Three Roads

This story contains adult and sexual situations between males. If this is not to your liking....well you know the drill.

Three Roads: Chapter 27, Major Pain

Dr. Taylor ran as fast as she could in her high heels up the driveway that led to the one story, four bedroom house she shared with her partner. For a woman, she was surprisingly inept at running in high heels and she almost fell a few times, but luckily no one was watching. She dropped her keys as bounded up the stairs and cursed as she stopped to pick them up. She finally was able to get through her front door, "I'm home!" she sputtered, but no one was there to welcome her. She could smell something close to blown out candles and as she looked at the dining room table, it was confirmed that that was exactly what she was smelling. She walked into their bedroom and still did not find her partner. Jill sat on the bed and took a deep breath. She had known for a while that she had been neglecting her wife as she referred to her for some time now. In an effort to make it up to her, Jill had promised her that they would have a nice candlelight dinner and that she would not allow herself to get stuck at work.

"Another late night?"

Jill was momentarily startled, "Vanessa, I thought you were gone."

"Another late night?" Vanessa repeated as if Jill hadn't heard her.

"It was unexpected. I had a surprise meeting, one of the donors to the University wanted to meet with me about the QSA organization."

Vanessa exhaled loudly to express her frustration, "This is very important, Vanessa," Dr. Taylor said, her own frustration evident, "You know how much shit I've taken from the university and the student government over this club and how they barely want to give us any money as it is. If this donor comes through, I won't have to worry about this for a very long time. The last thing I need is to come home and get shit from you too."

"Fine, then I'll get out of your way." ************* "Hi!" Delta said running around her desk to give Tim a hug, "How was your break?"

"A little boring to be honest, I'm glad to be back."

"Oh, before I forget the President is in a meeting right now, but he wants to talk to you when he is done."

"About what?" Tim said curiously.

"No idea."

Sure enough, about half an hour later, a man that Tim recognized as one of the deans walked out of the President's Office and a few minutes later Delta answered her phone and told Tim that the President was ready for him. Tim walked through the door he had only previously been through once and was glad he didn't have to walk past Nancy for fear that one of her three tongues would lash out at him and rip his head from his shoulders. He knocked once on the tall oak door, and the President warmly asked him to enter.

"Tim, how was your vacation?" Dr. Brown asked.

"A little boring, am I in trouble?"

The President chuckled, "No, not at all. You do very fine work here. I was actually hoping that you would have dinner at my house sometime this week."

"Ummm...dinner?"

"Yeah, you remember my son Jack?"

"Of course."

"He's a junior in high school and he'll be applying to schools in the next few months and I'd love for him to come here and I guess I want your help in recruiting him, maybe talking to him about the advantages of coming here."

"Dr. Brown, I'm sure you could find someone way more qualified than me to talk about the school." "Sure I could, but I'm picking you for a specific reason. My son looks up to you."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Not at all. He was very enamored with you. Whatever you said to him, you made quite the impression."

This was very heavy praise from the President, but Tim was able to see through it to know that Dr. Brown thought the attraction was nothing but platonic or admiration, he had no clue that his son was gay.

"That's very kind sir."

"I insist you have dinner at my house," Dr. Brown smiled, "I will not take no for an answer."

Cooper and Eric had been back at school for a few days before the residents returned last night for the beginning of the semester, though they had barely spent any time together. Between resident advisor training and Eric spending time with Jon, they'd done little more than exchange greetings before most of their time had been taken away from them. They had finally found time to meet for a lunch today without any other demands on their time.

"I can't believe you didn't tell your parents, we had a deal." Eric said in mock anger.

"I know, but my sister upstaged me and she brought this guy over she's been seeing. Of course they loved him."

"Was he hot?"

"Oh yeah, she's lucky I love her."

Eric laughed, "But break was good otherwise?"

"Yeah, I swore off men." "You can't go without sex, so what are you straight now?"

Cooper stuck up his middle finger, "No, I realized that between Kevin and..." He stopped, his heart beating incredibly fast, he'd almost given himself away.

"There's someone new?" Eric said intrigued.

"No there isn't."

"You and Joey! I knew it!"

"Me and Joey aren't anything."

"Nice to know that I don't even have to be in the room to be talked about." Joey said sitting at the table with them.

"How was break little one?" Cooper asked.

"He's not referring to my dick," He said to Eric. Who shrugged his shoulders in confusion. " it was good, big one."

"Good."

"Did you guys hear about that kid who died over the break?"

"Oh my God, no, what happened?"

"He was driving drunk from a New Years Party on top of not wearing a seatbelt spells disaster."

"That's horrible." Eric said.

"Here," Joey said fishing through his backpack for the school newspaper, "there's an article in there."

"Wow," Eric said after reading for a few minutes, "He always wanted to be a police office according to his mother."

"Irony at its best." Cooper said to no one in particular.

"That's not funny." Eric said.

"It wasn't meant to be. It's ironic...it's funny weird...not ha-ha...well..."

"Ok, just stop talking please."

"Oh," Joey said getting up, "Lover's quarrel, I'll let you two fight it out.

I hope the make up sex is hot." Joey walked behind Cooper and gave Eric a wink before he walked out of the dining commons.

"What was that about?" Eric asked confused.

Cooper shrugged his shoulders, "No idea."

Twenty minutes later Cooper had spotted Joey talking to some guys on the floor. Cooper marched directly up to them and grabbed Joey by the ear, "Excuse him for a second."

The much larger boy held onto Joey's ear until they entered his room.

"What the hell is your problem?" Joey yelled debating whether or not to take an angry swing at Cooper.

"First, bitch learn how to answer your fuckin cell phone and e mail. I called you a shitload of times and sent you a thousand e mails, and no return. How hard is it to say yes, I'm a skank with an STD or no I'm not."

"I don't have anything and I'm insulted by the question."

"Come on," Cooper laughed, "You get around."

"Well, I know I didn't fuck myself in the shower."

"Touche."

"And what was with all the eyes and innuendo with Eric? We agreed we wouldn't tell anyone about what happened between us."

"Calm down, I'm not going to say anything and mess up your chance with Eric.

I'm just messing around."

"It doesn't matter, I'm swearing off men."

Joey began to laugh uncontrollably. "Cooper...you might...as well...just tell him."

"It's not that funny motherfucker."

"Oh it is. You need cock so bad you've convinced yourself you're in love with a friend because the guy you were getting it from is half way around the world."

"Fuck you. I'll grab your ear again."

"Only if you promise to grab it harder," Joey snickered at his own joke, "Seriously though I'm just trying to save you from unnecessary heartbreak. Why not step back and make sure you like him before you get all suicidal and mopey, or why not find someone unattached and gay for a change."

"It doesn't matter, men are...disgusting, vile creatures." Cooper spat on his floor as he finished.

"Whatever you say."

Eric closed the desk after having just completed his afternoon desk duty in his dorm building. He held an official looking letter addressed to him in his hand as he made his way up to his room. He looked at the letter more closely as he waited for all the icons on his desktop to come up; It was from the Admissions and Records Department of his university. He opened the letter assuming it was something regarding immunization records. The actual letter was very short and read:

Dear Student,

The University recognizes that you are in your second semester as a sophomore and are on track to fulfill the unit requirements to be a junior. You MUST declare a major with our office no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, May 21 or your classes may be cancelled for the upcoming fall semester. Our office is open 7:30 -5, Monday thru Thursday. All questions can be answered during those hours.

As soon as he finished reading, a hurried knock came at the door. He opened it and saw the same letter he had just read staring him in the face, "What the fuck is this shit?" Cooper practically yelled.

" I know." Eric said in a whiny voice, "I don't know what I want to do with the rest of my life at 19."

"I hear ya."

"Don't you think it's weird that kid who died over the break always knew he wanted to be a cop?"

"So his mother said. He died because of drunk driving, and that's what she's focused on? Something tells me mommy didn't know her son as well as she thought."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Why do I feel like we're the only ones who have no idea what we want to do?" Cooper said.

"Cause we are the only ones. Toby and Richard are Kinesiology majors, Tim is business, Jon is English, I think. Does Joey have a major?

"He's a theatre major."

"So we are the only ones."

"We should go to the career center and have them spin that wheel thing that picks our careers for us."

Eric laughed, "Sounds awesome."

"What are you gonna do now?"

"You mean besides kill myself because up until now all I've done in college doesn't matter because I haven't picked a major?"

"Oh, come on. Wasting two years taking the same classes we just took in high school has some value I'm sure."

"Yeah to make us better well rounded." Eric said sarcastically.

"They want me to be more well rounded, so I can correctly choose the one thing I want to do for the rest of my life."

"I think that's how it works."

"No wonder education breaks down barriers."

"That would make a great public service announcement."

"We should pitch it at the next R.A. meeting," Cooper said yawning, "Nap time. I'll see you at the floor meeting tonight?"

"Yep, later." ************

Toby sighed as he walked into his room, relieved that his classes were over for the day.

"How was class?" Richard said from behind his desk.

"It was class."

"Yeah, I hear ya. You wanna go catch some dinner?"

"Yeah," Toby said, "Can we go off campus though?"

"Yeah, but we have to be back by 7, that's when our floor meeting is."

"Damn it. Why are those things fuckin mandatory? They go over a bunch of shit people either already know or don't give a damn about."

Richard shrugged his shoulders, "Let's go now, so we don't have to rush back."

A little over two hours later, Richard and Toby, along with the rest of their floor mates filed into the recreation room of their dorm building. Just like the very first meeting they had to attend at the beginning of the school year, Eric and Cooper had combined their floors and were doing the meeting together. Eric and Toby made eye contact for a quick second, but both quickly dropped their eyes when they saw the other was looking at them.

"Alright guys," Eric started, "Let's get this over with as quick as possible. I have stuff to do."

Joey whistled from somewhere in the back of the room. Because Cooper was standing next to him, Eric was sure it was Joey.

"Not funny so let's get started."

"Yeah, same shit as last semester guys. Don't fuck up the bathrooms, keep the noise level down, follow the golden rule and jack off in the showers not the stalls. That about sums it up."

"Also if a fire alarm goes off no matter what time of day or night it is you must exit the building. Use the emergency stairwells not the main ones. We had problems with this last semester, but remember to not let anyone in the building who does not live here. As soon as you let them in it dangers not only the community, but that person becomes your responsibility. Ummm...oh yeah you guys have to fill these out. These are possible ideas that Cooper and I would like to do for programs this semester. If any of are interest to you, circle them. If there's something you want to do that's not on there, write your idea down somewhere on the paper. You can leave once you've finished."

When Toby finished, he walked to the front and Eric could tell he was headed straight towards him. He looked up only when Toby was standing directly in front of him.

"Here you go." Toby said.

"Thanks."

Eric's cell phone began to vibrate as Toby walked away and he saw it was Jon.

"Perfect timing, I'm almost done."

"I'm half way there anyway so you better be."

Eric laughed, "I'll see you in a few minutes."

"Stop smiling like a retard." Cooper said nudging his friend.

"Sorry, I'm just so happy. Like it's still weird to me to think I have someone."

"Men suck ass, they'll just disappoint you."

"Wow it's been eight hours and you still hate men? I'm impressed."

"You're one of the few people who have yet to understand my genius."

"Right."

Eric saw Jon standing at the lobby door and he said his goodbyes to Cooper before walking to meet him his boyfriend.

"Hi," Eric smiled as let Jon through the lobby doors.

"Hi, yourself." Jon leaned in for a kiss and Eric giggled as he moved to avoid the kiss.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to kiss my boyfriend."

"We're in the lobby."

"And?"

"Uhhh..."

"Fine, if you don't want to kiss me it's cool. Let's go to your room then." Jon said raising his eyebrows.

"I thought the British were polite."

"No we're charming, there's a difference."

The two made it to Eric's room and Jon entered the room first and made himself comfortable on Eric's bed. Eric semi-unconsciously sat at his computer desk; he wasn't sure if Jon was serious about his comment before.

"So how are you?" Jon asked.

"Good...well, I don't know. Did you hear about the kid who died over the break?"

"Yeah, that sucks, but he had shit for brains obviously."

"Cooper said the same thing."

"Is that the Asian one?"

Eric laughed, "Yeah."

"What about the kid?"

"He always knew what he wanted to do. Have you always known you wanted to do English?"

"Not always, but thinking back I always did well in that subject. Plus I'm good with words, what can I say."

"The British are naturally that way, it's of no skill of your own."

"Not true, I know plenty of boring Brits; they're called the working class."

"Ouch, that's so mean."

"The truth hurts. Why are you sitting way over there?"

"No reason." Eric shrugged.

"Then you should sit here, on your bed with me."

"Are you going to behave."

"Yes, but if I surprise rape you it's not my fault."

"What?" Eric said stopping in front of the bed.

"You just yell surprise before you attack the person. Actually, it's not rape, it's surprise sex, that sounds much better."

"That's not funny at all."

"Come on, it's a joke."

"Yeah an unfunny one."

"Ok...I'm sorry... I will never ever say that again...within earshot of you."

"What a half assed apology, and I normally wouldn't accept it, but the accent is just too good."

Jon smiled, "Thanks, but the accent gets very old very fast especially to Americans. They always flock to the Australian ones. What ingrates!"

Eric climbed onto the bed, "Seriously, though. How am I supposed to figure out what I want to do." "You don't have to right now."

"I do in the next few months according to the school."

"Then declare one, you can always change it. You don't have to be out of school in four years."

"True."

"I only speak the truth."

"Good."

"Can I have that kiss now, since I solved your problem?"

"Yeah." Eric giggled.

A few nights later as everyone filed into the Multi Cultural Center awaiting the start of the QSA meeting for this week, everyone noticed that Dr. Taylor seemed uncharacteristically happy. Sure, she was always a pleasant woman, who always kept to the traditional greetings as she passed students on campus, but this was different. The meetings never started on time because Dr. Taylor was always either on her cell phone or she had started a conversation with a member of the club and had lost track of time. This week however, as soon as the clock hit seven thirty, she asked everyone to quiet down.

"Alright guys, let's get started. Welcome to the first Queer Straight Alliance meeting of the new semester."

The were some hollers of excitement and it was no surprise that Bliss was the loudest one.

"I see some new faces which is always a good thing. Welcome to our little family. In case you don't know me, I'm Dr. Jill Taylor and I work in the psychological counseling department on the third floor of the health center here on campus. I'm also the university staff in charge of this club. Last semester was the birth of this club and we've come along way in what we can do to strengthen it for years to come."

"Yeah!" Bliss shouted.

Jill laughed, "I consider myself an honest person, but I have been lying by omission to many of you over the past couple of months. I've been secretly meeting with one of the significant donors to our university over the past few months, and with all the legal wrangling and university red tape, we've all finally reached an agreement."

There were mummers of excitement and wonder as Dr. Jill turned her back to pull the school newspaper out of her briefcase.

"I got an early copy of the paper, but tomorrow morning one of the headlines will read that Mr. D. Albus, is giving the Queer Straight Alliance a total of $3 million over the next five years to fund a Center for our weekly club meetings, but also to do numerous activities and really become a presence here on campus."

Everyone erupted and some clapped and some hugged each other and some just stared ahead in disbelief. Richard bolted out of his seat and gave Dr. Jill a hug, "This is amazing!" he said.

"It is, it really is." She smiled. It took a few minutes to quiet everyone down, but when everyone was ready to listen again she continued, "Now, because of this tremendous gift we have received, we must make sure that when we are doing club business that we always conduct ourselves with the utmost intelligence and respect for ourselves. I want to make it clear that we will probably be watched. The President was not happy about this at all, he did everything he could to try and block this from happening."

"The President of the university?" Tim asked surprised.

"Yes, Dr. Brown. There were several three way meetings and some of them ended pretty nastily. But luckily Mr. Albus kept this intentions clear."

"Why didn't the President want any of this?" Tim said, the disappointment clear in his tone. "I shouldn't comment any further. It would be inappropriate, especially given the sensitivity of the matter for you. All I will say is we should be very thankful this came through for us. As details began to come in, I will let you know. I also hope that many of you will want to take a more active interest in this club now that we have some serious rallying power behind it. Talk to me after we're done with tonight's meetings."

Richard didn't hear too much of anything that was said for the remainder of the night and he barely participated in the group discussion. All he could think about was how to convey his deep interest to Dr. Taylor in helping the club.

"Hey," Tim said beaming as he saw Toby walked through the gates of the tennis courts.

"Hey, what's up."

`Not much, glad to be out here. It's an awesome afternoon."

"Yeah it is." Toby said already beginning to stretch. Tim's eyes went to the small area of flesh that Toby was unknowingly exposing as he stretched his arms over his head.

"How have you been?" Toby asked.

"Pretty good. I'm glad we're playing tennis right now, I'm a bit nervous about tonight."

"What's tonight?"

"The President invited me over for dinner, and I don't really want to go, but he's my boss."

"You don't have to go, you should have just made something up."

"I can't think that fast on my feet, plus his son likes me."

"Awesome!"

"No, he's jailbait."

"Oh, that sucks. It probably won't be as bad as you think it is."

"Probably not." Tim began rummaging through his tennis bag looking for the sweat band he always wore on his right arm. Toby couldn't help but look at his ex boyfriend's ass as Tim seemed to take forever to find it. He quickly turned once it was in his hand and smiled when he caught Toby looking.

"You ready to play?" Toby asked walking to one side of the court.

"You bet."

They had been hitting for about a little less than an hour and Tim was playing very well which was surprising Toby just a little bit. He still was playing and practicing several times a week, but he was definitely having to work to best Tim. Tim, who was not as physically fit as he used to be, hit a ball down the center of the court. Toby jumped on it and smacked it as hard as he could right at Tim. It was too fast for Tim to get under the ball, so when his racquet made contact with it, it flew high in the air over the fence and rolled onto the grassy area near the courts.

"Damn."

"It's ok," Toby yelled, "We'll get it later."

A few minutes passed and a guy was walking by thankful that he had successful, even if barely, gotten through another week of school. Tim saw him and stopped play, "Could you throw us that ball please?"

Tim couldn't see that the guy had his I Pod earphones on and therefore couldn't hear him.

"What an asshole." Toby said to Tim. He was also unaware of the earphones lodged firmly in the guy's ears. The continued to play and did not notice that after walking a few more paces, the guy noticed the ball on his own. Since Tim and Toby were the only ones playing, he correctly assumed that the ball was theirs and kindly threw it over the fence. Tim and Toby were in the middle of a rally, and Toby saw the ball come over the fence and land directly on his baseline. He smacked the ball hard behind him, to clear the space around him to run...or so he thought. The ball ricocheted off the fence and as he stepped back to handle a deep slice that Tim had sent his way. He felt his left foot land on the ball and his leg come from under him as he lost all balance and fell.

It took him a moment to realize what happened, before the pain of his left ankle shot through his leg. Tim ran over to him, "Are you ok?"

"No, I don't think so, I think I twisted my ankle." Toby grimaced.

"Try and get up."

Toby shook his head violently, "No, I can't. I can feel it. Call the training room and see if the Coach is there."

Tim picked his cell phone up and began to dial, "Wait, I don't remember the number."

Toby calmly recited the number to Tim and Tim prayed that someone would answer.

Toby stared straight ahead trying not to cry. The trainer had examined Toby's ankle and had broken the unfortunate news to Toby that he would not be able to play tennis for at least 3-6 weeks.

"What?!" Toby had yelled, "That's not an option, the season just started. I can't be out for that long!"

"You don't have a choice," Coach Williams had told him, "You can't play on one leg."

Toby was more than willing to play on one leg, despite knowing how impossible that was. Besides, Coach Williams strict policy of not playing with an injury would keep him from ever getting on the court. "Maybe you should call Richard." Tim said quietly.

"Why?"

"To meet us downstairs when I take you back to the halls. I can't carry you up three flights of stairs."

"I have the crutches."

"Still, he might be able to help you."

Toby exhaled sharply, but picked up his cell phone and speed dialed Richard.

"Hello?"

"Richard, it's me. Are you on campus?"

"Uhhh...no. Why?"

"I twisted my ankle and I need some help getting up the stairs."

"Jesus doing what?"

"Playing tennis."

"With who?"

"Tim."

There was a long enough pause where Toby thought they had lost the connection, "Hello?"

"I'm here."

"So can you come help me?"

"Yeah, give me fifteen to get back on campus."

"Ok, bye."

"Third floor." The elevator voice chimed as the doors opened. Dr. Taylor's high heels echoed on the mostly empty third floor of parking structure number two. It had been another late night on campus. Not because she particularly needed to stay late, but more and more lately she noticed that she was avoiding home. Vanessa had always known that this was how it was going to be; Jill had always been clear about what she wanted to do and how dedicated she was to her career. The chirp of the alarm, told Dr. Taylor that the alarm had been turned off. She opened the driver side door and threw her briefcase onto the passenger's seat. As she climbed in, the hair on the back of her neck began to stand on end, but before she could do anything she felt a pair of gloved hands grab her from behind and pull her out of the car.

"Fire!" Dr. Jill screamed as loud as she could. She had taken self defense classes before and had known that many people didn't respond to call for help, but that yelling fire would work much better. A hard slap to her left cheek stopped her from yelling fire again. Though she was dazed, she reached in her pockets and cursed when she realized her pepper spray was in her briefcase.

I would die before I allowed myself to be raped, she thought to herself as she struggled to get up. She felt a steel toe boot ram into her rib cage and she quickly fell to the floor. She was kicked three more times before she heard retreating footsteps echoing in the empty parking structure; her attacker had fled.

Thanks for taking the time to read this next update. There will be 7-8 chapters left in this season for our boys, so I'd love to hear what you guys are thinking or want to have happen. I've enjoyed talking to many of you about the story and other things and I hope to talk to more of you in the future! Feel free to send an e mail to tenniswiz12@msn.com Thanks again for reading and hope to hear from you soon.