DISCLAIMER:
This novella is a work of fiction. Any similarities with real life is of pure coincidence. This story contains homoerotic encounters between college age adults. Acts include masturbation, mutual masturbation and touching of male genitalia.
Copyright 2014 Max Millan
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Babylon Fell by Max Millan
The next semester the war protest had grown louder. It was starting to eat up on me. They were only few students who were too adamant about making their voices heard but they were very persistent and had became a constant fixture during our ROTC training. With us the closest thing to who they're protesting became their favorite target. Many times Sgt. Pinski had to remove any new protest signs that were hanged somewhere around the building or placed on the lawn. Arguments sometime erupted among the students when the some students would shout something vulgar to us during our formation. We did have our defenders, and I appreciated it very much. The protests never really bothered me, although the reality of the war started to set in on me. From then on I could figure if I was scared or I was excited about it, or even both. I found myself looking at the distance from time to time. Matt caught me during one of those moments after returning back from my formation.
"Just ignore them," he would say.
"Huh!" was sometimes my response.
"They don't shit."
"I'm cool, no worries."
Honestly, I couldn't wait for the Spring semester to be over and start my summer base training again. The protests would prove to be the least of my worries.
People say, when it rains, it pours. For every high, the specter of the incoming low is always around the corner waiting. Our problem started as a creeping feeling of uneasiness. We spent our school year cramming everything into our ever dwindling moment in our lives when we relatively had no responsibilities to speak of. The more we engaged ourselves into more reveling to forget what was happening, the deeper the hole we dug, and it was threatening to swallow us.
One class was dropped last semester, and one failed. Two infractions that were quickly dismissed and set aside. The nights spent drinking instead of studying and the following day spent in trance-like existence had finally put a chink on my youthful armor. I was not invincible after all. My confidence had been shattered when the average-ness of my intelligence caught up on me. I couldn't cruise on college like some students I knew. I had to put some effort into it and anything less would be disastrous and the later happened.
By my sophomore year, I had to start taking courses that were required for my degree. Not knowing how it's going to be, I assumed it would go as smoothly as the last year.
Matt and I were now partying even more than last semester. Sometimes five or even six nights in a row. By Wednesday, we were both looking for a party to crash, and every invite for one was answered with immediate yes. Even when his body had not recovered from practice and rigorous training, he somehow could find the strength to drink and stay up most of the nights. Sleeping two to three hours in some night was sufficient.
Another technical course was upon me. I failed the last one. If I fail this one I could no longer progress with my studies. The first few days I was following along, but one day in my horror, I could no longer understand what the professor was talking about. At night, I would give my book a glance, and nothing was making sense. In panic, I went out and drunk thinking that maybe just enough time away from it would help. That's what I thought, at least, what I did to convince myself that everything was going to be fine.
"Cadet Shelton, see me after the formation," Sergeant Pinski told me one Wednesday. Yes, that's my last name, Joseph Jordan Shelton.
Thinking to myself, "damn, what is this asshole want with me."
It's not an option, so I went to his office after the half day formation. There was another cadet that he was admonishing for something I didn't care about listening to. "Look at him go acting high and mighty" as he yelled on the other cadet. His voice was annoying me. Then my turn was up.
"Do you know why I called here Cadet?" he blurted out.
"Sir, no sir," I replied standing there at attention.
Out of character he said, "at ease" sensing my tensed body. "Take your seat," he commanded.
I sat on the chair in front of his desk then he opened the drawer and took out my files. "I'm very disappointed in you, Shelton."
"Here it goes," waiting for the same treatment that the other cadet received but he proceeded calmly.
"I'm looking at your file. It's not looking good. You've been coming in hangovered for the many weeks now. Do you think I wouldn't noticed."
I sat there silently waiting for him to start cursing me out.
"I know you are young. I've been there before. There will be plenty of time for you. It's sad that you are throwing your life away."
My eyes were now staring at my boots as he gave me more talk about how I was wasting my life.
"You told me that you can't wait going to active duty after the college. I was looking forward to it. Cadets like you are hard to find. I'll tell you what's the deal."
"You're about to fail two classes. One of them is your major," he continued.
"You already failed one last semester. You went under the required academic credits and your grade point average is not looking good. Do you understand me?"
"Sir, yes sir," I answered back. The sternness that I could normally project was gone.
Showing more concern he said, "you will lose your scholarship if it happened again."
"What do you think, cadet?"
"I'll try my best, sir."
"Look at me. You will not try. You will do your best." He's raising his voice now.
"You better get your act together. I hate to see a good cadet go. Are you going to get back to your studies?"
"Sir! Yes sir!"
"I can't hear yah." He's back to his drill sergeant voice.
"Sir! Yes sir!," I responded louder.
"You're dismissed."
As I walked back to my dorm, the image of my dad's disappointed face flashed over me. He would be brokenhearted if he knew. My mom understood the consequences when she learned what happened last semester but would not bring up the conversation. I remembered her long silence when my dad would bring up the subject during the break. My uncle Joshua would be devastated too. I was his surrogate. He's doing fairly well that he knew his kids would be following a different path from him.
"What to do? What to do?" echoed in my head. "I'm screwed. I have no way of passing my class even if I tried. I was so far behind."
I opened the door of my dorm room. I stopped by the door and looked around. One more thing I heard people say, your house was the first thing to show any sign of trouble. Our room was filthy. It's not that we were the paramount of cleanliness, but this time it's just filthy. Empty pizza boxes, crushed cans of pop and beer littered the room. Dirty clothes strewn all over the place. I didn't recall anymore when our room was ever clean. Before, it's at least tidier during the beginning of the week. Laundry was done, and empty cans were thrown the next day. I walked to my closet to change. There was only one clean shirt hanging. It's there because it's my least favorite shirt. Matt's closet wasn't doing good either. I put on my last clean shirt instead of rummaging for used shirt that still look and smell decent enough.
I surveyed the room once more. "Damn, it's filthy."
One by one I picked up the thrash littering the floor of our room. Slowly. Ever slowly. I placed them in the thrash bag. Was I looking at my life at that point, I didn't know, but the empty can felt heavy. The empty boxes too big to fit in the bag.
The door opened.
"What are you doing?" I heard Matt said from behind.
"Nothing, just cleaning."
He set his book bag on his desk and proceeded to help me clean the room. I swept the floor while he sorted the clothes laying around the room and threw them to our own hamper.
"What got into you?" he asked.
"The room just need some cleaning," I said.
I hauled the garbage to the dumpster, and it was me. "What to do? What to do?" The haunting echo came back. Matt followed with some other stuff to throw away. We proceeded to the cafeteria and ate our lunch. He must have noticed my silence.
"Anything wrong?" he asked.
"Just thinking. You know this summer I'll be starting my survival training." How should I break into him that next year I might not be here.
"That's cool."
"I know. Firearms training also started, but we're going to the camp on Friday then come back on Saturday."
"You mean you'll stay in a barracks on Friday nights?"
"Sort of. We are just spending time by the remote camp nearby. That's what I heard."
"How will you survive without your Friday night?" he said while making a jerking off motion with his hand.
"I'll survive without that for a day," I said trying to fake out a laugh.
"I heard Mike will be playing with his band at the Circus tonight," Matt said.
"I thought his band broke up," I replied.
"Nah, just their bassist. They found someone else."
"Cool."
For the next few days, our routine didn't change. We were out partying where ever we could find one. The next hammer fell not long after. I saw Matt by the student center having a shouting match with another player. Like a good friend, I dragged him out of the place and went back to our room.
"Jeez, Matt. What was that all about?" I asked. I never saw him mad at anything or anybody like that.
"That fuckin' asshole thinks he's better than me." he replied while climbing on his bed but he sat on the side with his legs hanging.
"What did he do?" I asked.
"He'll be the new starting defensive end."
"He's taking your spot?"
He didn't answer but just looked at his dangling legs. Seeing him spacing out was out of the ordinary. Normally he would already spilled it out by now. My own troubles might had made me blind about the changes in his mood lately. As I recalled, I wasn't just me who was spacing out from time to time. He was too. We found ourselves not in the mood to engage in our special form of male bonding.
"I was going to tell you. I might not be back next school year," I said.
It snapped him back.
"What do you mean? I thought you are going for the survival training this summer," he said. His rage was now replaced with some sense of concern.
"I might not have my scholarship next year."
"You can't comeback?"
"No, I don't think I can afford it."
"You're an asshole too," he laid on his side facing away.
"Bullshit, he could easily say that because his parents have the money," I thought to myself. Then few things struck me about Matt. As I look at him on his bed. He had grown bigger and not in a good way. Often times he would put up with me even when he was irritated. But this time, he just gave up. Something was up, and it's bugging him.
I went out the room to let things cool down. By dinner time, he was still laying on his bed. I wasn't sure if he was awake or sleeping. So I went ahead to the cafeteria. Halfway through my meal, I saw him taking his spot on the table.
"How come you didn't tell you are going to eat?" he asked.
"I thought you were sleeping," I replied which probably not the best answer because I would have woke him up regardless.
"Are you mad?" he asked.
"Nah, I'm cool."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said."
"I knew you didn't."
"So why aren't coming back?"
"I'm about to lose my scholarship."
"How come?"
"Failed my engineering class last semester, and I'm about to fail again. I got a warning from my drill sergeant about a week ago."
"Can you do anything about it? Maybe Tim can help," he's quite concern now.
"I don't know, Matt. I think I'm really really far behind. I don't understand what their teaching anymore."
He went silent.
"What happened this afternoon? You were furious. I haven't seen you like that." I prodded him on.
"I was put on academic probation."
Like I said, Matt was a good student even when sometimes he sounded naive. I was surprised that he's in the same boat as me. Probably not as bad since he could continue on, but still, I was surprised.
"When did you learn about your probation?"
"Last semester. They just waited for my replacement I guess."
"Does that mean, you can't play football anymore?"
"If I passed all my classes this semester, maybe. That's what coach said. If I do, I will have an evaluation this Summer."
"Can you do it?" I asked hoping that he could.
"Not sure. I'm also behind. I was about to drop two classes again."
"I wish I could help you but your smarter than me," I offered my sympathy.
"So why are you so mad about the guy?"
"Probably my fault too. There are people in the team complaining that I had become sluggish. I just wasn't ready to admit it, so when the roster was changed I just lost it."
"So you slacked on your training too."
"That and also the partying that we've been doing."
Our conversation boiled down to he same issue, we were both getting drunk and stupid. That was mostly true for me being drunk and stupid, but for Matt it was a different case. I can't find a good term for it, let's just say mid-college crisis.
I remembered the day when I picked him up from the hospital after his check up, and we went to the bar and grill to eat. The conversations that he heard from the other students in the restaurant had a tremendous effect on him. You see, he was afraid. Being a junior, he was seeing his college life as almost over. With that he tried to cram everything that he could fit in except for the most important part, his studies.
He was already thinking about friendships that were formed that would soon be forgotten and became a thing of the past. Experienced that was shared that would just be something that once in a while remembered during slow days. That's why he was mad at me when I told him that I might not be coming back next year.
But another thing that I know was bothering him. He didn't struck me as someone who was boastful about being popular when he was in high school, and he was fairly known in college too. But his glory days were coming to an end. When he walks out of this institution, he will be a regular guy like anybody else. Maybe he wasn't ready for the transition.
College life is truly the last blissful paradise.
The next day, we both ran out of words to say to each other. I went along with the motion of a regular day in school. I really had nothing to look forward too. I contemplated about just going through basic training and forget about being an officer. It's at least a consolation.
You probably noticed how many times I mentioned the cafeteria. For what I recalled, it had became our war room. It's the place where we had the time to find resolution to many things. Lunch time, Matt was changing his clothes when I got back from my class to fetch him. He finally did his laundry and mine too. Shawn was there too sitting on Matt's chair in reverse waiting. He was checking on Matt after he heard about the fight. Matt threw Shawn his varsity jacket then he put his on. He was not willing to part with jacket just yet. Shawn said he had to go back to his place first, so Matt and I went first and sat on our usual spot.
"We screwed up big time, didn't we," he said.
"Yeah, big time," I replied.
"Got anything?"
"I'm out of options," I said. "Maybe I'll just become a grunt in the Marines then you will end up a car salesman," I tried to lighten up the gloomy atmosphere.
Shawn showed up. Looking fresh for some reason.
"Wow, Shawn do you have a date or something?" I asked.
"Nah, just my weekly bath," he said.
That I least gave us few laughs.
"Are you guys going to talk to your professors?" he said.
"About what?" Matt asked.
"Extra credits," he said without hesitation. Shawn was one of those students with what I call jock degree. "I've been doing that. It's a trick I learned. When things are going south, you ask your professor for some extra credit work. I tell you what, you'll be surprised on how willing most professors are to help you out."
Matt face lit up. He just found his way out.
"Shawn, you're a genius," Matt said.
I, on the other hand, was still in a bind. Extra credit would not do, I still need to catch up with my engineering class. It will take more than extra credit to keep me going.
Matt knew. He could sense that my burden was not lifted by the suggestion Shawn put forth.
"Have you tried talking to your sergeant?" he said.
"I'm not sure if people in the military works like that. They're normally want you to take charge. Anything less is unacceptable," I replied with some hesitation.
"Do you wanna try? I'll go with you."
"I don't know. He might just kick me out."
"C'mon now."
"What's the harm?" Shawn butted in.
"OK, we can go after lunch," I agreed.
We took our first step of going back on track. Brief talks that seemed to last forever. I knocked on the sergeant's door.
"Come in," I heard Sgt. Pinski from behind his desk.
"Good afternoon, sir," I greeted him.
I realized my mistake of not saluting first, but the sergeant did not reprimand me for not doing it and just said, "what can I do for you?"
"Sir, I need help, sir."
That's when his face soften up. He knew the look of a defeated face. The sergeant was a rare breed in the service now a days. You hardly see enlisted man made a career out of military service. But I was looking at a man who was able to raise four kids and sent two already to college. He must have no other options, or he truly like the job he got. I told him that I could talk to one of my professors for possible extra credit, so I won't fail, but it would be impossible for me to pass my engineering class without a miracle.
I saw him massaged his forehead then flipped through my file.
"I'll see what I can do. Just wait and comeback here tomorrow the same time."
"Sir, thank you, sir."
He looked at me and said, "No, thank you for letting me know. You can go."
My future was still up in the air, but the load was lighter after talking him.
Matt was anxious to here what the sergeant told me. "How did it go?"
"He told me to wait, and he'll see want he can do."
The rest of the afternoon was spent looking for his professors. Shawn was right. These people were more than willing to help, if you asked them. In Matt's case, it was even easier convincing his professors to give him extra credit work. His football star status had something to do with it. These professors didn't want to lose one of the best players in the team. One professor asked him to write a 500 word paper, but it had to be at least a B before he would have a chance of passing the class. The other was menial work. The professor needed help processing the data that his been collecting for his book. It's not hard just time consuming.
I didn't know how exhausting talking to your professors like that. We were both psychologically beat. Matt was little elated. All he needed to do was concentrate on his studies and he could get out of his probation and be eligible to play football again.
The anticipation of the what the sergeant would tell me tomorrow kept me awake the whole night. I would lay down then got up several times. I turned on the TV trying to find something to watch. Matt woke in the middle of the night, and saw me still awake on the recliner watching TV.
"Can't sleep?" he asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Worried about tomorrow?"
"Yeah."
"I have this feeling that you will be fine too."
"I hope so."
"Have you tried?" he said referring to my before bedtime activity.
"No."
"Need any help."
"Nah, just not in the mood right now."
"My offer stands if you change your mind."
"Thanks, you can go back to sleep," I replied with my forced grin.
Somehow I dozed off. Shawn was outside the door waking us up for breakfast. He wanted to know if his suggestion worked. He was glad that Matt had taken cared of his problem, but we were all anxiously waiting for mine.
I walked into the sergeant office, gave a salute and waited to be acknowledged.
"At ease, cadet. Take your seat."
Pulling my file out again he said, "I have some good news."
I sat silently waiting for what he was going to say next, but my heart was pumping hard. I was both afraid and relieve.
"I talked to your professor regarding your other class. He wanted you write a paper. Here is his instruction. If you do good, he is willing to disregard grade from up to this point. Promise me you will not waste this opportunity."
"Sir! yes sir!"
"Your engineering class is a little different. I had to talk to your dean. You cannot just pass the class by doing extra credit you will need to learn your course or else you will not be able to handle the more advanced courses."
I nodded.
"I have another cadet that's also having problem in your class. The dean will be placing you and him in pair learning program. You two will take your class in pair. If one of you fails both of you fail. Are you with me so far?"
"Sir! yes sir!"
"What you need to do is look for cadet Hansen, and both of you will need to talk to the dean. I setup your appointment at 4PM today. I already told cadet Hansen the same thing."
"One more thing. This is important if you want to continue with the ROTC program. Regarding the scholarship, you will need to take a remedial class next school year for the one that you failed last semester. If you passed it, you can keep your full scholarship. However, the program doesn't pay for remedial classes. Got that?"
"Sir!, yes sir!"
"Don't waste this chance."
"Sir! Yes sir!"
"Your dismissed"
"Sir! Thank you sir!" I saluted him and made my way out of the door. My heart was about to burst. I couldn't believe it. He came up with a miracle.
Matt and Shawn were there to congratulate me with my small success. Shawn was extra proud of himself; I could tell. Late afternoon, I was early for the appointment waiting for the other cadet. Not a long while Slater showed up and we went to see the dean.
According to the dean because of our special circumstance of both of us promising to go into active duty that he was willing to give us some leeway. He continued explaining to us how the pair learning program would go. Basically, Slater and I would complete our courses in pair. We were going to submit one homework for both of us. We were going to take any quizzes and exams together. He would register us for the classes that we were going to take to make it easier to coordinating with the professor. From then on, Slater became my shadow.
Our group just increased again. Slater became part of the group. He married Ashley later after finishing our officer program.
The rest of the semester was all hands on deck. Ashley helped Matt and I with our paper. Tim was busy reteaching the course to me and Slater. Matt and I went back to working out together at the school gym. With a new sense of purpose, we faced each day determined not to fall again.
"Matt, you need to get rid of that love handle," I would tease him.
"It's not. It's just my extra padding," he would try to deflect the fact that he added weight. "Are you sure you are just checking my love handle?"
"What you mean?" I said.
"I made sure I'm semi-hard when we came in."
"I noticed. If I keep looking, I might have a boner."
We both laughed. Right then when I finally breathe a sigh of relief. We were going to make it.
I finally gained the body that I kept through out my life. I wasn't ripped or anything but I'm quite muscular. I did maintain some padding as what Matt called it. I like my roundness a little bit. Matt worked himself out to death to get back his playing form. Parties were now attended in moderation. We kept our Monday football tradition where the gang hanged out in our room. Weekday nights were mostly spent in the basement of the library where most of the students did their homework. It was open 24 hours including the computer room. Tim and his girlfriend were there all the time, so my studies went much easier.
I threatened Matt that I was getting bored waiting for our grades.
"Not that again," he complained.
No, I didn't to it to him again as I promised. His reaction was precious enough.
We passed all our classes that semester. Coach Fox was so happy when he saw Matt before the break. He was so afraid that he's going to lose him. Matt was allowed to join the summer training camp and was eligible to play next Fall semester. He didn't get his original starting position in the roster, but he made peace with it. He was just so happy that he could play again.
I was off to my OCS prep together with the enlisted Marines the same summer. Matt was teasing me that about not having much personal time. Unlike the last time, I was prepared for it. Shane had told me the trick he used to sneak in a few rubs when I couldn't wait anymore. It was the old pocket pool trick, but Shane told me to take some cheap hankies with me. So my camo's pocket was readily torn at the bottom big enough to slip my dick out. That's when being uncut was a blessing. The hankie was there to catch my knuckle babies. It could be thrown away after used if needed.
"See next school year bud," I told him.