Hooked up | B×B

Hooked Up 06: Working Things Out

|WORKING THINGS OUT|

It was a long week for Rex. After getting used to his schedule and getting caught up in his classes, all he wanted to do was fall asleep when he got home on Friday. However, he had already made plans to hang out with Jared to work on the project, so no extra nap time after school was to be allowed.

Thankfully, Rex and Jared shared most of the same classes since they were both in same course, and Rex didn’t have to exert more energy at the end of the day looking for Jared. Rex sighed, thinking about the past week. He had only known Jared for a short span of time, but he already knew that he was whipped. At this point in time though, he didn’t expect anything and he didn’t want anything. He had to get a girlfriend soon to distract himself or people might start noticing the looks he gave to Jared when he wasn’t paying attention.

Rex’s eyes lazily drifted to Jared’s figure for the fifth time that class. It was almost time for the bell to ring, and Rex couldn’t pay attention to the churning mass of theories being thrown in to the conversation for the life of him. His mind — the only place he could openly think about his gay side — of drifted to dark places as he got carried away with what could happen at his house.

Within a few moments of breaching on dangerous territory, Rex shook himself and scoffed at the dark, unrealistical imaginings he had conjured. For the last five minutes of class, he forced himself to pay attention, and when the bell rang, he took his time packing up his things.

When he looked up, Jared was standing by his desk biting his lip and looking expectantly at him. “Are you ready to go?” He asked timidly, looking anywhere but Rex. “I don’t know where your car is so you’re going to have to show me.”

Rex smiled reassuredly and got up to start walking by Jared in the direction of the exit by the theater. “Yeah, I’m ready. Do you have all of your stuff for the project?”

Jared nodded quietly while looking ahead ot the herd of people massing in front of the doors to the school. Just as they got outside, Jared suddenly dissappeared from Rex’s peripheral vision.

“...Jared?” Rex looked around a little frantically, confused as to where Jared have dissappeared off so quickly. He sighed in relief and slight irritation when he saw that girl Olivia had taken him aside for a quick make-out session. Typical girl, Rex thought. Can’t keep it herself for more than five minutes.

He cautiously walked over to the couple and cleared his throat loudly as to signal his presence. The two broke apart as if they did something wrong, and Jared gave Rex a sheepish smile. He waved goodbye to his girlfriend and he and Rex headed once again toward the parking lot. When they got to Rex’s Fiat, Rex noticed Jared smile a little at the little car.

“Rex, I love your car... does it have a name?” Jared asked, climbing into the passenger seat and looking admiringly around.

Rex laughed a little. He wasn’t one to name inanimate objects. “None,” He said. “I never thought of it. Why?”

Jared shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I feel like it deserves a name. It’s too cute not to have a name.” He looked around onve more at the interior of the car and snapped his fingets decisively. “Since you don’t have a name for it, I’ll name him Vinny. It’s perfect!” Jared was smiling at Rex like a little kid would.

Rex laughed again and looked at Jared incredulously. He had only known Jared for a week and he was already laughing at little things he said. Normally, it took months for Rex to warm up to new people, but it seemed like Jared wasn’t going to let that happen. “Alright,” Rex conceded. “Sounds like a plan. Just expect me to call it Vinny...”