Page 56 of A Totally Platonic Thing
Life plans only went so far. Sometimes you had to grab onto what you had right in front of you.
And that part of my mind that’d been telling me all the reasons why this wouldn’t work, or why Chris might not actually be what I wanted or vice versa, had finally gone silent.
Chapter Thirteen
Chris
Friday felt like starring in a music video for that “Walking on Sunshine” song. Birds tweeted their little fool heads off. My coffee smelled amazing, and the machine made happy gurgles and percolated it way faster than usual. The hot water in the shower never ran out. My ass ached and occasionally twinged, getting me a little hard every time and reminding me of Lucas’s incredible cock with every step I took.
Even though I desperately wanted to rush over to Sebastian’s place and spill absolutely everything, I forced myself to hold off. I mean, I’d been wanting to spill everything to him for days, but for once I’d managed to bite my tongue. He’d either be worried about me, or he’d be too excited and get me too excited, and it felt like tempting fate either way.
Besides, I didn’t think Lucas would care if Sebastian and Aidan knew he’d gone to the bi side, but that was still his choice to make.
So I got all my reading done and I spent two super productive hours in the library pulling books to use for a couple of final papers I had due in the last week of classes. I showed up to my afternoon section to find that the TA who apparently hated me now had broken his ankle in a bowling accident and would be out for the rest of the quarter, replaced by a grad student who’d TA’d a previous class of mine and freaking loved me.
It was perfect. I mean, I didn’t wish Greg the mean TA any real harm. But a bowling accident? Like, he’d not only brought that on himself in the dumbest possible way, but he’d be totally fine. And Susan wouldn’t give me a pass for no reason, but she’d almost certainly let me turn in that paper I’d tried to hand in late for half credit, or something reasonable like that.
I could pass the class.
I could almost certainly graduate, as long as Dr. Wilcox would work with me on that seminar.
In that spirit, I headed for his office. I’d woken up in Lucas’s arms. With Lucas kissing me, totally ignoring morning breath, or the fact that I was a guy, or anything but smiling into my eyes while he nibbled at my lips and nuzzled my jaw and basically made me feel like nothing in the world could ever hurt or upset me again.
He’d had to leave before we could really get going, but I’d jerked him off and he’d slipped a finger into me and made me come all over myself. And then he kissed me some more. And I went back to sleep while he got ready to go.
So, like, best morningever.
Dr. Wilcox was in his office even though he didn’t even have official office hours right then. He listened, he gravely lectured me on the importance of attending every class, and he assigned me an extra five-page essay.
And he told me I’d pass and even get a decent grade if I finished all the other work for the course and didn’t miss anything else.
Fridays. Why hadn’t I ever realized how awesome Fridays could be? All the jacaranda trees on campus were blooming, with purple blossoms floating down like snow on the ocean breeze. The sun shone.
A bunch of crows started squawking, and even those sounded like music.
I headed for Lucas’s lab with a bounce in my step and a smile making my cheeks ache. On the way, I picked up lattes for the two of us and Amanda’s coconut-milk mocha with raspberry syrup (people could be so weird, honestly).
And I swanned into Lucas’s lab feeling like I had the whole world at my feet.
I was greeted by the stink of burning plastic, several people yelling, and Lucas in the middle of it looking like he was the very opposite of walking on sunshine. Like, being walked all over by a raincloud kind of opposite.
I lingered on the outskirts of the chaos for a few minutes. Amanda, Lucas, and two guys I’d met briefly all stayed clustered around what looked to my untrained eye like a couple of solar panels in a heap of multicolored, smoking spaghetti. Other projects lay temporarily abandoned on the floor or on various worktables, heaps of plastic and metal and wires and circuit boards (Maybe? I mean, I honestly didn’t know an amp from a volt, or even if they were the same thing), tools and wood frames for things and metal frames for things and yet more tools, some the old-fashioned analog kind and some all digital and fancy.
Lucas hadn’t even noticed me yet, I didn’t think.
I set the cardboard coffee carrier down on a nearby table that didn’t have anything electronic on it and pulled out my own cup, resigned to drinking it quietly while they all figured out what had gone wrong. Other than something having been recently on fire. Even I could tell that was a problem.
I’d finished half my coffee before Lucas looked up and spotted me.
And frowned.
Andthensmiled, his eyes lighting up a little, but by then I’d already gotten super confused and sort of bummed.
He said something to Amanda, put down a handful of wires, and headed my way. The other three all kind of shook their heads and went back to it.
My heart sank a little more. I mean, I hadn’t meant to interrupt. I could leave their coffee and go, and that would be fine. It didn’t seem like my dropping in to hand out free coffee ought to be that much of an imposition, though, did it?
“Hi,” Lucas said sort of breathlessly.
