Flaming in the Dorms

Sorry for the confusion folks. Not sure what's up today but the site keeps removing all of my paragraphs and formatting. Sighs. I think it's fixed now, or it was last time I checked. Hope it stays that way. lol

Big shout-outs and thanx to the following reviewers: Aduial, Khayman, Doppelganger, Lisa, JtheChosen1, Bella, Mysticneko, Goodbyeperson, Nxtgrl, and Southwind.

P.S. for Vampfangirl - Nothing's happened to me. It was a computer glitch and nothing more, but thanx for asking.

Responses are here if you want to check them out: http://pesterme2.livejournal.com

Chapter 32 Hot Pics

Damien looked down at the cards in his hands with a sigh of disgust. He didn’t have a single pair of numbers that matched, much less three, and the ones that could’ve worked for a straight were all from different suits. What was it about this guy, anyway? They’d played every card game known to man over the past few weeks and no matter what Damien did, Dr. Lieberman ended up kicking his ass. Sure, Damien had managed to win one game of Rummy after he’d cheated by holding all of his cards and then laying his entire hand down without warning, but after that Dr. Lieberman caught onto his trick and told him that was only allowed in Gin so Damien hadn’t been able to do it again since then.

“Your turn,” Dr. Lieberman announced, like Damien didn’t already know that.

“No shit, Sherlock,” he grumbled as he looked back up at the discard pile in hopes he’d missed something the last three times he’d checked. Still nothing. Dammit! Once again Damien reached over to the draw pile and once again he pulled a card that was crap. “You know how to set the deck or something?”

Dr. Lieberman chuckled at that, immediately snatching up Damien’s discard with a triumphant grin before laying out what was left of his hand on the table. “I’m floating, and no, Watson,” the blonde added, pinning Damien with an amused glance, “I don’t know how to set the deck. Even if I did it would be overkill. Playing cards with you is like taking candy from a baby. Maybe we should start making bets.”

Damien snorted at that and rolled his eyes as he drew another card and immediately threw it back down on the discard pile, sight unseen. It wasn’t like his hand was going to magically stop sucking big, green, donkey dicks. “Screw that. The ‘rents are still bitching about the load of cash I dropped on the supplies for art class. Don’t get the big deal myself. It’s not like we’re broke. They even said that I should’ve sent home for my old stuff and that the crap I bought would have to be my birthday present.”

No sooner were those words out, Dr. Lieberman reached over and snatched up the card Damien had thrown away and played it on the straight he’d laid down earlier. “Ouch,” Dr. Lieberman murmured with a pained expression. “But didn’t they just spend a big wad of money on your new clothes over winter break? Maybe that’s the problem.”

“Nah, they’ve never been too worried about that shit. Probably just cause of the time they’ve taken off from work lately. Must be throwing a wrench in the vacation budget. Then again, it might be the repair bills on the house too. They said the insurance company’s been giving them shit over it.”

“No shock there,” Dr. Lieberman grumbled with a sigh. “How’re things going with that, by the way? Are your parents and the police still keeping a close eye on the bad guys?” When Damien just shrugged half-heartedly, Dr. Lieberman added, “The school’s head administrator mentioned at a faculty meeting yesterday that everyone still needed to keep an eye out for them. He even passed out pictures again to refresh everyone’s memories, which I thought was a nice touch. I was glad to know they were taking this seriously.”

“Yeah,” Damien whispered with a grudging grin and an uninterested glance. The school’s sudden concern reeked of Granny’s heavy hand and he really didn’t want to get into this crap again. Dr. Lieberman had already given him a quick and dirty crash course in watching his ass while he was off campus just in case one of them showed up. In a not-so-subtle attempt to change the subject, Damien grumbled, “Either way, mom’s the one who wouldn’t let me outta the stupid class, so I don’t get why they’re hung up over it now.”

“That does suck since you didn’t want to take it in the first place.”

A carefree shrug was Damien’s response. “No biggie. It’s not as bad as I thought it’d be. I’m still half-pissed at James, but I’ve managed to get everything done except for the first assignment. I’ve even been working on an oil painting this week. A little queasiness here and there, but nothing I can’t handle. I’d forgotten how bad that shit stinks, though.”

“It’s definitely something you have to get used to, especially the turpentine needed to clean the brushes,” Dr. Lieberman replied with a sour look on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. Damien suddenly remembered that Dr. Lieberman and his art teacher, Mr. Banks, were bumping uglies and maybe even living together and gave him a knowing grin.

“Tell me about it. I try to work on it while Scott’s gone for his weight lifting thing so it won’t gag him, but even if I crack the window it still lingers in the room. Now I’ve started working out too, yesterday actually, so it’s cutting into my time a little bit. I only have to do the gym thing three times a week so I still have the days in between.”

“That’s good to hear. Exercise never killed anyone,” Dr. Lieberman observed casually as he picked up a card from the top of the deck and then dropped it on the discard pile, ending the game and once again kicking Damien’s ass without mercy. “From what Joseph said last night, it shouldn’t be too much longer before you’re done with the oil painting anyway. The way he talks, he plans to move on to water colors after tomorrow and then the human body after that.”

Damien stiffened at those words and as always Dr. Lieberman caught it and gave him a knowing smile. “You going to be able to handle it? The other day you told me that you thought you were only doing so well because you were working on the nature stuff.”

The truth of the matter was that, as much as Damien was looking forward to working with watercolors after so long, he was dreading the human body thing. He’d tried to draw a few things like that already and it’d gone over like a fart in church. Just a face and a hand, but he’d barely gotten them started before he had to stop altogether. When he’d tried to go back to the nature stuff again after that the queasiness had gotten a little worse. “I just don’t know, man,” Damien finally admitted with a sigh. Then he pushed his worries away as he looked up with a naughty grin and added, “You gonna write me an excuse for Mr. Banks if I freak out and can’t do it?”

“I might have to if you don’t think you can handle it,” Dr. Lieberman replied with a level expression. Damien’s mouth fell open in shock. He’d just been messing with the guy and that was the last thing he’d expected to hear.

“Are you for real?” he asked with a squeak.

Dr. Lieberman just gave him a little frown that clearly said he wasn’t amused with Damien’s enthusiasm for the subject before gathering up the cards into a pile and starting to shuffle them again. “Sure. The last thing we want is for you to make yourself sick over it. Your whole reason for coming to see me was supposed to be to help you get rid of some stress so that your health wouldn’t get any worse. While I’ll admit that I haven’t done my job up until now, I’m not a complete bastard. Of course, I’m hoping that you’ll be able to work it out on your own so that it won’t come to that. There’s nothing worse than letting your fear run your life. I’ve been there and done that. Don’t want to go back there again.”

For half-a-second, Damien remembered exactly why he was supposed to be there and being told he was letting his fear run his life pissed him off to no end. Then Dr. Lieberman’s last comment sank in, causing his anger to creep back into its cave for the moment, and he couldn’t help but ask, “What happened?”

The big, blonde stared at him for a moment, like he didn’t know whether or not he should tell Damien something so personal. After a shrug of his broad shoulders, he started passing out the cards as he explained, “I was in a nasty car crash when I was 14. My dad was killed right in front of me and my brother was paralyzed. My mom and I were left in pretty good shape but my leg was broken in three places and it took a long time to get it working again. For several years after that I was afraid to ride in anything with wheels. I walked to school and only rode in a car when I didn’t have a choice. Even then I would have panic attacks. When my mother moved me to the college I’d planned to attend, the shrink I was seeing at the time had to prescribe a tranquilizer so that she could get me and my stuff to the dorms without my having a breakdown. Looking back on it, it’s embarrassing, but pretty understandable.

“Once I was moved and settled, I hardly ever left campus and then only to go to places within walking distance. My old shrink set me up with one of his colleagues nearby and, it took a while, but we were finally able to work through it. I still have my moments. Then again, I guess everybody who drives on a regular basis does. Either way, that guy helped me get back on track and I so grateful. It was hard to imagine a future where I couldn’t travel any further than my legs could carry me. That’s also a large part of why I got into this line of work. A shrink helped me take back my life and I wanted to return the favor by doing it for somebody else along the way. I already have, as a matter of fact.”

Damien just sat there wide-eyed while he listened to Dr. Lieberman’s story. It was hard to imagine a big, muscular dude like that being afraid to ride down the street in a car. Still, seeing his dad die that way must’ve been pretty rough on him. By the pain that’d seeped into his voice when he’d been talking about the accident, it was obvious that Dr. Lieberman was still struggling with it. There had been pride there too, though, especially when he’d been talking about overcoming his fears and moving on with his life.

“How did you get past it?” Damien asked quietly, trying his best to keep the pity he felt for the guy from showing in his expression and voice. Dr. Lieberman hadn’t told Damien something that personal hoping for sympathy. He’d done it to drive a point home to Damien, and Damien couldn’t deny that it’d worked. Knowing that the headshrinker who was working with him had been down a similar road to the one that Damien was currently on didn’t hurt matters either.

Dr. Lieberman set the deck of cards down on the table, sighing and looking up at Damien with a serious expression. “I won’t lie to you. It wasn’t a walk in the park. I did it through practice. I kept trying and trying until I managed to sit down in the seat of a car without my heart leaping out of my chest and feeling like I might hyperventilate. It took almost a month to get to that point. Then there was dealing with the seatbelts and sitting in the car with the door shut. Once I got past that we worked on getting me to where I could ride short distances. Believe me when I say that you don’t even want to hear about the time when I moved on to actually learning to drive a car.”

A shiver ran down Dr. Lieberman’s spine at the very thought and Damien couldn’t help but snicker at the goofy face the guy made in that moment. Then he gave Damien a teasing grin as he picked up his cards from the desk and spread them out to check his hand. “What do you think I should do then?” Damien asked almost shyly. Shy wasn’t really Damien’s thing, but he felt kinda awkward even asking after the fit he’d thrown on the shrink during his first day in session.

“Well, it’s not something that happens overnight and it’s easier for some than for others,” Dr. Lieberman warned with a piercing glance of his neon-blue eye before turning his attention back to his cards. “The best advice I can give you is to take it excruciatingly slowly. You’ve already come a lot further than I’d expected with your art, especially on your own. On the other hand, you’re about as strong willed as they come and that helps. Since most of your hang-ups seem to revolve around the human anatomy aspect of your art, I’d recommend that you start with visualization. First, try to picture the lines and shading in your mind and once you’re comfortable doing that you can move on to actually drawing it in your head by visualizing your hand working out the lines.”

After taking a deep, calming breath, Damien reached down and grabbed his cards from the table, spreading them out to look at them and doing his best to pretend that he wasn’t freaking out in that moment. Dr. Lieberman chuckled and motioned for Damien to go before leaning back in his chair and looking at his cards again. Damien barely noticed. He was too busy trying to get his own thoughts back under control. Even a month ago, if anybody had told him that he’d pick up his art again he’d have thought they were smoking too much crack. Now, he’d managed to start doing it again, on some level at least, and Dr. Lieberman seemed to think that he could really get past this shit.

For the first time in a long time, Damien felt dreams he’d thought were long buried bubbling up inside him, only this time they didn’t freak him out quite as much or send a spark of rage racing through his body. It felt good and within seconds he was overflowing with energy and itching to get started. Then reality crashed down on him again and he let out a frustrated breath as he folded up the cards in his hand and dropped them down on the table before turning his full attention back to Dr. Lieberman.

“What if I try this ‘visualization thing’ and start freaking out again. I’ve gotta be honest with you man, working with people was always my thing. That’s what I always focused on. I was pretty good with the nature stuff too, but that wasn’t what got my juices flowin’, you know? But, when I tried drawing a hand the other day . . . I thought I was gonna throw up. What if I keep trying but just can’t do it? I don’t wanna get my hopes up and then have to deal with that kind of disappointment again.”

Dr. Lieberman nodded his head that he understood and then followed Damien’s example and set his cards on the desk too before leaning forward to rest his elbows on it. “It’s a trial and error kind of thing, Damien,” he explained patiently with an encouraging smile on his lips. “We just have to work together and approach it from different angles until we find one that works. There are things you can do in the beginning to help you get through the anxiety that you’ll be dealing with. I mean, let’s face it, that’s really the issue here. You’re essentially having anxiety attacks because you’ve learned to associate your bad experiences with your art. If you can get beyond this, it’ll help you in other areas of your life as well. For instance, your anger issues and stress . . . I’m assuming that at one time your art was an outlet for you, right?”

Again Damien shrugged and let his eyes drop down to the cards on the table as he mumbled, “Yeah, I guess so.”

“It could be that way again if you’re willing to work for it,” Dr. Lieberman insisted gently, like he was afraid to push Damien too hard and ruin what little progress they’d made. “You’ve already come a long way, but this next step will be the most important one for you. We can go over some deep breathing techniques, a few concentration exercises, and I have a long list of different things we can try to get the anxiety under control long enough for you to deal with it. It just takes patience and determination.”

That said, Dr. Lieberman reached across his desk to pat Damien on the hand in a reassuring gesture and that’s when Damien noticed that his own hands were shaking. Embarrassed, he pulled them away and tucked them between his legs to hide them. Then he looked back up into Dr. Lieberman’s compassionate gaze with an indifferent one of his own while he tried to decide whether he was ready for this, or if it was worth it even if he was. Scenes from his days before the attack were running through his head; images of him relaxing in his tree house in the back yard while he sketched the neighbor’s kids or all the time he’d spent in the local park or locked away in his room while he painted one of the hundreds of pictures he’d snapped around the neighborhood.

Mama had loved times like those. When Damien was focused on those things, he wasn’t out pulling pranks or getting into trouble. Not that he’d gone out looking for it back then. He’d pulled his share of naughty stunts, but for the most part trouble always seemed to find him whether he was asking for it or not. And while Damien never fooled himself into believing that he was the next Picasso, he’d really wanted to find some type of job where he’d be able to turn his former addiction into a real career. Then all of that other shit had happened and the shrink had pushed him into using his art for his emotional recovery and . . .

In that moment, James’ words from the day he’d returned to school after break came back to him. When he’d signed Damien up for the class without his permission, he’d told Damien that he needed to take it back if he really enjoyed it because those bastards had already taken enough away from him. At the time, he’d brushed it off because he’d been too freaked out and pissed to really think about that. Now, he had to admit that James had definitely been on to something. What his best friend hadn’t realized was exactly how much Damien had been forced to give up when he’d given up his art.

James had probably thought he’d lost a fun hobby, but it had been so much more than that to Damien. In the end, Damien had lost his peace of mind, or at least that soothing, grounded feeling he’d always gotten from doing a sketch or working with a brush, and all of his dreams for the future in one blow. It had been a life-altering thing for him. Since he’d been forced to set them aside, Damien had avoided thinking about the accident or what he’d lost too deeply, or making plans for his life on more than a basic level. It made him anxious and it was depressing.

Not much held his interest and no matter how many times he ran the list of possible careers through his mind, which really wasn’t all that often, nothing seemed to grab his attention. He couldn’t imagine himself teaching, working in an office, pushing out parts in a factory, or …. well, much of anything really. He knew instinctively that he’d never be happy or satisfied doing those things and that he’d just be going through the motions for the rest of his life. That was a depressing thought too, and it was so much easier to focus on the now and let everything take its course. Since the talk with his parents over break and his first talk with Dr. Lieberman, those thoughts had been bugging Damien more and more. Seeing Scott so excited over their waiter’s plans for his own future at the restaurant the weekend before had only made them worse.

In a lot of ways, he felt like he was being left behind. Just the other day, James had mentioned something about being accepted at a university in Buffalo. Scott had been accepted at over a dozen different schools around the country already and, even though his sexy jock hadn’t decided where he was going after graduation, he had lots of choices. The same was true for Ryan, Terry, Trey, and just about every other guy Damien knew. Out of all of his friends and casual acquaintances, he was the only one who didn’t have at least some basic idea of where he was going. Mama and Pops had been on his ass hard and heavy over that and it was really starting to make him feel uneasy, like he was Cinderella three minutes before midnight and he had yet to track down his fairy godmother, much less make it to the ball.

Then again, maybe not because Damien knew for a fact that he’d look way hotter in a dress than Cinderella ever had and if Scott had been the prince up for auction and Damien had shown up at the ball and his magic had run out, he’d’ve just stripped his rags off and offered up the goods. But that was beside the point so he tried to hold back a grin at the images that line of thinking evoked as he pushed his random thoughts aside and looked back up to meet Dr. Lieberman’s questioning gaze. Then he shrugged, a bored expression firmly in place as he mumbled, “What the hell, let’s give it a shot.”

*~*~*~*

James paced nervously up and down the sidewalk in front of the admin building under the less-than-enthusiastic eyes of the overgrown jock boy while he waited for Damien to come out the door. It was so tempting just to run for it. He could tell by the carefully neutral looks Scott was giving him that the big oaf wasn’t too thrilled about Damien’s involvement in James’ problem but was just holding his tongue. Still, it wasn’t like James could’ve done anything to make Damien back off from the Gregg thing. God knew he’d tried to convince his friend to leave it alone. He’d worn himself out trying to hide and sneak around behind Damien’s back so that the gorgeous, filthy-mouthed blonde wouldn’t find out.

‘A lot of good that did,’ James thought to himself with a frown.

Over a year-and-a-half of hiding his feelings and trying to play the role of good friend shot to Hell in a heartbeat because of one stupid, unlocked door and a mistimed grunt or two. Now they were supposed to face down Gregg, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that Gregg wasn’t going to take it well. The way James saw it, if Gregg decided he needed to prove a point, Damien would be in even more danger from the guy than he’d been before. All James could do was play along, keep a close eye out for trouble, and hope that the picture Damien planned to hand over to the asshole would be enough to keep him in line.

He’d looked at it when Damien had printed it out the night before and it was painfully obvious that Gregg was fucking a guy. James’ shirt had been pushed up enough to show off his abdomen and one small pec and the shot had been timed so that it was taken just as James’ cock had bounced into view. Gregg’s shocked face had come out clear as a bell and the picture was so damn embarrassing, but luckily James’ face hadn’t shown up at all. Still, James wasn’t planning to hold his breath over whether or not Damien’s proof would be enough to hold Gregg at bay and had been tempted all day to track the guy down and see if they could work something out.

No matter how much he’d wanted to do exactly that, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to go back on his word to Damien in the end. The sexy blonde had been so freaked over finding out what was going on between Gregg and himself, especially when he heard why James had been doing it. James hadn’t meant to let that little detail slip, but Damien just wouldn’t stop pushing and he’d finally gotten fed up and spilled his secret before he could catch himself. It’d been a huge relief when Damien had taken it so well and, for the first time in a long time, things seemed pretty normal between them.

That was really all that James could ask for and the fact that he was now out of the mess with Gregg was a huge relief in some ways. When Gregg had first approached him, James had been in a really weird place. He’d been so worried about Damien then. His best friend and secret crush had let himself go to the point that he was a shadow of his former self. Then that bastard Charles had snuck up on them and attacked and Scott had just waltzed in, like the big hero, to make everything better.

James had been happy for Damien when things worked out with his man, but it still stung to have to encourage the two to kiss and make up after James had been forced to watch Damien suffer and wither away for weeks. Not to mention the months and months . . . Shit, it’d been more like a year or more of watching Damien go all moony-eyed over the ‘gorgeous motherfucker,’ as Damien always put it. James couldn’t deny that Scott was all that and a box of chocolates, but the big guy was also a little - No, make that a lot - too clean cut for James’ taste. James preferred his men a little rough around the edges and unpredictable. Seeing those two together was like watching a half-starved, man-eating lion play with a newborn baby.

Either way, James couldn’t claim to have been any more experienced than Scott when he and Damien had first started messing around. At that point in his life, James had never been touched by another guy before. Of course, Damien hadn’t known that and James was determined that he never would. Damien was also the first and only one that James had ever had sex with before this thing with Gregg had started up. James had always pretended to play around while, in reality, he’d never kissed anyone besides Damien, much less went any further.

Knowing that Damien was sleeping around with different people had always been hard to stomach and it’d taken a lot to hide his heartache over that fact. There was nothing he could do about it and he’d forced himself to keep up the best friends act so that every once in a while he’d be able to touch and kiss Damien. It’d been so bittersweet and James had often pretended that they were a couple during those times. He’d been too much of a coward to ask for more, though, and now he could only stand by and watch while the man he loved wallowed in his newfound love for the overgrown jock who’d snatched Damien away with little more than a second thought.

James was more than okay with that. All he’d ever wanted was to see Damien happy. James knew the sexy blonde wasn’t quite there yet, but he was so damn close. Just being near him and seeing him smile was enough – a real smile, like the ones he gave Scott that spread across his sweet face and lit up his dark eyes when he laughed and not the sarcastic, half-smirk he normally showed to people. James still remembered the first time he’d seen Damien smile that way. It about a week after Scott and Damien had met and they’d run into the big guy outside of the cafeteria. Scott had made some comment about liking the way Damien was growing his hair longer and Damien had lit up like a light bulb.

James had known in that moment that Damien would never be his and, when Scott and Damien had ended up in the same dorm room, James knew that his days were numbered. Still, even if it wasn’t aimed at him, seeing that smile made James’ heart pound in his chest and made him feel lighter and further away from his own problems. His only regret was that in a few months that smile would become nothing more than a distant memory and James wished desperately that there was some way he could be closer to Damien after school ended. The thought of being separated from Damien like that was almost unbearable, even more unbearable than watching him fall more deeply in love with Jock Boy every day.

Not that it mattered. Once they graduated, Damien and Scott would go their own way and James would go his. That’s just how things worked and he really didn’t have a lot of say in the matter. He also had enough common sense to realize that it would be better for him to move on with his life at that point. James had known months ago that their days of indulging in quickies and playing ‘sex friends’ was coming to an end. It’d been worth it, though, and now he was well acquainted with the act of sex, especially after the thing with Gregg. James knew he was going to crave it after going from being fucked daily to nothing at all.

As much as James hated Gregg, the guy had a nice sized cock. After James had figured out that he needed to stretch himself and make sure he was ready before their ‘tutoring sessions’, he couldn’t deny that the things they’d been doing felt pretty damn good. The problem was that they didn’t make him feel very good on the inside. Just thinking about it made James hard and disgusted him at the same time. All the same, he’d have done it again if it meant keeping Gregg off of Damien’s back. James had no doubts that Gregg would’ve kept pushing until he ended up forcing himself on Damien or at the very least making him sicker because of the stress of dealing with Gregg’s crap.

The door to the admin building swung open and James’ heart rate picked up when he saw a white-blonde head come through it, like it always did when he laid eyes on Damien. Damien came strolling out with an odd look on his face, a good kind of odd - like he felt happier or lighter - but odd all the same. As soon as his dark eyes landed on James, a shadow seemed to fall over him and worry began to seep back into his expression. Then Scott stepped forward and it immediately disappeared under a bright, welcoming smile.

It took everything in him, but James hid a snort of disgust when he glanced over at Scott and saw Jock Boy’s face light up in response. James couldn’t blame the guy, though. Damien looked amazing with his pale hair swept back in a ponytail and one long fringe of bangs hanging down and teasing the side of his jaw line. Scott immediately stepped forward and swept it behind Damien’s ear while Damien looked up at him as if in awe. James quickly turned his attention to the small stretch of lawn he could see between the two buildings behind which the admin building was situated and waited for the two to remember he was there.

It didn’t take long actually. After a rumbled, “Did you have a good session, Dae?” and a hushed reply that James couldn’t hear, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around.

“Hey, Twink Boy. You ready to go kick some ass and take some names?” Damien asked with a naughty grin and James once again bit his tongue at the annoying nickname. One of these days Damien was going to catch him in a mood and James was going to point out that, not only were they the same height now but that Damien was actually much slimmer and more feminine than James since the sexy blonde had dropped several pounds and James had put some weight on over the past six months or so.

Instead, James just rolled his eyes in response as he shifted around nervously and threw a wary glance over Damien’s shoulder at Scott. Jock Boy didn’t seem too happy, but there wasn’t anything James could do at this point. Once Damien set his mind to something he did it and screw the consequences. The sooner Scott figured that out, the happier he’d be with his new lover. “You sure I can’t talk you out of this?” James asked one last time for Scott’s benefit.

Damien pinned James with his dark chocolate eyes and a ‘don’t pull this shit on me again’ expression on his too-pretty face before grabbing him by the sleeve of his coat and dragging him along. “No, you can’t talk me outta this. Where’s that sorry son-of-a-bitch most likely to be this time of day?” Damien asked in a no-nonsense tone. For a few seconds James seriously thought about just lying to Damien and sending him on a wild goose chase. Still, he knew that it would only be putting things off. Damien was determined to have his way and James knew that the thing between Damien and Gregg would only continue to escalate.

“He’s probably in his room doing homework right now,” James finally admitted with resignation, tossing an apologetic look in Scott’s direction. Scott shrugged as if to say, ‘You know how he gets,’ and followed along like the good little bodyguard he was while Damien dragged James off toward the C dorm building. All too soon they were mounting the stairs to Gregg’s third-story dorm room and James’ stomach had once again turned into knots. By the time they reached the stairwell door his heart was racing and he was damn near panicked. A lot of shit depended on what happened in the next few minutes and James was afraid that Damien was about to sign his own death certificate.

Without hesitation, Damien pushed through the door and headed down the hallway. “What room number?” he demanded with a bored look on his face and James instantly knew that Damien was about to freak out too. The more scared or worried Damien got, the less emotion he showed on his face. Besides, how could he not be freaked out after the things Gregg had done to him? No to mention, the last two times Damien and Gregg had come face to face hadn’t been pretty.

“Room 317,” James mumbled back unenthusiastically as he swiped his sweaty hands down the sides of his uniform pants and tried to keep up. Only when they reached the door did Damien stop for a second. It crossed James’ mind that maybe Damien was in such a rush so that he wouldn’t lose his nerve because as soon as they stopped he dropped his book bag to the floor and opened it to shuffle through it. A few seconds later he held up a manila envelope and waved it at James like a trophy before zipping the bag and standing up again with a determined set to his jaw.

Then he pounded on Gregg’s door like a man on a mission. After a tense five seconds or so the door was jerked open and Gregg peeked out. Immediately anger flared in his grass green eyes. “What the fuck do you want?” he demanded, glaring down at Damien like he’d rather rip Damien’s head off and shit down his throat than to take his next breath. Then he glanced nervously down the hallway in both directions before quickly stepping back and opening the door for them to come inside.

All three hesitated and looked back and forth between each other like they were trying to come to some sort of silent consensus. Gregg let out a huff of irritation before growling, “Hurry the fuck up before somebody sees that the charter members of the Fags-R-Us club are holding a goddamn meeting in front of my door!”

Damien just rolled his pretty, brown eyes and snorted like Gregg was a complete idiot. Scott finally seemed to wake up and shook his head ‘no’ but Damien ignored him and took a step toward the door anyway. With a frustrated sigh of defeat, Scott gave in with little more than a threatening glare at Gregg. Damien followed a tense Scott into Gregg’s room and motioned for James to hurry inside too. “That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Damien mumbled after they were inside, throwing a dirty look at Gregg's back as the guy shut the door and turned back to them with a scowl.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Gregg demanded again, sending a nasty glare in James’ direction before eyeing Scott warily and then turning his full attention back to Damien.

“Here’s the pic you wanted so bad,” Damien said with a smirk as he shoved the envelope against Gregg’s chest. Although Damien seemed so sure of himself in that moment, James could see that his hand was shaking just a little bit before he jerked it away. “I kept an extra just in case you decided to fuck with us again. I find out you’re messing with James behind my back and I’ll send out a mass email over the school’s website to all of the student accounts and I’ll make sure that there’s a copy of that bad boy attached to every single one,” he announced, jabbing a finger in the direction of the envelope now crushed in Gregg’s fisted hand.

“You wouldn’t dare!” Gregg shot back with a panicked expression. Then he got hold of himself and sent a cold smile over Damien’s shoulder at James before curling his nose and turning his attention back to Damien. “If you were to put this out then everybody would see your little buddy too. Last I heard, he’s supposed to be a closet case. Word gets out that he’s messing with guys and his family’ll drop him like a rock. Even you’re not that much of a bastard, Damien.”

“You’re so sure about that?” Damien asked with just as much confidence. James had to respect his friend’s ability to keep a straight face with the vicious look Gregg turned his way. James was shaking like a leaf and he wasn’t even the one on the receiving end. That bothered him on so many levels because he really should have been the one taking the heat here. Standing there like a wimp while Damien ran the show didn’t sit well with him. James cleared his throat to speak as he stepped forward but, before he could get a word out, Damien continued in a smug voice. “Maybe you oughta look inside of that envelope before you start running your fucking mouth.”

While Gregg continued to stare down at Damien with an angry frown, James paused and glanced over at Scott real quick to gauge his reaction. Immediately, he felt like crawling under something to hide. Gregg had balls. There was no doubt about that, because there was no way in hell James could’ve stood there and took that heated glare and still be so mouthy. It was obvious that Scott was fighting to hold back so that Damien could do what he obviously thought he needed to, but James wasn’t sure how much the big guy could take before he lost it.

“Damien,” James murmured, tugging on his elbow gently to get his attention and hopefully defuse some of the tension building in the room. “Maybe we should just go. You shouldn’t be the one doing this anyway.”

Damien jerked his elbow away with an exasperated huff as he shot an irritated look James’ way before pinning his wary eyes back on Gregg. “We’re not going anywhere until you say what you came here to say,” he bit out impatiently.

That grabbed Gregg’s attention and his green eyes swung to James with a black brow raised expectantly and a smirk spreading across his lips. “Oh really?” he asked. “And what would that be, James?”

It was easy to tell by his tone that Gregg was being sarcastic. After Damien’s earlier comment, he had to have figured it out by now. Still, James squared his shoulders and looked the asshole in the eyes with a serious expression as he replied, “We’re over Gregg. Not that we were ever together or anything, but our agreement is finished. I’ve already fulfilled my end of the deal, so it’s time for you to back off. Damien already has a boyfriend and he’s made it clear that he’s not interested. Pushing it now would just be pathetic on your part.”

A snort of disbelief and a cold chuckle was Gregg’s initial response. Then he grinned down at James with a nasty gleam in his eyes. “You’re calling me pathetic? That’s funny coming from you, James. Did you ever tell your cross-dressing buddy why we were able to come to an agreement in the first place?”

James let out a tired sigh and blushed as he forced himself to maintain eye contact. He really didn’t want to get into this right now. Although he’d talked to Damien about this and they’d settled it already, James wasn’t sure exactly how much Scott had figured out or what Damien had told him. “Just leave it alone, Gregg. He already knows and stooping this low is just making you look even worse.”

The words seemed to roll off Gregg’s back like water off a duck as he turned back to Damien with a hateful smile. “You should’ve heard him. ‘Oh, please stop harassing poor Damien. I love him too much to see him go through anything else. I’ll do anything if you’ll leave him alone so that he can be happy,’” Gregg whimpered in a high-pitched, asinine voice meant to humiliate James even more than his words already had. It made James want to reach over and punch him in the face, but he grit his teeth and held back. That just wasn’t his style and he knew that Damien wouldn’t put much value in anything Gregg said.

Scott, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly so forgiving. His eyes narrowed dangerously, a sure sign that he was about to lose what little self-control he had left. Then he gritted his teeth and hissed, “I don’t know who you think you are, but . . .”

“Stop being such a bitchy little cunt because you’re not getting your way, Gregg,” Damien shouted, cutting Scott off rudely as he clenched his hands into fists at his side and fought back the urge to attack. “You can say whatever you want about us, but that’ll never change the fact that you’re a spoiled little rich kid who gets his rocks off by treating other people like play things. You’re disgusting and how James ever stood . . .”

“Your little knight in shining armor seemed to like our arrangement just fine before you stuck your nose into it, Damien. You should’ve heard him begging for more. At first it was all, ‘It hurts, slow down. I’ve only done this once before,’ but after a couple more times taking my cock up his tight ass he was begging for it like the slut he is.”

Damien’s eye widened in disbelief and he turned a shade paler as his eyes swung back to James, a clear question in their dark depths. James wished in that second the floor would just open beneath him and swallow him up on the spot. Desperate to repair the damage Gregg’s words might have done, he immediately put on an annoyed expression and let out an amused little sound, like he’d never heard anything so stupid in his life. “He’s just lying, Damien. You should know by now that he’s full of it,” James explained in a level tone.

Doubt flashed through Damien’s eyes and James cringed inside at the look of compassion and pity that crossed Scott’s face at Gregg's words, but before James could think of any way to fix things, Gregg came off with, “Whatever, James. You want to call it quits then I’m more than okay with it. It’s not like you were all that good in bed. No wonder Damien dumped your tired ass the second Scott came along.”

Before the words were even out, James could feel the blood rushing to his face. Even knowing that Gregg was trying to hit him where it hurt, those words stung like a bitch. For a moment, Scott and Damien just stood there, their eyes widened in shock at Gregg’s viciousness and their mouths hanging open in disbelief. Then Scott seemed to snap out of it and stepped forward with a threatening growl to grab Gregg by the arm.

“No!” James exclaimed, stepping forward to place a hand on Jock Boy’s chest. “That’s what he wants you to do, Scott. It’s just words, man. Let it go.”

“Fuck that!” Damien growled and Gregg smiled smugly as he grabbed Scott’s wrist and shoved his hand away.

“You guys should listen to your friend and get the fuck out of here before I turn you all in for harassment. Scott lays a hand on me again and I’ll have you all called up on disciplinary charges. You’re just lucky that I let it go before now.”

“You’re the lucky one,” Scott bit out. “I catch you anywhere near Damien or James again and I’ll break your damn arm. I’m through tiptoeing around and putting up with your crap. I don’t care if your dad is on the school board. I’ll make you wish you’d never been born, you piece of shit!”

Gregg just rolled his eyes again sarcastically and a cold smile spread across his lips. “Yeah, you just do that, Scott, and we’ll see if your family’s money can get your ass out of trouble again. Don’t hold your breath, though. My dad already said that if you pulled another stunt like the one with Charles that he was voting for them to expel you no matter how much money you throw at the school board.”

Scott met Gregg’s smug expression with a glare of pure hatred but took a deep, calming breath as he stepped away in response to the calming hand Damien placed on his back. Only then did James relax. He hadn’t been looking forward to trying to break up a fight between Damien’s huge ass boyfriend and Gregg. Scott would’ve killed the guy if he’d lost it. Gregg looked Scott up and down carefully for a moment and seemed to decide that he’d had enough for one day. Without another nasty comment, Gregg finally opened the envelope he’d been holding. Then he pulled the picture out. When he realized that James’ face wasn’t visible in the photo, his eyes widened in shock before narrowing dangerously.

Out of nowhere he dropped the picture and lunged forward, his fist drawn back as he grabbed Damien by the front of his shirt and ground out, “You dirty little whore! I’ll kill you!”

Scott and James saw the move at about the same time and, as if they’d planned it in advance, James reached over to drag Damien back out of reach while Scott rushed forward and grabbed Gregg by the arm before he could connect with Damien’s face. Once he had Damien safely away, James shoved his friend behind him, ignoring Damien’s rather loud complaints as he turned back around just in time to see Scott elbow the guy in the side of the head. “Oh, shit,” Damien gasped as Gregg went down on one knee with a grunt and Scott drew back to punch him square in the face. James’ already racing heart froze in his chest and he lunged to grab the big guy’s arm before he could do any more damage.

“Please, don’t,” James pleaded, trying not to flinch away from the murderous rage on Scott’s blood-red face. That was especially difficult when he shoved James off with a grunt and turned his angry violet eyes on him in disbelief.

“Screw that!” Jock Boy growled as he tightened his grip on the neck of Gregg’s shirt and drew back again.

James quickly stepped into the small gap separating the two to keep Scott from carrying through and getting his ass thrown out of school. He almost got hit for his efforts and couldn’t help but flinch slightly as he held up his hands in a soothing gesture and pleaded, “It’s enough, right? He gets it now, so let’s just go.”

Gregg let out a snort of disgust at the tremble in James’ voice as he shoved James into Scott and struggled to stand up again. “Get the fuck out and don’t come back,” he growled as he shook his head to clear it and then covered the spot where Scott’d nailed him with a shaky hand, like he was trying to hold his brain in his skull.

Damien seemed to have had enough too because, instead of arguing or throwing more insults around, he looked James over as if to reassure himself that he was okay and let out a deep breath before reaching down to retrieve the dropped photo and flipping it in Gregg’s general direction. “Don’t forget, man. I’ll be watching you,” Damien offered as a final warning before taking a few steps back toward the door. Scott immediately grabbed James by the arm and moved to follow and, with one last nervous glance in Gregg’s direction, James gave in and let himself be led away.

As the door was swinging shut behind them, James thought he heard Gregg grumble something at their backs like, “This isn’t over yet,” and he made a mental note to tell Scott as soon as possible. James had known from the moment Damien had snapped that photo in the supply closet that this wasn’t going to end well. That feeling hadn’t changed and he was determined to protect Damien from the fallout. He’d only been trying to help Damien by making his deal with the devil. Instead, it now seemed like he’d just made matters worse. There wasn’t much he could do about it for now, though. It would be a game of wait and see and James was determined to follow through to the end.

*~*~*~*

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