The Quarterback's Roommate
“My parents always do this big, chaotic thing. Food everywhere, Christmas movies on repeat, cousins running around like feral animals, aunts arguing over board games. It’s loud. It’s messy. It’s… nice. You’d fit right in.”
I stared at him.
He hurried on, words tumbling faster. “I mean—not as, like—not as my boyfriend or anything. Just… as a friend. Roommate. Someone who doesn’t want to spend the holidays eating takeout alone in an empty off-campus apartment while the heat’s set to sixty to save money.”
The word *boyfriend* hung between us anyway, bright and unignorable, even though we’d both been careful not to say it out loud yet.
My throat tightened.