Chapter Sixty-Five - Roy
“Look at it, Tony! Just look at it! It's everywhere!”
IT was the picture of Mike and Amanda Whats-Her-Name that was showing up every place I looked. Now it was on the 100-inch television set hanging over the outdoor bar at Chownings Tavern. “A vodka shot, please. And put a couple more in the freezer, ok?” I told the bartender, a W&M student I knew slightly.
“So, we're not eating tonight?” Tony was looking over the bar menu. “I'm told the Brunswick Stew isn't really made from rats.”
“We've both been DUMPED and you want to eat rat burgers?”
“Not burgers, it's a thick stew, like a chowder. And I wasn't dumped, I think Vince just moved on. He never promised any commitment.” I signaled for another shot as Tony rambled on. “Of course, it WAS made from rats at least once, they say, during the Civil War.”
“Does that look like they're fucking?” I pointed at the TV screen and asked the bartender.
“Mike and Amanda! They were here last weekend with a bunch of people.”
“Mike and Amanda?” He said it as if he knew them well. “Here?”
“We have a couple rooms we save for special customers.” He put my shot on the bar and moved on to handle a waitress's order. I knocked the shot back and pondered. I pulled out my phone.
“Don't do it,” Tony cautioned, still perusing the menu.
“I'm gonna ask him why he didn't at least call when he was here,” I punched in a brief text, waivered over hitting SEND, and hit CANCEL instead.
“Good decision,” Tony commented and looked around at the empty bar stools. “Why are we the only ones outside? I'll tell you why! It's fucking freezing, that's why.”
“Have a vodka, it helps. I don't want to be inside with all those assholes laughing at their stupid jokes.”
“Maybe they're smart jokes. Snappy repartee, mon vieux, and all that.” Tony signaled the bartender and pointed at my shot.
“How come you can say shit like that and not sound like a faggot? If I said shit like that people'd be waving limp wrists at me for days.” Two glasses appeared in front of us. “Don't hesitate or you'll choke. Just take it all at once.” I was referring to the vodka.
“That's sort of what Vince said the first time he fucked me.” Tony downed the shot and gasped for breath. “He's not THAT big, for God's sake,” he said to nobody in particular. “You sure you don't want something to eat?” I shook my head. “So we're just gonna get hammered?” I nodded. “Ok,” he answered and drained the last few drops from the small glass.
“I like you, Tony.” He didn't say anything. “I didn't at first, 'cause I believed Tyler's bullshit about you raping him … but now … you're easy to be around.”
“Tony, the friendly rapist – you trying to say?” In reply to my no he said, “I think there's a little of that in me. You know? Being a little demanding, a little forceful?”
“With Vince?”
“Hell, no. He'd pound me into the ground. Vince puts up with no shit. I meant with Tyler.”
“Ok, sip this one,” I advised as the next two glasses appeared. We sipped in silence.
“You know that feeling?” Tony asked out of nowhere. “That feeling when your dick is super sensitive? Not hard, but one psi of blood pressure away from it? When you're acutely aware of it? You know exactly how it's lying in your pants? Exactly how tight your clothes are? I feel that way right now.”
“It's called being horny.” I sipped.
“I guess. Vince makes me feel that way all the time.” Tony sipped.
“I come a lot when Mike fucks me. More than usual.” I laughed at myself. “But I guess Mike fucking me IS pretty usual.”
“I used to be a top pretty much,” Tony sighed. “Now I just lie there with my legs in the air.”
“I lie on my side mostly. When I'm close to coming, my legs shake too much if I'm flat on my back.”
“This talk is not making me any less horny. My dick has gone way beyond the super sensitive point.”
We sat in silence for a bit. The bartender came and offered to get us another round. I shook my head no and Tony acquiesced.
“Want to go back to my room?” he asked. “It'd be cheaper and I got a bottle of Tito's.” While he waited for my answer his phone buzzed. Tony showed me the text from Vince. “Gr8 nu bed. Even Racer sez ok.”
“Who's Racer?”
“This incredible hunky kid who wears cutoffs and no underwear Vince's probably fucking by now.”
Pleasantly buzzed is how I would describe us. Despite the west wind picking up, we enjoyed the walk to the dorm. Tony sloshed some Tito's into glasses that were much bigger than shot glasses and we sipped. Warmish vodka is way different from frozen shots. We went slower.
“I like you, too,” Tony said.
“Too? I didn't say anything.”
“Back at the bar you did. I like you, too.” He poured a bit more into my glass. “I guess I knew you were gay so I kind of stayed away at first. Being a drama major … I didn't want to get totally branded a faggot.”
I laughed. “Glad I didn't ruin your reputation.”
“But now I think fuck it, you know? Especially with Tyler's 'art' and me showing up all over the place.”
“You look great in those paintings. You know that, right?”
“Not as great as Vince.”
“Blonds always get all the attention. Hanging Vince on the wall would be making a statement. Hanging you on the wall would be a more nuanced thing. Like saying I like the male form - not I jerk off to this when no one's around.”
“It would be ok if you … if people jerked off to me. I wouldn't mind that. The art dealer said my stuff sells. Not as much as Otis and Vince, but it sells. He said the pose of me masturbating is disturbing. People really like it as art, but they're afraid to buy it; it would say too much about THEM.”
“Ok if I open the window? This stuff is making me hot.” The small room rapidly cooled down. “Now maybe it's too cold.”
“Here, sit here. We can share the cover.” He pulled the spread off the bed and draped it over us. “There, cold on the face and warm on the rest. I like to sleep in the cold.”
“Uh, Tony … are we gonna ...” Fuck? Suck? Sleep together? I didn't know how to finish my question.
“We could, I guess. If you wanted to ...”
“It wouldn't be weird?”
“It probably would be. Potentially very weird. It depends on how horny you are.” We shared a laugh.
“What would we do?” We seemed to be more or less dedicated bottoms for Mike and Vince. I had no real idea what Tony liked.
“Any thing we wanted?” Tony asked back.
“I mean, would you want to … suck? Or ...” I laughed before I could get the f-word out.
Tony laughed too and poured another half inch of Tito's into our glasses. “You know it's always the logistics that get in the way. Exactly how do we get from here and now to naked and fuckin'?” He smiled and then he laughed. I laughed. We laughed together. We finished the Tito's. We laughed some more.
“I do like you, though,” Tony said. “In a good way, of course.”
The way it often does, the moment for sex had come and then passed us by. The what-might-have-been wasn't going to be. And I was left with that super sensitive feeling Tony had described at Chowning's bar. I smiled at my almost sex partner and he smiled back.
“We're gonna stay friends, right? Even after school?”
“I hope so,” Tony answered. His gentle kiss seemed appropriate. The symbol of a promise made in friendship. I turned to him to say I was glad and somehow his hand touched me. “You're hard,” he noted, taking his hand away. He kissed me again, less gently and then pulled back.
Yes? No? Maybe? Fuck it! I grabbed his hand and put it back on my dick and kissed him this time. Not gently at all. Tony was right about the logistics. We tried undressing each other but gave up. In the cold air of the room we stripped and then hurried back into his bed. We started out enthusiastically but things were a little awkward. Who was gonna do what to whom? I tried sucking him, but he didn't seem thrilled by that. He tried fucking me, but lost his erection in the attempt. We did make out, though. I know I really liked kissing him and I think he liked it, too. And then we slept.
“Do you feel weird?” he asked in the morning. He padded naked to the wash basin and then came back to bed. He handed me two aspirin and motioned to put them in my mouth. Then he kissed me and passed some of his mouthful of mouthwash to me.
“No, not weird at all, just a little hung over,” I told him after swallowing.
“We didn't really have sex or anything.”
“I think we had a lot of 'or anything', just not the main event.”
“The 'or anything' was nice. You have a bangin' body hidden under those loose jeans you always wear.”
“So do you,” I told him.
“I'm too hairy,” he said.
“No you're not.” I stroked the hair on his chest.
“I had some on my back but I had it fried off.”
“Ouch!” and then “Fuzzy butt,” I told him as I patted his ass.
“Are we gonna talk about grooming or ...” He pushed closer to me and I could feel his erection.
“Wait. I gotta take a piss,” I told him. Taking a piss meant borrowing his bathrobe and walking about fifty feet down the corridor. When I came back to the room it was his turn to go. I slipped my underwear on and waited for his return.
“Eddie, the math major, commented that you and I have the same bathrobe.”
“Is he hangin' out in the john again?” We both laughed. Once more the moment for sex had passed.
“You know that eventually he's going to figure out it is the same bathrobe.” Tony mimicked Eddie's voice. “The statistical probability of you two having the identical Halo 3 bathrobe in one in eighteen thousand four hundred six point three dormitories; it is my near-irrefutable conclusion that it is the same bathrobe and you two are sleeping together.”
Some days laughter is better than sex and fun is better than fucking. Kissing, however, is appropriate almost any time. I kissed him once and once wasn't enough. After a second we dressed.
“You going to Mike's for Thanksgiving?” he asked me.
“I guess. You going to Vince's?”
“I guess. Maybe we can have a threesome with Racer.” His laugh was bitter.