Page 18 of Time to Shine

He sounded so dejected, which Landon couldn’t understand. Why would he want Landon any closer than he needed to be?

“Well,” Casey said with an enormous amount of forced cheerfulness, “let’s get your stuff into your room.”

He went to retrieve Landon’s suitcase and duffel from where they had been left by the front door. Landon quickly took the duffel from him and followed him down the stairs. He felt that he had already made things awkward between them, which had to be a new record even for Landon.

Casey tried not to be disappointed that Landon had chosen the basement room, or that he’d mostly stayed in the basement since he’d moved in that afternoon. It was obvious that Landon was a private person, and he probably just wanted a quiet room to relax in after a hectic week. It made sense.

But he needed to eat.

Casey was about to go downstairs to check on him, but he stopped himself and sent a text instead, asking if Landon wanted to order a pizza.

Landon emerged from the basement a moment later, barefoot and wearing sweatpants and his dark gray T-shirt. His short brown hair was a mess.

“Were you asleep?” Casey asked.

“I was awake when you texted, but yeah. I conked out. That’s a comfortable bed.”

Casey smiled, even though he’d been hoping the basement bed was horrible and that Landon would choose a different room.

They ordered pizza from Casey’s favorite place, and he’d waved away Landon’s offer to pay. They ate on the couch, because that’s where Casey ate most of his meals, and watched the second half of an action movie. Casey probably talked too much during the movie, while Landon quietly consumed half of a large pizza. He’d apparently not been kidding about eating a lot.

When the movie ended, Landon began cleaning up, taking the mostly empty pizza box to the kitchen along with their dirty glasses. Landon had seemed surprised when Casey had offered him lemonade, but one thing he was going to learn really fast by living here was that Casey fucking loved lemonade.

“There’s a dishwasher,” Casey said as he followed Landon. “It’s hidden really well, but here.” He pulled on the handle of a square panel that matched his wooden cupboards, revealing the dishwasher behind it. “I swear to god I didn’t know I had a dishwasher for the whole first month I lived here.”

“Yeah,” Landon said. “That’s...fancy.”

When the mess was cleaned up—far more thoroughly than if Casey had been alone—Casey said, “So. You wanna do something?”

Landon’s anxiety was immediate and obvious. “Like what? We’ve got practice in the morning.”

“Yeah, yeah. I didn’t mean hit the clubs. We could play video games, or watch another movie. I swear I’ll try not to talk through the whole thing.”

“I um. I think I might hang out in the gym downstairs, if that’s all right. I need to do my stretches, and maybe get some meditation in before bed.”

“Meditation,” Casey repeated. “Cool. You do that a lot?”

“I try to.”

“I am so fucking bad at it. Maybe you could give me some tips sometime.”

Landon was already edging toward the basement stairs. “Maybe.”

“If you change your mind, I’ll be chilling on the couch for a while.” Casey realized he was starting to sound desperate. “Or whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.” Landon sounded relieved. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Stacks.”

Landon hurried down the stairs, and Casey felt exactly as alone as he had last night.

Chapter Seven

“Heard you tricked poor Stackhouse into living with you,” Clint quipped during a hydration break at practice.

“Hey.” Lee sternly pointed his water bottle at Clint. “That was a nice thing Hicks did.”

“Yeah,” Casey said. “I didn’t trick him.”

---