“Oh, you do? Well, that’s… okay, cool,” I say. I guess he decided he needed it after all.
“I’ll see you later,” Rex says, his voice even deeper.
“Bye.”
I turn around to find Leo practically in my face. I forgot he was there.
“Are you dating Rex Vale?” Leo asks, his eyes wide.
“Would you quit eavesdropping!”
“I ain’t been droppin’ no eaves, sir, honest,” he says, in a dopey quasi-British accent.
“What are you—?”
“Hello! Sam, from The Fellowship of the Ring? Have you seen a movie released after 1985?”
I grumble something, feeling seriously old.
“So? Are you? Dating Rex Vale?”
“Kind of,” I mutter, more to myself than to him.
“Oh shit, you totally are.” He groans. “That is so incredibly hot.” He looks me up and down and smiles that smile that’s going to get him laid or laid out, depending. Me, I kind of want to punch him, but part of me can’t help but be a little impressed. He’s really elevated this whole small-town-gossip thing to an art form. It’s like he watches television and movies and then goes out and slots people in his real life into the roles. Hell, it’s probably what I would’ve done if I’d grown up somewhere like this where nothing happens.
“What do you know about it?” I ask him.
“Um, just that Rex is, like, the hot carpenter and you’re the hot tattooed bad boy and I’m seeing tools and—”
“Stop, stop, stop! Jesus, Leo. Ground rule: don’t ever talk about sex with my boyfriend again, got it?”
“Oh my god, he totally is your boyfriend,” Leo says softly. “Okay, fine, sure, no problem. I will totally not talk about you and Rex having sex—whoa: poetry.” The look on his face says, very clearly, “You can’t stop me from thinking about it, though.”
“Whatever,” I mutter. “I think some old boyfriend of his is back, anyway, so it probably won’t last long.” I sit down on the bench at the edge of campus, picking at the sleeve on my to-go cup, and Leo sits beside me, knee jiggling up and down. I can’t believe I’m talking about my romantic problems with an eighteen-year-old. Honestly, though, it’s like I’m talking to a younger version of myself, anyway. Besides, when I was eighteen, Ginger definitely told me about hers. Of course, at eighteen I had a job and my own apartment, hovel though it was.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I’m going over there after class today. I guess I’ll find out what the deal is then.”
“No way does he like someone else more than you, Daniel,” Leo says sincerely.
“Don’t say shit like that, man; you don’t know. No one knows why anyone likes anyone, and it’s a total fucking mystery why Rex likes me.” I shake my head, frustrated.
“Well, what’d he say on the phone just now?”
“That we had to talk.”
“That all?”
“That I didn’t have to worry about Will and that I should come over tonight. And that he has the Internet now.”
“He didn’t have the Internet? That is insane. Wait, is he, like, way older than he looks?”
“He’s not old. He just said he doesn’t need it that often so he goes to the library when he does. Watch it, kid.”
“So, why’d he get it?”
“How the hell do I know? He started using it more, I guess. Or maybe now that it’s winter he doesn’t want to drag his ass to the library just to check his e-mail.”
“Dude, he totally bought you the Internet!” Leo says, socking me in the shoulder. “That’s so romantic.”
I stare at him.
“Come on, it’s obvious. You use it, right? So, he got it for you. Aw, man, I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
I have to call Ginger right away and tell her that I have found the human being that we would create if we ever had a child.
ONCE I apprehensively gave Leo my phone number after he extracted a promise that I’d teach him to fight this weekend, I went to prepare for class. It’s a miracle I didn’t bungle both my classes given how distracted I was. I couldn’t stop thinking about Will, and wondering what Rex was going to tell me when I got over there this evening. And, I can’t lie: a tiny part of my brain kept running over and over Leo’s idea that Rex got the Internet for me.
As I leave my office around four, I can’t decide whether to take Rex up on his offer and go right over to his house or go home, change, and drive over later for dinner. I take two steps toward my apartment and then find myself reeling off in the other direction, toward Rex’s. It’s only a few miles, and a walk is just what I need to clear my head before I hear whatever he’s about to tell me. The air’s warmed up a bit and the sun is shining. The leaves are brilliant colors and everything smells clean. If there’s one thing I’ll say for Holiday, it always smells pretty good. There’s no stink of fumes or garbage, and everything smells alive.