Geeks - 2. Adam

Chapter Two: Adam

Back at campus, among the comforting schedule of classes and studying, Mikeal was almost able to convince himself that the encounter at Dragon Con was meaningless, a simple experimental fling brought on by too much excitement, too much adrenaline and a temporary surge of bad judgment.

A few weeks later, Mikeal found himself in one of his favorite coffee shops, tucked in a table near the corner. He liked being away from the chatter of students and the clatter of the machines, working on an essay for his French class. He was lost in the elegant flow of the language, picking out the words and phrases he wanted before trying to sculpt them into coherent sentences when he was interrupted by a waiter sidling up to his table and asking him if he wanted a refill. He just nodded and pushed his cup to the edge of the table with the back of his hand while trying to remember the French words for characteristic. There was the tell tale sound of coffee splashing into the cup and the warm smell of roasted coffee beans. Mikeal glanced up to offer an automatic thank you and the words froze on his lips as he stared up into a familiar face. His mind whirled, trying to place him when the waiter smiled slowly, recognition brightening his eyes. "I remember you," he said. "The corset guy right?"

"Shh!" Mikeal said, glancing around. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," the man said, still smiling. In the bright lights of the cafe, Mikeal could see that his hair, once the wig was gone, was a gentle brown and a little long, kissing the edges of his collar. And his eyes were green, a vivid warm peridot. Mikeal's gaze involuntarily dropped to his lips, remembering how they felt against his, warm and thick. He felt his face heat up and dropped his eyes back to his assignment, the words dancing in an incomprehensible scramble in front of his eyes. He tried to think of something to say, something witty and brilliant, but the words wouldn't come and he felt sweat gathering along the line of his spine. There was soft chuckle and when Mikeal looked back up, the man was already moving away. Mikeal dropped his head back into his hands, mortified. You idiot! he berated himself. He was right here! And you blew it!

He sighed and tried to focus back on his assignment, but all he could focus on was the sick residue of embarrassment in his stomach and thinking up all the cool things he should have said when he had a chance.

He was about to pack up his books and call it a night when the man approached again, slid into the seat across the table. "Hey."

Mikeal paused in the act of shoving his French textbook into his bag. "Hey."

The guy smiled. "Look, I'm sorry if I caught you off guard earlier and embarrassed you or something. I was just surprised to see you here."

"I-uh-I usually study here..." Mikeal said.

The guy shrugged. "I'm still fairly new. I probably just never paid attention until I saw you at the con." He grinned again. "So I can count on seeing you pretty often then?"

"I...I guess," Mikeal said.

"Good." A warm hand slid over Mikeal's, gave it a gentle squeeze. "Let me take you out."

"Um..." Mikeal looked around nervously. "Now?"

"Yeah. Unless you have somewhere you need to be."

"I guess...not really."

"Come on then."

Mikeal finished stuffing his books in his bag and stood up. "Aren't you working?"

"Just got off."

"What's your name?" Mikeal lifted his bag up and settled the strap over his shoulder.

"Adam," the guy said, pulling a jacket on over his white shirt and black pants. "And yours?"

"Mikeal."

"Nice to meet you Mikeal."

Mikeal had walked downtown, so Adam drove him to a pizzeria that had low lighting and booths cut deep into the walls, affording plenty of privacy. The food was excellent and Mikeal mentally made note of the name and location.

"So…" Mikeal looked down to where Adam's fingers were tracing light patterns on the back of his hands. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" Adam asked.

Mikeal gestured with his hands, to the booth and the table with it's lone candle burning in its candleholder. "All this."

Adam lifted an eyebrow. "Well I think you're cute. And I'm kinda into that whole shy thing you've got going on."

"Why?"

Adam frowned. "You don't have a girlfriend do you?"

Mikeal shook his head.

"A boyfriend?"

Mikeal reddened and shook his head again.

"Well then what's the problem? Please tell me that the way you kissed me by the pool wasn't some crazy alcohol induced dream."

Mikeal felt himself grow warm again. "I wasn't sure if you remembered that."

"Well, I did. I liked it. And I like you." Adam gave him another smile. "I'm really sorry if I came across like a jerk at first. I was upset at seeing the way you were teaching that girl to put on a corset, but then I heard you say a few minutes later that you were watching the booth for a friend, so you probably didn't know."

"Nope."

"So do you cosplay at all?"

"That is dressing up and stuff, right? No I don't. My friend Julie does, sometimes."

"Cool. So what do you do at cons?"

"I was mostly there to help Julie out. I checked out some of the Star Wars stuff."

"Hmm...I've never seen Star Wars."

Mikeal gaped at him. "Never? Not even the new ones?"

Adam shook his head, looking a little sheepish. "No. I was raised in a large family, mostly girls. I saw a lot of anime."

Mikeal started at him blankly. "Those Japanese things?"

Adam smiled and shrugged. "Most of them are Japanese, yes. Including those slutty sailors you commented on."

Mikeal looked down guiltily. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Don't be," Adam said dismissively. "I've been called worse." He glanced at Mikeal's schoolbag, on the seat next to him. "So you are a student at the University?"

"Yeah."

"So am I. What do you study?"

"I'm majoring in Political Science and Philosophy, then law school."

Adam whistled. "Pretty intense, yeah?"

"Sometimes." Mikeal shrugged. "What about you?"

"Drama."

"You wanna act?" Mikeal asked.

Adam smiled. "Maybe. It'd be nice, wouldn't it?"

Mikeal was so engrossed in their conversation, watching Adam's face in the muted candlelight glow and enjoying the way his fingers kept tracing the back of his hand, that he didn't notice the hours slipping by until they were chased out of the pizzeria so it could close.

Adam insisted on driving Mikeal back to his dorm, and they spent several more minutes out in the car talking, before Mikeal could convince himself to go inside. He had an early class in the morning and it was already pretty late, but he had a hard time disengaging from the warmth of Adam's eyes and smile. He finally gathered his bag and turned to look at Adam. "I better go."

"Give me your number," Adam insisted.

Mikeal tore off a sheet of paper and jotted it down, pressing it into Adam's hand. Adam's hand caught his and their eyes met for a moment. Then Adam leaned forward and kissed him gently. Mikeal returned the kiss, feeling heat seeping warm throughout his entire body. Adam's hand came up to cradle his face gently and lingered there a second after the kiss had ended.

"Let me take you out tomorrow," Adam said. He sounded breathless and the sound pulled at Mikeal's groin. "What time do you get out of class?"

"I'm done by noon."

"I'll pick you up here around noon then."

"Okay," Mikeal agreed. Adam gave him another devastating smile as Mikeal got out of the car. He closed the door behind him, stole one last glance at Adam through the window and walked quickly to the dorm. He slid his student ID to open the door and hesitated once inside. Instead of going down the hallway that led to his room, he went down the stairs and sought out Julie's room. There was a fuchsia scrunchie around the doorknob, a sign that she was in her room and open to visitors. A black scrunchie meant that she wasn't in, and a white scrunchie meant she was asleep or didn’t want to be disturbed. Still, he knocked and waited until she called for him to come in. She glanced up from where she was working on her computer, her headphones around her neck. "Hey, what's up?"

Mikeal shrugged and closed the door before he tossed his bag on the extra bed. Julie was one of the few fortunate students that had snagged herself a single room. Technically, she was supposed to be sharing it, but her roommate had never showed up for classes and nobody in the dorm seemed to take notice. Mikeal already had some spare clothes and some toiletries stored on the empty side of the room and stayed the night whenever he needed to get away from his roommate or spend time with Julie. If the dorm had allowed coed rooming, he and Julie would have been the first to sign up for it.

"Seriously," Julie said, pushing herself back from her desk and swiveling around in her desk chair. "What's going on?"

"Why do you think something is going on?" he asked.

"You look different. Like-“ She tapped a pencil against her lips, studying him. "Like you're worried about something."

Mikeal kicked his shoes off and helped himself to a bottle of water from Julie's mini-fridge. "Jules," he started, piling up some pillows on the headboard and leaning back against them. "Have you ever kissed a girl?"

"Like the Katy Perry song?" she asked, then broke into a talented imitation of the singer's voice. "I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chapstick--"

"I'm serious," Mikeal said.

"No, I haven't," Julie said. "That's a weird question, Mike."

"Have you ever thought about it?"

Julie got up from her chair and crossed the room to sit at the foot of the bed Mikeal was occupying. "Everybody thinks about it Mikeal, and they either want to or they don't." She eyed him suspiciously. "What is going on?"

Mikeal shook his head and looked at the wall. He couldn't say it.

She scooted up next to him. "Did you kiss a guy?" she asked softly. "Is that was this is about?"

Mikeal buried his face in his knees and Julie moved to embrace him awkwardly, rubbing his back and the top of his head. "Oh Mikie. It's okay. Relax, don't freak out."

"You don't understand," Mikeal said, his voice muffled.

"Tell me about it then," Julie said. "I'll try to understand. C'mon, you're scaring me a little bit."

"Why?" Mikeal turned his face towards her. Moisture rimmed his eyes and smudged his glasses. "Because I might be gay?"

"No. It’s because you're getting upset over it. You're my best friend, ever since middle school. I'm not going to hate you. I'm not going to hurt you. Talk to me."

"I met this guy. At the con." Mikeal pushed his glasses up his forehead, rubbing at his eyes, which felt hot. "I-I was having a hard time figuring him out, and I got curious, so I kissed him one night. And he kissed me back. And then we left and I figured that was the end of it. But now..."

"What?" Julie prompted.

"He goes to school here. He's a student. He works at one of the places where I study. He took me out for pizza."

Julie's eyes narrowed. "Sweetie, did he hurt you?"

"No. But..." Mikeal sniffed. "We talked for hours. And he kissed me. And wants to see me tomorrow."

"So what's the problem?" Julie asked.

"He's a guy," Mikeal said.

"Well..." Julie shrugged. "Do you like guys? You've never really had a girlfriend before."

That realization that he had never wanted to acknowledge floated on the edges of his mind. "I don't know. But I like him."

"Then you should go out with him tomorrow. Get to know him. Kiss him again if you want to and figure it out. If you do like him, that's fine. If you don't, that is okay too. But don't stress out over it baby."

"But Jules, what if I'm gay?"

"So what? You're not one of those crazy Christians that thinks 'God hates fags', are you?"

"No."

"Then don't worry. Be who you are. If being you means being gay, that's okay."

Mikeal shook his head. "I'm not ready for this."

"Not ready for what? Being gay or being with him?"

Mikeal didn't have an answer for that one.

"You wanna stay here tonight?" Julie asked.

"Yeah," Mikeal said.

Julie leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. "Get some rest, and then go out on your date tomorrow. Stop worrying, okay? Just wait and see what happens."

"Thanks Julie," Mikeal said. He got up and changed for bed, crawling in between the sheets while Julie shut her computer down and flipped the lights off. She turned on the television and Mikeal feel asleep to the sound of the Bewitched theme song.

He woke up early, as he always did, and gathered up his stuff, slipping out of the room before Julie was awake. He stopped by his room, where Min-ho was sprawled over his sheets, snoring and drooling, dressed and grabbed a breakfast bar before heading to his first class. When he returned from classes, he made a quick detour to drop off his stuff then waited outside and watched the parking lot for Adam's car, a blue Honda. His pulse quickened slightly when he saw it turn into the parking lot.

"Hey cutie," Adam greeted from the open window. Mikeal smiled back and slid into the front seat, all of his earlier concern melting away.

Adam took him to a park where a bunch of other students had congregated to fly kites. Adam had one that was shaped like a bird with fiery orange and red wings. Once he had it airborne, dipping and weaving across the sky with the rest of them, he gave the line spool to Mikeal, who liked feeling the sway and flow of the kite caught in the wind against the line.

"It's gorgeous," Mikeal said, watching it.

"It's designed as a phoenix," Adam said, shading his eyes with his hand. "Do you know the story behind it?"

"Not really."

"It's a mythical creature, a firebird that is scarlet and gold. They live for a long time, and near the end of their life span they would build a wooden nest where they ignite and burn to ashes. Then from the ashes a new bird would be reborn to live again."

"Really?" Mikeal glanced over.

"Yeah. It's like a symbol of hope." Adam smiled at him.

Later, after the fun of flying a kite had lessened slightly, they brought it back down and sat on a blanket, eating a picnic lunch that Adam had packed, of turkey tortilla wraps, cheese on crackers, apple slices, strawberries and grapes. Mikeal felt a little self-conscious when Adam fed him several strawberries, but nobody else seemed to mind, nor did they when Adam laid his head in Mikeal's lap after lunch. Adam had started asking him about why he liked Star Wars, and Mikeal had started stroking Adam’s hair as he talked about how he went to see Star Wars with his dad when he was younger. He didn't tell Adam about how he couldn't even remember the movies at first, just being with his father, the large hand enclosing his as they stepped into the theater, the warm fluff and butter taste of popcorn and how cozy and safe he had felt after the movie, being carried out of the theater with his head on his father's shoulder.

"Why do you like anime so much?" Mikeal asked.

"Well, my sisters liked it actually. I spent so much time watching over

them and having to listen to it while doing homework and all, that I just started to become a fan through exposure. Then I met a bunch of friends through anime and liked hanging out with them and it was anime that kept us all connected."

"What's your favorite anime?"

"Well everyone these days likes Naruto, Bleach, and Full Metal Alchemist, but my favorite was always Cowboy Be Bop. One day, I'll show it to you."

Mikeal thought that sounded nice. Adam dozed a little bit while Mikeal was sitting there. He remembered what Julie had told him the other night, to just relax and let things happen. And he liked this, sitting here with Adam, touching his hair, and watching him sleep.

"What are you thinking about?" Adam asked after a few minutes.

"I thought you were asleep," Mikeal said, startled.

"Nah. Just relaxing before work. Speaking of which-" He sat up and Mikeal ignored the tiny stab of disappointment. He had liked being Adam's pillow. "We better get packed up." Mikeal rolled up the blanket while Adam repacked the picnic basket. Adam drove him back to the dorm and during the short ride, doubts began to creep back into Mikeal's mind.

"I'll call you," Adam promised, looking a little surprised and disappointed when Mikeal scrambled out of the car almost as soon as he pulled into the parking lot. Mikeal smiled and waved before sliding back into the dorm.

At a loss, Mikeal gathered up his books and went to the library to study. What he ended up doing was staring down at his papers, tapping his pencil against the lined sheets. He was worried, even though Julie told him not to be. It wasn't only dating a guy--which he still wasn't sure about, but it didn't bother him as much as he thought it might. But it was also the fact that he felt like he was falling way too fast and way too hard. He barely knew Adam...just what he had gleaned from that night at the pizzeria, but he was already comfortable with him, attracted to him, and missing him when he was away. It was confusing...he wanted to be with Adam and away from him all at the same time. He sighed and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. He tried again to bury his worries in his legal theory homework. He would just take a few days away from Adam, clear his head and try to figure things out.