5. “We explain when someone is cruelacts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.” ― Michelle Obama
Chapter 5
“We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.” ― Michelle Obama
Dylan
I kept my head lowered as I walked into the classroom. The whispers started the second my footsteps fell on the grey and black linoleum floor. I gave a brief smile to the Physics teacher, Mr. Dunne, as I made my way down the center aisle towards my usual seat at the very back of the lab. I tried to avoid the stares and glances aimed my way from the rest of the class, who were already seated. I slipped quietly into my seat, slinging my bag under the table. I hoped to god that no one asked me any questions, and that I could just finish this day with some semblance of dignity. Okay, so yes, everyone in the class was sneaking looks at me after word had gotten out about what happened in the cafeteria at lunchtime. I didn’t even have Hailey in my final period as a buffer for the hushed conversations that included my name every few seconds.
“Okay class, I hope you did the assigned reading for today’s lesson because we don’t have any time to go over it today.” Mr. Dunne slid into his own seat, pulling out a giant textbook from the desk drawer and slamming it on the table in front of him. “We are going to be looking into the intrinsic electrical properties of mammalian neurons and their conductive nature.”
“Sorry sir,” Not again ! “I haven’t done the reading, but I see my friend in the back there. Is it okay if I sit with him so I can catch up easier?”
My eyes snapped up to glare at Austin as he walked confidently towards Mr. Dunne’s desk from the doorway. “I think that’s probably a good idea Austin. Also, please ensure that you do the assigned reading by the end of this evening as I would hate to fail you in my class.”
“Absolutely sir, I’ll just go take my seat.” He gestured over his shoulder to my desk. I pinned him with a sharp stare as he walked towards the back of the class. He rested his bag on top of mine and moved behind me towards the empty seat. “I’m just here so you can teach me,” he leaned down and whispered in my ear as he passed, his chest sliding against my back. I bit back a groan as his heat scalded me through my t-shirt. His hand gripped my shoulder as he sat in the seat next to me.
“What do you think you are doing?” I forced out through clenched teeth, my eyes never straying from the front of the class.
“I told you,” he whispered, “I just want to do my best.”
I reached down and pulled my bag out from underneath his, and reaching inside, I slammed my heavy textbook down on the desk in front of him. The sound reverberated around the room. The startled teacher glared at me as I waved in apology. “Well, there you go since you’re here to learn,” I flipped the book open to the correct chapter, “start reading this.”
Austin put a hand in the center of the book, flattening it out in front of him, “See I could do that.” He chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip. The plump flesh caught between his teeth, making me hold back another moan. “Or since you think I’m all caught up with English, maybe you can help me out with Physics?”
“Austin, what are you doing?” I turned my body to face his.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean,” I sighed deeply. “I get that hanging out with me has already caused you some problems, so I’m giving you an out.”
“I don’t want an out.” His voice was barely a whisper.
“Okay, cause you could have fooled me.” I gestured around the room. “No one here is looking at us, no one is going to find out that you like hanging around with the school joke.”
Austin reared back as if I’d slapped him. He pinned me with a stare that seemed to shrink me down to the size of a gnat. “Is that what you really think of me?” He reached out, his hand coming to rest on top of mine. “Is that what you really think of yourself?”
Is that what I really think of myself? I stilled at the thought. I had always focused on what other people had thought or said about me, and had fought to build a wall, protecting myself from their opinions having any effect on me. I realized then that I had never really stopped to think what opinions lay within that wall. What opinions I held about myself.
“Come on Austin, let’s not kid ourselves.” A twisted laugh escaped me. “You wouldn’t even have known I exist unless you wanted something from me.”
“Dylan no.”
“Please just leave me alone, okay?” I pulled my hand away from his. “I think it’s for the best.”
It was that look that people give you, that pitying look that said that they were so relieved that they were still them and didn’t have the unfortunate luck of being you. I couldn’t sit under that appraising glare for a second longer. “Mr. Dunne, can I get the hall pass please?”
“You sure it can’t wait, Dylan?” He rotated his wrist to check his watch. “We are just getting underway.”
“I’ll be quick.”
He nodded begrudgingly as I walked towards him, holding out the small plastic slip from his desk.
“Sorry, Mr. Dunne, just one thing.” I turned to see Austin with his hand in the air. “If there is any extra credit work I can do to catch up, then please assign it to me. I’m going to be going over to my buddy Dylan’s house tonight anyway to hang out, so it will give me something to do if I get bored.”
My brain struggled to catch up to the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions swirling around inside my head at the moment. A tempest consisting of white hot rage at his absolute fucking audacity of assuming that he can just Austin his way back into being my friend, the piercing sting of embarrassment at being called out in front of the rest of the class when I worked so hard at trying to make myself invisible, and a warmth in my chest at the realization that in his head, he probably believed he was doing a good and noble deed.
The rumor mill once more grinded its gears as the whispers moved from desk to desk. Did he just say he and Dylan are hanging out? Austin and Dylan? No fucking way girl. What the fuck is Austin doing hanging out with the nerd?
“Dylan?” I shook my head as the incredulous sound came from the teacher’s mouth.
“Yeah we are friends.” Austin looked genuinely confused at why people seemed to be having a hard time with the fact that he was voluntarily coming to hang out with me at my house. “I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.”
Lovely.
“Okay then.” Mr. Dunne clasped his hands together, nodding vigorously at Austin. “Weren’t you going to the bathroom Dylan?”
I stalked out of the room, vowing in that moment to take sweet revenge on my so-called friend.
Later that evening I lay on my bed facedown. My head lolled over the end of the bed, my arms stretched downwards, flipping the pages of some glossy trash magazine that I’d found on the coffee table in the living room. I assumed it was my sister’s, as the mere thought of my dad enquiring about the latest fall trends and how to get that matte look with oily skin didn’t bear thinking about.
“Dylan!” My dad yelled up the stairs. “Austin is here, shall I send him up?”
“Yeah,” I yelled back. Showtime .
The door to my room opened, and Austin poked his head around the corner. I might not have taken all eventualities into account. Austin came into the room dressed in a loose pair of shorts and his football jersey. The thin material clung to his stomach like a second skin. “Sorry man, I came straight from practice. I thought you wouldn’t mind if I took a quick shower here?”
A warm smile spread across his face as he found me perched on the end of the bed. He was opening his mouth to say hello as he registered the scene around me. Set up on poster boards around the room were various topics pertinent to this term’s Physics syllabus.
“Hey man,” he gulped, “what’s all this?”
“This is what you here for right?” I smiled innocently. “I have enough study material here to last you several sessions. I even have mock tests for you to take so we can see how well you retain what I’m tutoring you in.”
“Dylan, I….” He looked helplessly from board to board as if he might find the solution of how to get out of this situation on one of them.
“Shall we?” I gestured to the first board. His shoulders sagged in defeat as he moves towards the it.
For the next two hours I proceeded to take Austin on a magical mystery tour through the world of Physics for seniors. Actually, scratch that, I’d looked up some topics that wouldn’t be covered unless you took Physics as a major as a second year in college. Like a champ Austin tried his best to keep up as I regaled him with tales of the characters and properties of waves, geometrical optics and the mathematical properties of vectors.
“So vectors are something which have both magnitude and direction; I hear you cry, ‘ but what type of things’ ?” I rubbed my chin between my index finger and thumb.
“Trust me man, that’s not what I’m crying about,” he groaned, his fingers rubbing against his temples. “You know you’re torturing me right?”
“I don’t think this can be classed as torture.” I cast my arm across the multitude of poster boards. “Do you realize how much effort I put into these?”
“I appreciate it.” Austin moved forward with the grace of a panther, his hands coming down to grip my wrists. “I honestly do, but if it hasn’t escaped your keen notice, I was done with tutoring about two weeks ago and I still come over here every other day doofus.”
“So you mean…”
“I mean I come over here because I really like spending time with my friend, and it really sucks to think that he thinks it was for any other reason than that. If I really needed tutoring that bad, I could have just hired a tutor you know?” He was right, the Ridge family were old money in our hometown. Austin’s mother was some kind of big wig within the state Republican Party, and his dad was a pediatric surgeon at the local city hospital. He didn’t need my help really when it came down to it.
“Okay so maybe I did do this to torture you a little bit.” I squeezed my finger and thumb together in front of my face to emphasize my words.
“Duh,” he deadpanned.
“But we can totally get back to studying if it helps you though?” I offered innocently.
Austin flipped me the bird and jumped face first onto my bed. He mumbles something into my pillow, which he’d pushed into his face.
I sneaked a glimpse of his unbelievable sexy and round butt.
“Mmmmmmm.”
Shit, was that me or him?
“Sorry,” he chuckled.
Him, no need to worry. “It’s cool.”
“Sorry, your pillow smells good.” I stared blankly at the back of his head. What the actual fuck was he talking about, and more importantly, what did he think he was doing, taking lungfuls of my pillow and groaning like a fucking porn star?
“It’s just a new shampoo,” I stammered, beads of sweat form quickly at my temple as I gulped deeply.
“Well, whatever it is, it smells fucking delicious.” He pushed up from the bed, his hair messy from him mashing his head against the pillow.
I imagine his hair would look similar after… okay let’s not go down that rabbit hole While wearing loose grey sleep shorts.
“Can we take a break please Dylan?” He scooted towards the edge of the bed until he was almost between my legs. I coughed on nothing and moved back a step. I noticed a small smile on his mouth before he schooled his features. “Please?”
It didn’t take me long to remember the last time I fantasized about Austin Ridge on my bed saying please to me. It had nothing to do with Physics, however. “Sure, we can take a break.”
“Okay cool.” He pointed to the door of my en suite. “You cool if I take a quick shower?”
“Yeah go ahead, you know where it is.” I didn’t get much else out. Without dropping my gaze for a second, Austin stepped out of his shorts and pulled his jersey over his head which he dropped onto the carpet below, until he stood in front of me in just a white athletic jockstrap. The thick cotton band pressed into the skin of his hips. Of their own volition my eyes traveled down his body, across the dips and mounds of his pecs and abs, down across that damn muscle V to the straining pouch of fabric holding back his very generous bulge. I managed to catch a line of drool as it pooled at the corner of my mouth just before it dripped to the floor below.
“Uh Dylan?” Someone said from somewhere.
“Yeah huh,” I mumbled, my eyes choosing not to lose the vision I had in front of me.
“Dylan?” the voice sounded again. How rude to try and distract me from this.
“Um, can I get a towel?” I registered Austin’s deep chuckle which instantly shocked me out of my brain malfunction. I mean, he couldn’t be too angry with me for obviously perving at him, it was his choice to just undress in front of me like some kind of live action wet dream. I snapped my gaze up to meet his, but thankfully the only expression I found on his face was one filled with laughter.
“Oh shit yeah, I’m sorry.” I waved my hand towards the bathroom. “There are fresh ones in the cabinet in there.”
“Okay cool thanks,” he said, his hands travelling down his sides. Thumbs hooked into the waist band of his jockstrap and with devastating slowness, he slid his jockstrap down his thighs and kicked it onto small pile of his clothes at his feet. I think I died in that very moment. His thick heavy cock just hung there, mere feet from my face. My tongue felt ten times its size in my mouth as I struggled to swallow the pool of moisture. I really was just another of Pavlov’s dogs at mealtime. “I’ll just be a few.” I looked up to catch his wink as he turned around and walked towards the bathroom. His round bubble butt almost mesmerized me in a way that made me follow him into the bathroom.
My sense, however, won out and I sank down to the bed behind me. What the fuck was that? Was Austin Ridge really just overtly flirting with me, naked in my own room? The short answer would be yes, but his motivation had yet to be seen. I knew some straight guys got off on gay dudes lusting after them, and maybe that’s all this was. Maybe Austin was just like the rest of us and was turned on by sexual approval and validation. It didn’t have to be an invitation that said Hey Dylan, can you please swallow my cock and eat my hole.
I took down all the boards around the room, shoving them in my closet as I tried to drown out the sounds of running water and slaps of wet skin. My cock thickened, sliding down the leg of my shorts, throbbing almost painfully. I tried to think of anything and everything that would get it to calm down. It was one thing to stare obviously at a straight guy, it was a whole other more dangerous deal to be waiting outside the bathroom hard and horny for one.
Realizing that I was fighting a losing battle, I tucked it into the waistband and pulled my t-shirt down over the exposed tip. The water from the shower shut off, leaving an eerie quiet. I stood there motionless and waited for Austin to emerge. The handle of the door twisted, the ever-present squeak from the metal that definitely needed oiling that I always said I’d get around to and never did. The door was pulled open, a wall of steam billowing from the room like fake mist from some type of nineties gameshow hanging there in the ether waiting for the star to emerge.
Austin walked through the steam, my greedy eyes taking in the sight of his wet hair clinging to his neck letting rivulets of water drip down his neck to his chest, downwards still until it landed on… the towel around his waist.
“Awww!” I moaned, staring at the towel before I realized what I’d said. My hand flew up to slap across my mouth. Austin looked down his body as his eyes filled with laughter. A sharp bark escaped his throat before he fell to pieces. His hand gripped the back of my desk chair as he laughed loudly, waving his hand in front of his face.
“If I knew you would have been that upset I would have left it off,” he wheezed through bouts of hysterics.
“It just slipped out,” I protested weakly.
“You wish.” He winked at me before breaking into peals of laughter again. He managed to compose himself for a moment before walking over to the set of drawers near my bedroom door. Like he owned the place, he pulled the top drawer open, pulling out a pair of my briefs and white t-shirts. “I didn’t think you would mind.” He winked at me, before slipping the t-shirt over his head and slipping into the underwear under his towel and pulling it off. Okay, if I thought he looked sexy standing in my room naked and sweaty, I was not even slightly prepared for how Austin would look bulging out of my t-shirt and quite literally bulging out of underwear. The fabric stretched so far out I could almost see the delicious skin below.
“Whatever you wank… want!” I shouted in his face.
He bit his bottom lip and chuckled, moving over to my desk. He sat down on my desk chair, his thighs spread wide as he swung the chair back and forth, his hand straying under my shirt to rub his stomach. This guy was seriously trying to kill me now. “So what do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?” I gave my head a small shake and sat back on the edge of the bed.
“I mean I think we are done with the studying, so do you maybe want to do something with me?”
Absofuckinglutely yes, I wanted to do something with him.
“Sure, what were you thinking?”
“Maybe we can watch a movie on your bed or something?” Does he look worried right now? His gaze flitted around the room as if he was afraid that I was going to tell him to leave. He had another think coming if he thought he was getting out of my room right now, dressed in my clothes and looking like all my birthday and Christmas wishes had come true at once.
“Yeah, let’s do that.” I grabbed my laptop off the desk and loaded up Dirty Dancing, because why the hell not when I had my very own Johnny right here. Austin smiled and jumped onto my bed, lifting the covers and slipping underneath.
I positioned my laptop on a chair and stood awkwardly at the edge of the bed, not fully sure what I was supposed to be doing there. That lasts only a second before Austin lifted the duvet. “Come on, get under here. It’s cold.”
I pressed play on the movie and slid beneath the sheets, the cool fabric chilly on my skin. We laid side by side in my bed, his head resting on my pillow, propped up with his arm behind his head under the pillow. His scent was so masculine and powerful and so fucking close that it invaded all my senses. I dared not move in case I did something stupid, like brush my hand over his cock and then I would have no choice but to dip my head under the blanket and get my first taste of him.
“I love this movie.” He turned his head towards me and smiled.
“Yeah me too.” My voice came out strained.
We watched for the next ten minutes or so in silence as we watched Baby’s introduction to Kellermans in the Catskills and dancer Johnny. I was so engrossed in the movie that I didn’t feel it initially, but more and more of Austin’s foot connected with my own, pressing closer until his leg rested over my own. Once again I lay motionless, reveling in the feel of his skin against my own. I let ten and then twenty minutes go by.
Make a fucking move! He obviously wants you! Fucking do something, you loser! My inner horny demon screamed against the inside of my skull. I didn’t get the chance though as a heavy arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me hard against him. I braced myself for the first taste of Austin Ridge when his cheek came to rest on my cheek and a snore ripped free from Austin’s throat.
Well there goes your chance, asshole! Motherfucker fell asleep.
I brought my arm to rest around Austin’s shoulder and let him relax on my chest, his soft gentle snores like music to my ears as I watched Baby fall for the love her life as the love of mine slept peacefully in my arms.