Flaming in the Dorms

A/N: Here's the newest chapter of Flaming and I hope you like it. I tried to lighten things back up again since I hadn't planned to get quite so serious so soon. Cross-dressing fiascoes will ensue so pull out the hairspray and get comfortable! Leave me review if you like it, or if you don't, and I'll be soo happy I might even push the next chapter out sooner, or not, you just never know.

Several people took the time to leave reviews on the last chapter and thank you are definitely in order! So shoutouts go to the following sexy jock lovers: MiriuOniaya, Anon, .., Lisa, Kira Norame, Vic, Bexy31, Curiosity, Gwengwel, and Surrealtraversity.


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Chapter 5 Playing With Fire: Mission Impossible


Makeup? Check. Boobs? Check. Sandals? Check. Hot little denim mini with matching top? Double check. Hair? Ehh, not so much. Damien was trying to fix it into one of those cute little puffy ponytails with the sleek fringes hanging down for bangs but it just looked like crap no matter what he did! Screw it! The bruising on his face was mostly gone and he’d managed to hide it under some heavy foundation but the split lip was still there for all to see. He slapped on a little more blush and lipstick, cursing James for his poor taste in colors, and headed out the door, messy hair and all. Much to Damien’s surprise, James met him at the door and glomped him as soon as he came out!

“What the hell ma… Uh, hello.” Oops! Damien hadn’t noticed they had company already but the blond woman pushed in immediately and grabbed a hand before he knew what was coming.

“You must be Jacqueline! I’m so happy to finally meet you, James talks about you all the time.” Yeah, Damien was willing to bet money on that one. He’d never met James’ sister before and MAN was she tall! Damien was 5’7” and she topped him by at least three inches. Amused that she still held his hand, returned her enthusiastic hello.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a few things about you too. Wow! Which side did you take after James? I think you got stuck on the shallow end of the gene pool in the height department.” James just rolled his eyes and did his best to hide the dirty look he sent Damien’s way.

“Whatever. Jacqueline, I’d like you to meet my sister, Jessica Madison. Jessica, this is Jacqueline Carter.”

Damien passed James a quick look. He didn’t like the fact that the little twink had used his mother’s name. That would be a hard one to explain if their families met at graduation later in the school year. His next thought was how much the two looked alike, height differences aside; same sandy-blond hair, same blue eyes, same full lips, both with round little cherub like faces.

“I’m so glad to finally meet you Jessica! James has told me all about you too! Do you really work on scanlation websites for yaoi manga? That’s just sooo exciting! I’ve always thought James was such a little bishie and would make a perfect…”

“Jacqueline! I don’t think Jessica is into that kind of thing but I do think we’d better head on over to the food court and grab a seat. Don’t you Jessica? I mean, didn’t you say you had to be somewhere around three o’clock?” Damien tried to hold back a snicker at James’ expense while dear, sweet, bossy sister Jessica looked at Damien like he’d crawled out from under a rock.

“Umm. Okay, sure. You ready Jacqueline?” Smiling sweetly up at her, Damien wrapped his arms around one of Jessica’s, like he’d seen girls who were close friends do at the mall, and dragged her along behind him.

“Let’s hurry! I wanna eat lots of food while we’re here! James hardly ever takes me out anywhere like this!” He smothered a grin when he saw the look Jessica shot at James before instantly taking Damien’s side on the matter.

“Aww. That’s too bad. I’ll have a nice looong talk with him later about how to treat a girlfriend, how about that?” Damien stuck out a pouty lip and nodded in agreement that ‘yes that would be just fine with him’ and continued to drag her through the mall at a break-neck speed until they finally reached a table.

After ordering close to twenty bucks worth of food and devouring it like a half-starved animal he smiled up at James’ sister who’d been watching him with great interest for several minutes, and gave her his biggest, happiest smile up to this point. “I’m so happy that we could meet up like this. Can you tell me any nasty little secrets about James from when he was a baby? I’ve always loved stuff like that, it’s just so cuuute!” A nasty twinkle crossed Jessica’s blue eyes and Damien’s smile grew even bigger. He just knew he’d struck gold when James started sputtering beside him.

“Well there was this one time when he was two and he snuck out of the house while our backs were turned. I was only about ten years old at the time, but I’ll never forget the look on mom’s face when she found him out in the back yard!”

“Shut up Jessica!” James was damn near hysterical to make her stop and Damien burst out laughing at his distress as Jessica ignored his desperate pleas and continued anyway.

“Oh, you’ll live! Anyway, he was standing on top of the dog’s house, buck-naked and was peeing off the top onto our poor dog, Ralph. The stupid mutt was half retarded anyway so it was just sitting there watching him! Can you believe that?!” Damien about choked on his third hot dog when he snorted in delight as her uncontrolled giggles attracted everyone’s attention in the area. Oh yeah! Blackmail material!

“Why do you have to tell everybody about that! I was only two at the time, barely old enough to talk for God’s sake! Jeez!” Damien burst out laughing again when he noticed that James’ face was as red as a fire engine. James had never been much for blushing and this was priceless! He definitely needed more.

“Tell me something else! That’s just so crazy, I have to know more.” He leaned in listening intently as Jessica ran down the long list of childhood misdeeds her brother had managed to accumulate and before he knew it, two-thirty had rolled around and James’ sister was packing up to leave. With a sigh of disappointed he went around the table to give her the obligatory female hug goodbye, wishing they had more time to spend with her. James however, didn’t seem amused at all. As soon as she was out of earshot he started on Damien.

“God I hate that! I didn’t think she’d ever leave and what’s with the ‘tell me a story’ shit?” Damien couldn’t help but grin, even though James seemed kind of pissed at him.

“What?! That’s the first thing girls ask about when they meet the family! Don’t you know anything? Jeez!” James gave him a friendly little shove and smirked at him, a little bit of his grouchiness fading away.

“I guess you’re right, but the yaoi comment was just too much! You don’t know my sister very well! She’s one of those know-it-alls and she’ll probably go straight home and look it up after her meeting!” This thought seemed to worry poor James but Damien couldn’t help but snort as he imagined Jessica’s surprised expression when she stumbled onto on of those websites.

“It’s no big deal James. Chicks are into that kind of thing and she won’t automatically assume you’re gay just because your ‘girlfriend’ likes yaoi and thinks you’re a bishie, which you are, by the way.” James sent him a dirty look and Damien started laughing again. He felt more like himself than he had all week and didn’t want the day to end.

“Hey! Why don’t we go to the dollar theater across town and watch a movie or something?” His friend looked a bit interested in the idea but hesitated.

“Well, I guess that would be okay, but don’t you think you should change first or something? What if we run into somebody we know there? Half the guys from school hang out there on Saturday.” Shit! Damien had forgotten he was still in drag.

“Yeah, just give me two seconds and we’re outta here, alright?” They walked back towards the bathrooms and halfway there he sent James out front to wait. It just seemed creepy for him to be dressed like a girl and having a guy following him to the women’s restroom!

He was about five feet from the bathroom door when Damien was suddenly pulled to a halt from behind. Somebody had grabbed his arm and he expected to turn and find Gregg standing there waiting to call him out again. Trying to maintain a calm expression he turned slowly, “Listen Gregg, you’re going to have to…” Oops! That wasn’t Gregg! It was even worse! Scott was standing there with the strangest look on his face that Damien had ever seen, and he quickly pulled his arm away like he’d been burned. Shit!

“Darlene? It is you isn’t it!” The big smile Scott sent his way made Damien want to cry. The day had been going so well until now too! “I’m so glad I found you! I’ve been looking around town for you all week.” Okay? Stalk people much? Damien didn’t know how to feel about this situation. Why would Scott being looking all over town for Darlene? They’d just met that one time, as far as Scott knew anyway, and even then only for a few minutes. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

“Yeah, umm, why exactly were you looking for me? I mean you don’t really know me or anything.” Damien was tempted to be nasty with the man to run him off but after everything that had happened between them lately, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I know, you probably think I’m crazy but it was just like… we clicked or something and I thought maybe we could spend some time together. You know?” Damien froze in place for a second. Not Good! How in the hell was he going to get out of this without hurting Scott’s feelings even more than he already had?

“It’s not that I think you’re a bad person, it’s just that…”

“Is it that Gregg guy?” Scott looked so wounded when he asked about Gregg that Damien grimaced and tried not to grit his teeth in frustration.

“Gregg guy?”

“Yeah, when I first grabbed you, you thought I was somebody named Gregg. Did he put those bruises on your face? Is that why you’re afraid to talk to me?” Poor Scott just looked so sincere and his worry for the imaginary ‘Darlene’ nearly broke Damien’s heart all over again.

“Ummm. Yeah something like that. Look, I’ve gotta go so…” He had to get out of here and quick! Damien was beginning to think this trip to the mall was a really stupid idea, but he’d owed James one, so there wasn’t a lot he could’ve done to get out of it really.

“Wait! I just wanted to see if you’d go out with me sometime. At least give me your phone number or something, or take mine so we can get in touch.” Scott turned on the ‘I may be a big sexy jock but I’m still so pitiful’ look and Damien melted on the spot. God, what he wouldn’t give to kiss those full, juicy lips one more time. He quickly buried that thought six feet underground were it belonged.

“Look. I just…” Before he could think of what to say, a movement about a dozen feet behind Scott caught Damien’s attention and he hissed out loud as he drew in a quick breath. Gregg was here too, but it didn’t seem like he’d spotted them yet. “I gotta go. I’m sorry!” He turned to run away but stopped almost immediately at Scott’s next words.

“Is it that black haired bastard over there?! He goes to my school and he’s a total asshole. Wait here for a second and I’ll go talk to him and tell him to leave you the hell alone!” Damien turned back to Scott in a panic only to fine that massive back walking away in Gregg’s direction. FUCK! Damien jumped into action and hurried around to block Scott’s advance.

“You can’t do that! You’ve got the wrong idea, okay?!” He glanced over his shoulder and noticed Gregg was looking in their general direction although he hadn’t laid eyes on them yet. He knew he’d regret this later, but being ousted in the mall with Scott beside him just wasn’t an option! “Hey, maybe you’re right. I didn’t mean to be so rude earlier and it’s not your fault what some other guy did. You seem pretty nice so let’s go out!” Scott looked kind of confused but Damien was going into panic mode about now so he tugged on that big, muscular arm and started walking away from where Gregg was standing.

“Right this second you mean?” Scott seemed dazed by the sudden change in attitude.

“Yeah, there’s no time like the present man.” Oops! Realizing he’d slipped into Damien mode, he quickly tried to cover his tracks. “I mean; I like men who live in the moment! Planning everything down to the last second is just kind of annoying. You know?” Scott just gave him another strange look and nodded agreement while Damien dragged him out the front doors, past a gaping, bewildered James. He looked back at his friend and mouthed the word ‘Gregg’ pointing back at the mall and kept going.

James just watched him go, in stunned silence, as Damien continued to drag poor Scott towards the bus stop. Once they were on the bus and out of danger, Damien hesitated. He’d really gotten himself in deep shit this time! Next time him and James played the ‘dress Damien up in drag’ game they’d have to take it to the next town over or something! Jeez. Scott led them to a seat in the back and just looked at him for a few seconds after they sat down.

“Well, do you want something to eat?” The big guy was trying to be considerate, Damien knew that, but he’d just scarfed down half the food court and then ran all over hell and back. The thought of more food was enough to make his stomach turn. It must have been obvious since Scott changed the offer. “Oh! We could head downtown and go to the dollar theater. Most of the guys from school hangout there with their girlfriends on the weekend. There might even be somebody you know there!”

That’s exactly what Damien was afraid of! He doubted that the entire population of their school was as completely oblivious as Scott seemed to be. “Why don’t we go down to that little park near my school? I just don’t feel like fighting a crowd today.” Scott gave him that sexy smile and Damien’s cock twitched in his pants. Going a week without fooling around wasn’t making ‘little Damien’ very happy. He tried to give it a thump to settle it down a bit without being too obvious, but Scott didn’t seem to notice.

“Yeah, that’s sound like a plan. When do you have to be home? I’ll take you and make sure you get there okay.” Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Boy scout was Scott trying to make his life a living hell!

“Uhh. That’s not such a good idea actually. Umm. You see, I have to be there in a couple of hours and if my dad sees me with a guy, he’ll go ape-shit.” Smooooth Damien. Real smooth. Now Scott would be trying to follow him home to whip his imaginary dad’s ass but to his surprise, Scott gave in easy enough.

“Oh. Alright then, we’ll just hang out at the park until you have to go home.”

With a sigh of relief Damien settled back and tried to think of a way to escape once they reached their destination. Unfortunately, nothing good came to mind, so when they finally arrived at the park, he followed Scott to a nearby picnic table and sat down. An awkward silence ensued and they watched the few children playing on the swings nearby since neither one of them seemed to know what to say. Now Damien realized why people went on the first few dates to movies and shit. It was to give them something to distract themselves from the lack of things to talk about.

After a couple of minutes of blatant staring and uncomfortable silence Scott finally spoke up. “So, how long have you lived in Morgan county?” Damien sighed. Great, just what he needed. Making up lies and excuses was exhausting but he carried on the best he could, deciding to keep it as close to the truth as possible.

“Not too long. A couple of years actually.”

“Cool. That’s about when my roommate, Damien, moved here from Indiana. You’d like him I think. You two kind of remind me of each other, the way you look and some of your actions.” Scott looked at him intently again and Damien cringed at the thought he was about to get busted after all the trouble he’d gone through keeping up his disguise. “Do you know very many people at your school?”

“Not really. Most of them are assholes so I just keep to myself for the most part.”

“How about your old school? Did you know a lot of people there?” Scott obviously wasn’t going to be put off on this, so Damien gave in until he could think of a way to change the subject. The less they talked about him, the better.

“Not really. I got mixed up in a lot of shit at my old school. That’s why we had to move here. My parents didn’t think I should stay there anymore and when my dad came up for a transfer, they jumped at it. But enough about me. Tell me about your school. I’ve never met anyone who went to a private school before. Is it all ‘Harry Potter’ like at Hogwarts, with groups of guys living in stone rooms and owls sending notes off to the parents?” Scott laughed at him and rolled his eyes. Distraction was the key here. If Damien could switch the conversation over to Scott, he’d have a much easier time getting through this.

“Umm. Not really. We’ve got all the modern magic there. Like cell phones, books that don’t eat people, two guys to a room. It’s actually pretty boring once you get used to never having any time to yourself.”

“Your roommate must be a real jerk if he won’t give you any privacy.” The look on Scott’s face darkened a bit and he threw an irritated glance his way, confusing Damien. “Jeez, just kidding man.” The look slipped away and Scott’s sunny smiled popped back out.

“Nah. Don’t worry about it. It’s just that Dae gets so much shit from everybody that I get overprotective sometimes. Actually we’ve been into it all week and haven’t seen each other all that much.” It was hard for Damien to see that sad expression on Scott’s face knowing he was the one who’d put it there.

“That sucks, but I guess that kinda thing happens a lot in dorms. What with so many people crammed in like sardines and always in each other’s faces.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Damien searched his mind for something that he could use to brighten Scott’s mood back up since the subject of their relationship seemed to be a no-go.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’ve got Christmas break coming up real soon and a couple of weeks back home with the parents and things should go back to normal.” His change of topic failed miserably and Scott’s mood seemed to darken even more.

“I don’t have any parents. They passed away a couple of years ago and it’s just me and Grandmother Winthrop now. She’s in control of my estate until I turn twenty-one.” Estate? What the hell was Scott talking about? Sure, the guys at the school were pretty well off, they almost had to be since it cost a lot of money to go there, but an estate? That sounded like something one of those mega-rich families would have.

“I’m sorry I brought it up. I didn’t know.” Scott looked at him strangely and finally that sexy smile came back out to play.

“Why would you know something like that? Like you said earlier, we really don’t know each other that well. But don’t feel bad about it. It was tough at first but I’d been away from home for almost five years when it happened and even though it was sad, my day-to-day life didn’t change at all. I was already used to only seeing them on weekends and holidays anyway.” Something in the flippant way Scott talked about his situation made Damien want to cry. He thought back to all of the everyday things he’d done with his family over the years and tried to imagine what his life would have been like without them.

“Was there a reason you couldn’t stay with them? Were they abusive or something like that?”

“Oh! God no! They were just so busy. Dad was in charge of the corporation stuff and mom was a doctor. She traveled around the world working with underprivileged children, giving out vaccinations and shit like that. I went with her for years but when I turned twelve, they decided I needed more structure and a formal education so they sent me to this school. My dad went to middle school and high school here so it was just natural that I would to.” Scott noticed Damien’s shocked expression and blushed bright pink. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to bore you with all that.”

“No! You didn’t. I’m just shocked to hear all of this shit! I keep waitin’ for you to tell me you’ve met Tarzan or something.” Scott burst out laughing and finally things started to go more smoothly as they both relaxed. Their time together slipped by pretty quickly after that and he learned that Scott was from a rich family and was already set for life, and that his grandma was really old fashioned and liked to keep up appearances.

It came as a shock to Damien to realize how little he’d actually known about his sexy roomy and it occurred to him that Scott had been keeping him at a distance during the four months they’d lived together. Maybe the gay thing had bothered him more than Damien realized. The idea that Scott wasn’t as accepting as he’d thought, and had just helped him out because of some misplaced sense of honor, made Damien sick to his stomach and suddenly he couldn’t get away fast enough.

Glancing down at where his watch normally would’ve been he stood up and looked around. “Look, it’s been fun, but I’ve gotta get going. I’m supposed to be home in a few minutes and my dad’ll be pissed if I’m late. I’ll see you around.” He took off, hoping to get away without any more complications, but Scott followed behind him.

“At least let me give you my phone number and then you can call me if you want to go out again.” Damien just couldn’t figure out why Scott was so dead set on dating ‘Darlene’! If anything ‘she’d’ been kind of rude and cold towards the poor guy! But he stopped and waited while Scott dug around for the cards with his phone number on them that he kept in his wallet. Well, at least those made a little more sense now. He’d always wondered why Scott carried around something like that. Damien took the offered card and tucked it into the pocket of his denim skirt.

“Thanks. I might call sometime but to be honest, I’m not real interested in a relationship right now. Thanks for today though. I enjoyed it.” It was best to end this now. He didn’t want to leave Scott with the impression that a call was likely to come and hurt him even more later on. What Damien really wanted was to kiss Scott’s brow and ease the furrow of disappointment he’d put there.

But he couldn’t pretend to be someone else and there was no way in HELL he was going out in drag again anytime soon. Every time he did something like this seemed to happen, and then there was Gregg popping up everywhere he went too! Scott just stood there, depressed by his failure to hook up with ‘Darlene’, as Damien made his way toward the bus stop, trying his best to push away the guilt that seemed to be such a close friend lately. He refused to look back at the mess he’d made as he climbed on the bus and headed back to the mall.

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If anyone is interested in being added to the update list let me know at jlori10@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to add your name.
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Drop me a review and tell me what you think about the new chapter! I'm really happy with the response so far and have spent a lot more time on this story than I'd planned on, much to the chagrin of my A/C readers, but I really appreciate it when readers take time to leave their opinions or vote on a chapter! Thanks so much!

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Surrealtraversity: Hello again! I have to agree with you that both Damien and Scott are masters of self-delusion but hey, they're teenagers so they'll figure it out. Oh! And the wait you mentioned won't be long (chapter or 2 at the most) and Gregg... He really is a stupid assface, can't argue there, I hope Scott kicks his ass later on. Not sure about that yet but, oh well. See you next time?

Gwengwel: Oh no no no no. I won't go there. Attempted is as close as I'm willing to go on that one since I agree with you for the most part. I know I kind of went there of 'Forced Submission' but that was a one time thing as far as I'm concerned and I came close to scrapping the whole story more than once. Now, as to the neighbor's dog, David is a prime candidate. I still need Gregg for my plot line so I'll draw the line with him but tell neighbor's poochy I said to enjoy!

Curiosity: I'm so happy you like it so far! And thank you for taking time to review! I love new names popping up on my list. (I'm just always so curious about who the anonymous readers might be!) Please stick with me and let me know what you think!

Vic: Yeah, Damien gets a lot of grief and has since Kindergarten. His parents sent him to the private school to get him away from the people in his old school because they actually feared for his life! But he's quite a flamboyant and mouthy person so tends to attract the wrong kind of attention wherever he goes. Sigh. And I think subconsciously that Scott knows something's up but he's not ready to face it just yet. He's too afraid of the consequences of his feelings for Damien.

Bexy31:Yeah, poor Damien gets a hard time but like he said it's a hell of a lot better than what he dealt with at his old school, for now. And don't worry Scott and Damien will make up soon enough!

Kira Norame: Hope I didn't disappoint! It's seems that the plots thickens at this point! Dun Dun Dun!!!!

Lisa: You hit the nail on the head. Like James said in the first chapter, he could count on one hand the number of times that he'd had his ass kicked in his four years at the school while Damien on the other hand couldn't keep his mouth shut. When James tells him to keep it on the down low, Damien pointed out that he'd tried that at his old school and in his case, things had actually been a lot worse. Now he just speaks his mind and faces the consequences or as he put it, "Screw it! I figure if they don’t like me they can try to kick my ass and get it out of their systems. Assholes!” lol Anywho, as for Scott's slut comment, he really didn't even think that, he was just hurt and lashing out. He does have a different, more old fashioned belief system though because of his background so he has a more mature outlook where relationships are concerned.

Anon: Thanx! Hope you keep reading!

MiriuOniaya: Eek! You're psychic! Usually it's Surrealtraversity that does that! Yeah, I guess by now it's obvious that they do, in fact, run into each other during Damien's latest stint of cross-dressing. Have a nice little date too. Gregg and David are both assholes, and don't forget mean old Charles from chapter one, he's still out there somewhere! Guys at that age really can be mean to each other though (my 3 brothers proved that well enough when they went through high school) and a lot of it is just too much testosterone floating around but Gregg is just creepy! Oh! and I agree that James is a wonderful friend but I often catch myself thinking that Damien, not so much. He even refers to the poor guy as 'that stupid little twink' in his mind.