took walk-ins. He could research that on his laptop too. Maybe they had an online appointment booking system.

By the time he got to the apartment and hoofed it up the three flights of stairs, he was so eager to get the ball rolling on getting his laptop fixed and getting word out to Jacky that he'd have to communicate via email for a while, that he stopped short when he saw who was sitting on the top step in front of the apparently locked door.

Charlie.

They were wearing baggy jeans with a hole in one knee, and an army jacket over a faded concert t-shirt, their dark hair tousled and hanging over one eye.

"Hey," Ryan said breathlessly. He didn't miss the way his stomach dropped. He hadn't thought about Charlie once all day. Hadn't considered letting Charlie know about his phone situation. And along with the thrum of annoyance at having Charlie delay his email to Jacky, his stomach churned with guilt.

Charlie looked up from their phone, jaw tense. "I've been texting you all day."

"My phone's broken." Ryan pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. "I dropped it last night."

It took a moment for Charlie to answer, and they seemed reluctant to follow Ryan into the apartment. "Oh."

"Sorry," Ryan said reflexively. "I couldn't figure out how to let you know, and I had classes and then I went down to try to get it fixed, but the place was closed."

"Which place?" Charlie stepped inside.

Ryan dropped his bag down on the couch and pulled out his wreck of a phone, which he'd put in a Ziplock baggie. "The place down by the T stop?"

"Oh yeah. There's a place near my apartment too."

A glance at the microwave clock told him it was nearly five. "They'll probably be closing soon."

"We can go tomorrow. You wanna come see my place?"

Ryan glanced at Charlie. Ryan had never been to Charlie's apartment, mostly because Charlie said their roommates were always there watching TV.

"I have to work until one." Ryan paused, and to avoid seeing Charlie face fall, he added, "I could come after?"

"Yeah, that's cool." Charlie grinned and plopped down on the couch. "So are you excited about tonight?"

For a long moment, Ryan's mind went blank. He couldn't think of a single thing they might have planned to do tonight. He and Charlie didn't usually go out on dates. And it would be unlikely for Ryan to be excited about hanging out in the apartment to watch some movie everyone thought was a "classic" and which Ryan had never even heard of, never mind seen.

"The drag show?" Charlie prodded, raising their eyebrows.

"Shit, I forgot that was tonight." Ryan rubbed the back of his head and tried to drum up some enthusiasm. "Yeah. Sorry. It's been a week."

"It's gonna be fun. Maybe going out will help you relax."

Charlie got up and Ryan automatically wrapped his arms around them. "You're probably right. What should I wear? How do people dress to go to a drag show?"

Laughing, Charlie drew away and pulled Ryan by the hand down the hall. "Let's see what you have in your closet."

Jacky

A few hours later, Jacky walked out of health services to find it raining. "Fuck," he mumbled. All he had was his hoodie, which was going to get soaked in a matter of seconds. The day didn't seem like it could get any worse. He glanced up the way he should walk, toward his afternoon class. The nurse had given him a few Tylenol for the throbbing in his shoulder. Just a few minutes ago, he had been sure that it would kick in and he'd head off to class.

But now...

He trudged back to the dorm in the rain. It wasn't even worth it to run. He imagined all of his textbooks in his bag getting ruined and couldn't muster up any feeling about it.

His sneakers squelched as he slumped down the hallway to his room. Once inside, with the door locked, he stripped down and threw on his sweats, then crawled into bed.

He didn't know how many hours later it was when the door to his room opened, only that it was now dark and his shoulder felt better.

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty!" Billy trilled.

Jacky just groaned in response, wincing when Billy flicked on the lights.

"How are you feeling?"

Jacky peeked through one eye at Billy's voice, which was right beside him. Sure enough, Billy was looking down at him with a strangely concerned look. "I've been better."

"Yes, we all heard about the incident this morning." Billy sighed. "I wish I'd been there."

"You're an asshole." Jacky rolled away and covered his face.

"What? I'm always down to see naked hot boys."

At that, Jacky sat up. Billy was runway-walking across their room to his rack of clothes. Once he got there, he pivoted and put a hand on his hip. "You should bank on your fifteen minutes of fame. There's a dance tonight."

Jacky scrunched up his face like he smelled something bad. "A dance?"

"The Alphabet Mafia is planning to hijack the heteros." Billy pulled out a sparkly top. "Come on, it'll be fun. We have an in with the DJ, so the music will actually be danceable."

"You call yourselves the Alphabet Mafia?"

"It's a Halloween dance. Costumes are optional. You could go as a streaker, that would be on-brand with you now."

Jacky let out a single, "Ha!" Recovering, he said, "I was planning to go as the one-armed man from The Fugitive."

Billy squinted at him.

"It's a movie?" Jacky said.

"I haven't seen that one. It sounds vaguely offensive." Billy shrugged and returned to his closet. "The obvious costume this year would be Ken, but I was thinking of going as a slutty Mario." Billy pulled out a red t-shirt and a pair of black pleather shorts. He held them up to his body while raising his eyebrows.

"You need a hat. And a mustache."

Billy nodded. "Who says you have no fashion sense? Oh wait, that's me." Billy cackled at his own joke.

Jacky started digging through his drawers and closet. Rather than reprise his infamous Edward Scissorhands costume, Jacky wore a plain white t-shirt with his leather jacket and slicked his hair back to be the Fonz. "Eyyyyy," he said to Billy, giving a thumbs up.

"You want my red jacket instead?" Billy asked with his nose wrinkled.

"The Fonz wears a black jacket," Jacky said.

"Rebel Without a Cause?"

"Nah." Jacky checked himself out in the mirror, then added his sunglasses. "This is good."

"I suppose red is MY signature color," Billy said. He checked out his slutty Mario costume. He had a big fake mustache on, and a red knit hat. "You think I should do the Rebel Without a Cause thing?"

Jacky gave Billy a once-over. "Those shorts make your ass look great." He hoped that didn't sound like a come-on.

Luckily, Billy turned around to check his ass out. "You're right. Thanks, roomie!"

Soon they were on their way. With the sunglasses on, Jacky felt more anonymous, and really, only the people on his floor had seen him naked. They were nearly to the student center when Jacky pulled out his phone to check if Ryan had texted back yet.

There was nothing.

Jacky took a deep breath, and followed Billy inside.

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A few days late to make this chapter line up with Halloween but oh well! What was your Halloween costume this year?