DIONYSIUS
By
Rev Jesse Penfield Gibson, MDiv, DMin
Copyright 2017
DISCLAIMER: This story is fiction. Any similarities to any persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. This story involves consensual sexual activity between college students, both male and female, including bareback sex, group sex and bisexual activity. This story also has drug and alcohol use. If this is not your cup of tea, don't read it. If it is, enjoy.
Complaints and compliments to revjpgibson@hotmail.com
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FIFTEEN
The last big event of Fall was a show by the alternative country band, Drive By Truckers. It was put on by a club downtown called the Abyss in association with DIO Productions, which is the legal entity that is Dionysus. Dues money went into the DIO account and it owned the house. Cass wasn't sure exactly how it worked but he did know that DIO actually owned the Abyss. Over the years, Dionysus had collected more money than it actually spent and a decade ago used a good portion of the money to open a dance club. It was actually managed by a former member and had been very profitable and contributed a nice chunk of their operating funds. A couple of years ago, they had repeated the same thing by opening Harry's, which is a dive bar. Both of them were popular student bars. It was further evidence of the degree to which Dionysus governed the social life of campus. Even the real fraternities tended to schedule their events around the Dionysus schedule. Of course, it wasn't like they explicitly knew what the schedule was since Dionysus didn't put out a newsletter or anything. Rather, they had a member or two in each fraternity and they steered the social calendar in whatever way Dionysus wanted.
By now, Cass was becoming used to people suspecting that he was a member. He knew that people talked. What did surprise him was how accurate the rumor mill was. As far as he could tell, their secret wasn't that secret. He knew he shouldn't expect differently. The Dub is a small school, not even 5000 undergraduates, and everybody seems to know everybody else's business just like a small town. It did give him a certain social cachet, though. People wanted to be his friends because they wanted invitations to the private parties or wanted access to what they imagined was the highest quality, nastiest sex and good drugs.
The concert was designed to be a money maker for Dionysus. The cover was steep, 20 bucks, and that went to the band. They were making their money on the drinks. Cass couldn't prove it but he also suspected that they were making money on the drugs too. He did know that Alex was the official drug dealer for the membership and didn't sell anything to nonmembers or "barbarians", as they were called. He didn't know if Alex was taking a cut for his trouble or not. Nobody seemed to care if he was, though. The marijuana was extremely high quality and the price was right, below market. They had easy access to a wide variety of other drugs if they wanted. But the suspicious part of it was that the same pot that they got and the same E also circulated campus but at a higher price. His guess was that Alex was the conduit for a drug operation that supplied campus and he had made his money there, and offered drugs to the members at nearly cost as a side light.
The only question Cass had was why. He remembered the rumors from back at Galloway that Alex's father was on the run for major league drug trafficking. People would try and hit Alex up for pot but he never sold any that Cass ever knew, even though he never seemed to lack for pot himself. It wasn't like he needed the money. His family, his grandfather at least, was filthy rich. Beyond being Atlanta's best tax lawyer, Henry Stafford had made buckets of money in Atlanta real estate. He was very well connected and used those connections for his own profit. Besides being a one time state Republican Party Chairman, he was hunting buddies with the Governor and both Senators. He had given 10 million to the Dub and had the library named for him. While Alex didn't seem to be living the high life, he didn't seem to be hurting for money either.
He went with Audrey, who had been initiated last year, and Alex and Dylan. He knew that Alex had been with Audrey, even beyond the usual initiation weekend fuck session, but it didn't bother him. All the Dionysus girls had a history, just like the boys. Who they fucked last and who they fucked next wasn't as important to him as getting laid now. Audrey was a good girl to hang with, less wild than Nicole but plenty sexual. As a party favor, they all swallowed bombs of molly, which is crystalline E wrapped in rolling papers. Even Dylan did it. Since he had all ready done A, E wasn't as big a deal.
The show was good, even though Dylan was more into the band than he was. Cass had to wait until the encore for the only song of theirs that we really liked, Goddamn Lonely Love. He didn't have sex with Audrey that night, the E made him limp dicked and more inclined to cuddle anyway. They did do it on Dead Day, the day before Finals.
Finals went reasonably well, he thought. Still, he was dreading having to leave school even for just the 17 days between semesters. Other people got homesick, Dylan suffered particularly, but he didn't. He could have gone home anytime he wanted since he lived less than 90 miles away but didn't. For 2 ½ weeks, he was stuck back with his crazy mother in a house he thought he had escaped from. When he got home, she was at the low point of her bipolar cycle, depressed and leaden with inactivity. For millionth time, he castigated her for not taking her meds but knew he was wasting his time. She enjoyed the mania too much to even out her moods and this was the price she paid.
Needing to get out of the house, he decided to go to a party – Galloway's lacrosse team's Christmas Party. The party itself was a pretty staid affair, hosted by the coach, but the after party tended to get wild when the boys were on their own. Cass had hosted the after party last year, his mother in full on mania but that had been a disaster when she had ending up fucking one of his friends. He was sipping cheap, domestic champagne when he saw Nicky, Alex's younger brother. He had bulked up a little in the last couple of months but was still lean and rangy overall.
"So you're a lax player?" Cass said, tipping his glass to him.
"Yeah, attack," Nicky answered. "Not a pussy middie, like some people."
Cass wasn't sure if that was directed at him or Alex since both of them were midfielders. "Yeah, it's a lot better to stand around jacking off half the game. Wouldn't want to break a sweat running."
Nicky ignored that and looked around the room, "God this boring"
"Yeah, kinda" Cass admitted.
"I'd burn one but I'm inside the 28 days, you know." It meant that he was less than 28 days from his mandatory drug test and pot stayed in the system that long. The irony is that drug testing only really eliminated marijuana from the party arsenal. You could do any other drug you wanted with only a slight chance of getting caught and all the alcohol you could take but no weed. Since lacrosse was a club sport at the Dub, they didn't drug test so Cass was under no such restriction for the first time ever. "It sucks too `cause I could go see my other grandfather for Christmas but it's always 4:20 there. Fuck me if I'm going to get thrown off for second hand smoke, right? That's what happened to Lex."
"I didn't know that," Cass said. He knew that he had failed a drug test but he assumed that it was straight up since Alex was a known stoner.
"Yeah, he was laying off like he was supposed to but he was hanging around with our Dad. That's all it took. They kicked his fucking ass out of school over it. Well, not that exactly. I mean he was asking for it. It's not like he was innocent or anything. Hey, just FYI, do you know this guy he's gone ape over?"
"He's my roommate" Cass said.
"No shit? I heard he was like a big time Christian"
"He was. Not so much anymore"
"That's just so totally fucking weird. I can't see him being into monotony"
"Monogamy?" Cass prodded.
"Same fucking difference. And with a fucking Christian. That's sick. Is he even that hot?"
"Actually, he is pretty sexy. He's a runner. He's got a big dick" Cass admitted.
"Well that makes sense at least. You ever had it up the shitter with him?"
"We're friends, that's all" Cass said.
"Who says you can't fuck a friend," Nicky said, idly scratching his balls. "I fuck friends all the time. Jesus fucking Christ, this is one boring party. Any chance we can get out of here?"
They went back to the Stafford house on West Paces Ferry, a large gray stone house vaguely resembling a French manor house that was well back from the road down a private drive. It was the largest house in a neighborhood of big and expensive houses. Cass was worried that his grandparents would be home. Nicky dismissed it, saying they were at some fundraiser. He mentioned the name of the candidate but Cass didn't know who he was. He pulled up to the house but this time didn't go around back. Nicky burst through the glass front doors and strode into the large den off the central hall that was dominated by a large staircase. He went to the liquor cabinet and eyed it. Nicky tried the handle but it was locked. A women in a maid's costume came into the den and Nicky looked up.
"Don't worry, Consuelo, I got this," Nicky said, pulling out a knife to jimmy the lock. The cabinet was clearly old and expensive, appearing to be mahogany.
"You know Senor does not want you to drink. Senor will be very angry" she said, trying to push him away.
"Well, Senor won't know shit if nobody tells him shit, will he?" Nicky said as he pried open the lock. "But tell him anything you want, Consuelo. I don't give a fuck. Here's the Maker's Mark. Go for the good shit. Merry Christmas motherfucker."
"Put it back. Senor will be very angry."
Nicky looked at Cass and shook his head. "She's new so she doesn't know how it goes down. Senor motherfucker is going to be pissed at me no matter what. I liked the last one better. Her name was Gabriella and she was way fine. Of course, he had to pay for an abortion so her ass was on the next bus back to Mexico. Let's go get wasted."
"Look, you want to get trashed, go the fuck ahead. You're home and I'm leaving." Cass said.
Nicky snorted. "And I was so hoping that you would ride me like a horse. I like it rough. Or you could do Consuelo but that would be going where no man has been before or would want to."
Cass was angry. He wanted to just beat the crap of the arrogant little punk. He had the thought that he didn't like Alex but his younger brother was far, far worse. "Fuck you, Nicky. What gives you the right to be an asshole? Just because your granddaddy is rich does give the right."
"Fuck you. If you're saying I'm like him, you can go fuck yourself. You don't know shit," Nicky screamed as he angrily kicked the liquor cabinet causing glasses to fly off and break. Consuelo had a look of horror as she dove to clean it up. "Leave it the fuck alone. Let the fucker see it. I'll cut his goddamn throat."
"What the fuck is your problem, kid? You are off the chain." Cass grabbed and spun him around.
Nicky pushed back. Wiggling away, he spat, "You don't know shit."
"So tell me" Cass demanded, grabbing at him again.
"Were you ever beaten much as a kid?"
"What?" Cass asked, stunned.
"Fuck you. I'm outta here," Nicky said, storming out. "You know the way out, asshole."
He stooped down to try and help the maid clean up the mess but she shooed him away, pushing him to the door. He got back in the car, shaking. Was the kid accusing his grandfather of abuse? The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed. He was irrational when came to his grandfather and it didn't seem like a throw-away untrue accusation. He felt a moral obligation to not leave the kid in danger if he could help it. There was one person who would know the truth. He got his phone and dialed Alex. When he answered, Cass told him the whole story.
"Fuck" Alex said, wearily. There was a long pause. He could hear Alex inhale deeply. "It's a long story and I don't really have time to tell you right now. Let's just say that the good thing for me was that he gave up on me relatively quickly. They popped me in a dorm at Woodward. Nicky has gotten the full brunt of it. I hate to ask you, I really do hate to ask you in particular, but I need to get him out of that situation for right now. I can't come get him, there's a restraining order. Can you bring him to me?"
"A restraining order?" Cass asked. That sounded serious and he wasn't sure that he wanted to be involved in that.
"Do you know who my grandfather is? He could get a restraining order keeping the Virgin Mary away from Jesus if he wanted. Just go to the guest house in back and tell him that you talked to me. Tell him that I want him to come out here for a while, okay?"
"Where is out here?" Cass asked.
"Decatur" Alex answered, giving him an address.
Nicky accepted it when Cass told him. They got in his car and headed off for Decatur. On the way there, he was quiet and subdued but the still had the bottle and took an occasional gulp. Cass had trouble finding the place, mostly because he couldn't believe that it was right place. The house was a ramshackle old house outside of Decatur surrounded by an organic herb farm. It was only when Nicky said that it was right place did Cass pull in. He had only barely stopped when Nicky bolted out of the car. Alex came out of the screen porch and met him on the path. Nicky fell into his arms.
"I wanted to fight back. I really did. He had a guy holding me down," Nicky sobbed. "The fucker"
Alex tried to soothe him. A black women came out of the porch and moved toward them. Nicky broke away from Alex and ran to her. She gathered him up in her arms and began to rock him a little as he cried. Simon came out too and the woman, his mother Cass assumed, began to walk Nicky inside. Simon nodded to Cass in greeting.
Alex walked up to the car. "Thanks, bro. I owe you."
"It's none of my business but what's the deal?"
Simon looked at Alex and said, "Let's go burn one."
They sat outside of a small shed and Simon lit a joint. Cass took it and sucked in the acrid smoke as Alex explained. "I don't know where to start. Okay, here's an interesting fact. Me and Nicky are descended from 4 of the 6 founders of Dionysus. All four grandparents were the children or grandchildren of the founders. I just mention that because it's interesting. Both of our parents were members. My mom and my grandfather hated each other. She was an artist, a liberal, an environmentalist, a Buddhist and a lesbian. Pretty much everything he hated. I was 12 and he was 7 when she died. We figured that he would stay here with Emma since we had lived here since I was like 5 or 6 and Nicky since he was born practically. Emma was our other mother. Or worst case, my other grandfather, my dad's dad. Also a member too and my two grandfather's were members at the same time and hated each other. Dad was out of the question for all kinds of reasons, mostly due to ... well, it's not important. He was out of the question at the time. Instead, we had to go with the grandparents that had never been part of our lives. Personally, I think he was trying to get his revenge on his dead daughter. He was determined that we would be everything she wasn't. We were going to be just like his sons, dutiful, conservative, dull young bankers and lawyers. Let's just say that when he wasn't drunk there was a lot of verbal and psychological abuse and when he was drunk, physical. I got through it okay because I was older and pretty quickly was able to fight back. He just got rid of me. Nicky was 7. It's been half his life."
Simon handed him the joint and Alex took a toke and handed it back. Cass looked at him sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Alex"
"You did a good thing tonight" Simon told him, handing him the roach.
"What's the next step?"
Simon shook his head. "Not for you to know, dude. If anybody asks, just tell them the truth up until the point you went back to get him."
"Nobody's going to ask you, though. I'll take the fall."
"Bullshit" Simon said.
"Sime" Alex said, putting his hand on the black guy's arm. "Don't worry. I got a plan"
He saw Alex in a different light, a more human light. He could almost imagine that the person concerned for his brother and protective of him could have the same kind of feelings for Dylan. Before, he had thought of Alex as a predator, as someone who was just fucking with his friend for the fun of it. Seeing underneath the surface, he realized that Alex's obvious charisma masked some real pain and that made him sympathetic for the first time.
Audrey was at her parents in Lawrenceville, which is kind of a haul from College Park, but he saw her as much during the break as he could. He also spent as much time at Dex's place as he could. Anything to get out of the house. Christmas Day was a forlorn affair highlighted only by a hurried phone conversation with his Dad, who was in San Francisco preparing for a flight back. He didn't have much time to talk because he still had to call his new family and see how good Santa had been to his young children by his new wife. He couldn't wait to get back to Macon for New Year's.
Dionysus had a New Year's party at the Abyss downtown, open to outsiders or "barbarians" by invitation only. The invitations were fairly freely given, though, and there were about 200 people there. He had heard it was the most expensive party of the year, mostly because of the champagne and catering. He and Audrey went together.
While dancing, he spied Dylan at the bar sipping champagne and talking with a guy he didn't recognize, a cute but slightly geeky guy. Cass made his way over to talk with him. He hadn't spoken with him at all during Christmas and felt a little guilty about it. Plus, he thought Dylan might know something about Nicky.
"How's it going?" Cass greeted him.
Dylan smiled and hugged him. "Good. It's good to be back."
"Home wasn't good?"
He kind of paused and thought about it. "It was okay but I've gotten used to being on my own, you know. I didn't want to be treated like a little kid anymore, you know?"
"Yeah, I know"
"I came out to my mother" Dylan said.
"Really? Good. Good for you. How did that go over?"
"Okay, I guess. Well not really. She's suspected for a long time but she didn't want to hear it out loud, you know. There was a lot of crying and quoting the Bible. She wanted me to talk to my Pastor but I didn't. We didn't leave it that well. I've been staying at Alex's place the last couple of days."
"That sucks, dude. It shouldn't matter," Cass said, putting his hand on his shoulder in sympathy.
"No, it shouldn't but it does."
Despite that, when they moved back in to the dorms, Dylan remained in a good mood and was even more at ease than the end of last semester. The two of them had settled down into an easy routine as roommates after a little bit of a rocky start and Cass was glad. Some people had nothing but conflict and they didn't. They were able to go their own way and still be friends.
After the first week in school, there was a mandatory meeting of Dionysus to decide on the Spring pledge class. They actually rarely met as a group and almost all the business was taken care of by the officers with little input from the membership. When Alex had said that they were only a social organization, he had meant it. They partied together and they fucked each other but that was it for the most part. They packed into the basement room with its collection of dildo's and phallic symbols. They started with nominations from the members. The Spring Class was made up of people that ought to be members but had not ever made it onto the Watch List when they were in high school. Micah Andrews from 2nd Reade was an example. He was a partier and bisexual, making him perfect but he came from Panama City and nobody from Dionysus had come from there so he went unnoticed. Willingham didn't draw from the Florida Panhandle much anyway, mostly Atlanta and South Florida with locals and the remainder of Georgia making up the rest. Another guy, Josh Soames, was a sophomore who had come out of his shell during his freshman year. There was also a girl, Tasha Yearby, from New Orleans added. They weren't in the class, though. The Selection Committee would interview them and decide whether they pledged. When each candidate was nominated, the person nominating them had to explain why they should be pledged. Then there was a vote to add them to the list. The officers got to add people without a vote, supposedly acting the in the organizations best interest. Alex, as Warden was the most junior officer, went first.
"I was going to say Micah. His dad owns a huge club in PC and he's helped us out with the Billy Adams issue. But since he got on the list anyway, I'll say Ty Rogers. He's gay and he likes psychedelics. He's also a computer guy with a permanent part time job with the Dub's IT department."
"He's a computer nerd" Brandon, the Treasurer observed.
"A computer nerd with administrator access to BearNET" Alex countered.
A voice from behind him said, "That means grades"
"That means everything" Brandon said, "Financial aid, grades, housing assignments, everything."
Cass was just relieved that Alex hadn't wanted Dylan. He wasn't sure why it mattered to him but he didn't want to see him corrupted just yet. He was heading there anyway on his own with Alex but pledging was a big step toward corruption. Brandon didn't have anyone so Dennis Korb, the Vice President, went next.
"Dylan Powell."
"No" Cass said loudly in an involuntary sort of way.
"It doesn't work like that," Brandon snapped. "Officer additions aren't voted on. You can vote against initiation if you want to."
"Yeah, well fuck that, Brand. When was the last time somebody completed their tasks and didn't get initiated?" Simon said, stepping forward and challenging him. "I agree it's not for his roommate to say but Alex has a right to say."
"Just because they're fucking? If we eliminated all of Alex's lays, this would be a very small organization" Dennis said.
"It's more than that and you know it" Simon said, not backing down. "Alex?"
Alex was looking down, defeated. "It isn't what I wanted. That's why I didn't add him. But Dennis can add him. It's not like he doesn't know about us and what it means. Just because he's on the list doesn't mean he'll accept. I can live with whatever Dylan wants."
That settled it. Brandon added an exchange student, Erik Sonderburg, a blond Danish boy on the grounds that he wanted to fuck him. That got a good laugh. Christie, the president went last, adding a girl, Amanda Whorley, a lipstick lesbian sophomore who was checking all the right boxes: Freshman Seminar TA, Orientation assistant, probably soon to be RA. Now it was up to the interview committee. Cass caught up to Alex when it was over and he was talking with Simon.
"I owe you an apology," Cass said. "I thought you were just fucking with him to be malicious. I thought it was a sick joke, you and him. That's why I didn't like it."
"Things weren't what they seemed, huh, genius?" Simon said. He was eying Cass with anger and contempt.
"It's all right," Alex said to Simon. "I appreciate you saying it and for helping Nicky out. I owe you."
"What are you going to do about Dylan?"
"Let him decide for himself." Alex replied.