ROOMMATE
27-year-old male seeks awesome individual to divvy rent, alcohol, and good times.
He’d immediately been interested in the ad, but he wasn’t sure he could wait for morning to arrive to call. If Devin had learned anything about himself over the last eleven months, he knew he was an impatient person. Waiting didn’t suit him at all.
So that’s how he’d ended up on Nick’s doorstep a little after ten that morning, and now, here he was, unpacking his clothes and feeling a weight lifted from his shoulders.
He was away from the bad people.
He could be his own person.
He could keep being kind and good and warm.
Did he feel bad for leaving his mother there? Of course he did, but he got the feeling she wouldn’t have left with him even if he’d begged her to.
As weird as it was, he got the feeling maybe he’d asked her to leave with him before, but he could never know for certain. At least not unless his brain decided to cooperate—the chances of that were slim to none.
“Hey, Dev-o.” Nick appeared in the open doorway and stood there with a lopsided grin on his face. “You ready for some lunch?”
At least Nick is nice.
As much as he wanted to believe Kelly’s invitation to dinner had been sincere, he was afraid she’d only done it as a favor to Nick. He had no idea what their connection was to one another—aside from living on the same street—but she sure as hell wasn’t inviting him over to eat because she liked him.
After spending so much time in the institute, he’d really gotten a knack for knowing if people liked him or not. So far, the record wasn’t good.
But Nick seems to like me.
If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have let him stay, right?
“I’m starving,” he admitted with a pat to his tummy. “What’s on the menu?”
“Grilled chicken salad today, but worry not; tonight we’ll eat like kings. And I’m really looking forward to next Friday; we’ll get to sample some of Kelly’s cooking, which I’m sure is fantastic.”
“That’s nice.” His gaze drifted to the window, and he peered out at the gray sky. Rain. Perfect.
“It is nice, but something tells me you’re not as enthused about it as I am.” Nick made himself at home—as he should have because it was his house—and plopped down on the futon. The springs groaned beneath his weight. He frowned and hopped up and down a few more times. “This probably isn’t going to be very comfortable for you. Do you need help getting a real bed?”
“I’m sure I can afford one.” Or at least he hoped he could. He wasn’t sure if he had that much money saved up, but his mother had mentioned something about bringing over all of his financial stuff later. Hopefully, he had been smart enough to save some money.
Or maybe I was a complete idiot and lost all my money, so that’s why I tried to hold somebody for ransom like a freaking moron.
“Well, I don’t mind helping you out if you need it. I bet it’s strange trying to start all over again in a place that should be familiar to you.” Nick gazed at him thoughtfully and tilted his head to the side. “So you don’t remember your birthday?”
“Not right off, no.”
“Your middle name?”
“Jackson.”
“That’s a good middle name. At least it’s not Eugene.”
“Eugene? What’s wrong with Eugene?”
“What’s not wrong with Eugene? I despise my middle name. Consider yourself lucky.” Nick fell back against the futon and rested his hands over his stomach, staring at the ceiling. “It’s really boring in here. Do you want to put up posters or anything? I wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t have any posters to put up. My room back home is pretty bland. Something tells me I didn’t really stay there very much at all.”
“So you like going out and doing things?” Nick perked up, lifting his head to stare at him. “Me, too. What kinds of things do you reckon you like to do?”
“I