THE HOUSEMATE | ✓

12

New's pov-

It was one of those evenings where the house was full, which made life easier. I wasn’t going to hide away in my room. I’d spent most of the afternoon hiding in the library, where I’d made myself feel better by reading Reddit accounts of people getting boners at the most inconvenient of times. Mine paled in comparison to some of the stories.

Still, I had to live with Tay, and at the moment, my humiliation was fresh.

So I was using the ‘healthy’ coping mechanism of drinking alcohol and engrossing myself in conversation with literally anyone and everyone that wasn’t Tay. We’d all migrated to the kitchen somehow, and he’d ended up on the opposite side of the room to me, clearly feeling the same about needing space. It was probably more awkward for him than me. Probably.

Over at the kitchen table, Sing, Mix, and Win were playing poker with a couple of the guys from next door.

Tay was across the kitchen from me, leaning casually against the counter, deep in conversation with Gawin and another guy who I vaguely recognised as being one of their football teammates.

I stood against the opposite counter, half talking to Janhae and one of her friends, picking at the label on my beer bottle, and stealing covert glances at Tay. Every time I thought about what had happened at the gym, I could feel my face heating, and I gulped down more alcohol in an effort to forget.

But I couldn’t help looking. My eyes were drawn to him like magnets.

Cliché as fuck, but true.

The third time I looked at him, he was watching me.

His cheeks flushed, and he snapped his gaze away instantly. I feigned a sudden interest in Janhae's account of a former reality TV girl who had become a huge YouTuber, but it was almost a compulsion to glance back at Tay.

He was looking at me again.

But again, he immediately wrenched his gaze away from mine.

“New! Tay! Gawin! Poker?”

Sing's shout cut through my whirling thoughts, and I spun towards the table to see that some of the poker players had disappeared, leaving just Sing and Mix. Gripping my beer, I made my way over to the table, sinking down onto the empty bench seat.

As soon as I sat down and Gawin was sliding into the empty chair that we’d grabbed from the lounge earlier, I realised my mistake. There was only one spare seat, and it was on the bench next to me.

Fucking hell. Just when I was trying to avoid Tay.

I shifted as far over on the bench as I could, but I still felt his body heat when he sank down next to me. He seemed to be staying as far away from me as he could too, angling himself towards the edge of the table, but the gap between us was minimal. Bloody tiny benches.

Sing was quick to deal with the cards, which was good because it gave me something else to concentrate on.

Something other than Tay's proximity.

I managed to dredge up a previously unknown talent for acting, throwing myself into the game and gambling my chips recklessly. We weren’t playing for money, anyway, so it didn’t really matter.

Sometime during the game, I realised that both Tay and I had moved closer together, and every time he moved his arm, the fabric of his hoodie brushed against my bare arm.

Fuck my body for broadcasting how he was affecting me. Goosebumps, arm hairs standing on end, even a hitch in my breathing that was completely involuntary.