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Written by: Nicky Smith Edited by: JD Kaster
CHAPTER TWO: NEW WORLD
TREY'S POV
"Wake up!" Someone was yelling this at me and pissing me off badly.
"Fuck off," I snapped to whoever it was not thinking that it could have been my mother.
"How dare you speak to your mother like this," the woman said and my eyes shot open as I knew I was in deep shit. Who I saw looking back at me though was not my mother but an amused Liberty.
"Very funny, now go away," I said grumpily before pulling the sheet back over my head.
"What crawled up your ass?" Liberty asked and I could see her giving me the stink eye even though I couldn't really see her.
"I think that's the problem. Nobody has since Bear left," I heard another female say that must have been Jessica because Justice and Veronica were already gone to their schools.
"Oh yeah," Liberty said and I wanted them to shut up. I was sleepy because I had been up until after 4 am talking to Bear.
"Leave now," I said from under the pillow I had over my head trying to drown out their voices.
"Okay Trey. We'll just go right downstairs and leave, after your dad sent us up here to wake your ass up," Liberty said and let the implication set in.
"Alright, I'm up." I crawled from under the covers and pillow before I realized that I was a guy, in the morning, and there were two girls in my room. I quickly snatched the sheet back up over my waist.
"Damn, I almost saw it," Liberty said like she was actually trying to see my morning wood. At least I hoped she didn't really want to see it as that would've introduced some weirdness into our dynamic.
"I saw it, and it was glorious," Jessica said looking all starry-eyed.
"You ain't seen nothing," I told her and I hoped I was correct.
"Yes I did," she argued. I looked at her carefully until I got the confirmation I needed and I smiled.
"You didn't see it," I told her confidently.
"How do you know that?" she asked with her arms folded.
"Because if you had seen it, you wouldn't be saying anything from shock," I said maybe with too much cocky assurance.
"Oh Trey. I had already seen it so the shock value is gone. Don't you remember about almost 2 years ago when you were shaking your naked ass in front of Bear when you thought it was just him standing in your door?" she said and I can't believe I'd forgotten that.
"Oh yeah," I said as I felt my face get hot again at the memory.
"What?" Liberty asked in shock.
"See all the stuff you missed because of Drake? That's another reason to hate him," Jessica said as Liberty rolled her eyes. Actually, that had happened before Liberty and Drake found out about us, but I didn't say anything to correct her.
"Okay, since Jessica got to see, you have to show me now," Liberty said and I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. I decided to mess with her though.
I smiled and said "Okay, if you think you can handle it. I don't think you can handle it." I sang the last part like I was singing Destiny's Child song Bootylicious. Jessica snickered and Liberty rolled her eyes again.
"Your body ain't Bootylicious boo-boo," Liberty sniped.
"Whatever," I said dismissively.
"Yeah whatever, now pony up," she said and Jessica snickered again.
"Lib, it's not for the faint of heart. You'll never be able to look at Trey the same way again. You'll always be wondering, what if?" Jessica said and Liberty looked at her for a moment trying to gauge if she was right. She then looked at me as if actually considering it.
"Okay, I'm gonna go, and you're gonna get your ass up out of this bed and get dressed because, as it seems you've forgotten, we're supposed to be driving up to school today," she said and I had forgotten.
"Damn, I forgot," I said before almost throwing the covers off again before I caught myself. "Get out," I ordered and Jessica grumbled as Liberty pushed her out of the door and closed it behind her.
I waited until I thought that they had made it downstairs before I got up out of the bed. I got the clothes I had laid out and ran across the hall and grabbed a quick shower. I brushed my teeth and checked my hair and it was still in place. I tied the dreads up on my head with a rubber band and I had to say that I looked good naked.
I then remembered that I was naked and chose to put my clothes on in the bathroom in case a surprise was waiting for me in my room. I looked again and I still looked good. I then ran back across the hall and grabbed my keys, wallet, phone and checked and made sure I had everything I was taking with me. I would make another trip later and get whatever else I needed from home.
I then headed out of the room, but ran back in to get my freshman welcome pack that I'd almost forgotten. I headed downstairs and saw Liberty and Jessica talking to my sisters. I then got a text from Sean that said that he was on the way as we were all driving up to school together.
Our parents thought we were crazy driving six cars/trucks to the same place but we didn't know when we might need our own automobile to go somewhere so we thought it was a good idea. The parents were also pissed that we'd gotten together and decided that we'd go on our own without them. I pleaded the case for my chicken shit friends that we were adults now and we had to do this on our own.
The parents reluctantly agreed but my mother made sure that I knew that she wasn't happy and that she'd be paying me surprise visits since I wanted to do things this way. I knew that Dad would prevent that as much as possible though.
"Well, do you have everything?" Mama asked as she and Dad walked into the room from the kitchen.
"Yeah, I've got all the stuff I'm carrying now." I had all my stuff already packed and downstairs waiting on me. I just needed to carry it outside and put it in my truck, at least I would have if my stuff was still where I left it.
"Where's my stuff?" I looked and the place where I'd left my stuff was empty.
"Your brother and I packed it all up for you this morning," Dad said, I smiled that they'd do that for me.
"Yeah, we figured that you would be tired since when I got up to get a glass of water around 3 I heard you still talking to Bear," Calvin said.
"Okay, let's get this big mushy family hug over with," I said bracing myself for the crushing.
"We're fine. See ya," Mama said sounding awfully blasé about the fact that her first-born was leaving home.
"You crushed me when I was leaving for the summer, yet I'm about to leave for the next four years and, nothing?" I said and she actually had the gall to shrug.
"I'm over it," she said and I was actually believing her until dad cracked and started laughing. They then walked over and all five of them surrounded me in a big family hug. I missed Zane but he was probably at work or at home asleep after being at work.
"I'm gonna miss you man," Calvin said getting all choked up.
"You too dude. You are my heart," I said sapping it up.
"You are my soul, man," Calvin said as he clutched his chest.
"You are my everything," I said back with a fake sniffle
"You are my-," he started before Mama cut in.
"Yeah right. You two ain't fooling nobody," she said and we all laughed.
Mama and Dad then hugged me again, me and Calvin fist bumped before giving each other a bro hug. I then grabbed my last bag that I'd brought from my room and we all filed out of the front door. I stowed my bag in the passenger side as the back of my truck was full of stuff. Just as I finished that, a police cruiser pulled up to the house behind Jessica's car and Zane got out of the passenger side.
"Hey dude, you can't leave without me," he said as he jogged up to us.
"Sorry. I thought you'd be at work or sleeping." He looked tired but also sad.
"Yeah well, I was working but I made Brett run by here real quick so I could say goodbye to you," he said and Liberty and Jessica said a simultaneous `aww'.
"Well, thanks man," I said and before I could react he grabbed me and pulled me into a crushing hug and I had a fleeting thought that between Mama, Zane, and Bear, that I'd need to go and get some x-rays to make sure I didn't have any fractured ribs.
He stepped back and went to stand with the rest of the family. Sean, Carter, and Christian pulled up a couple minutes later and I said goodbye for now again to the family before I headed to my truck. I started the truck and pulled out of the driveway. I waved at my family and they waved back and for the second time in months, I was leaving home.
We raced along with the guys trying to get ahead of one another before mother Liberty called us to tell us to stop being children and drive more responsibly. We listened and drove on safely. We stopped and grabbed a bite to eat at a little restaurant around lunch since at least I didn't get a chance to eat any breakfast. I briefly wondered why my mother had even let me leave the house without stuffing me full of food.
We then got back on the road and a while later we were arriving at school. We found a parking lot where we could park relatively close together and parked there. We got out and looked around at our new home and it was cool and a bit scary at the same time.
"Well here we are," Liberty said, the first one of us to speak.
"Yeah," Jessica said. I think we were all a little bit nervous.
"Well, let's find out where we need to be," Christian said. We'd received a welcome pack in the mail that had everything we needed to know like maps of the campus and where we would be staying.
"Well it looks like our dorm is over that way," I said pointing in the direction that looked like northeast. Liberty, Jessica and I were staying in a newly constructed co-ed dorm, Sean and Carter were in one of the athletic dorms, and Christian was in one of the older guys only dorms.
"We gotta go check in with the athletic department," Sean said and Carter nodded.
"I guess little ole me will be heading of by myself," Christian said in a mock pout.
"Aw babe. I told you to try and see if the housing department can place you in our dorm," Liberty said and I saw Jessica roll her eyes.
"I already did last week. They said your dorm was full," he said now sounding like he was actually pouting.
"Oh come on. It's not like you two are that far from each other. The rest of us don't have the luxury of having our significant others on the same campus," Jessica said and she was right. Bear was at Penn, Justice at Carnegie Mellon, Alvis back home, and Sed was in Philly. We didn't have our people as close as Liberty and Christian were.
"Stop hating Jess," Liberty stupidly said.
"What did you-," Jessica started but I stepped between them to end the brewing storm.
"Girls, can we please wait at least 1 hour after getting here before we start fighting?" I asked sarcastically.
"Fine," they both said.
"Well why don't you two go and find your dorm so you can find a place closer to it to park. Carter you do the same for us while I hang back here with Trey while he's watching his stuff," Sean said which was probably a good idea as I was the only one who had my stuff in an open back truck that made it easy to steal.
"Why can't you find the dorm while I stay with Trey?" Carter asked.
"Why don't you both go and do that? I'm a big boy who can wait by himself," I told them and they all looked at me like I was speaking an alien language. "Fine, Carter can stay with me while Sean goes to find your dorm," I said and Carter smiled while Sean pouted.
"Fine," Sean said sadly as he walked off.
"You're not fooling anyone Sean," I shouted to him as he walked away.
"Whatever," he said over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Well now that Carter has won the war over Trey, let's go Jess," Liberty said. Her and Jessica walked off with Jessica snickering.
"So, how are you doing?" Carter asked as we leaned against my truck.
"Fine I guess. I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's only been a few days anyway." I tried to convince myself of this more than Carter.
"Sed and I aren't near as close as you and Bear, but it'll be hard to not see him as much. I think it'll be hard to go from seeing him all the time over the summer to barely seeing him," Carter said and that's how I felt about Bear. I'd have to go through Bear withdrawals.
Liberty came back and with Jessica's help guided me to our dorm with a great parking spot. Then the four of us started unloaded my stuff before Carter got a text from Sean that he needed to get over to the athletic department so he left me and the girls to it.
We got all my stuff inside and stacked into a neat pile which I'd seen several students had done. We planned to wait until we got our room assignments before unloading the girls' stuff. We looked around and the place looked more like a small hotel than a dorm.
The entrance had double glass doors and the lobby had several sitting areas, a sort of reception area where there were mailboxes which I guess was for the students' mail. There were two vending machines and there were two elevators and a flight of stairs.
I looked around and I saw students of all ethnicities just talking and getting to know each other, and there didn't seem to be any hostilities and I thought that if only the real world were like that.
"Everyone, may I have your attention please," a white guy said as he walked up and stood in front of the reception are along with two other guys and two other girls. One of the guys and one of the girls were Black, the other girl was White and the other guy looked like he had some Native American features. They looked older than all of us and I wondered if they ran the dorm. Everyone eventually quieted down and gave him their attention.
"Welcome freshmen to McGruder Hall. This is a freshman dorm that was newly constructed for incoming freshmen so the whole lot of you will be in different dorms next year. I am your dorm director Scotty Nelson. To my right are Denise and Betty and to my left are Roger and Tommy. They will be your Resident Advisors this year," Scotty said then the RA's introduced themselves.
"Now, for how things will be here," Scotty continued. "There are 4 resident floors to the door and you all will be alternating. The girls will be on the 1st and 3rd floors while the guys will be on the 2nd and 4th floors. Betty will be the RA for the 1st floor, Tommy for the 2nd, Denise for the 3rd, and Roger for the 4th. I will be the head honcho around here so if anything major comes up, come to me, otherwise, I'm gonna trust my RA's to resolve any other problems," he said and looked around at the freshmen before continuing.
"I expect you all to behave like respectable young men and women and I'm gonna trust you to do so. I will be conducting periodic evaluations with each of you to find out how your college experience is treating you and to hopefully catch any problems before they get out of hand and hopefully help you with them. Finally, on the far wall is your room assignments. Find them and your roommates and get to know each other. Your RA's will have some things to say to you all once you all get situated. So, welcome and... have at it," Scotty finished and everyone started either talking to each other or heading for the list to get their room assignments.
"Well, let's see where we are," I said to Liberty and Jessica. We walked over to the wall and Liberty and Jessica looked at the lists.
"I'm on floor 3," Liberty said.
"I'm not on the 1st floor so I guess I'm on the 3rd," Jessica said while looking at the 1st floor list.
"Yeah, here you are, but we're not roommates," Liberty said sounding disappointed.
"Aw really?" Jessica asked also sounding disappointed.
"Did you two really wanna room together?" I asked, because they'd basically spent the last 6 years together living next door to each other and going to the same schools.
"You're just mad because you don't get to room with Sean," Liberty teased.
"What makes you think I want to room with Sean? I could want to room with Carter, or maybe Christian. Yeah, Christian would be a very good roommate," I said teasing Liberty.
"Very funny," she said in return.
"I can just imagine now all the fun we'd have. All the...things we could share being in close proximity to each other," I said making sure to use as much innuendo as possible.
"How about I share my foot up your ass," Liberty said with mock anger.
"No, that won't be what'll be going up there," I said with a mischievous grin and I batted my eyelashes.
"Knock it off Trey," Liberty said as Jessica snickered.
"Did she say your name was Trey?" a guy asked from behind me.
"Yeah I'm Trey," I said turning around to face him.
"Trey Healey?" he asked again.
"Yeah that's me," I further confirmed.
"Hi, I'm Dave Hamilton, your new roommate. We're on the 4th floor," he said as he extended his hand. I shook it and of course this guy was my roommate.
Apparently, not only was I the pied piper of gay jocks, but I was also the pied piper of white people. Dave was about two inches taller than me, but about 30 pounds heavier. He was more stocky than muscular though although he had some strong looking arms. I'd guess he played some baseball in high school. That thought made me think of Drake, but I immediately squelched that line of thinking as I likely wouldn't see him ever again.
"How do you do," I said in return. "These are my ladies Liberty and Jessica," I said gesturing to the girls.
"Your ladies? Both of them?" Dave asked looking shocked and intrigued at the same time.
"Don't listen to this jackass. We're not his ladies," Liberty said.
"Oh, okay," Dave said.
"Look, we're both on the same floor," one girl said to another. One was white while the other I couldn't place.
"I'm with some girl named Jessica," the white girl said.
"My roommate's name is Liberty," the other girl said.
"I guess those are your roommates ladies," I said to the girls.
"Let's introduce ourselves," Jessica said before her and Liberty walked the short distance to their roommates.
"Hi, I'm Liberty St. John and this is Jessica Martin," Liberty said in introduction.
"Hi, I'm Maria and this is my friend Light," the white girl said in introduction of themselves.
"Your name is Light?" Jessica asked.
"Jess," Liberty reprimanded.
"I was just saying. I've never heard that before," Jessica defended.
"It's fine. My mother thought she was being unique, but she wasn't," Light said. I liked her name though.
"Oh yeah, this is our friend Trey and his apparent roommate Dave," Liberty said.
"Hi ladies," I said as I shook their hands. "I like the name Light. There's a character from an anime that I watched with the same name," I explained.
"You watch anime too?" she asked sounding excited.
"Yeah, I'm a geek," I said proudly and she sort of squealed.
"Okay, I've found my boyfriend Maria," Light said as she latched herself onto my right arm. Liberty and Jessica snickered though.
"I don't think you've found your boyfriend just yet," Liberty said with an amused smirk.
"Oh?" Light said.
"Yeah, I think his boyfriend might have a problem with that," Jessica added.
"You're gay?" she asked but she still had yet to let me go. This was the moment of truth. The time to see if college was different than high school.
"Yeah," I said simply.
"Oh, well I've found my gay best friend then," Light corrected.
"Um, I think they might have something to say to that," I said pointing to Liberty and Jessica who were staring at Light now with their arms crossed.
"We'll just have to share," Light said.
"You'll all have to forgive Light. She's a little... what's a good word now?" Maria said as she seemed to search for a word to describe her friend.
"Cute?" Light asked.
"Insane. She's a little insane, but the good kind," Maria finished. I remembered then that my new roommate was also standing there so I had to check and see that my being gay wouldn't start any problems.
"So, I hope that this doesn't cause any problems," I said to Dave.
"Uh, I guess not. I didn't expect it, but I don't think it'll be any problem," he said.
"Okay," I said not sure about his reaction, but I decided to play things by ear.
"Can we see him?" Light asked.
"See who?" Jessica asked in return.
"His boyfriend. I know you must have pictures," Light answered. I had to think about that as I didn't want things to get around now that Bear was playing college football. He had a chance to start with a clean slate since none of his new teammates had gone to school with us from what he'd told me over the summer.
"Well, I guess, but you can't tell anyone who he is," I said before I pulled out my phone. Bear went to another school and this was just 3 people who knew so I figured it was safe. I still wanted to be sure though.
"Damn," Light, Maria, and Dave said simultaneously after I showed them a pic of the both of us Calvin had taken the day before Bear had left for school so they could get an accurate scale of our size difference.
"That's Bear," I told them.
"Did you just say Bear?" Maria and Dave said simultaneously again. I was impressed, what with them being strangers until a few minutes ago.
"I can see it," Light said.
"Damn he is hot," Maria said as she took my phone from me.
"Yeah, I might briefly consider going gay for him," Dave said before I'm sure he realized what he'd said because he started blushing something fierce.
"Yeah well, you'd have to settle for someone else as nobody exist for Bear other than Trey," Jessica said and I hoped that that proved to be true with the two of us not being around each other all the time.
"Okay, I think we should be getting our stuff into our rooms," Liberty said and I agreed.
The girls and I started on my stuff first and we got it all to my room after a while. The room that I was sharing with Dave wasn't as big or as fancy as I expected with the setup of the lobby, but it was still nice and better than I initially expected.
We then started on the girls' stuff and the three of us were all moved in within a few hours. We just had to arrange our rooms. As I was unpacking my stuff and putting it away, I looked over at Dave's stuff and I noticed that he had a lot of sports themed things with posters of sports stars, a couple of pennants and a baseball trophy which confirmed my suspicions about him being a baseball player in high school and I wondered if he was on the college team. He would probably be in the athletic dorms though if that were true so I dismissed the thought.
I finished packing away what I was going to before I got a text from Sean that said to come down to the lobby because he was there with Carter and Christian. I told Dave that I'd see him in a bit before I sent Liberty a text to tell them too before I headed down to the lobby.
"Hey buddy," Sean said as I walked up to him, Carter, and Christian.
"Get everything squared away?" I asked him.
"Yeah, it's cool. We still gotta unpack, but we're roommates so that's cool," Carter said.
"You think it's cool that we're roommates? Aww, that's so sweet," Sean said before walking toward Carter with his arms out. Carter held his hand out to block him from getting any closer.
"Stay," he said and Christian snickered. I chuckled a little as well.
"I wish you people wouldn't embarrass me. I have to live here," I said mostly joking.
"You can say that again," I heard from behind me and I turned to see Liberty and Jessica coming up, followed by Maria and Light.
"Ooh," Maria said as she eyes the three guys.
"You can say that again," Light said. Jessica walked between them and laid her arms across their shoulders.
"Taken, taken, g-taken," she said pointing first to Christian, then Sean and finally Carter where she thankfully corrected herself before she outed him. With me it was one thing, but Carter was a jock and that could be dangerous.
"Aw, nuts," Maria said sadly.
"So Liberty, have you slept with anyone yet?" Sean said stupidly. He was opening himself up to a long line of things where Liberty was concerned.
"Hey man," Christian said taking offense.
"No I haven't Sean. Have you? I'll be happy to call your girlfriend and tell her that you are if you want," she said and like I said, he'd spoken stupidly.
"She won't believe you because you'd be lying," he said trying for confident but failing.
"Oh Sean, I can be very persuasive, especially when it comes to my sister. Twins and all," she said with that wickedly sweet tone that was meant to impart the obvious threat.
"You have a twin sister? That's so cool," Light said with her and Maria obviously enjoying the show.
"Yes she does. Guess her twin sister's name," Jessica said sounding all giddy.
"Jess," Liberty warned.
"Hush," Jessica said dismissively. Maria and Light looked at Liberty for a good minute before I saw the realization in Maria's eyes.
"Justice," Maria said while laughing.
"Oh come on. That couldn't possibly be it," Light said like someone not actually named Light.
"Ding, ding, ding, ding, we have a winner," Jessica said and I shook my head at my crazy assed peeps.
"I'm hungry. Let's find somewhere to eat," Carter said and I was all for that.
"I'll be right back," I said before I ran back up to my room to check and see if Dave wanted to go. He said yes and we all headed out in search of food. I thought to bring my campus map and saw that there was a few places to eat on campus. Sean spotted two girls and asked them if they knew of a good place to eat and they told us that the place to go was a place called The Cove.
I thought the name was a tad bit corny, but everyone else was all for it so we headed in the direction the two girls told us and we came to a surprisingly big place with an understated deck on the outside and really didn't look that much like a restaurant. We walked in and there was so much activity with a counter in the back and different stands and drink machines on counters.
"Nice place," I said first.
"Wow, it looks so college-y up in here," Jessica said sounding very excited.
"Yeah Jessica, way to use that 2200 SAT score," Liberty said being her regular old snarky self.
"Fine. This place is very collegiate," Jessica said through gritted teeth.
"Whoa, you got 2200 on you SATs?" Light asked with a wide-eyed look that was shared by Maria and Dave.
"That's nothing. Trey got a 2390," Jessica said and they looked at me like I was an alien. That was fun, not.
"Hey, let's get some grub," I said before walking away. I didn't like feeling like I was some freaky genius. There's nothing against geniuses, and I was likely one, but people looked at you differently when that label was attached to you. I didn't need that as I already had enough working against me with being black and gay.
We all got some food and we got a couple of tables and ate our food while getting to know the three newbies. Dave was from Harrisburg and he was on his high school baseball team and they'd actually won 2 championships while he was on the team.
Light and Maria were from Williamsburg and they had been friends since they met in junior high. They were former cheerleaders but weren't interested in trying out for our college's team, much like Dave and the baseball team. We told them some about us and probably the only thing everyone seemed to be in a consensus about was not divulging the fact that Carter was gay too.
We finished up and decided that we'd go on a walking tour of campus, even though I'd been there several times. There was still a large part of the campus I hadn't seen as I didn't know where The Cove was, which I planned to return to as much as possible.
After a couple of hours it was getting dark so we split up and headed back to our dorms. Liberty and Christian had a particularly long parting with Jessica rolling her eyes at her. I thought of Bear then and I sent him a text. He sent one back almost immediately saying he missed me and that he'd call me later.
Back in my room, I put away the rest of my stuff as did Dave. He then started texting someone while I pulled out my laptop and looked over everything I needed to know for when classes started. Bear called later, Dave stepped out to give us some privacy even though I told him he didn't have to.
Bear questioned me about everything, especially Dave and I reminded him that I hadn't grilled him like he was doing. He then informed me that I was wrong and that I'd threatened to come up to his school and scout out everybody looking for potential threats.
I heard him try to stifle a yawn and I knew he was tired so I told him to get some sleep. He tried to play it off, but again he had to yawn so I ordered him off the phone. He told me he loved me and missed me and I told him the same before we ended the call.
I then did something really corny and got the framed picture of him I had on my bedside table and hugged it to me. It did help me though as I started to drift. I got a text though before I drifted off all the way and when I looked at it, it was a shirtless pic of him with all that glorious body hair showing as he blew me a kiss.
I laughed and sent him a text calling him silly. I then took a similar pic of me, but with my shirt still on and sent it to him followed by a text that told him to go to sleep as I could see that he looked tired. I cuddled his picture again while still feeling silly, but who cares. I loved my big guy and I missed him. I smiled at this thought as it was my last before drifting off to sleep.
The first week at school was pretty calm, then rush week started. Things got crazy as the frats and sororities went all out with their parties and all the freshmen trying to get into the Greek system. I saw no appeal in it and I wasn't about to be caught dead at one of their parties.
"We're going to a frat party," Sean said with a big grin as he reached over and pulled me closer to him. The two of us as well as Liberty and Jessica were at The Cove. Dave, Maria, and Light were doing other things so we just decided to hang out. I think I preferred it this way, only with Carter and Christian here as well, not that I didn't like the three of them.
"No I'm not," I said. He had the wrong one if he expected me to go to alcoholic white boy central.
"Yup, you're going. I have you all to myself now with no Bear around," he said to me with that grin that had now grown slightly creepy.
"Yeah, that wasn't creepy at all," I said sarcastically as I shrugged his arm off my shoulders.
"Yeah Sean, do I need to make a call to my sister?" Liberty asked in that sweet tone that was indication that she was being passive-aggressive.
"No," Sean said.
"Uh huh," Liberty said as she gave Sean a weird stare. Sean looked to be ignoring it after a few seconds.
"C'mon Trey, you have to go. I already asked Carter and he said no, and I asked Christian and-," Sean said before he was interrupted.
"I'm sure he said no," Liberty said cutting in.
"Actually, he said hell no," Sean said and I rolled my eyes that he was trying to get to me by sounding all sad.
"That's because we're black Sean. We don't do that sort of thing," I said.
"That's your excuse for everything. You say that anytime I wanna do something," Sean pouted and I hated that he was wearing me down.
"That's because you like to do all this white stuff," Liberty said with a scowl.
"There are black fraternities out there. I even saw one when I was on Fraternity Row," he said. I really didn't want to go, but I knew I'd end up doing it anyway.
"Maybe we should check out some sororities," Jessica said which earned her a side eye from Liberty.
"No thanks. I prefer the person whipping my ass to be my man. That way I can kick his ass without worry," Liberty said I couldn't help but laugh at her.
"Well Lib, you could always kick their asses too," I said.
"No I can't. See, if some girl walks up to me and hits me with a paddle, you can believe that I'm gonna slap the taste out of girlie's mouth. Then there'll be lawsuits and a whole lot of hassle," she said sounding so serious that I thought she was.
"I'm sure they won't just walk up and haul off and hit you with a paddle," I said while trying to keep from laugh.
"You don't know that. We don't know what they do," she said and I almost lost the laughing battle.
"You're crazy," Jessica said. She was shaking her head while looking highly amused with Liberty. It struck me then how close they were and I was glad that Jessica had been able to forgive Liberty for choosing Drake over us.
"Come on Trey. If you go, I'll make it worth your while," Sean said trying to sound persuasive, but he was barking up the wrong tree doing that with me.
"No thanks. I prefer real men, not smooth pretty boys," I said and Sean faked looking hurt, at least I assumed he was faking.
"Ouch," Liberty and Jessica said in unison.
"I'll have you know I am a real man. If I weren't straight and with Justice, I'd show you just how much," he said, saying the last part in a husky voice.
"Sure you say you're straight Sean, but are you really?" Liberty asked sounding like a reporter trying to get her story.
"I'm straighter than Trey," he said before winking at me.
"Yeah, but that's not a great choice to measure you hetero status against," Jessica said, and ouch.
"Hey," I said even though I couldn't figure out what I should be offended about since I wasn't straight, at all.
"So, are we going to the frat party?" Sean asked and I just gave up and decided to let him have this.
"Fine, I'll go," I said begrudgingly.
"Great. I promise you'll have a wonderful time," he said and he needed to stop with the flirty behavior if he wanted Liberty to stop clowning him.
"Yeah, you're as straight as an arrow," Liberty said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, a curved arrow," Jessica added before they cracked up at her lame joke.
"Good, then it's all set," Sean said happily after glaring at the girls for a few seconds.
"Yeah, great," I said not able to hold back the sarcasm.
"So, you're going to a frat party? Mind if I tag along?" Dave asked as he sat on his bed while I looked though my clothes for something to wear. I needed to make another trip back home because apparently I'd only brought my geeky clothes.
"Um, sure," I said distracted with trying to get something together.
"I don't have to go if you don't want me to," Dave said sounding unsure.
"No, I don't have a problem with it. I was just distracted thinking I didn't bring anything with me that doesn't scream nerd," I told him and he snickered.
"Well, I'd lend you something, but I think it'd be a bit big on you," he said and he was right. He was about 30 pounds heavier than me and taller so his clothes would look big on me.
"Yeah, you're right." Then I had an idea and I told Dave I'd be back.
I knew of where a clothing store was that was close to campus and I paid it a visit. An hour later, I had several outfits that would hold me over until I went back home. I had a brief realization that my fashion gene seemed to have finally awakened as I didn't need very much help getting things together.
I made it back to school and to my room and Dave was already ready. I had to admit that he looked pretty good. I told him so and he blushed like he'd never been told that before. I ran and grabbed a shower and I tried to ignore the communal shower situation as I'd been doing since I'd arrived at school. At least it had stalls with privacy doors which hid a lot of the body and I tried to keep my eyes to myself whenever there were other guys in there.
Anyway, I got back to my room and got dressed and tried again not to think about getting dressed in the room with a virtual stranger. I guess this is what jocks had to go through so I had to suck it up. I was finished getting dressed and ready by the time Sean arrived.
Sean let go with an appreciative whistle when he saw me. "Damn son, you clean up very well," he said as he looked me over.
"Thanks," I looked myself over in the mirror and I was impressed again with myself. I sent Sean and Dave on down and told them I'd catch up in a minute. Sean gave me a weird look but they left the room. When I was alone, I stood in front of the mirror and did something I'd never done before. I took a mirror selfie of myself and felt silly for doing it, but I got over it quickly before I sent it to Bear. I then caught up with Sean and Dave and we left.
Despite all of her protestations, Liberty allowed herself to be dragged to a Sorority party by Jessica, Light, and Maria. Christian and Carter still opted out on our night though and I wished that I could, but I had to be a best friend. Stupid loyalty complex.
We arrived on Fraternity Row and it was surprisingly chill. You could hear music coming from different frats but I pictured like a mass party like it was Spring Break or something like that. Sean and Dave headed for the Kappa house just as I got a response to the pic I'd sent Bear.
He sent me back an emoji filled text with 3 flames and two eggplant. I laughed at that before I followed Sean and Dave. I tried not to think too much about the implications of the text as that was sure to make me spring a boner and the pants I was wearing were way too tight to hide it with how big I was.
I walked into the frat and Sean and Dave were waiting by the door for me. Sean gave me a wink like he knew what I'd been doing. I tried to ignore him. We walked on into the house and there were guys and girls mingling around. As I looked around I noticed one thing... I was the only black person in sight. Of course I was.
"Sean, where are all the black people?" I asked as I looked around again.
"I don't know. I guess they're around somewhere. Stop stressing and enjoy yourself," he said before he walked away.
"I don't see any here either," Dave said looking a bit awkward.
"You can go on ahead," I told him so he didn't feel like he had to babysit me.
"Thanks," he said happily before he took off. I saw him make a beeline for the beers and grab one before my attention was diverted to some guys shouting at another guy drinking beer from a keg. I watched them curiously for a few minutes before I saw Sean walking back toward me with a couple of bottles of beer.
"I don't think Bear will appreciate you trying to get me all liquored up so you can take advantage of me," I joked and he laughed.
"Trey, trust me when I say that if I really wanted to do something with you, it would have already happened by your own doing," he said with annoying confidence.
"I can assure you that you're speaking craziness now," I said before taking the unopened beer from him and walking away.
"Not cool man," he said before following after me.
We walked around and Sean talked to some guys but I was mostly quiet. Every time he talked to someone new he introduced me as his "bestest friend" and I struggled not to roll my eyes every time he did it. I noticed that a few people eyed me strangely when he introduced me to them but I tried to ignore that thought as these people didn't know me.
"Hey Sean, where've you been?" We turned to see who'd asked that and a guy who I vaguely recognized along with two other guys were there. They looked like the typical frat bros and I wondered if all guys ended up developing that same look after joining a fraternity.
"I've been around man. Oh yeah, this is my best bud Trey. Trey, this is Jack. We used to kind of hang back in school before Jack graduated as he was two grades higher," Sean said. I nodded a greeting to the three of them, but they didn't look like they wanted to reciprocate.
"So, you gonna rush?" Jack asked after basically dismissing me with a glance.
"Well, I'm not sure. I think football might keep me busy," Sean said. I couldn't help but notice that they were all but ignoring me.
"Nonsense dude. There's a couple of players in the house. C'mon man, it'll be great. Just think, we'll be brothers," Jack said and I tried to resist rolling my eyes.
"Well, I guess I can do it," he said before turning to me and I knew what was about to come out of his mouth. I also knew I'd never be able to say no. That was just the way it was between us "What'd you say buddy? Wanna rush with me?" he asked looking extremely hopeful. I quickly glanced at Jack and his friends and they looked like they didn't particularly like that idea.
"Uh." I stalled. I really didn't want to, but if he wanted to I'd do it. Besides, the idea of me and Sean being brothers, even in the fraternity sense sounded nice.
"Please," he said and his begging was breaking me down. I had a brief thought that Justice must've been giving it up on the regular in high school with how good he was at begging.
"Okay, fine. I'll do it," I said but I tried to keep my tone neutral so he didn't hear how much I wasn't excited about this.
"Great," he said before pulling me to his side in a side hug. "We'll do it," he said with a big grin on his face. I briefly wondered if he got that happy when Justice agreed to do something. I'm sure he got that happy when she agreed to one particular thing.
"That's... great," Jack said while showing all of his teeth. The smile was so obviously fake, but I guess it was only obvious to me. I was about to say something to test this theory when my phone rang. It was Liberty's ring-tone so I decided to take it in case she was in jail or something from slapping the taste out of some sorority girl's mouth. I excused myself and went to find some privacy.
"What's wrong?" I asked before I could stop myself.
"What do you mean? Don't be so reactionary," Liberty said and I thought to ask her where she'd heard that word, but then I remembered that she lived in the same dorm as me and I didn't wanna wake up without my ear or something.
"Um, okay." I thought that was a good way to play it off. I was wrong though.
"You just wondered how I knew that word, didn't you?" she asked and I cursed how well these people knew me.
"No, no I didn't," I said and cringed as my voice betrayed me.
"Yes you did. We'll be talking about that thought later," she said without an obviously threatening tone, but I didn't buy it.
"Fine, as long as there's actual words and no violence." Sure she said talk, but she was the twin sister of Justice so I didn't trust her a bit.
"I can't promise anything," she said nonchalantly.
"What's up? Have you slapped the taste outta some poor girl's mouth yet?" I asked and I couldn't stop myself from snickering.
"Just Jessica. She's over there in the corner crying and bitching right now, totally ruining my night," she said and she sounded so serious that I believed her.
"Liberty! I can't believe you," I said, wondering what'd happened to cause such a thing.
"Boy please. I ain't touched that girl, yet. She's fine, and you're so gullible. Your face is next to the word in the dictionary," she said and I felt like an idiot for believing her foolishness. Then I had an idea.
"Shows what you know. Gullible isn't even in the dictionary." I hoped she believed it so I could totally punk her ass.
"Nice try fool. I'm not five. I've heard that before," she said and I remembered then that she had indeed heard it before. Justice and I had pulled this same thing on her when we were 11. That time she believed it though.
"Are you having any fun?" I asked her, changing the subject.
"It's a'ight I guess," she said kind of uninterested but she wasn't fooling me.
"Which actually means that you're having fun. I'm surprised you're enjoying yourself with a bunch of white girls," I told her.
"First, I have no problems with white girls. One happens to be one of my oldest friends. You may know her, because you two are engaged," Liberty joked and I rolled my eyes.
"I'll let him know you called him a white girl," I said and she cleared her throat.
"Secondly, there's more here than white girls. I've seen a few Asian girls, several Hispanic girls and three of the main girls over here are Black. It's a real female rainbow coalition over here." That was just great.
"Well I wish I could say the same. If I didn't know any better I'd think Sean brought me to an Abercrombie and Fitch reunion," I joked and Liberty snickered.
"Well you should feel right at home then. You know how your milkshake brings all the white boys to the yard," she said and I stifled a chuckle.
"Yeah right," I said even though I couldn't deny my appeal. Maybe I was getting too cocky.
"You know what they say. The only difference between a gay guy and a frat boy is a six pack," she said and I could hear the amusement in her voice.
"I think I'm gonna send Jess a text telling her to slap the taste out of your mouth," I joked. I loved doing this with Liberty because she knew how to give and take better than anyone else.
"Only if you want her to die sweetie. I'm gonna go. They just brought out some food and it's actually real food. I'm thinking of pledging this sorority," she said before saying bye and ending the call.
I shook my head at her and couldn't hide the smile. I loved her and I felt a slight pang thinking about the time when we weren't speaking. It was over now, but I still regretted the time we'd missed with each other. I headed back over to look for Sean, but I caught an ongoing conversation instead.
"I just don't see what Sean sees in that... guy." Jack was talking to the two guys who were with him and two more had joined them, but Sean was nowhere to be seen.
"Yeah, what was he thinking bring him here. It should have been obvious that he wasn't welcome," one of the new guys said.
"Sean really surprised me. I thought he'd have better taste in friends," Jack said and for some reason I thought about that woman, Maude Forrester. It seemed like something she'd say, only with that snooty southern old bitch accent she had.
I turned away not wanting to hear anymore and I headed for the door. I decided that I'd tell Sean that I'd changed my mind about pledging and that I just wanted to leave, which was the truth. I had a feeling what these guys were all about and I'm sure that I wasn't wanted around there. I was stopped just before I reached the door though.
"Dude, I think I'm gonna leave. This place isn't... it's just ain't me," Dave said as he stopped me.
"What's the problem?" I asked him. I knew what my problem was, but he wasn't me.
"It's just not for me, that's all," he said, but I could tell he was trying to not say something. Maybe he'd heard something similar to what I'd heard about me.
"Okay, I'll go with you," I said.
"What about Sean?" he asked and I hoped that he'd understand.
"I'll see him tomorrow," I said and he shrugged before we turned and headed for the door, but again I was stopped, this time by Sean.
"Dude, where're you going?" he asked and I didn't wanna disappoint him but I'd have to.
"Dave, I'll catch up to you," I said and he nodded and looked at Sean for a second before leaving.
"I was looking for you," Sean said looking confused as to why I was leaving.
"I, I changed my mind. I don't wanna pledge here," I said and he looked disappointed before he looked annoyed.
"Look man, I know you're missing Bear, but sitting hidden away in your room isn't gonna help any. You have other people in your life too you know," he said and I don't know why, but that pissed me off.
"You...," I started before I stopped myself. Instead, I turned and walked out of the door to keep from blowing up at him. He followed me though. He grabbed my arm and stopped me on the sidewalk.
"Wait, what's wrong? What happened so quickly?" he asked and I decided to tell him the truth. Maybe I'd misjudged Sean all along and I needed to find out.
"Me not wanting to pledge this... place has nothing to do with Bear and everything to do with the fact that they don't want me here," I told him and he looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" he asked and I hated upsetting him, but I wasn't gonna be somewhere I wasn't wanted just to please him. I wouldn't even do that for Bear.
"I'm talking about the fact that they'd get along real well with Maude Forrester," I said since I knew he knew what'd happened with her.
"What? Jack isn't a...," he started before he just stopped like he was in shock.
"Why don't you go and ask them how they really feel about me being here? I already know, but I wanna see what they say to you," I told him. He looked at me before turning around and heading back into the frat house. I'm not gonna lie, that hurt. It hurt that he couldn't just take my word for it, and that he couldn't tell how they'd been looking at me and how basically everyone there had been avoiding me since we'd arrived.
I eventually followed him back into the house and I saw him reach Jack and two other guys. I stood back in the cut and made sure they couldn't see me, but I could still hear them. I heard Sean hedging for a few moments before he finally just blurted it out.
"Look Jack, I need to know how you feel about Trey pledging," Sean said and I waited for the lie that I was sure they'd start with.
"It's... cool dude," he said and that pause said a hundred things that I noticed Sean realize as well.
"So you don't want him here?" Sean asked and I regretted sending him back to talk to them. It wasn't fun to see the true colors of people you thought were your friends.
"Sean, don't push it man. Your... friend is gonna pledge. That's what you want so it's done," Jack said and that was probably the wrong way to say that.
"My best bud didn't want to do this, but he agreed for me," Sean said.
"Well there you go. You can't be surprised with people like them. They have no real work ethic. He probably didn't wanna do anything but wants to be handed this," Jack said and if looks could kill, then he'd be dead.
"People like them? What kind of people are you referring to?" Sean asked not nicely.
"You know Sean. You don't need me to tell you," Jack said and I wondered why he was hedging so much and not saying it plainly.
"You mean Black people," Sean said and Jack rolled his eyes.
"You said it, not me," Jack said looking a bit smug.
"Well you are wrong. Trey's the hardest working guy I've ever met. He's smarter than everyone in this damned room. He was shot and in a coma for two months, and then he recovered and worked his ass off and still ended up as the valedictorian of our graduating class." Sean's defense of me was touching, even though I'd argue with him on the working hard part. I did work hard to catch up, but not because the work itself was hard at all.
"He was shot? Was it a drive-by or was he in a gang war?" Jack said and I had to stop myself from going over there and showing him a drive-by. Apparently Sean felt the same way if the muscles in his arms and neck flexing wildly and his now red skin tone were any indication.
"It was none of those things," he said through gritted teeth and I could see his hands gripped so tightly into fists that they were shaking. "I'm gonna go now before I do something I won't regret. Don't talk to me again because I damned sure won't be talking to you," he added before he turned and stormed off.
He passed by me without seeing me as he stalked off. I stepped out and let the bastards see me and know that I'd heard them. I nodded and shot him a wink and a smirk before I turned and rushed to catch up with Sean.
"Sean, wait up," I said after finally catching him. He sure moved fast for a big guy.
"Trey," he said when he turned around. He didn't say anything else but his face said everything. He was pissed, and hurt.
"Sean...," I tried but couldn't think of anything to say.
"Jack's dad and my dad were friends. That's how I knew him. I used to look up to him and I was sad when he graduated and went off to college. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have Bear all to myself during junior year, and also probably why I pushed with you so hard. It's probably because I missed him," he said and I know he didn't mean things the way that they sounded but I had to be sure.
"Do you regret that now? I mean he's right there. Do you want to resume your friendship with him?" I asked trying to keep my voice neutral.
"No. I don't have time for some backwards thinking idiot. My girlfriend is black, my best friend is black, and my cousin is half-black, so I would look like a hypocritical moron being friends with that loser.
"I guess," I said trying to play off how relieved I felt.
"Yeah. It'd be like me choosing to be friends with Drake with three of my closest friends being gay and my cousin being bi, only worse," he said but I thought the Drake analogy was worse.
"I'm sure I don't have to worry about you choosing to be friends with Drake," I said.
"No you don't buddy," he said as he pulled me to his side and we walked back to the dorm. He asked me about Dave and I told him that basically, Dave had figured out what was up with those guys and that's why we were leaving. He apologized for bringing me there and I told him he had nothing to apologize for even if I did slightly feel that he did.
Later that night Bear sent me a text asking how I was doing. I lied and told him I was fine. Everything had worked out, regarding Sean that is, but I just couldn't shake the bad feelings I felt. I made up my mind to call Dr. Manning the next day to talk about these feelings.
I sent Bear another text telling him I missed him and loved him. He replied with a smiling sleepy selfie and I smiled at seeing his face and worried about him at the same time. I didn't send him a selfie because he'd see right away that something was up so I opted to just send him a simple text with one word "always".
To be continued.....
Author's Note:
So, college has begun for the crew. They've met new people and are adjusting to college life, but life just couldn't be life without throwing Trey some mess to deal with. The first of such messes is brought about by Sean of all people.
Trey is confronted with racism yet again and so soon into his college life in the form of an old friend of Sean's and a potentially volotile situation is diffused by the strong friendship of the two guys.
Much more lay on the horizon for Trey and those close to him, including the past coming back to alter the relationship between Trey and Bear forever. Will these two make it to the end of college and the altar? Stay tuned.
I'm sorry for the very long wait for chapter 2. I was taking a break from the story that I intended to take after Book 1 was done, but I jumped the gun and posted the prologue and 1st chapter of book 2 too early. I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Chapter 3 will be posted soon so the wait won't be so long. Let me know what you think of the chapter by sending any comments, good or bad to thestoryguy9783@gmail.com
Until next time.... Nicky
Editor's Note:
Hey guy's sorry for the long wait but here is the long awaited chapter 2. Trey is off to college and life seems to be shaping up good until the little frat party. Some people just can't seem to get past little things. Trey's roommate seems okay, as well as Jess and Lib's roomies.
Trey had a little bigotry happen at the end there at the frat party, wonder how many more of those we will see in his college life, and what other things will come up in this new saga of Trey's life.
As always let me and Nicky know what you all think of the work so far by sending him and email at the address above or me at jd.kaster1987@gmail.com. Until the next chapter...
JDK