Chapter Text
I stare out of the window of my dad’s Ford Bronco as we struggle through traffic on Highway 36. A few boxes and bags shift in the back as we pick up speed and then slow abruptly as everyone slams on their brakes. It's the official freshman move-in day at University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, and naturally the influx of cars plus typical traffic gums up the entire roadway.
Behind us, I see my mom driving the family’s Subaru Forester, a slight frown on her face. She’s carting my twin brother up to CU with me.
We’re going to be roommates freshman year.
I hate it.
Well.
Secretly
, I hate it.
I haven’t told anyone about this, really. CU Boulder has always been my dream, and when I got accepted on a swimming scholarship that paid for basically all of the astronomical bill, I jumped for joy. Charlie could have gone to an Ivy League school, if he wanted to. Hell, he could have even chosen University of Denver, which at least sheds the majority of CU’s party reputation.
Too little space from mom and dad. As if Boulder was much better.
Just enough room to allow him to maintain his preferred psychologist and better stick to his treatment plans. I can’t fault him on that one — our private school really did a number on him when he came out as gay. People were downright nasty at points, and even worse, I discovered that he was being utterly abused by another guy on the swim team. Caught them hooking up outside at a party, and then when it all fell through, Charlie told me everything.
I beat the guy up after school the next day. He didn’t say a word to the school, knowing what I knew. No regrets. I still love my brother, despite our situation.
I literally only came out as bisexual the night of graduation, when I knew I could shed the most unsavory of my high school acquaintances and meet new people at CU. Call it fear, or whatever, but I simply didn’t even want to give a damn about reactions to it.
Come decision day though, I still felt less-than-excited about his choice. The fact that they gave him a full ride based on academics alone stung, and now he was effectively latching himself onto my dream, instead of pursuing his own thing. And then mom had the audacity to bring up rooming together our first year, which I desperately wanted to shut down, but didn’t. Mostly because I didn’t trust myself not to completely lose it over everything else.
She called Charlie my barnacle, since I was a swimmer and that’s how much he tried to latch onto me. Again, I get it. I was one of his few life-lines at school, discouraging as much bullshit as I could, and at least keeping the swimming team in shape regarding bullying. Even casting my jock-clout across some of the other sports teams. It was just enough.
Charlie, of course, loved the idea. Enthusiastically supported it. In retrospect, I feel like such an idiot for not voicing any opinions on this whatsoever when I could have completely avoided it. Yeah, we’d be going to the same school, but we’d still have some sort of time apart. College years are meant to be one of self-discovery and growth. I know we both like different things, have different interests, and that will naturally lead to that, but a fear tugs at me.
I fear that he’ll really earn the barnacle moniker, even when things aren’t really that bad. Obviously I’m not going to be a dick to my brother if he’s in a state.
And so here we are.
Trudging down Highway 36 in the blazing August heat as a combined family unit, except for my older sister. She was in the mountains with her boyfriend, Michael.
Lucky.
🦬 🦬 🦬
Stearns Hall West looks a bit like a cross between a prison and an office building, albeit with a nice looking goldenrod brick exterior. The Residence Life liaison tells us that we’ll be on the third floor, which is some mercy given how much shit we packed. Two laborious hours pass with repeated trips, occasional sniping over space and layout of the room, underhanded jabs at me by my mother to cooperate, and silence from my father. I desperately want them to leave, but they insist on taking the both of us out for dinner beforehand.
I’m sure my mom will become a sappy mess and cry over her boys, particularly Charlie, finally heading off to college. My dad will probably give us both awkward side-hugs and back claps, like the typical machismo-addled American male he is. I’m pretty sure he’ll never recover from the fact that both of his sons are queer.
Not that he mistreats us, but it’s been a never ending state of shock for him. Mom, normally the more controlling and neurotic one, has somehow fully embraced it.
She insists on walking across campus to our restaurant of choice (her restaurant of choice, really).
That’s when I see him.
I don’t know how to describe him, besides downright hot.
His naturally blond hair is shoulder length, giving him a sort of California surfer vibe, except it’s not bleached out by the sun. He looks pale, but not in the unhealthy way — in that sexy alabaster sort of way.
Curse my half-Latino ass and its never ending obsession with white boys.
That beautiful skin appears dusted with blondish-red hair and sprinkled with freckles. I can see all of this because he’s not wearing a shirt, which only really furthers this mind-melt as I realize he’s also got an amazing upper body and a treasure-trail. Whatever he was wearing is tucked into his athletic shorts, bouncing as he runs around a green area with his friends. They’re playing frisbee, a decidedly collegiate pursuit on a hot day such as this.
Sweat-slicked skin holds my attention, and I barely realize that I’ve now fallen behind on this march across campus. Honestly, I’d rather sit and watch them play then do family dinner at some fancy sit-down place.
Unfortunately, this whole admiration of hot-guy gets disrupted by Charlie, who has dropped back to check-in on me. He immediately picks up on what has me so distracted.
“They don’t make them like that at Ursinus Academy, that’s for sure,” he says wistfully. I notice him lick his lips.
“What?”
He looks at me and shakes his head. “Don’t play coy. I know you’re looking at that guy, which I totally get. He’s fucking hot.”
I smirk. Caught. “Yeah, he’s…yeah.”
“Oh shit, Olly, watch out!”
Thankfully, due to my sporty nature, I dodge the oncoming Frisbee, overthrown by some guy with a mullet. Unfortunately, shirtless hot-guy is now jogging over to us. As he approaches, it becomes apparent that he’s also not wearing underwear. Daring.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
My brother apparently has seen the same. “Me. Fuck me, he’s coming over to us!”
Apparently we’re too visually cock-whipped to even chuck the Frisbee that’s literally five feet away from us. I at least gather my senses enough to retrieve the plastic disk for when he arrives.
He stops before the both of us, moderately breathing. His chest looks even more plump as a result. God, I just want to squish my head between them. Or my dick. Definitely my dick. Apparently both Charlie and I are staring, or appear completely flummoxed by his appearance, as he’s looking at us with utter confusion. My horny brain is not even computing what he’s even asking, as it keeps directing my eyes to rake up and down his body.
Fuck, even his smile is gorgeous. Christ, and his eyes. They’re an unexpected honey-brown color. His hair, previously appearing blond, definitely has an unexpected reddish undertone. He’s got a cute birthmark on his tummy, which is a very sexy combo of muscular and dad-bodesque. Christ, bend me over now.
“Uh, hello freshman twins.”
Finally, my brain wakes up.
He’s glinting at us, mischievously. He knows, and it’s utterly cringe-worthy to know that he knows how lusty we both are.
“Hi,” Charlie says first, waving sheepishly. He’s about to take the Frisbee out of my hands, when I jerk it away from him.
“Looks like you need this,” I say, handing it over to the hot guy.
Hot guy smirks. “Yeah. Definitely need it. Uh, would either of you like to join us? We could use a few more people.”
I’m about to scream “yes,” but Charlie cuts me off. Again.
“We’re actually going to dinner with our parents before they leave.”
He smiles, a kind and lopsided grin. The impulse to drop to my knees is strong, I must resist. “So you are freshmen, then?”
“Yeah,” I croak out. “Stearns West.”
“Cool. Well, we usually play here once a week or so. Feel free to join us at any time.”
“Thanks.”
“Yeah, thank you Frisbee guy,” Charlie adds, flirtatiously twirling his longer curls. I saw him first, Charles, you stupid slut.
He snickers. “Name’s Nick.”
My brother has the audacity to wink at him. “I’m Charlie. See you around, Nick.”
He waves and saunters off, leaving me alone. Asshole! “Oliver, but friends call me Olly.”
Nick nods. “I’ll see you around, Olly.”
I just nod and skitter off, catching up to Charlie. I’m going to have words with him as we get farther away, because I know for a fact that he’s also very much interested in Frisbee Nick. We walk in silence for a minute, catching up to mom and dad, who barely even noticed that we fell behind.
“What’s the over/under on him being queer?” Charlie asks. I can hear his obvious interest.
I shrug. I don’t have the slightest clue — that’s not my forte, unfortunately. Charlie seems to be able to pick out the gays (inclusive), including the closeted ones, like they have special thermal registers that only he can see. I can’t help but think that he’s trying to taunt me a bit over my completely ridiculous reaction to the guy. I haven’t really told him about the types of guys that I’m into, so this is new territory for us.
“Whatever he is, I’m sure he’s not interested in either of us. You’re too nerdy and I’m nowhere as stacked as he is.” I’m trying to squash this.
“That’s the fun part, speculating if he would be. I think he’s one of us, though. Did you see how his eyes glinted when he realized we were both eye-fucking him?”
“Wait, you were eye-fucking him?”
Charlie grins. “Duh. He’s fucking hot. And my god, you were so obvious. Christ, I legitimately thought you were going to fall to your knees right there.”
Caught, again.
“What? Shut up —”
“Don’t even lie,” he interrupts. “It was like watching someone put a slab of meat in front of a dog.”
We turn a street corner and reach the restaurant. I don’t say anything else to him as we enter. The hostess seats us at the window-table. Nice. A perfect distraction. I can brood for a bit and ignore mom and Charlie’s banter about classes. I look in the general direction of the Frisbee playing, hoping that their game breaks up soon and Nick walks this way. Preferably with his shirt off, still. And his dick swinging in those gym shorts.
An over eager server stops by and takes our order.
Halfway through dinner, and I still haven’t said a word beyond a few “yes” and “no” responses. I get up to use the restroom, only for my brother to follow me there.
“What’s your deal, Olly? Why are you so pissy right now?”
I keep thinking about what to say to him, but logical words fail me and I blurt out, “I saw him first!”
He looks at me, slightly shocked, but also amused. “Are you joking? Really?
I cross my arms. “No, absolutely not. We’re going to need a system, a dibs system of sorts. I can’t be screwing my brother’s sloppy seconds and vice-versa.”
He tries to cut me off, but I raise my voice a bit and say, “And, and! We can’t fight over guys up here.”
He scowls at me. “You could date both guys and girls. I’m not doing a “finders keepers” system with you. Seriously! If a nice guy comes my way, I would be happy, since you know —”
“Yeah, Ben.”
I shut my mouth. I’m kind of being an asshole about this, and he’s got a point. His dating pool at Ursinus was an abusive, closeted asshole. Meanwhile, I had already done a variety of sexual activities with five girls in our year. He’s got a much bigger pool now though, too!
Obviously, I’m not going to relent in the pursuit of Frisbee Nick.
“Well then, let the best brother win.”
He gapes at me. “Fine then. You’ll eat your words, Oliver Jonathan Spring. I bet you that within a month, Frisbee Nick will be slinging something besides a Frisbee my way.”
“It’s on, Charles Francis Spring. And you’re wrong — give me two weeks, and I’ll get Frisbee Nick’s dick. I don't need a whole month.”
He tuts, and walks out of the bathroom, clearly agitated. What a fantastic start to freshman year.
It’s going to require charm, guile, and pulling out all of the stops to bag a guy like Nick. All of which I know I possess. My brother, on the other hand, bless him. There’s not a chance and hell his awkward nerdiness gets him that man.