Boy Trouble GT

Chapter 28

The dorm was quiet except for the soft hum of the heater trying—and failing—to fight off the winter chill. It had been like this for days now, the air thick with something unspoken, something Mason wasn't quite ready to put a name to.

A few days had passed since the Hoodie Incident, as Mason had started calling it in his head.

He hadn't talked about it. Kye definitely hadn't talked about it.

But the thing—the weight of whatever had happened between them—was still there. Lingering.

Mason felt it in the way Kye kept glancing at him when he thought Mason wasn't looking, the way his fingers twitched like he was fighting the urge to fidget with his sleeves whenever they were alone. He felt it in the way Kye didn't pull away as quickly when Mason got close now, like he was hyper-aware of every touch.

And Mason?

Mason was confused as hell.

Because this wasn't normal. This wasn't how he normally felt about his friends.

And Kye? Kye wasn't just a friend anymore.

Not that Mason knew what he was.

But something had shifted, and now, Mason couldn't stop noticing.

Couldn't stop noticing the way Kye's long fingers tapped against his knee absentmindedly, the way his bleached hair fell into his eyes when he leaned forward, the way his hoodie sleeves were always too big, swallowing his hands when he crossed his arms.

Couldn't stop noticing the way Kye looked at him sometimes, gray eyes flickering with something unreadable.

It was messing with his head.

And Mason hated that he wasn't in control of it.

So, naturally, he did what he always did when things felt too complicated—he ignored it.

Shoved it down, pretended it wasn't there, and went about his day like nothing was different.

Which brought him to this moment. Kye was in one of his moods, he was sprawled across the couch, buried deep in his oversized hoodie, his long frame taking up way too much space as he dozed off into an afternoon nap. His legs stretched out over the cushions, socked feet crossed at the ankles, one arm lazily draped over his eyes as if he was trying to block out the world entirely.

Mason stood a few feet away, watching him, shivering.

He sighed, rubbing his arms as he stared out the window. The gray clouds loomed heavy over the campus, dull and unmoving, making the dorm feel smaller somehow, like the weather had pressed in from all sides, leaving no room to breathe.

He hated this.

Not the quiet, necessarily—Mason could handle quiet when it was the good kind. The kind filled with easy, comfortable silence, the kind that didn't make his chest feel tight or his mind feel like it was pacing in circles.

But this wasn't the good kind.

This was weird quiet.

The kind that had settled between him and Kye since—since whatever the hell happened under that damn hoodie.

Kye hadn't avoided him, exactly. But he also hadn't looked at him much since then, either.

Even now, lying there half-asleep, Kye looked deliberately away from Mason, like if he just didn't acknowledge him, the moment would pass, and Mason would leave him alone.

Which—no. That wasn't happening.

Mason shifted his weight from foot to foot, stuffing his freezing hands into the pockets of his sweatpants, sighing through his nose.