Chapter 14
Fourteen
Outside, the late fall air rushed to greet him in a whirlwind of cool fingers snaking up under his skirt. He shivered. Not a sensation he’d anticipated. It tightened his nipples under the thick leather and raised gooseflesh on his legs.
“Maybe should have stuck with the pants, genius,” he mumbled, hunching his shoulders and hurrying towards the student dorms.
From somewhere off to his right, voices drifted and he cocked his head. A gang of men were jogging towards the campus pub, their path bringing them into the same circle of light under a street lamp he was passing through.
“So now it’s official,” Shank stopped in front of Caleb, hands stuffed into his worn, too-small high school letterman jacket’s pockets. “You really are the biggest freak on campus.”
“Fuck you.” Caleb’s heart hammered and sweat broke out over his body. He could be as feisty and tough as he wanted, but six of them against one of him didn’t leave him much of a chance.
Shank lifted his chin. “Not likely. But go ahead. I’ll let you throw the first punch again.” The others shifted, the sound of feet shuffling on the walkway scraping loud over Caleb’s nerves.
“Just let me pass,” Caleb replied, knowing this was a fight he wasn’t going to win no matter who swung first. He clenched his fists but kept his arms close to his side.
“Problem?”
Caleb had never been so glad to hear the voice of campus security in his life.
“I’d like to pass, please,” he said, loud and clear, looking past the gang to the campus cop. “They won’t let me pass because I’m wearing a skirt.”
“Don’t see how that matters.” The security guard crossed his arms over his considerably puffed out chest. “Free country, gentlemen. Move along, please.”
Caleb stepped around them, though he couldn’t help flinching at the “Fucking homo-pervert creep” comment Shank threw at him.
“Watch your mouth,” the guard told Shank, who snorted at him and asked who was going to make him.
Caleb kept walking.
“I’m talking to you, pussy!” When Shank grabbed his arm, Caleb barely had time to stop walking when the guard freed him, twisting Shank’s arm around and making the bully squawk.
“You can’t do that!” Shank shouted at him, his attention thankfully off Caleb. “You can’t lay hands on me! You’re not even a real cop!”
“You started it by touching him. Now you can come with me quietly, or I can call your real cops, if you prefer cuffs.”
Caleb shot a glance at the guard, who tilted his head. “Unless you want me to call the cops for you?”
Shaking his head Caleb curled a lip at Shank. “Not worth ruining my night over. I don’t need his approval. And he can stick his barbed comments up his own ass and spin.”
The guard nodded. “Have a good night, Caleb.” He motioned with his head that Caleb should go inside.
So he did, walking the rest of the way to the entrance without looking back.
He measured his pace carefully, so his footfalls remained steady and even.
For once, he didn’t feel any fear over Shank or his friends, didn’t care what they said.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t change who he was, or what he wanted.
He didn’t even care that the security guard had intervened on his behalf. He didn’t owe Shank anything, including a fight. Especially a fight. Realizing that was as liberating as opting for fishnet stockings over leather pants.
The commotion died behind him. Night winds curled around his legs once more, and the darkness swallowed him up for the next few hundred yards as he walked quickly towards the squares of light pouring out through the residence’s main entrance.
A stronger gust of wind whisked up his skirt and lifted the silk, baring his ass for a moment as he pushed into the building.
Inside, the electric hum of fluorescent lights and the stale smells of student living seeped into the chill and dissipated it. He let the door swing closed behind him and glanced to the desk where the night guard looked up. “Figured you’d show up here sooner or later.”
“Hey, Max.” Caleb smoothed a hand over the back of his skirt, making sure it had returned to its proper hang.
“Heard you looked mighty fine up on that runway. Thinking of a career path change?”
Caleb smiled. “Not in that direction. That gig takes way more stamina than I’ve got, I’ll tell you that right now.” He glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall behind Max. “Past curfew. You going to let me go up?”
“When have I ever got between you and your man, hmm? I heard about that bar fight a few weeks ago. And a mess in a certain piano practice room. Don’t suppose you would know anything about that?”
“Mess? Why would I know about a mess in a piano room? I’m a business major.”
“Mm-hmm.” Max shook his head and turned his attention to the monitors lining his desk. “If you say so.” He squinted at the monitors and leaned closer.
“What?” Caleb edged around the counter to get a better look at whatever had caught Max’s attention.
“Looks like your friend Larry Shank is getting his ass escorted off campus.”
“He’s not my friend. But… why?”
“Let’s just say my colleague, Reg, has no patience for harassment. They lay hands on another student without consent, he kicks them out.”
“They take classes here.”
“Maybe. Maybe not after he files his report. We’ll see.”
“Am I going to have to?—”
“Not if you don’t want to. Reg wouldn’t take this step if he didn’t have enough of his own observations to warrant it, so he won’t need you to do or say anything. But he won’t stop you doing what you have to for yourself either.”
“I don’t… know.”
“You don’t have to worry about it tonight. Now git your ass on up there before I change my mind.”
“Thanks, Max.” Caleb hurried towards the elevator but stopped before the closed doors and asked, “You don’t know what time Levi came back, do you?”
“You think I keep tabs on every kid comes and goes in this place?”
“Course you do. It’s your job. Besides, I know you pay more attention to some than to others.”
“Right. Like them that’s going to get their asses in trouble getting into fights and breaking onto school grounds in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah. Like those kinds of people. I’m sure they need extra attention. Maybe the ones who like to wear skirts when everyone thinks they shouldn’t, too.”
Max shrugged, reached for his coffee cup and took a sip.
“Now can’t say I know anyone like that. Far as I can tell, anyone wants to wear a skirt, it’s a free country.
Bustin’ people’s heads, that’s something I have to take notice of.
Wearin’ a skirt?” Again, he shrugged. “Ain’t no law against that.
Anyone wants to bust you up for it, they’ll find it’s tougher to get to you than they might think. ”
“Why, Max!” Caleb gave the big guard a shallow curtsey. “That almost sounded chivalrous.”
“Yeah, well, someone’s got to keep the peace around here, and you seem to like tossing bullies on their heads, from what I can tell.
Not sayin’ you shouldn’t defend yourself.
Just sayin’, lots around here got your back, is all.
Myself included. Now I’m done talkin’ to you. Git on up there and make things right.”
Caleb nodded.
His nerves flooded back as the elevator doors opened, and for a moment, his boots had him weighted to the floor.
“Go on.” Max made a shooing motion with his hand. “He ain’t gonna wait all damn night.”
“Right.” Tugging at the edges of the jacket at his waist, Caleb squared his shoulders and took the step forward.
The first led to the next, then he was inside the elevator, doors closing and the machine whisking him upward.
Now or never, and he already knew he had to make things clear with Levi.
Everyone around him, it seemed, knew he had to clear things up with Levi, one way or another.
But he could still change his mind—go back down, try this another way.
Maybe like Uncle Jase had, Levi could discover the depth of Caleb’s bent by exploring his closet.
Or Caleb could wait and see what his reaction was to the show when he heard about it on campus and saw the videos. Or…
The elevator stopped, the doors opened, and he was out of choices. Because there was Levi, standing in the hallway in his pyjama pants. His chest and feet were bare, his arms wrapped around himself. Caleb swallowed hard at the sight of his eyes, rimmed red and his too pale cheeks.
“Levi?” Caleb stepped out into the brighter light.
“Thought you might change your mind and go back down.” His voice croaked and grated over the words. “Made Max promise to call up when you got here.” Levi’s arms tightened around himself. “Knew you’d come. You had to. But you might chicken out. Change your mind?—”
“Levi…” Caleb moved closer. “What is wrong?”
“You might not have come at all,” Levi whispered. “Convinced myself I’d scared you off, didn’t I? That I’d made it too hard. Gave you an ultimatum…”
“Stop it.”
“Not my place to force you into anything. What you want to tell me or not…”
“Yes, it is. You were right. You deserve the truth. I know that. Always have. I was selfish. Scared.”
Levi nodded.
“I’ve wanted to tell you for so long. I just wasn’t sure you really wanted to know.
That you really wanted to deal with this.
” Caleb held out his arms, turned in a slow circle until he was facing Levi again.
“It’s one thing to make believe I could do this, Levi, and play at it.
With the kilt and the leather and always being safe—noisy and showy, but ultimately safe.
I could never really be hurt. Even if people tried to make fun of me, I knew it wasn’t the real me they were targeting.
It was some construct I’d made for them to throw their stones and their words at.
It didn’t matter. But this is real. This is me.
When someone mouths off about this, and they will, it’s going to be about me. You sure you want to deal with that?”