Oh My God, They Were Roommates

31 | Smooth

"¿No le molesta a tu novio que estemos saliendo? " Xavier asked the next day when Ray met him outside of his classroom. They were near the student union with plans to grab coffee and work on homework, but it felt a lot like a study date to Ray the moment Xavier asked that.

Ray rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, a blush coloring his cheeks. "I... I didn't tell him. I don't have to tell him who I hang out with, you know," he said, speaking fast through it all so they could get it over with. He hurried ahead, half-jogging down the steps to the sidewalk. "A-And I've got a project to work on! Yeah, I had a recording sesh the other day so I've got a lot of files to sort through—"

"Right," Xavier said, and Ray caught him smiling as they wandered side-by-side through the middle of campus to the parking structure. There, they hopped in Ray's car and made a swift getaway to Lorel's café where they would spend the afternoon on their computers, reading their textbooks, and pretending that everything was normal.

An hour into it, Ray glanced up from across the narrow, two-person table. Xavier caught his eye, only to duck his gaze back down, his dimples showing. Ray snickered and kicked Xavier in the shin—mostly by accident.

"Ow, por qué chingados hiciste eso?" Xavier laughed, rubbing at his leg.

Ray yelped and said, "¡Oh!, ¡Lo siento! No quería-" They both combusted into giggles at the knee-jerk way Ray's Spanish blurted out. His face went red in an instant, smiling despite himself. It felt nice knowing that he could even keep up with Xavier after years of not touching the language.

"Puedes hablar en inglés o español, vas a hacer que desfallezca," Xavier said, thoroughly sending Ray's spirit into the afterlife. "Aunque, tengo que admitir, es un poco cansado hablar en inglés todo el tiempo."

"You can speak whatever you like with me," Ray said, lowering his hands from his face. He backtracked instantly. "Though, no promises that I'll keep up."

"No te preocupes, no te juzgo," Xavier said. "Me alegra que sigas haciendo música."

"Me too," Ray said, relieved.

Just as he was starting to calm down, he caught a glimpse of black hair through the front window of the café. Ray's heart stopped in his chest, only to kickstart at top speed when he heard the front door to the building open, and then again the café door where a bell chimed overhead. Ray sucked in a deep breath, pretending to be focused on his computer, but he knew Xavier had full view of the door, and full view of Sora walking into the café.

That evening, Sora worked, which meant that he needed an espresso boost to tide him over. The café down the street from their apartment was his primary pick-me-up location, and was precisely where he ordered his caffeine while Xavier leant back in his seat, arms crossed, and looked between Sora and Ray, an eyebrow raised.

Xavier turned to Ray, pointing towards the cash register, as he said, "¿No es ese tu novio?"

By now, Sora had a more or less tuned ear for catching any lick of Spanish spoken on campus. Call it paranoia, but he always assumed it was Xavier, but grew to chalk it off as the days went by. That day, however, when Sora looked, he caught sight of Ray staring at him like a deer caught in headlights, and Xavier, turning to him with look of mock surprise.

Xavier blinked, pretending to be startled, and said, "Well, if it isn't the man of the hour."

Sora glanced at Lorel, who had already walked off to make his order. He wandered over to their table then, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. He observed the textbook on Xavier's bent knee, the laptop in front of him, and Ray with his industry-standard headphones on sitting in front of his laptop.