Page 8 of Out of My Mind

But that was fantasy, starring a Gideon who wasn’t an asshole, who didn’t make him feel like shit. Fantasy and reality never intertwined.

“I won’t forget what you said to me. In the stairwell.” Mac shook his head.Are you out of your mind?The words, and Gideon’s look, still gave him a chill.

“I didn’t think we could be friends, not after that. It would’ve been supremely awkward.”

“We could’ve worked past it.”

He seesawed his head. “You say that, but I’m not convinced.”

“I guess we’ll never know. You ran down those stairs like you were Forrest Gump.”

“I’m sorry.” Gideon knocked a knobby fist against the wall, being all smoldering without even realizing it. “It wasn’t my finest hour. I freaked out.”

He gave this hangdog shrug and his eyebrows sloped and his eyes went wide and that made it really hard to hate him.

“It’s a nice place,” Mac said, giving the apartment one more look. Because he was an idiot who enjoyed torture, he opened the door off the living room to ogle the spacious closets this place probably had.

Mac’s jaw hit the floor. “You have an in-unit washer and dryer?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty sweet.”

“I didn’t know college apartments had them. I thought it was an urban legend.”

Mac dragged a yearning hand over the washer’s surface. He was officially in a desperate time, and it called for a requisite desperate measure.

“Look, I know this sounds crazy, us trying to room together. I’m not a fan of it either, especially because I still kind of don’t like you after what happened. But I need a place to live, okay? The only apartments that are available are ones I can’t afford, ones with legitimately weird roommates, and ones that should be condemned by the board of health. I’ve been looking for two weeks, and this is the only decent place I’ve found. I’m reasonably clean, I’m courteous, I pay on time.”

Gideon hung in the hallway. He was the boy in the bubble. Mac would tell him that he wouldn’t catch his gay germs, but that’d probably freak him out.

“Why are you looking for an apartment now?”

“I just broke up with my boyfriend,” Mac said.

“How come?”

“Ask him. He’s the one who did the breaking.” Mac shut the closet door. Gideon had on an earnest expression, actually wanting to hear more. “We were all set to move in together, and he pulled the plug at the last minute.”

“No warning,” Gideon said, as if he understood. “You know this isn’t a decision they came to lightly. You’d think they could’ve planned ahead, before you signed a lease.”

“Seriously! I paid for a credit check.”

“Beth said her family was getting us furniture. I didn’t budget for it. I had to buy this living room furniture from a guy whose grandmother just passed away. And rent a U-Haul to move it.”

“Davis was the person I was closest to in this whole world, not counting my Aunt Rita. It was so unexpected, and so…”

“Inconsiderate!”

“Yes! Inconsiderate is the perfect word.” Mac tucked his hands into his jeans pockets. “Look, I need a place to stay, and you need a roommate. It won’t be awkward.”

Although saying that made things awkward. Nice one, Mac.

“We’ll give this a two-week trial,” Gideon said. “If it’s weird, you’ll have time to find a new place.”

“Fair enough.” It would give Mac just enough time to see how awkward things might get. “I love social experiments.”

They shook on it.

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