His Undoing by Aria Grace Page B

anything going on between us so I assumed the email was a stupid prank. Maybe one of his buddies was giving him a hard time for hanging out with me so often? We’d graduated from just breakfasts together to lunch a few times a week and maybe his friends didn’t like that I was associated with one of their own.
    The next morning at breakfast, I asked if he had a girlfriend that he hung out with every night. I wondered why he never brought any girls to the room and was going to offer to work out a schedule to give him privacy when he needed it.
    “No, no girlfriend. Actually,” he looked around the cafeteria casually and picked at the bottle of orange juice in front of him, “I’m gay.”
    I was just taking a drink and ended up choking on my juice, spitting it all over my plate. I wiped my face and waited for him to laugh and tell me he was kidding. He looked nervous for the first time since I’d met him.
    “Seriously?” I didn’t know what else to say. He had his choice of every gorgeous girl on campus and he didn’t want any of them. The email was starting to make a little more sense, even if I was obviously not the right person to receive it.
    “Yeah, I don’t really tell people until I feel like I can trust them. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but it never really came up.” I was still speechless but knew he was waiting for me to say something.
    “Hey, that’s cool. I’m just surprised. So, are you out with your boyfriend every night?” I tried to sound casual, as if I was perfectly comfortable talking about my gay roommate’s sex life.
    “Kinda. Well, usually. But not a boyfriend. Just guys that I meet. Nothing serious.”  He was eating again and the nervousness of telling me seemed to be completely forgotten.
    “You mean , you’re with different guys every night? Like every night?” I couldn’t believe that was even possible. How many gay guys were there on campus? We were in a liberal school that was just across the bridge from San Francisco but still it was shocking.
    “Yeah, it’s no big deal.” He seemed to be a little uncomfortable with my judgment so when he turned the conversation back on me, I let him. “What about you? You got a lady that you’re bringing home while I’m out?”
    “No. I wish. I mean, there isn’t anyone in particular that I’m interested in but I’m not really good with girls. I get...flustered.” I could feel my cheeks flush and felt stupid admitting that when he obviously had never experienced inadequacy in his life. He must’ve had a line of people, well, guys, waiting for their turn with him if he was with someone different every night.
    “I could hook you up. Come out with me tomorrow and I’ll introduce you to some of the cheerleaders. They’ll love you.” Okay, now being gay was starting to make sense. He clearly had no idea what women liked if he thought the cheerleaders would be interested in me.
    “Thanks, but I’ve got to study.” There was no way I was going to a frat party full of drunk jocks. I didn’t have a death or humiliation wish.
    “Live a little , man. You aren’t supposed to study 24/7. Just come for a little while. I promise it’ll be fun.” I tried to come up with a plausible excuse to get out of it but I had nothing better to do and it sounded kinda fun. What good was rooming with a babe magnet if I couldn’t get him to help me meet girls?
    “Okay, I guess that sounds fun.”
    The next night, we met back in the room after dinner to get ready. He helped me pick out something to wear and then went to take a shower while I got dressed. We settled on a solid yellow t-shirt and black jeans. I only wore t-shirts underneath my regular, looser shirts so I felt very self conscious about being so scrawny. When I mentioned it to Brett, he mumbled something and smiled.
    “Did you just call me a twinkie?” I asked indignantly. I remembered why I hated yellow and immediately started searching my drawers for a button down to