The Right Move

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

Kate leaned against Trevor’s shoulder as they stood outside room 202. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Making new friends?” Trevor offered.

“Senior year?”

He shrugged, not quite dislodging her. New friends were always nice, and he wasn’t going to share his real reason. He didn’t want word to get around about Chase’s…oddity, and even if he told Jorge his plan, the gossip would spread. Likely not beyond their group, but Chase surely wouldn’t like that, not when he seemed to keep it so quiet.

The door finally opened, excusing him from having to answer her. Chase was there, his long black hair braided over one shoulder—the tip still frayed—wearing a Henley that clung unfairly to his perfect body. His eyes once again popped wide. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Trevor grinned. “Remember me?”

Chase put on a ridiculous thinking expression. “It was S-something, right? Sean? No, Scott. No, no, Scrabble!”

“Haha,” Trevor said dryly. “Anyway, this is Kate—” he bumped her with his shoulder “—and a bunch of us are gonna watch the new season of Voltron that just dropped on Netflix. Wanna join us?”

Chase jerked back slightly in what seemed to be surprise. “Really?”

“I know it’s supposedly a kids’ show, but we’re in college and—”

“No! I love Voltron. I meant…” Chase blushed prettily. So prettily. “I just meant you want me to join you?” He met Trevor’s gaze, as if he were trying to say something else than the words he’d spoken: You want me to join you even after I told you that?

“Yup,” Trevor said without hesitation. First off, because friends didn’t need to be in constant contact with each other, so what was the big deal, and second, because….well, it was hard to get someone used to being touched every once in a while if you weren’t around them.

Chase’s smile was so brilliant it blew out all the receptors in Trevor’s brain for a minute. “Let me just tell my friends I’ve got to go.” He jerked his head into his room before twisting around and practically skipping to his computer, where he grinned, typed a few things, grinned even wider, and closed the lid of his laptop. “All done.”

“If we’re interrupting something, we can always do it later,” Kate offered, because she was nice like that, even if the rest of their friends were already huddled in her apartment.

“Not at all.” Chase grabbed a few things and shoved them in his jeans pockets, then stepped out and closed the door. “It’s Slack chat, so we come and go as we want.” He smiled tightly, his back pressed to the door, keeping a few feet distance between himself and them.

Trevor slung his arm across Kate’s shoulders and tugged her away, giving room for Chase to step away from the door. He started leading them down the hall. “Then follow along, my good lad, and we shall show you wonders unknown to man.”

“Oh brother.” Kate shoved him off her and glanced over her shoulder at where Chase was trailing a little behind. “Don’t mind him, he’s in a weird mood. So you’ve seen all the previous seasons?”

They launched into a conversation about what had happened so far and a debate about the White Lion and Altean technology. Somehow, that devolved into which ship was the perfect pairing—because that was where all fandom conversations eventually led.

“Pidge/Shiro all the way,” Chase stated, as if only a fool would argue with him.

“Pssh.” Kate snorted. “I think you mean Keith/Shiro all the way.”

“I think we all know Lotor/Allura is the real end game,” Trevor chimed in.

Kate snorted again. “Lotor can die in a fire.”

“But he’s such a good, complex—and possibly insane—villain!” Chase said, now walking three abreast with them. “The last season reminded me a bit of Zuko’s plot in Avatar: The Last Airbender.” He paused. “Not the movie.”

“As if that needed said. Worst. Thing. Ever.” Kate shuddered, and they all mimicked her.

“Although…Airbender movie or The Seeker?” Trevor posed.

“That supposed movie of The Dark Is Rising?” Chase paused, as if thinking, then his nose wrinkled. “That’s like comparing two steaming piles of s**t and trying to decide which stinks less.”

Kate broke down in giggles. “Are we throwing The Giver movie into the running?”

“Hey, that wasn’t as bad,” Chase said.

“Yeah, it was only a pile of s**t, not a steaming one.”

“True. It didn’t take five earth benders to move one rock,” Kate grumbled.

They spent the rest of the walk tearing the movies apart. Trevor made sure to keep himself between Chase and Kate—not that it really seemed necessary, since Chase was keeping himself a good foot away from both of them. If Kate noticed, she didn’t say anything, and when they hit the sidewalks, Chase had to walk ahead or behind them anyway. If Trevor weren’t so aware of it, he probably wouldn’t have been bothered by it—if he noticed it at all—but it annoyed him. Just a little. It was so unnecessary. Didn’t Chase want to get over it?

“Sweet,” Chase said, interrupting Trevor’s thoughts. “You live in Huxley Hall. Is it as nice as everyone says?”

Kate shrugged. “It’s better than the dorms, and it’s ten years younger than all the other apartments. And the elevator works.” She threw Chase a grin. “Usually.”

“Anything is better than the dorms, really. But as a transfer, I didn’t get a whole lot of choice.”

“Least you’re not on the eighth floor of Burnett, with the always broken elevator,” Kate offered.

“Plus this way we got to meet you. But why did you transfer senior year—you are a senior, right?”

“I am. I was at the sister school, Roden, for the past three years, but, uh, circumstances required I move, and because the colleges are networked, it was easy to transfer credits and stuff.” He shrugged, cheeks pink, visibly not wanting to talk about it.

Before Trevor could ask anything more, Kate said, “Are you enjoying Triform so far?”

Chase nodded, gaze on the ground, and the conversation died as Kate let them into her apartment. Jorge and Rita were already ensconced on the sofa, video game controllers in hand, playing a vicious game of Mario Kart.

Jorge’s short black hair was a mess, and he was still wearing the pajamas he’d had on when Trevor had left their room. Rita’s dirty-blonde hair was pulled up into a sloppy bun, but in that way that looked like it was on purpose. Artfully casual, he thought she’d called it. She was wearing shorts, a T-shirt that said Feeling Corgeous with a picture of a corgi, and rainbow thigh-high socks. Neither of them looked up.

“Where’s Lia?” Kate asked as she closed the door.

“She got a better offer,” Rita said in her low, almost raspy voice. “‘Study date’ with her new girlfriend.”

“Julie could have come over here,” Trevor said.

“Julie was last week,” Jorge informed, then screamed as a blue shell murdered him.

“Darla is this week?” Kate asked uncertainly.

Rita nodded. “And she doesn’t like ‘all that nerd stuff.’ Which speaks well for how that relationship is going to go.”

Trevor realized Chase was standing back, still by the door, looking completely out of his depths. Not scared, but wearing a stoic mask, as if to hide his confusion. Trevor gestured him forward. “And I’m being rude. Guys, this is Chase, of Scrabble-scattering fame. Chase, this is Rita, you’ve met Jorge, and the invisible friend is Lia, who came to college, realized she’s a lesbian and has been tasting all the wares. She’s also the biggest nerd out of all of us.” Trevor smirked. “Although also the most social.”

Chase stepped forward, so he was no longer the shadow of the doorway, and gave a finger-wave. “Hi.”

Rita looked up as the race finished and her humdrum expression brightened into interest. She tossed him a brilliant smile. “Hello. You are here willingly, right? They didn’t kidnap you?”

Chase returned the smile, his eyes crinkling in amusement. “No kidnapping. I was planning on bingeing the new season this afternoon anyway.”

“And this way you get in on our pizza order.” Jorge gave him a thumbs-up. Trevor’s stomach sank. They’d forgotten to mention that.

Chase frowned and glanced to Trevor and Kate. “I, uh, don’t have any money on me.”

“Our treat,” Trevor assured, even as his bank account wept. Hopefully everyone would be willing to chip in, even if inviting Chase had been his idea.

The adorable blush painted itself across Chase’s nose again. “I can pay you back.”

Oh thank God. Trevor shrugged like it was no big deal. “If you want.”

“If you’re done flirting,” Kate said flatly. At some point she’d gotten on the couch with Jorge and Rita. And turned off the game and opened Netflix. And queued up the show.

Trevor turned away from Chase and shook his head at Kate. “If being nice to someone is what you interpret as flirting, I can see why you’re single.”

She gave him the finger.

Trevor ignored her. He gestured to the weird wingback chair she had in her apartment for some reason. “Chase, you can have the chair. I can sit on the floor—unfortunately the bean bag chairs have…not survived the year.”

“Unrelated,” Jorge said, “we also have a rule that you are not allowed to use bean bag chairs for a pillow fight.”

Chase chortled as he took the chair. “That must have made a mess. Those little balls everywhere?”

“Making the culprits clean up at least matched the punishment to the crime,” Kate said. “Also, thanks for the reminder that you two owe me new bean bag chairs.”

“After pay day,” Rita promised. “Or else Trevor is going to have to front me money for pizza too.”

“I am not Trevor Bank,” he grumbled as he sat on the floor, not at all purposefully close to where Chase was sitting. It was technically beside the chair. Not touching Chase at all. Chase glanced down at him, shifted in his seat slightly, but didn’t complain.

Trevor grinned. Victory.

“No, but you’re the one who gives yourself a weekly allowance, so you always have backup money when we need it.”

“Which I regret telling you about.”

“Pssh.” Kate looked at Chase. “Ignore him. He loves to help people out of tight spots. And he doesn’t even charge interest.”

“Usually,” Jorge grumbled.

Trevor glared at him. “You hadn’t paid me back for two years!”

Chase giggled, and Trevor cranked his head back to meet Chase’s gaze. The blue eyes were dark in the dim light of the room, making them seductive, although the smile turning up his lips was just friendly. Happy.

Warmth permeated Trevor’s chest, and he was glad he’d included him in their binge-watch. “All right,” he said, slowly pulling his attention to the television, “let’s get this party started.”