Page 7 of The Masks We Wear
“No? No hot dancer girls or boys throwin’ themselves at you?”
I bark a laugh. “No, no, not…nothing like that.” I shrug. “Well, I mean, there’s this one guy I’m friends with I might like. Every time I ask him to hang out, he makes up some excuse and leaves.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, but it’s cool. I’m like seventy-five percent sure he’s hung up on some boy he left back in his school.”
“Oh.”
“You ever look in someone’s eyes and see that dreaded, regretful loneliness? That longing, chasing after a memory? I see it when I look in this guy’s eye…er,eyes. I recognize it.”I can relate.
“Same.”
I pause and take a good look at him. The lights of the city reflect on his perfect jaw. Someone as charming and good-looking as Superhero can’t possibly be single and lonely, can he? “How’s…your year been?”
His shoulders slump a bit. “It’s been…aiiiight.”
I hold my breath for a beat, waiting for him to continue. “I thought coming to New York City would be this grand deal. Don’t get me wrong, I love the city most of the time.”
“That’s good!”
“But school has been hard.”
“Really?”
“Classes ain’t even difficult. They just don’t excite me. I’m doing well, but I don’t feel like medicine is my thing.”
“Then don’t do it.”
He sniggers. “You don’t know what my life is like back home.”
“Your family all expects you to be one thing. But you’re an adult. And you’re here now. You can find the things you want. You can shape the future you want.” Even if that future doesn’t include us taking off our masks and pursuing this connection we have, I want Superhero to be happy.
He shrugs and leans his elbow on the terrace. “Maybe…” After a beat, he looks up at me again. “I’m kinda glad to know that you were on sabbatical this semester.”
My pulse raises. “Why?”
“Because I looked fer you.” At this, my throat goes dry and my cock stiffens.Superhero looked for me?
“How…how so?”
He chuckles. “It’s lame, but I’d look into people’s eyes. I don’t know, there’s a feeling I get when I think of you. Yer hands…yer voice. I went on a couple of dates this year, but no guy ever made me feel a fraction of what I had with you. I thought I’d be able to find someone as cool or interesting as you. Then I thought I made you up, like some kind of Halloween illusion.”
He laughs and I can’t even breathe at his confession. “It’s so embarrassing…admitting that I haven’t gotten you out of my head for a whole year.”
A small gasp escapes my lips. Superhero is saying all the words I needed to hear. For months I imagined reuniting with him, but I never thought he cared about me as much as I longed for him. Maybe this connection is in my head, maybe he’s lying, but I’m in too deep now.
“Did you mean all that? You’re not…seeing anyone right now, Superhero?”
He shakes his head. “Couldn’t if I tried.”
If this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up.
“This is my last Halloween in college.”
“So it is,” he says, voice deep and filled with longing.
“Ask me what I’ve been waiting for.”
