Love Lessons (9 page)

Walter eyed his roommate. Kelly was hiding something, and Walter wasn’t sure if he should nudge him outright to spill the deets or if he should wait and see what happened.

Cara rolled her eyes at Walter and turned to Kelly. “I’m Cara, and this is my fiancé, Greg.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Greg held out his hand too, though he used the other to wipe off his chin. He didn’t get all the grease, so Cara dabbed at it for him, and he quickly wiped himself again. “Did I get it?”

“You’re fine.” Cara patted him on the arm.

Walter had tried, a lot, to hate Greg, but it was like hating a puppy. He was so far from hottie he lived in Alaska, but he wasn’t ugly either, just slightly awkward in that geeky, straight-boy way that had always turned Cara’s crank. She so loved a hot mess, and boy did she have that in Greg. She also had an engineering graduate student as a husband. Her mother was over the moon.

“So you’re Kelly.” Cara smiled at him. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

Kelly beamed back. “Likewise.”

For a while they all did the small-talk thing where Kelly told them about Cutesy, Minnesota, and Greg and Cara and Walter mocked their own suburban upbringing. They asked about Kelly’s major too, at which point Red threw a curve ball.

“I’ve been taking a lot of business classes, but lately, I don’t know. I’ve kind of been thinking it could be cool to teach.”

Walter put down his pizza. “As in school? High school?”

Kelly ducked his head. “Well, actually I kind of thought middle school.”

“What?”

Cara swatted at Walter. “What’s wrong with him wanting to be a teacher?”

“There’s nothing wrong. It’s just the first I heard of it. Where is this coming from?”

Kelly shrugged. “I’m not sure. I started thinking about it, is all. It probably won’t come to anything.”

“What subject would you teach?” Greg asked.

“History.”

Cara smiled over her root beer. “Well good for you. I think you should look into it.”

Kelly blushed. “It’s probably a whim.”

It sure didn’t sound like one to Walter. But he could tell Kelly wanted to chew on it some more, so he didn’t push.

After dinner they drifted over to Moe’s. It was early, so they could still get a table, and they settled in the back to people watch.

“They have popcorn here now too?” Cara pointed to a machine over by the bar.

Walter swung around, blinking at it. “That’s brand new. Never seen it before tonight.”

Greg stood back up. “I’ll get us some.” He came back with four bowls, two of them balanced precariously on the others. He passed them around, and everyone munched while they waited for the waitress to bring their pitcher.

“So you’re getting married soon?” Kelly asked Cara as he dug into his bowl.

“June.” Cara nudged Walter and grinned. “This goofball here is my best man.”

Kelly smiled. “That’s cool.” He flushed and reached for more popcorn. “You guys have been friends a long time, right?”

“Since kindergarten,” Walter confessed. “I was scared to use the boys’ bathroom for reasons I can’t remember, so she took me with her into the girls’.”

“It was our first scandal,” Cara said, beaming.

“I love that.” Kelly smiled, but his blush was full-on scarlet now. Why, Walter wondered? “You guys have been friends that long?”

“That long, and on to forever,” Walter said.

“So cool.” Kelly still blushed, his whole face bright red now.

Walter narrowed his eyes. Actually, that wasn’t a blush. In fact, he looked blotchy.

“Red? Hon, you’re redder than usual. Did you get into something you shouldn’t?”

Kelly frowned, then looked down at his hands. They’d started to swell. Beneath the blotches on his face, he paled. “Oh shit.”

Cara came to attention. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Allergic reaction.” Kelly’s whole face had puffed up now, especially his lips.

Shit.
Walter floundered, not knowing what the fuck he was supposed to do. “Pen, Red. Where’s your pen?”

Kelly pressed a hand against his pocket. “Here,” he said, but his voice sounded funny, like his tongue was thick. His breathing was also alarmingly raspy.

Walter stood, almost upending the table, and hauled Kelly to his feet so he could dig into his roommate’s pocket. He found the pen, which wasn’t anything like a pen at all, more like a sealed syringe. It was intimidating, but even with fat fingers Kelly seemed to know just what to do, wrenching it from Walter’s hand, fumbling briefly with the cap, then jamming it hard into his thigh. Walter watched, terrified and helpless as Kelly held the pen against his leg, breathing labored, until he finally lifted it up and started massaging the area.

“I’m okay,” he said, his voice a little more normal. He fished in his other pocket, pulled out an inhaler and took two practiced hits from the mouthpiece. When he lowered it, he was more like the Kelly Walter knew. His lips weren’t swollen quite as badly either.

Kelly shut his eyes for a second, his countenance a picture of mortification. “I have to go to the hospital. Sorry.”

“Fuck sorry. Jesus.” Walter reached for him, then stopped, not sure that was what he should do. “Can I go get my car, or do you need an ambulance?”

“Car is fine.” Kelly kept rubbing his leg, taking deeper and deeper breaths. “Just have to get there in fifteen minutes.”

Jesus.
Walter turned to Cara, who was already shooing.

“I’ll take care of him. You go, we’ll meet you out front.”

Walter ran the whole way to his car, his mind still full of the image of Kelly swelling up like that. He could have died. There was no question of that, not even a little, and it scared him to death. Kelly could have died.

Fifteen minutes.

When he peeled up to the door at Moe’s, Cara was there as promised, she and Greg flanking a miserable Kelly.

“I’m really sorry,” he said as Cara ushered him into the front seat.

“Stop apologizing.” Walter gave up and reached for his hand. “Jesus, Red, that scared the shit out of me.”

Kelly didn’t look scared. He looked weary and embarrassed. But he squeezed Walter’s hand back.

“It was the popcorn,” Greg volunteered from the backseat. “Moe used an organic oil he thought people would think was hip, and it’s made on the same equipment as almonds or something. Or it has almonds in it, I wasn’t clear exactly what that was about.”

“Take Sixteenth,” Cara said as Walter turned onto the highway. “It’s the faster way to the hospital.”

Walter followed her direction and glanced back at Kelly. “What happens in fifteen minutes?”

Kelly sagged into his seat. “The epinephrine wears off. But it’ll be fine. I’ve done this before.”

It became Walter’s new mission in life for this to never happen again.

At the hospital, Cara got out with Kelly and explained what was going on to the nurses, but when Walter would have parked the car, Greg stopped him and said to hand over the keys, to Walter’s great relief. He stayed with Kelly as he checked in, but none of them could go back with him into the exam rooms. Kelly waved as he went away, telling them they could go home and he’d text them when he was done.

Cara didn’t even ask, just settled Walter on a couch in the waiting area and pulled out her phone, heading straight to WebMD.

“It says they’re going to give him breathing treatments and antihistamines. He should be fine. It’s pretty standard stuff, I guess.”

Walter stared after the place where Kelly had disappeared. “That was horrible.”

Cara gave him a long look, then a funny smile.

Walter glared at her. “What?”

“Nothing.” She waved her phone at him. “Get out your ear buds. We’ll watch YouTube.”

They watched quite a bit of YouTube, sharing an ear bud each between them. Greg took field trips to the cafeteria for coffee and bags of chips. Walter wanted to go ask the front desk when Kelly would be done, but they wouldn’t tell him anything, he knew, so he waited, glad that at least Cara was there.

Eventually Kelly came back out, red now from embarrassment instead of hives—in other words, back to normal. He gave them a weary, awkward wave. “Sorry. You shouldn’t have stayed.”

Like he’d have been anywhere else? Walter messed up Kelly’s hair and put his hand on his back to nudge him toward the door. “Come on. You have a date with your bed. Unless you don’t want to climb up into yours? You could have the futon for tonight.”

“I’m fine,” Kelly said.

“You’re shaking.”

“It’s the pen. They had to give me another shot, and I’m jittery.”

Kelly seemed annoyed, and that annoyed Walter. “Well, you scared the piss out of me.”

“I
know
. I’m sorry.”

Cara slipped between the two of them, linking their arms as they went out the door into the parking lot. “How about we go back to our hotel room and hang out? They gave us double queens. You guys can crash on one if you want.”

Walter didn’t want to go to the hotel room. He wanted to go lock Kelly in the dorm and stand over him like a paranoid idiot all night long, making sure he could breathe. Which Cara probably knew. He sighed. “It’s up to Red.”

Kelly hesitated, then said, “A beer sounds really good.”

“Beer can be had.” Greg put his arm around Kelly’s other side and nodded at the car. “Let’s go.”

Kelly wasn’t sure whether or not it was wise to drink after an allergic reaction, but right now he honestly didn’t care.

He was in a foul mood all the way to the liquor store and back to Cara and Greg’s hotel, and the fact Walter kept hovering only made him surlier. Kelly
hated
that he’d had an attack in front of everyone like that. Half the school went to Moe’s, and they all saw him turn into a fucking pufferfish. Thank God he hadn’t had to call an ambulance. He’d ruined everyone’s evening too, making them sit in the emergency room while he sucked on a nebulizer and all the usual crap. Even having Professor Williams’s wife as his nurse hadn’t done much to ease the ignominy.

Though he’d had plenty of accidental exposure to his severe allergens, it had been awhile since he’d put on such a performance, and it was his first time at college. His allergies always made him feel different, separate, and tonight they really upset him. He didn’t want to feel separate. He’d felt so good, so normal, included. He couldn’t even finish the evening, though, without being reminded he wasn’t
really
one of them.

Okay, that was horribly pouty, he admitted to himself. So he drank beer until he didn’t feel pouty anymore.

That took about two and a half bottles, at which point he was giggly, leaning on Walter and half falling off the bed as Greg did
Star Wars
impressions that really weren’t that funny but made Kelly laugh all the same. The best was the Jawa—
utinni!
—and the Tusken Raiders. God, they just tickled Kelly’s funny bone.

“You’re
giggling
.” Walter shook his head and grinned at Kelly.

“Sorry.” Kelly giggled some more.

“It’s adorable.” Cara was half in Greg’s lap, looking relaxed and happy, like she was at home.
I want that,
Kelly thought.

“
Bantha poodoo,
” Greg said in his Jabba the Hutt voice, and Kelly giggled again.

At his fourth beer Kelly was more than a little stupid. He’d slid onto the floor at some point, and now he lay on his back, listening to the sound of the others’ voices, drifting away and coming back occasionally as Walter’s foot nudged his leg. He would admit he did a fair amount of brushing himself, because it felt good. He missed touch. His family was a touchy family, always hugging and snuggling on the sofa, even though they were older. The warmth and pressure of Walter’s foot was a paltry substitute, but it felt heady and bold, and he kept courting interaction with it.

Then Walter himself leaned down, looking bemused. “Hey there, drunk boy.”

“Hey.” Kelly grinned and waved. Drunkenly.

“Maybe you want to climb into this bed, get comfy?”

That was all he said, and he didn’t even say it lewdly. In fact he was soft and quiet, very gentle, the same way he’d been gentle with Kelly all evening. Even so, it hit Kelly like a hammer.

Get into this bed.

Kelly couldn’t breathe, and it didn’t have anything to do with allergies.

Walter reached down to Kelly and pulled him upright. “Up you come, kiddo.”

Kiddo.
That hurt, and Kelly wanted to protest it, but the world spun alarmingly as he came to his feet.

“Easy, easy,” Walter said, and Cara and Greg said something too, but all Kelly could focus on was Walter. Walter who, he realized, would go to bed with him. The idea made blood rush to his groin, and he felt himself go hard.

Except Walter only tucked Kelly into the bed on the far side away from Cara and Greg, and though Kelly’d had a moment’s thrill of thinking Walter might undress him, he entered the bed fully clothed. Walter didn’t climb into the other side, only went back to sitting on the edge, talking to the others.