"I need space." Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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The boy standing in the doorway was wearing sunglasses, his shaved-on-the-sides hair dyed red. Billy's signature color. His hair matched the glittery red shoelaces in his Converse.
"What," Jacky began, "the fuck."
Billy stood there, staring at Jacky. Or he seemed to be, it was hard to tell behind the sunglasses. Mostly Billy looked like he was posing there in the doorway.
"Andrew Jennings," Billy drawled. "I knew that name sounded familiar. It's been, what, four years?"
Jacky barely suppressed a snarl. "You know it's been four years. You went to a fancy private school instead of public high school, and apparently you got a new name in the process. Liam? What the fuck is that?"
"It's half my name. William. Liam. Get it? For someone whose nickname is derived from his middle name, I think you might cut me some slack." Billy sauntered into the room, dragging a rolling suitcase. "And my mom remarried, hence the new last name." After looking at the window near Jacky's bed, and taking another gander at the room that was definitely too small, Billy added, "You want to switch sides?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that." Jacky stood up, then sat back down. He wished he had someplace else to go. This was going to suck, big time.
"Well, this isn't exactly how I imagined college going. Rooming with my boyfriend from seventh grade." Billy shivered dramatically and finally took off his sunglasses. "I wonder if I'll be able to fit everything in here."
Jacky pointedly looked at Billy's suitcase. "Is that all you brought?"
Billy barked a laugh. "Hardly! Mom and Vince are parking the Beamer. And with everything in my car... Hmm. Well." Turning to the bed, Billy leapt onto the bare mattress and struck a pose. "This could be worse. I could be foisting my scandalous lifestyle upon some unsuspecting straight."
With a grimace, Jacky turned back to his phone. The itch to text Ryan about this current debacle was strong. He shot off a text to Cody: Guess who my roommate is. Cody wouldn't respond for a while; he had taken to sleeping super late now that he worked the graveyard shift at UPS. Jacky put his phone down and made himself comfortable on the bed. "You have your side of the room, and I have mine. You can do whatever you want over there."
"Even have nasty, loud sex?" Billy waggled his eyebrows.
From the hallway, a familiar voice called out, "This way, darling!"
Billy's mother's voice rang out, reminding Jacky of all those afternoons he had spent over at the Dixons' house back in middle school. She had one of those voices that carried. There was the faint accent that had confused him, made him ask Billy if his mother was British. Billy had laughed. "No! She's from Connecticut."
Then she strode in on beige pumps, wearing a black bandage dress that showed off her blonde hair extensions and the gold bangles on her arms and her massive Louis Vuitton purse. She looked around blandly. "My, this is... quaint."
