Insatiable (UNDERGOING REWRITES)

Chapter 21 : Caleb Ryan

It'd been hours and I haven't heard from Nolan. Which I expected as he said he was going out with Julian. I had to expect that to end in Nolan being gone for hours, maybe the whole night if he was lucky. And Nolan was always lucky.

Me, on the other hand...I always found myself sitting in my room, watching Netflix in the dark and hating myself just a little more. It was one of those days, and it was always best just to ride it out and not interfere with my own emotions.

I hadn't gotten a text from Nolan like I thought I would, but Tyler keeps texting me like crazy. After he found me in Dr. Sato's classroom, he had gone on and on about all this nonsense afterwards. He kept saying how inappropriate it was to be crushing on a teacher, let alone trying to make passes at them. He went on about how much older Ezra was than me, how he was a pedophile for hitting on a kid.

That's what he called me. A kid.

So yeah, I wasn't really in the mood to respond to him.

The door to the room opened, and my heart lifted thinking it was Nolan coming to cheer me up or something. But it was just Jonah coming back from the library. His black curls were even more of a mess than usual, which only meant his studying was either rigorous or not going to plan. He had three large textbooks in his arms and his backpack hanging heavily off one shoulder. His eyes widened a bit when he saw me in bed but he immediately composed himself as he shut the door.

"Sorry. I thought you'd be out or something."

I shrugged, pushing myself to sit up a little more. "Not in the mood to do anything but lay here and watch Netflix."

Jonah gave a slow nod of understanding. He dumped all of this things on his desk before shucking off his sweatshirt. I continued watching him move about the room, changing his clothes until he finally settled into his bed. I never noticed how small and petite Jonah was, or how beautiful and natural he looked. I realized I never really noticed anything about Jonah besides the simple fact that he his himself away in the library or our dorm room and that he was super smart.

I pushed my headphones off and my computer away, propping myself up on an elbow and turning my body to look across the room at Jonah who leaned back against a pile of his pillows on his bed. "Hey, Jonah. Tell me something about yourself."

Jonah looked surprised as he looked up at me. His eyes roamed around the room before landing back on me, as if wondering if I was being serious. "Why?"

I shrugged. "Because I don't know anything about you even though we've been living together for a year now. I haven't been the best roommate in trying to get to know you, and I apologize."

Jonah waved me off before I could continue. "It's whatever. I didn't expect us to be best friends or anything. Barely acquaintances. So don't bother, it's fine."

"No, no. I want to get to know you. Even if it's just surface level stuff. Like your favorite color. What's that?"

"Uh, yellow, I guess."

"Really? I love that. Mine's pink. Totally cliche for a gay guy."

Jonah shook his head. "No, I like that for you. It suits who you are not what you are."

I smiled at that before sitting fully upright, legs crossed underneath me as my blankets piled in my lap. "So how old are you anyways? You look really young for a college sophomore, no offense or anything."

"None taken. But yeah, I am actually young for your typical college sophomore. I'm eighteen. I graduated high school early."

"So you're like a genius, right? Child prodigy probably."