Serpentine Walls (25 page)

Cleo glanced around the table, as if to make sure she wasn’t breaking a confidence, and then turned to Angie, lifting her own mug. “Brava to you, girl, for even finishing his class
and
your project.”

Angie blushed at that. “She’s right,” Brian said, moving closer to her.

Everyone else raised their mugs. “I’m proud of you, roomie,” Pete said.

“Okay, okay, guys.” Angie’s voice was choked. “You know I wouldn’t have made it without you.” She wiped her eyes. “Enough of this. Poor Jed is up there singing, you know.”

They all turned their attention to the front, where the rugby team was halfway through their song, acting obnoxious and seriously butchering “Bad Romance.” Jed stood in the back of the group, singing with a mortified expression.

“Poor Jed.” Matthew laughed and then stood up, put his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Alright! Woooo, yes!”

Pete cast a sideways glance at him as he fell back into his chair with a merry smile, noticing the laugh lines around his eyes and the way his auburn hair curled around his ears and that smattering of freckles on his neck. His eyes dropped to Matthew’s strong hands and how his slender fingers wrapped around his beer mug.
So damn attractive
. He dragged his own fingers morosely through a small puddle of beer on the table, feeling like Eeyore.

John’s voice intruded. “I’m going to get some pizzas since Pete got the beer.”

“That’s my man.” Cleo kissed his cheek.

John caressed Cleo’s hair. “One large with everything and one large veggie okay?”

No one said anything for a moment; Brian and Angie were whispering to each other, and Pete had averted his eyes from the table to watch the rugby team get to the end of their song amid more jeers than cheers.

“Sure,” Matthew said, and John went to order.

When Jed returned to the table, face red but looking relieved, Angie waved her napkin pom-poms. “Yay, Jed! Woo-hoo!”

Everyone joined Angie in a round of applause, and Jed gave them an embarrassed smile before sliding into his seat.

“C’mon, stop,” he said. “It was terrible.”

“Terrible is better than not at all.” Matthew offered Jed a fist bump.

“Hey, Matthew,” Cleo said, “I need to ask you something about my own film.”

“Okay.” Matthew leaned over to talk to her.

Pete poured Jed some more beer. “Dude, that was pretty funny.”

“So embarrassing, man. Let’s talk about something else.”

“Sure. How’ve you been?”

“Okay. Pretty busy with classes.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

An awkward silence fell as they watched Angie laugh at something Brian said while Matthew and Cleo consulted in low voices.

“Have you tried
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
yet?” Pete asked in desperation.

“Yeah. It’s good. Do you have it?”

“Not yet.”

“I’ve got it, if you want to come over after.” Jed kept his eyes on his beer mug, the color rising in his cheeks.

Pete stared at his own hands resting on the table, acutely conscious of Matthew on his other side, handsome and sexy and oh, so celibate. He looked across the table at Brian and Angie, whispering together, and then at John, who had returned from ordering pizza, slinging his arm around Cleo and watching her as she talked animatedly with Matthew.

Fuck me.

“Sure,” he said to Jed, wanting to kick himself.

“Pete,” Cleo said, “tell me about the last day of filming. How’s it feel to be a filmmaker?”

“Surreal.”

“I bet.”

Matthew put a hand on Pete’s neck and squeezed before dropping it to pick up his beer. “Pete’s got talent. Even with the raw footage I can tell he has a good eye, and I really like his screenplay.”

“My roomie is a genius,” Angie declared. Pete would have groaned, but he was too busy willing his body to calm down from Matthew’s touch. “But I’ve told y’all that already.”

Cleo gave Pete one of her rare smiles. “I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.”

“Me too,” Jed said in a quiet voice.

From the front, the nasal voice of the woman at the karaoke machine blared out: “Angie and Brian to sing ‘I’ll Be There’ by The Jackson Five.”

“What?” Brian glared at Angie.

She laughed. “I signed us up when you were in the bathroom. Come on.” She stood and held out her hand to Brian.

“Yes!” Matthew waved his napkin around in a poor imitation of Angie’s pom-poms. “Rock on, kiddos.”

“Dang. Save me some pizza.” Brian allowed Angie to drag him out of his seat and pull him to the front, although he was complaining the whole way.

“That gal’s got him on a string,” John said.

“It’s adorable.” Cleo looked across the table. “Pete and Matthew, you should go up there and provide reinforcements.”

Just then, the waitress showed up with their pizzas.

“Too late, pizza’s here.” Suddenly ravenous, Pete grabbed a piece with everything on it and took a big bite.

“Someone’s hungry,” Matthew said. “C’mon, Jed, take some before Pete eats it all.”

Jed selected a piece from the same pie but began to eat it much more slowly and politely.

“Veggie for me and John,” Cleo announced. John made a sound of protest. “I’m turning him into a vegetarian if it’s the last thing I do.”

Angie and Brian got through the song while the rest of them ate pizza and cheered them on, trying to drown out the catcalls from Bud and the rugby team. They arrived back at the table, bowing to the round of applause from their friends.

“Never again.” Brian sat down with a huff.

“We’ll see about that,” Angie said with an impish grin.

Matthew turned to Pete. “So what do you say? Should we rock out on ‘Some Enchanted Evening’? These guys haven’t heard anything until they hear us do show tunes.”

“I’ll pass.” Pete eyed the pizza boxes, wondering if he could justify a fourth slice by making it veggie. Then he sighed. He didn’t know why he was stuffing his face. He wasn’t even hungry anymore.

Matthew nudged him. “Hey, cheer up, son. You look pretty glum for someone who just finished his first movie.”

“I’m proud of you, kid,” Cleo said. “I hope I make the credits.”

“What did you do?” Brian asked, genuinely curious, while the rest of them laughed.

“Not a damn thing,” John said.

“I beg your pardon?
I
was the one who first encouraged him, all those months ago.” Cleo nodded at Matthew. “
And
got Mr. Layton here to help him out. Wait, you were there, Brian. In the diner before school started? Don’t you remember?”

“Oh, yeah, now I do.” Brian munched his veggie slice and handed Angie the last one with everything.

“So, what would that be called in the credits? Is she a producer?” wondered Angie.

“Angel. In more ways than one.” John kissed Cleo, who pushed him away in mock disgust.

“Angels usually contribute money, though,” Matthew said.

Cleo pulled a few quarters out of her purse and tossed them on the table in front of Pete. “There you go.”

“Okay, okay.” Despite his friends’ antics, Pete couldn’t shake off his dark mood. Taking a breath, he raised his mug. “A toast to all of you for helping me out with my first film.”

“Hear, hear!” Angie raised her mug along with the rest. “You know we’d do anything for you.”

“You guys are the best,” Pete continued. “I mean that.”

“We’re all you need to get by, Marvin.” Matthew batted his eyelashes at him.

John smirked. “Yep, we’re the best crew money can’t buy, given we did it for free.”

“And, Brian, can I use you on all my films?” Pete asked. “Talk about being organized.”

“Sure. It’s a lot more fun than econ homework.”

Matthew yawned. “Well, this boy is full of pizza and beer and fast turning into a pumpkin.”

“Okay, old man,” John said.

Matthew shot him a death glare. “I
was
going to thank you for the pizza….” He turned to Pete. “You need a ride?”

“Naw, I’m good. Thanks again, man. For everything.”

Matthew inclined his head. “At your service, sir. Thanks for the beer. Send me a text about getting together for the editing.”

“Yep.” Pete watched Matthew take his leave of the others and walk back through the bar, until he pushed open the door and was gone.

“That guy so rocks,” Cleo said behind him, and Pete couldn’t help but nod. He turned back to catch her glancing at Jed and pressing her lips together, which he knew meant she wanted to say more but wasn’t going to.

“You ready to go?” Brian asked Angie.

Angie nodded and smiled across the table at Pete. “He’s making me go play backgammon at his place, the ogre.”

“Have fun. I’m going to Jed’s to play video games.”

“Good,” Angie said.

Amid the general gathering of belongings, John said, “I guess the party’s over.”

“No, hon,” Cleo purred. “When we get home, the party’s just beginning.”

Pete stood up, having had all the gooey couple talk he could stomach for one night. “Let’s go,” he said to Jed, and had walked halfway to the door by the time he heard the scraping of Jed’s chair behind him.

“Night, Pete!” Angie’s voice called out as he pushed open the door.

Pete and Jed ambled toward the dorms.

“You tired?” Jed asked.

“Huh?”

“You seem tired.”

“Yeah. I kinda am.” Pete stifled the yawn that had erupted spontaneously at the suggestion of tiredness. “We got up early for the movie.”

“You don’t have to come over.” Jed kicked a stone lightly down the sidewalk. “If you’re that beat.”

“Naw, I’m good.” The truth was, he wasn’t. Going to Jed’s seemed like a huge effort when all he wanted was to curl into a ball underneath his own covers.

“Okay,” Jed said with his usual equanimity. “I’ll buy the junk food this time.”

Pete smiled, experiencing a sudden rush of affection for Jed. “You’re a good guy, you know that?”

Jed blushed. “Um, thanks. So are you.”

“No, I’m really not,” Pete said, thinking about what a general asshole he was where Jed was concerned. But at Jed’s puzzled frown, he added, “Because I’m going to take the Jed-meister
down
tonight.”

Jed grinned. “Oh, yeah? In your dreams, dude.”

They knocked into each other playfully and entered Cohn’s for their soda and chips.

“O
KAY
,”
Pete said, pushing his chair back from the desk in Matthew’s bedroom and glaring at the computer. “I’m toast.”

“Yeah, time for a break.” Matthew stood and stretched.

Pete rubbed his eyes. “I had no idea editing a movie took so much work.”

“It’s the part no one really understands until they do it. How ’bout we get a drink and watch something relaxing?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Pete followed Matthew down the stairs and into his kitchen. Matthew strode over to the pantry door and opened it.

“Behold,” he intoned, “the blue house pantry, scene of many a shocking—”

“Shut up,” Pete warned.

“—tryst. Why, little did I suspect, that night in late October, when my hand grasped this very knob—”

“Quiet!” Laughing, Pete got his hands on Matthew’s waist and started to tickle.

“—that I would see—agh! Stop tickling. Uncle, uncle!” Matthew doubled over in a fit of laughter, and Pete let go, only to whack him on the back.

“Serves you right for bringing that up.”

“I wasn’t the one bringing it up that night, ha, ha, ha,” Matthew sputtered, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Damn you, Layton, you’re about to get another tickling—”

“What’s going on in here?” Finn, one of Matthew’s housemates, crossed the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

“Mutual torture.” Matthew grabbed a bottle of red wine and closed the pantry door. “And to complete the torture, I’m going to make Pete watch
Sex and the City
with me. In honor of Valentine’s Day.”

Pete groaned. “I forgot it was Valentine’s Day. Do we have to watch that?”

“What?” Matthew took two glasses out of the cupboard and handed them to Pete. “It’s either that or Antonioni, and I was going for something light.” He opened a drawer and got out a corkscrew.

“Well, if those are the only choices, okay. I need something mindless right now.”

Matthew pretended outrage as he uncorked the wine. “
Sex and the City
is
not
mindless. You’ll see.”

“Don’t believe him,” Finn said, drinking milk out of the carton.

“That better be your milk,” Matthew warned.

“Naw, it’s Parker’s.”

“Oh, that’s okay then,” Matthew said, and Pete laughed.

“You coming to the Crushed Hearts party this weekend?” Finn asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it. It’s also the cast party for my film.”

Matthew crooked a finger at him. “Come with me, big-time movie director.”

He followed Matthew’s cute butt back upstairs to his bedroom, wineglasses in his hands, happy for no good reason. Matthew poured wine into the glasses and handed Pete one.

“For you, sir.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Their fingers brushed. Pete took a breath and let it out slowly. Trying not to get aroused in Matthew’s presence was often a losing battle. They settled into their usual positions in front of Matthew’s TV—Matthew sprawled on his bed and Pete ensconced in an overstuffed armchair.

“So, any big plans for tonight?” Matthew asked.

“What?”

“Valentine’s Day, son.”

“Oh. Jed and I are getting together.”

“That’s sweet.”

Pete shot Matthew a dirty look. “It’s not for Valentine’s Day. We’re going to play video games.” He suddenly wondered if Jed was going to give him a card.
Crap
. He should have stuck to his resolve not to see him, but it was so easy with Jed. And he got video games and blow jobs out of the deal. “Angie got a huge bouquet and a mushy card from Brian.”

“Aw, now that really is sweet.”

“It is. He’s taking her to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and Angie told me that if he doesn’t make a move tonight, she’s going to.”

“Go Angie! More wine?” Matthew refilled their glasses. “Okay, now about our viewing selection, you can still change your mind, you know.”