Next Tuesday as the boys left class together, Ryan reminded Jack that they'd never actually watched that movie together.

"Do you want to come over later and watch? Like around nine, maybe," Ryan suggested.

"Yeah, 'course I do. But wait…" Jack hesitated. "Won't your roommate be back from band practice by then?"

"Probably." Ryan shrugged. "Whatever. We can just hang out. It's fine."

"Yeah, hang out…" Jack trailed off distractedly. "Listen, I'll call you later to let you know what I'm up to tonight, I gotta run to the bike shop before my history class. See ya!"

Ryan gave up on Jack around 9:45 that night and decided he might as well do some homework. Even his chemistry problem set was more enjoyable than thinking about the fact that Jack hadn't called. Ryan put his disappointment out of his mind immediately, though, when Jack met him with his trademark, stunning grin outside the next Humanities lecture. The boys joked through class as usual, and afterwards they made plans to see a movie the following night. Ryan couldn't wait for Friday.

Heading to dinner the next night, Ryan took a shortcut from his last class to his dorm by walking through Meyer Library. As he pushed open the glass door, he spotted Jack laughing with someone over at the computer cluster. Ryan began walking over to say hi, and soon he was close enough to hear what Jack was saying.

"So this Moonsplash thing tonight is the best frat party of the year, huh?" Jack pretended to look deeply concerned as he spoke to a girl sitting next to him. "I couldn't possibly miss that, could I?" Ryan backed away from the computer cluster and left the library before Jack could notice him. He didn't feel like asking Jack whether he'd forgotten about going to the movies tonight. Probably it had honestly slipped his mind. At least, it was possible. Ryan didn't want to push it, in any case. He didn't think he could deal with Jack bailing on him again.

Ryan awoke at 3 a.m. to a pounding on his wall. He forced himself up and headed to his door groggily, rubbing his eyes with one hand. Was this another fire drill? Last week, they'd had one in the middle of the night, and everyone had had to file out of their rooms and wait outside shivering for a half-hour. Actually, the fire drill had been sort of amusing. Ryan was pretty sure that nobody in the dorm had expected to see his dorky R.A. walk out of his room hand in hand with a girl from the cheer squad. And he, for one, didn't anticipate that Michael wore Powerpuff Girls pajama pants to bed.

Ryan opened the door, one hand reaching for the jacket slung over his chair. Instead of his R.A., though, he found himself face-to-face with Jack, who sported his usual grin. Even though his eyes were still adjusting to the light of the hallway, Ryan could tell that Jack's eyes were bloodshot, and when Jack kissed him he tasted of beer.

"Jack," he muttered in between kisses, "what's going on?"

"What do you think's going on?" Jack whispered, leaning in again to capture Ryan's mouth with his own. Ryan wondered whether Jack was just trying to shut him up.

"You…you're sort of drunk. And today," Ryan continued, his indignation rising, "today you completely blew me off."

"What, we have to spend every second together? Wouldn't you rather see me now, anyway, for this?" Jack asked, slipping one finger just below the waistband of Ryan's pajamas. Ryan didn't reply.

"Aren't you going to let me in?" Jack asked impatiently.

Ryan remained silent, but pushed the door open behind him and let Jack inside. Jack looked around to make sure Tony's side of the room was empty before steering Ryan towards his bed.

"Good thing your roommate's such a workaholic."

Ryan could have explained that Tony wasn't studying, that he had found a girlfriend in the next dorm over. But he had an absurd feeling that if he tried to open his mouth to speak, he might cry. He pressed his lips against Jack's and told himself that maybe he should just think about what was going on right now, and forget talking. That certainly seemed to be what Jack wanted to do. And what Jack was starting to do did feel really, really good… Ryan suddenly found himself unable to think very clearly anymore.

Even though it was late and Jack still wasn't a hundred percent sober, he declined Ryan's invitation to sleep over afterwards.

"That was nice," Jack said, giving Ryan a quick peck on the lips before heading out the door.

As Ryan watched Jack leave, he tried to ignore the ache in the pit of his stomach.