Hiding

Whizzer

"Hey, Whizzer, guess what?"

I poke my head out from the shower and look around. There's no one else in the bathroom, so I assume Cordelia's voice came from down the hall. With a sigh, I climb out of the bathtub and wrap a towel around my waist to go see what she wants. Our bathroom is musty, but I don't care that much. I think we got a pretty good deal on this apartment, for two 18-year-olds who have barely worked a month of their lives.

I walk out into the living room, holding my towel up to secure it. "What do you need?" I ask, a little miffed because my soaking hair is dripping down my neck.

"I met this girl today," she says excitedly. "Her name is Charlotte, and she's studying to be a doctor. Isn't that amazing?"

I eye her. "Yeah, it is. But why did you call me out of the shower just to tell me that?"

"I don't know. I just thought it was nice that we've started talking to new people. I heard that college is the place where you meet most of your friends for life." She shrugs. "Probably because by then you're mature enough not to fight over stupid things."

"Okay, yeah. That's great. Can I go back in the shower now?"

"Hold on, let's pick a show to watch tonight first," she suggests. Rolling my eyes, I sit next to her on the couch, purposely leaning into it so that she'll notice the wet spot from my still-dripping hair. "What are we thinking?"

I shrug. I'm not really in the mood to pick a TV show. "Hey, why don't you tell me more about Charlotte? You know, that girl you met today?" I raise my eyebrows, and Cordelia looks away.

"What more is there to tell you about her? We met at work. Remember that position I started at the coffee shop just off campus? She came in today and I took her order and we chatted a little. She's our age and I found out she goes to the same school as us. That's it." Her cheeks turn pink, and I don't ask her any more about it.

Once we finally decide on a show to watch (which I'll probably fall asleep halfway through anyway), I go back to the bathroom and continue my shower. I'm not only thinking about how cramped the bathroom is and wondering what the weird stains in the bathtub are from, but also everything new that's been happening lately.

Me and Marvin. Cordelia and I moving in together. This new apartment and starting an entirely new school where we're not just learning, we're gaining experience. We're out on our own now. I'm thinking all these deep thoughts when I finally get out. I properly dry my hair so it won't leave a spot on the couch like before, then get ready for bed and join Cordelia in the living room once again. One perk of living away from home— we can stay up as late as we want watching TV and there's no one to tell us how irresponsible that is.

While we're watching whatever show we picked, I get a text message from Marvin.

Marvin: Hey <3

Marvin: Plans for tomorrow?

Whizzer: Probably just sleeping all day lmao

Marvin: I thought you had classes

Whizzer: Oh right 😒

Marvin: Maybe call me after?

Whizzer: Sure

Whizzer: Why? Do you have something planned?

Marvin: No but I feel like we should spend some time together

Whizzer: Hey you can always come over

Marvin: Now? It's super late

Whizzer: Yeah it's fine, Cordelia and I are just watching TV

Marvin: You should go to bed soon or else you'll be way too tired in the morning

Whizzer: Who are you, my mom?

Correction: there's one person to tell us how irresponsible that is. But I just shake my head and shut off my phone, focusing back on the TV screen.

I do end up going to bed late that night, and like Marvin predicted, I am dead tired in the morning. I don't really care, though, since my class doesn't start until later. Maybe I should make a habit of taking a shower in the morning so I'm more awake, but I can hear Cordelia already in there, and I'm still clean, so I decide to skip it.

After classes, I meet up with Marvin, and even though I tried my best to wake myself up fully beforehand, I can tell he still notices the bags under my eyes.

"You're tired," he tells me. "Whizzer! Come on! You have to start being more responsible if you're going to be in college."

"I already am in college," I remind him.

We start walking down the hall. "You know what I mean. It's only August right now, but soon enough we're going to be loaded with work and you're going to need to get your head in the game."

I raise an eyebrow and shoot him a sarcastic glance. "Oh. So you're Mr. Head-in-the-game all of a sudden?" I ask.

"We both need to be," he replies, which doesn't answer my question. I roll my eyes once again and we walk a little further. The weather's still nice— more than nice. Warm. Sometimes unbearably warm. Our school has a little air conditioning, though, so it's better when we're inside. That's probably why we're circling around the halls instead of actually going somewhere.

I'm looking around our fairly new school, taking in everything I haven't taken in before, when I hear a noise next to me that sounds like my boyfriend having a heart attack. I turn to him quickly. "Marvin! What the hell?"

"Oh, my God," he whispers, clutching his chest and recovering from his heart attack or whatever that was. "Whizzer, don't look."

I look. "What is it?"

"It's Trina. Come on. Hide, hide, hide, hide." He pulls me by my sleeve around a corner we just passed, and presses his back against the wall to try and catch his breath. I'm still confused as shit.

"Who's Trina? What's going on?"

Marvin exhales. "Okay. Trina was my high school girlfriend. And by that I mean, basically up until the end of high school. We broke up a little after I met you. But, oh my God. I had no idea she was going here. I knew she'd applied, but... I guess I stopped paying attention before she ever heard back."

"Ouch," I say. "So I take it she doesn't know about me?"

He looks at me with chagrin. "She doesn't even know I'm gay."

"SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW YOU'RE GAY?"

"Shhh!" Marvin grabs my shoulders and brings me to the ground with him, even though we're still behind the wall and Trina won't see us anyway so we're just sitting on the floor now. "No! I didn't even know back then. Well, not really. The only people who even know are you and me, and Cordelia. Oh, and Mendel, I guess."

"Who's Mendel?"

"That's a story for another day." He pats me on the shoulder and stands up to check if Trina's still there. I'm guessing she isn't, because Marvin takes my hand and pulls me back up. I dust off my clothes. Ugh, who knew college floors were so dirty?

Once we're back in the regular hallway, I try to sort out all the questions in my head. How long were you and Trina together? How did you break up? Did you break up because of me? I can't believe in the five months we've known each other, he never told me he had a girlfriend. Or that he wasn't even out. Sure, I know it's hard to come out— words can't even begin to describe it— but this is a lot of information to be taking in on such an otherwise uneventful day.

"You probably want to know some stuff about our relationship," Marvin sighs. I just shrug, not wanting to let it show how accurate his guess really is. "Fine. We were together for about a year, probably a bit less. And I probably never really felt that way about her. I was just caught up in the teen romance, you know?"

No, I don't know. This is the only teen romance I've ever experienced. Yeah, I've had crushes and hookups before, but Marvin's my first actual boyfriend. I can tell it's not the time to bring this up, though.

"Why did you two break up?" I want to know.

"I don't know. Maybe I was finally starting to figure myself out. Maybe she was getting sick of me, or maybe I was getting sick of her. Either way, I knew it wouldn't last. But we didn't end on very good terms." He glances behind us. "Hence my panic."

I nod, even though I don't really understand. "Do you think she knows you go here?"

"Possibly. But probably not. We were already pretty distant by the time I got the acceptance letter, and I don't think I ever told her directly. I doubt she even knows I went to the mixer that night we met."

"Oh." I pause. "Do you still care about her?"

He hesitates for longer than I'm comfortable with. "Well, it's not like I want her to be miserable. The breakup was tough on her. It was tough on both of us, but obviously, I moved on quicker. I just wish I could make sure she's okay."

"Uh, wasn't this only, like, five months ago?"

"True, true," Marvin agrees. "I'm just saying. Hope she's doing better."

"Are you going to talk to her?"

"What? No!"

I smile a little. That's Marvin. Hates confrontation, but is usually the one to start it. I decide to forget about Trina for the time being. I'm already stressing enough.