Page 27 of False Start

But instead of Lisa standing at our dorm door, it’s Vaughn, looking kind of like an excited puppy, bouncing on his feet with a bag slung over his shoulder, his eyes bright and happy. “Hey.”

“Vaughn?” I can’t keep the bigass smile off my face. He’s here. “What are you doing here?”

“I um...” Now he looks adorably nervous, as if I’d be mad about him showing up here. I watch as he shifts from foot to foot, playing with the strap on his bag. “I thought we could hang out.”

“Cool,” I say, even though I’m kind of bursting inside. He looks good—but he always looks good. Tall and confident, with a hint of nerves. His hair styled perfectly, even though I doubt he did anything with it. “Come on in.”

I move out of the way, and his eyes lock instantly on Evan, who’s just now zipping up his bag, “Hey, man.”

Vaughn doesn’t return the greeting right away, his eyes still sizing up my roommate in that protective way I’m used to, but most aren’t. Evan raises his brow at me as if to say,what’s his deal?I want to tell him that’s just Vaughn, but with my best friend’s hackles already up, I don’t want to make it worse.

“Evan, this is my best friend, Vaughn. Vaughn, this is my roommate, Evan. You almost missed him. He’s going home for the weekend.”

“Home?” Vaughn questions, still watching Evan like a hawk.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes, but Evan is a pretty confident guy and doesn’t have a problem walking toward Vaughn. “Yeah.My dads live about an hour from here, so I’m going home to do laundry and to get a home-cooked meal.”

“D-dads?” Vaughn asks, clearly a little shaken, and I hold my breath a little that he doesn’t put his foot in his mouth. Obviously, Vaughn doesn’t have an issue with that, but it’ll probably take his brain a second to catch up. We didn’t know anyone with two dads or two moms growing up.

“That a problem?” Evan asks defensively, and I’m about to jump in, but Vaughn raises his hands in surrender.

“No. Not at all. Why would it be?” He looks over at me, and I grin.

“Don’t worry, he’s not like the people I told you about.” Evan and I have had some pretty good talks already in the three weeks we’ve been rooming together. He knows about Big Bend and the shit I had to deal with coming out. He grew up in the city, but his dads still have to deal with the occasional asshole.

He knows I’m gay, and it was kind of a relief when I spit that out day one and he immediately told me that, and I quote,“Hey, so are my dads.”We’ve been pretty close since then.

“Good.” Evan still eyes him warily, but then swings his bag over his shoulder. “You two have fun.”

“You too. Still think you should take my laundry,” I tease.

He cackles and then reaches his hand out for Vaughn. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Vaughn doesn’t sound like he means it, but he does shake his hand, so I guess... progress.

Evan leaves and closes the door behind him before I look over at Vaughn as he observes the small dorm room. “You both live in here?”

I chuckle as I take a seat on my neatly made bed. “We do. He’s working on being a little bit less of a pig, but I can’t complain about much else.” I motion toward Evan’s side of theroom, where his bed is left unmade and there are books and socks on the floor.

Vaughn puts his bag by the door and then runs over to my bed, bouncing down next to me and then wrapping his big arms around me. “I’ve missed you.”

I laugh, but I also relish his arms squeezing the life out of me and his warmth. God, he smells good even after two hours in the car. “I missed you too. You could have told me you were coming.”

“Why? Would you have told me not to?” He pulls back a little, his eyes looking uncertain and a little scared.

“No, dummy,” I say and playfully shove him. “But I’m glad I was here. I was just heading to the dining hall to get something to eat.”

“I would have waited for you.”

I laugh. “I have no doubt. You hungry?”

“Yeah.” He hugs me tighter. “Just a minute.” My stupid heart skips a beat as one of his hands goes to the back of my head, and he holds me there.

“Vaughn, you okay?”

“Yeah.” He pulls back. “Show me this place. I want to see all of it.”

I chuckle and stand up. “You staying the night?” He nods. “You won’t get in trouble? Don’t you have a game tomorrow?”

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