Chereads / The Queer Anthology / Chapter 26 - Chapter 5.3 Avery

Chapter 26 - Chapter 5.3 Avery

Monday morning rolls around after I spend most of Sunday working on a stupid project for that abstraction class.

Rose called me Saturday night like she said she would. We worked shit out, so it's whatever. She told me that I needed to work on letting her in and I said I would because there's not really another answer she would have accepted.

I still don't see what the big deal was. She was overreacting. All I wanted to do was complain about my art. She didn't have to take me so damn seriously.

It's over though, I guess. I'm just glad I don't have to hear about it until the next time she's in the mood to try and poke around inside my head. I don't know what will be enough for her. Maybe I should ask for some sort of advice? Who would I ask, though? It's not like Cameron's good with this shit and I don't have any other friends I'd go to about this sort of thing.

I shrug it off for now and head to my classes. Around lunch, I head to the cafe and get a sandwich, looking around the seating area for familiar faces. The first I spot is Rudolf because he's sitting alone in the corner and has an entire table to himself. I decide to head over and sit with him.

I march over and slam my food down. "What's up?" I say.

He jumps and then looks up at me. "Oh, hi."

"Y'all right?" I ask, unscrewing the cap on my water bottle and taking a sip. "You have a good rest of your weekend?"

Rudolf shrugs noncommittally. "It was nothing special."

I give him a small smile. "I hope you weren't too hungover."

"Eh, I've had worse," he tells me, picking at his sad excuse for a salad wrap.

"Did you and Cameron hang out after you left my place?"

"Not really. We took the Uber back to his car and then he drove me back to the dorms."

Ah, yeah. Well, Cameron did seem like he was feeling pretty fucked up, not that he'd ever admit that. I think the Jackson thing really threw him for a loop and no matter how much he tries to hide it, it's painfully obvious when he's upset.

"Did he say anything to you?" I ask with a chuckle. "You know, about what happened? That was fucking nuts."

"Yeah, it was," Rudolf agrees, sounding like he feels awkward as hell about the whole thing. "But, uh, yeah. Not in the morning but we talked some before we went to bed."

"Oh, word," I curl my lips up against my septum ring. "I haven't had the chance to ask him about it yet."

"He just told me how he and Jackson broke up, then he talked about some other guys he went out with," Rudolf says with a shrug. "I guess I got curious. He showed me photos of all these guys then told me why he didn't like them."

I nod slowly. "Did Cameron seem like he was in a bad mood?"

"A bit, but it seemed to go away..." Rudolf pauses and then shrugs again. "I think I might've pissed him off, though."

I quirk an eyebrow. "How?"

I find that surprising. Rudolf doesn't seem like he's capable of pissing anyone off.

"I put a stop to the conversation we were having," he says. "I got uncomfortable when we started talking about me."

I frown and try to look sympathetic or something. "Was Cameron being nosy?"

"Kind of," he murmurs. "I guess it's my fault for revealing too much."

"Well, I'm sure everything's fine," I say to reassure him. "If Cam was getting too nosy it's probably good you told him to step off. People usually just spill their guts to him because they're all up in the clouds over the fact that he's even asking."

When I finish my sentence, I can't help but roll my eyes. I'm not trying to sound bitter or anything but maybe I am a little. Cameron's so good at getting people talking and sometimes I feel kind of weird about the fact that I'm so not. Honestly, I appreciate that Rudolf didn't fall right into that. Maybe he's a bit more cautious. Maybe he's a bit like me.

Rudolf nods like he knows exactly what I'm talking about.

"Cameron does seem to have a ton of friends," he comments.

"Yeah, friends," I say, adding air-quotes. "He doesn't consider all the people he hangs around his friends. He just likes to know people, and usually whoever he picks wants to be his friend so badly that they automatically assume the relationship is closer than it really is."

Rudolf makes an 'o' shape with his mouth. "Really?" he asks, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Cam's good at maintaining all the base-level relationships he has. He contacts people when they expect to hear from him and knows how to tell stories and ask these questions so that they stay interested in his life while he sounds like he's vaguely interested in theirs. He's actually really busy, so he doesn't have time to get super deep with all the people who want to know him. He just cares enough to do the bare minimum because he still wants everyone to like him. I don't understand how he has the energy to worry about that kind of shit."

"Oh," Rudolf tilts his head. "When did you and Cameron become friends?"

"It was pretty much the perfect example of shit just happening," I say. "We sat next to each other freshman year in that stupid seminar class they make everyone take that's about learning how to not be a shitty college student or whatever."

"I mean, that class was a huge waste of time," Rudolf agrees.

"Seriously. But yeah, after that we both sort of stopped paying attention and would just heckle the professor together. We'd like, tag-team arguing with him. I feel sort of bad about it now and I think Cam does too. It's honestly kind of a wonder he passed either of us."

Rudolf bobs his head along to what I'm saying. When I'm done, he replies, "That's never happened to me before. I think I just don't know how to keep things going with people. I mean, I've had people talk to me but I think they're just always put off by my personality."

"Why?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Well, I don't have a good personality. I don't know how to talk to people."

"You seem fine to me," I tell him, though I do get where he's coming from.

He's very matter-of-fact when he speaks, but he also seems like he has a ton of shit he might have trouble opening up about. A lot of people can sense that kind of thing and might not like it. I don't mind it, though. If he wants to talk, he will. If not, then that's fine, too. It's not like he owes me anything.

"Thanks," he says flatly.

He takes another pathetic bite of his wrap and then sets it down, looking like he's finished.

"I've got some stuff I need to finish," he tells me, standing up.

"Hold up," I stop him. "Give me your number. Maybe we can work on finishing up our projects for Friday together."

I hand Rudolf my phone and he relents, tapping in his digits and then handing it back to me.

"Cool," I nod, taking it from him. "All right, see you later."

Rudolf gives me a sheepish look. "Thanks for eating lunch with me," he says.

"Dude it's no problem," I wave dismissively. "Go work on whatever project you have going on so you can actually finish for crit this time."

He looks uncomfortable, so I throw in a wink so that he knows I'm just busting his balls.

"Right, well, later," he mumbles, and with that, he puts on his hat and heads out.