This story is a translation of the Russian original, with names and vernacular made to sound as American as possible for ease of reading by an internatonal English-speaking audience. However, keep in mind that it's set in Russia, and make allowances accordingly. The Russian original was first published as a series of journal entries on a Russian gay meeting site qguys.ru. Please also note that English is not my native or even first foreign langauge.
THE DORM ROOM PART 3
First Signs of Insanity
September and the first half of October had flown by unnoticed amid classes and homework. I almost felt at home now in the new place, having understood the complex and delicate web of principles, traditions, and customs upon which hinged the great edifice of our University, residence hall and dorm suite. For example, on a Saturday it was best to walk around on tiptoes before at least 2 PM, lest Arthur wake up, as otherwise he would be in a foul mood, and take my word for it, this was much worse than 4 classes in a row. I'd become friends with students in my different classes and many other freshmen. I'd also struck up a friendship with a very exciting girl, Valerie was the name, who was a cute and intelligent blonde. We had even gotten to second base.
On top of all of that, I'd become fast friends with Dennis. Being around him was easy and effortless; he always had a sympathetic ear, no matter the stupidity that passed my lips at times. He was always good for sound advice, always telling me the truth, a trait I'd always valued. Don't take me wrong, I was great pals with everybody else in my suite, you could say I'd been inducted into a real family; but Dennis and I just shared a special bond. Morning would find us most often than not cooking breakfast side by side; we would also go out for a walk or go out together whenever the opportunity arose – since Dennis, aside from being a full-time student, was also on several university teams and had a job as well! He would often wait for me after classes, or I for him.
Around that time, as I stood on the sweeping grand staircase in one of the academic buildings talking between classes with our freshman Student Council rep - a first rate, straight as an arrow, go-getter gal – and a couple of classmates, Dennis – who as one the most popular guys was known to all the student body - approached me from behind and put one hand on my shoulder, and as had become his trademark, tousled my hair with the other. I was so startled that I leaned back and probably would have fallen down the stairs if it hadn't been for Dennis behind me, and as gravity took hold, I leaned back into him. I remember thinking how warm and strong he was, how safe I felt propped up against him. It did puzzle me why I felt this way, and what it all meant. The council gal gave me a cryptic smile and said, "You two sure look great together." I didn't really get then what she'd alluded to.
That, in a nutshell, was my first semester. On weekdays it was all blood, sweat, and toil, since homework was, as par for the course, heavy and time-consuming – seemingly a bottomless pit. Late evenings I would go out with Dennis, and on weekends all of us roommates tried to do something together; if not, I asked Valerie out.
It was Sunday, a very snowy, unusually chilling-to-the-bone Sunday. Dennis had left on one of his routine business trips for his work to a nearby city and promised to be back Monday early morning. Arthur was in the kitchen reading a paper – as in newspaper, as in actual hard-copy newspaper. A computer science major reading a newsstand-bought paper, if could believe such a thing! There was no sound coming from my and the boys' room as I returned from a grocery run. We'd ran out of milk and bread, and somebody had to go and bring it home, as I'd gotten used to calling my dorm suite quite easily. That somebody, of course, had to be me, since as the most junior and the newest addition to the suite I was the lowest in the pecking order, on the totem pole, etc., and had to run to the grocery store adjacent to campus. It may have been a breeze to get there and back in warm weather, but when it was -5 degrees F out, not so much.
"I'd kill for a cup of hot tea just about now!" I moaned to myself. Having shed the parka and boots in a flash, I made a dash for the kitchen, put the grocery bag on the table and all but reached to turn on the electric kettle when - oh, sweet miracle! – I took note of my favorite mug full of steaming tea with a wedge of lemon floating in it – just the way I like it - awaiting me on the table. Judging from Arthur's smiling countenance from behind the paper he must have been the culprit.
" Thanks!"
"Sure. Make sure to put the groceries away."
I moved on the double to stick the milk cartons in the fridge and the bread in the breadbin, grabbed the tea mug and headed to my room. "I still have two software engineering papers due on Monday," these were the woebegone thoughts that traversed my mind as I opened the door and stepped inside. "Hmm, this is weird, the door's usually never closed," was the last thought before I stumbled upon a scene that – ever so slightly – shocked the bejesus out of me!
Paulie and Mikey were sitting on the top bunk bed as naked as the day there were born – but that in and of itself wouldn't have been this jaw-droppingly shocking. Mikey was sitting astride Paulie's lap, crotch to crotch, with his head thrown back so he couldn't see me. Paulie was sitting halfway away from me, almost with his back to me. Paulie was passionately covering his friend's neck in hot hungry kisses, with one hand on Mikey's back holding him tight, while the other – holy Moses! – was jerking his and Mikey's dicks, squeezing them together along the whole length. Mikey for his part, could only make soft little whimpers, his eyes firmly shut.
I flew out as fast as I could straight into the kitchen, startling Arthur in the process. Glancing at me from behind the paper, he arched his brow in deliberately overstated surprise and put the news sheet aside.
"What happened?"
"I...aaa... there... aaa..."
Arthur stood up, came up to me and put the palm of his hand on top of my head – which, surprisingly worked as it calmed me down sufficiently to utter a mangled, "The boys there... in the room... they were..."
I couldn't have pronounced anything more intelligible if my life had depended on it, but I guess I didn't need to as Arthur seemed to have understood what had been meant. He frowned and mumbled in a tone full of piss and vinegar, "Damn them! I told them to talk to you. Now they've done it! Wait here!"
And so I stayed in the kitchen, so nonplussed by what'd happened I didn't even think to sit down or to try and listen in on the conversation across the hall. It was all for the better, though, as no voices were raised, since Arthur was not the type to do a shouting match. No, he was cold as steel, and just as blunt when he chose to, so after his considered and logical verbal ass-kickings people felt worse than after actual beatings. And to be honest, whether there was a scandal was the last thing on my mind as it reeled back to the image seared into it of Paulie's hand jerking his own long, fat and veiny dick and Mikey's smaller one, with Paulie's lovetube covering both in prodigious volumes of precum. "Maybe it was lube? I don't think it's possible a man can make so much pre... Or is it? Jesus, why the hell am I thinking about that? " my thoughts made frenzied cirlcles.
All the signs were there that I was shell shocked, which was quite understandable as I was from a sleepy backwater. Stuff like that I'd never been exposed to. Sure I'd heard of guys who liked guys and the whole deal, but I'd never seen them in the flesh, the fags. The word had been used when I'd been a child, but as a routine insult or in mindless banter among guys, nothing more. And now this, unbelievable!
My mental anguish was put to rest by Arthur when he came back, as usual completely calm and self-possessed. He took me by the shoulder, seated me down, pushed my tea mug to me - I guess I hadn't spilled it out when I'd dashed madly to the kitchen in panic, although how would forever remain beyond me – and sat in front me. He kept up the silent pause until I couldn't take it anymore and raised my eyes from the mug at him. Arthur had trained his cold eyes at me, as if waiting for me to look back at him.
"I'm sorry you had to learn about them this way. I told them long ago to talk to you, but I guess the geniuses must have decided to ignore my advice, and as a result, what happened... happened. They will come out to apologize as soon as they've... cleaned up. But what's more important now is for the two of us to weigh all the pros and cons to see what we're to do next. We – I mean Dennis and I – have nothing against their relationship, they've been together since freshman year and are fully committed. We respect that, and as a matter of fact, I don't think there are many straight couples whose love for one another is as strong as theirs. Now, back to you. If you are against this kind of love, or feel any revulsion towards it then..."
"And you? I mean, you and Dennis, are you two also... you know, that?"
"No, Dennis and I are straight. And try to not interrupt me. If you are against this kind of relationship, then at a minimum, you'll need to move to our room. If you think you can't have anything to do with them, I guess the only option would be to go the RD and get you reassigned to another suite. Where are you on this?"
And where was I? Frankly, my brainpower was still not back to full capacity, and the images that popped in my mind were one more suggestive than the next. "But be that as it may. Am I against this, them? Yes, they are together, a couple, they are – what's the word? - gay. Am I repulsed by it? I guess not. Would that be something I'd be interested in? Ditto. They are good guys, and that's their business. They've never tried to hit on me, right? Does this mean I'm staying? I guess so. I like the place, the people. So, question B settled. Next, should I move to Dennis' room? Would that be the right thing to do? That would be a sucker punch insult, for sure. And it would create tension. I just don't see the reason to change bedrooms, as long as they warn me when they are... together."
Arthur, not privy to the brainstrom inside my head, was looking at me expectantly. Finally, I said,"I think I'm not repu... I have nothing against it, that's what I'm trying to say. I just want one thing, for them to, you know, warn me when they are together like that."
"Good!" Arthur shifted his eyes to somewhere behind me and added, "You got that, horny dickheads?"
I was sitting with my back to the kitchen door and hadn't heard the two lovebirds come in, so absorbing was the turning and churning of my mental cogwheels.
"Yup."
I turned to them. They sure had more clothes on now. Paulie had put on sweatpants, and Mikey - that and a T-shirt.
"Vic, we're really sorry. We should have told you a long time ago, but we were afraid you wouldn't get it. And it's been so much fun with you."
This whole monologue was delivered by Mikey with his eyes firmly glued to the floor, and it looked downright cute from where I sat.
"S'okay, it's your business. Just don't make any passes at me! And, Mike, you need to wipe cum off your neck."
Arthur chuckled slightly at this, I smiled, and Mikey – finally – lifted his eyes up to meet ours and smiled in return. Paulie, however, pranks being in his blood, grabbed his boyfriend by the waist and very lewdly in one deliberate motion licked the cum off the neck of a very red-faced Mikey.
"They must upto eyeballs in hormones," was Arthur's recap of the exhibitionist demonstration.
And that was how I'd learnt the secret of Room 703. On balance, our lives didn't change much in the aftermath, the only exception being the boys' having no reason now to not hug and cuddle openly. Not that they hadn't been doing that before. They had, but now it was overtly sexual. This and the fact that Mikey was now sleeping not just with the teddy bear, but with Paulie as well in the top bunk bed. As they'd promised, the boys never even tried to come on to me, but I guess each other was more than either could handle. After the Big Secret Blow-off the only other time I ever was an eyewitness to their lovemaking was when Paulie was giving head to a Mikey stretched on the computer desk. This time around, I – quietly and considerately – left the room unseen.
Dennis was unbothered by my finding out the big secret. At first, he shot me a hard to read quizzical look. It passed quickly, however, and he said that it should have been done long ago, and as it'd become a tradition between us, gave me his patented hair-tousling.
And what do you know, after this I started to have intimate discussion with Mikey and Paulie a lot more often. They even confessed that at first the two of them had even tried to seduce Dennis, offering up anything he might possibly want, every kink, but he stood firm, which didn't really surprise me.