Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 22:56:36 -0700
From: Seiji Kan <kanseiji@gmail.com>
Subject: In a Moment - Chapter Five (Gay/College)

This work contains elements of sexuality between teens over 18, adults
and includes homosexuality in prevalence. Please exercise proper
discretion. Do not read this if it is illegal for you to do so or if
the subject matter will potentially offend you. The author assumes no
responsibility for misuse or misconduct associated with the
dissemination or viewing of this work. Any characters, representations
or events should be assumed to be purely fictional with any possible
resemblance to the real world being entirely coincidental or otherwise
such that it may be treated as innocuous. This work is copyrighted by
the author, who retains all rights and priviledges. This work should
not be reproduced without the written consent of the author. Please
direct all feedback and comments to kanseiji@gmail.com. Thanks for
reading.

This story is based heavily on the events and characters of From Where
I Stand. Though the author endeavors to make this an independent,
standalone work, it may still be beneficial for readers to have read
FWIS or to refer to it at their own discretion.

IN RE: Harvard University
Any descriptions or depictions regarding Harvard University are meant
to be fictional and should not be taken as accurate representations.

Check out the latest updates and leave comments at
http://inamomentstory.blogspot.com

[ in a moment ] by kanseiji

Chapter Five - A Fork in the Road

A rush of air whistled through the doorway as Chris and Ian slid
inside. Ian shivered slightly as he tried to warm up, the cool fall
weather a tad unfamiliar to him. As he adjusted to being inside again,
Ian was caught a little off guard by his surroundings. The space was
large, but there wasn't a lot of open air...the place was full of
racks and racks of bikes.

"Wow..." Ian muttered as he looked around in awe.

"Nice huh? This is my home bike shop," Chris said, holding out his
arms in introduction.

"This is awesome...although suddenly I feel like a complete amateur..."

"Hehe, yeah don't worry about it. The guys here are really nice and
chill...speaking of which..." Chris trailed off as he stood on his
tiptoes and peered around. After glancing in a few directions, he
homed in on a target and waved. "Terry!" he called out into what
appeared to be a nigh-endless row of bikes.

An arm poked up through the metal frames and waved back. Not long
after, a figure immerged and greeted Chris with a handshake and a hug.
"Chris! It's been too long, buddy...where've you been?"

"Eh, school...always getting in the way," Chris responded with a
sarcastic smile. Ian stepped up a little to see Chris's conversation
partner. Terry was taller than Chris at around 5'11" and so towered
over Ian. He also looked like he was a good person to talk to about
anything athletic...Terry reminded Ian of Lance Armstrong, but buffer.
A friendly smile capped Terry off nicely and a cheery air seemed to
follow him.

"Yeah school does that," Terry said before turning toward Ian. "So
Chris, are you gonna be rude and not introduce us?"

Chris's eyes lit up in realization. "Oh right, haha. Terry, this is
Ian...Ian, Terry. Ian goes to school with me...and Terry here is my
bike guru."

"Nice to meet you, Ian," Terry greeted with a firm handshake. "So
Harvard huh? Enjoying it?"

Ian snickered. "If by enjoy you mean getting worked to death, then
yeah, totally."

"Haha, yeah I can imagine." Terry turned to Chris for a moment. "So
what brings you guys in here?"

Chris feigned hurt. "Oh what, I can't just come and visit?"

"Awww...always the sweet talker," Terry cooed as he wrapped an arm
around Chris's shoulders and lightly fussed his hair.

"But seriously, Ian here needs a ride and I wasn't about to recommend
him to anywhere else."

Terry laughed and turned to Ian. "We don't even need to
advertise...Chris here just points everyone to us."

Chris rolled his eyes. "Yeah...so that's like, what...five people?"

"Haha. So Ian, what are you looking for?"

Ian shrugged. "I'm not really sure I guess. This all seems a bit more
'professional' than what I'm used to..."

"Ah, well...not to worry, let's figure out what will be good for you."
Terry guided Ian further into the store before pausing to turn back to
Chris. "Chris...I'm guessing you can keep yourself entertained." Chris
flashed a big toothy smile...a kid in a candy store kind of smile.
"Yeah that's what I thought...we'll catch up to you in a bit."

Once Terry and Ian were out of view, Chris's expression changed
drastically. The friendly and cheerful look faded to sullen and down.
Chris just sighed, knowing all too well how visible his mood was at
that moment. He glanced quickly over at a clock and turned to leave
the store. As the door closed behind him, he pulled out his cell
phone. It had already vibrated a few times while he was on the way to
the store with Ian, but he hadn't answered. Flipping it open, he saw
three missed calls...all from Adam.

Closing his eyes, Chris let a quiet "fuck," slip out of his mouth. He
took a deep breath, swiftly unlocked his bike and sped away from the
store into the parking lot. Chris began riding around in large circles
at high speed...trying to wear down his feelings.

****

"Damn it," Adam muttered as he shut his cell phone. He had been
calling every 20 minutes or so since he noticed that Chris had left
the room. Pulling his hair in frustration, Adam turned around in the
room until his eyes fell upon his desk. His eyes immediately locked
onto the slip of paper Sean had given him. Half of Adam wanted to take
it and burn it....the other half was itching to call the number...the
first half then promptly kicked Adam mentally.

"Why the fuck did you leave that out for Chris to see, you dumbshit,"
Adam spat under his breath. He shut his eyes tightly. "Why'd you have
to fuck this all up..."

****

The door to the room creaked open and closed despite Adam's efforts to
keep it quiet. He didn't want to deal with anything right at that
moment...it was still way too early and his mind was set on his bed.
As he crept into the common room, Adam looked around for signs of
life. Chris's bedroom door was closed, so Adam, as covertly as
possible, tried to open the door. Chris often kept the door closed,
but only locked it when he was there...just in case Adam needed
something. A slow attempt at turning the knob revealed that it was
locked, so Chris was most likely asleep in the room. Dropping his hand
away from the knob, Adam leaned his head on the door lightly, a quiet
sigh slipping out. He lingered for a few precious heartbeats before
moving toward his own room. By habit, the contents of Adam's pockets
spilled out onto his desk before he slipped into his bedroom and
closed the door. Nothing would have seemed immediately out of the
ordinary with the small pile of items...his wallet, cell phone, keys,
ID holder...but something was out of the ordinary. A small white slip
of paper lay on top of the stack, waiting to be seen.

****

A low hum of spinning wheels and gears was all that Chris could hear.
He was doing his absolute best to just ignore everything else in the
world...but despite not paying much attention to his surroundings,
Chris's mind was firmly set on something very worldly. No matter how
hard he tried, he just couldn't push Adam out of his mind.

After finally wearing himself out, Chris pulled off of the parking lot
and went back into the bike shop. He waved to someone behind the
counter, who waved back as he grabbed some tools. He always felt very
at home in there...he knew most of the people working there and always
seemed to be tweaking his bike. More than once, he had considered just
getting a job there...at least then he could make some money while
"wasting time". He never really pursued it since his mother
disapproved...she always had work for Chris to do if he had the time
since he was an intuitive searcher. She frequently needed to find some
reference, research paper or something and Chris always managed to
track things down. A couple of the other lawyers at her firm found out
about this and Chris started receiving a steady stream of work to do
in his spare time...plus it was decent money, so he had no objections
there. Still, something about just goofing around in the bike shop for
hours and hours always had an appeal.

"Hey Chris!" a voice called out. Chris looked up from his bike and saw
Ian and Terry approaching with a new toy.

"Hey...so Ian, find something?" Chris inquired as he stepped over and
started checking out the bike Terry had brought along.

Ian was smiling widely. "I think I'm in love."

"Haha...Terry's a good matchmaker. He introduced me to my 'significant
other' here," Chris joked, pointing to his own bike.

Terry just shook his head and laughed. "That was easy...it was love at
first sight for you. Well, I was gonna take Ian outside so he can ride
it around a little to see if it's a good fit."

Ian grinned nervously. "I have the distinct feeling I'm gonna make a
fool out of myself with the two of you watching." Chris looked away,
embarrassed while Terry laughed aloud. "Did I miss something?"

Terry spoke up, "Oh nothing...just Chris here...when he got his bike,
he fell over trying to ride it the first time."

Chris groaned. "It was a lot lighter than I was used to, so I
misgauged the balance and...yeah...let's not talk about that anymore."

"Well, I feel a little better now," Ian joked as the three walked
outside to the parking lot. Soon enough, Ian was riding in circles,
trying to get a feel for his new toy while Terry and Chris looked on.

"So how've ya been man? We were starting to get worried around here,"
Terry inquired as Chris hadn't been around in a few weeks.

Chris put up what he thought was a convincing façade. "I've been
good...no complaints." Terry just leered at him. "Grr...why do all of
my friends have to be perceptive?"

Terry shrugged. "Just lucky I guess. So anyway, what's going on man?"
He thought about it for a second or two. "Guy trouble?" Chris smiled a
little. Terry knew Chris and Jase before they even knew each other as
both were avid bikers and regulars at the shop...and Chris had
introduced Adam to the place.

"Yeah kinda..."

"Hmm...well, if you need someone to talk to, you know you can always hit me up."

"Thanks, Terry."

"Anytime...oh, speaking of guys, how's Jase?"

"He's fine, I think...we haven't been talking as much lately because
of school. Our schedules kinda don't fit."

"That's too bad. Well, you'll see him when he comes home for break or
whatever, right?"

"That's the plan. He's not especially crazy about staying at his
house, so he's probably gonna end up crashing at my place."

Terry cocked an eyebrow. "So are you two gonna..."

"Haha...we'll see what happens. Besides, he'll probably be seeing
someone by then anyway."

"Oh? So you two talked about seeing other people and stuff?" Terry
asked, slightly surprised.

"Well, we 'broke up'," Chris said with emphasis.

Terry's surprise grew. "Man...how did I not know that?"

Chris thought for a moment. "Hmm...I guess I didn't mention it before
huh? Oops."

"Heh...wow, I never thought you two would break up...I mean, it was
friendly right?"

"Oh completely...we just didn't want to do the long distance thing and
end up ruining it."

"Ah...I guess that makes sense." Terry looked confused again. "So
wait, are you seeing someone else then?"

Chris's expression gave away the answer before he even spoke. "Nope."

Terry cringed a tad, feeling that he had hit a sore spot. "Oh...sorry
man. We should really catch up more often."

"Definitely...I'll make sure I come by a little more often. Oh and if
you can, you should come up to Cambridge to hang out when you have
time. You could even, dun dun dun...ride in the bike lanes!" Chris
said as dramatically as possible.

"Pssh...bike lanes...what's the fun in roading unless there's the
constant threat of being run over by some crazy fucker?"

"Well...you could end up running over stupid college students walking
in the bike lanes."

Terry threw up his arms and yelled, "BLIND PEDESTRIAN! TEN POINTS!"
Chris laughed. Just then, they both looked toward the parking lot as
they saw Ian ride up.

"So how is it?" Chris inquired.

"Perfect," Ian said gleefully. "I'm so getting this."

"Sweet," Terry said, motioning toward the store. "Let's get it
adjusted and you can take her home...oh and I'll give you Chris's
discount, haha."

"Score!" Ian laughed. "But hey, you're not gonna get in trouble for
that or anything, right?"

Terry laughed. "Please...the owner gave Chris the discount, not me.
Besides, we'd rather have regulars that we give discounts to than a
bunch of one-time asswipes that we take special pleasure in
gouging..." Terry cringed again. "Oops...you didn't hear that last
part." Ian buckled over laughing as Chris shook his head.

"You're lucky Pat didn't hear you say that," Chris said, chuckling.

Terry looked around cautiously. "No shit..."

As they walked up to the counter, Chris jumped...his pocket was
vibrating again. Ian noticed that time, so Chris excused himself
outside. Pulling out his phone, he saw the caller ID...Adam again. He
took a long, deep breath.

"Guess I gotta talk to him sometime."

Just as he thought that Adam was going to hang up, Chris opened the phone.

****

"God, why the fuck would I do that," Adam said aloud, pulling
fruitlessly at his short hair. He had been pacing back and forth in
his room for a good 15 minutes, trying to get a hold of Chris. After
his fifth failed attempt, Adam tossed his phone on his dresser and
fell onto his bed. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he
shuffled around until he was lying on his stomach and holding a
pillow. He lay there trying to think things through, but his mind was
chaotic at best and he felt utterly incapable of forming a steady
stream of thought. Acquiescing, he stopped trying to make sense of
what was going through his head and just dug his face into the warm
softness of the pillow.

Things hadn't gone according to plan that morning...that is, if Adam
had a plan. The events of the previous night started playing out in
his mind as he lay in the stillness of the empty room. His mind took
him to when he had gone with Sean to his room. Adam unconsciously dug
his face deeper into his pillow as the memory streamed through.

****

Sean had talent...there was no doubt about that in Adam's mind. Adam
had always felt a little awkward when being intimate...always a little
unsure about how to act or what to do. Sean however had no such
problems...or at least he didn't show it. Following his initial
prompting, Adam had let Sean take over the lead and let himself just
flow along. A little hazy from the alcohol in his system, Adam felt
like things were happening in slow motion, but was thoroughly enjoying
every minute of it.

Sean just seemed to have everything down cold. With neither he nor
Adam really noticing, Sean had maneuvered them to his bed, where they
continued to make out passionately, opening his eyes periodically just
to sneak peeks at Adam's writhing form beneath him. Instinctively,
Sean shifted around with a series of slow, fluid motions until he was
squarely atop of Adam. Given his mental state, it took a few seconds
for Adam to realize that Sean was slowly, but forcefully grinding into
him. The sensual feelings started pouring into Adam's head and forced
him to come up for air. Sean pulled his face away and smiled upon
seeing the expression from Adam.

"One would think I was doing something right," Sean joked, eliciting a
small laugh from Adam as he wriggled slightly at the sensations Sean
was causing. "Well, I'll take that as a yes..." Before Sean got too
far, something clicked in Adam's head and prompted him to try to sit
up. Sean was slightly confused, but backed off as Adam rose.

Holding his face in his hands briefly, Adam looked up to face a
confused Sean. "I...Sean...I just..." The words just wouldn't come out
properly.

Sean stared into Adam's eyes...then looked down in realization.
Holding Adam's hands, Sean began, "Hey, it's ok...this is probably too
fast, right?"

Adam thought silently, "Among other things..." Sighing, he responded,
"Sean...it's just...I mean, I don't want you to get the wrong idea..."

Sean cringed slightly and slowly let go of Adam's hands.
"Oh...sorry...I just...I guess I thought..."

Adam quickly cut him off, "No, no...it's not that...Sean, I like you...a lot."

A look of surprise and relief replaced Sean's previous expression.
"Oh...whew...so, what's wrong then?"

"I'm in love with someone already," a voice in Adam's head
volunteered. Physically shaking his head to clear that thought, Adam
responded, "It's just...I don't...I'm not sure I'm ready for this."
Adam kicked himself mentally after saying that, thinking that he just
blew off Sean completely. His eyes shut, Adam didn't see, however,
that Sean was smiling until he replaced his hands on Adam's.

"Hey, it's ok...like I said, this was a little fast, for both of us
looks like." Sean gave Adam's hands a light squeeze. "But that doesn't
mean I'm gonna give up on it though."

Adam's head drooped. "I'm a mess," he admitted.

"Aren't we all? Besides," Sean said, running his fingers through
Adam's hair. "I think this is one mess that I want to get to know a
lot better." Adam held his eyes shut as he brought his own hand up to
where Sean running his fingers. "So...um..." Sean stammered for a
moment, trying to figure out the proper words. "You can stay here
tonight...y'know, if you want...I mean, we don't have to...err...I
mean you don't have to..." He stopped short as he felt Adam squeeze
his hand.

"I want to stay...for a while."

Sean grinned. "Glad to hear it."

Not long after, the two were tucked into the bed, Adam cradled
comfortably in Sean's arms. In the darkness, Adam's thoughts drifted
between the person holding him and the person he dreamt of holding.
The feelings bounced around in his mind until they finally lost
momentum, letting Adam drift away.

****

"Ace? I'm going ok?" Justin whispered into Chris's ear as he climbed out of bed.

"Ghhremmm...ltterrr." Chris's response was unintelligible, but Justin
got the gist of it. He gave Chris a light hug and crept out of the
room.

Despite still being mostly asleep, Chris instantly felt the void left
by Justin. He shivered slightly as his brain slowly started up.
Cracking open his eyes, he barely made out that it was almost 11 in
the morning from his alarm clock. Groaning, he forced himself to climb
out from the warmth of his bed. His grogginess was evident as Chris
stumbled out of his bedroom and into the common room. He made a b-line
for the mini-frig, where he kept a stock of cold coffee for
kick-starting the day. A large bottle of pitch black liquid emerged
from the frig and Chris started chugging.

Standing for a few moments to catch his breath, Chris walked over and
sat down at his desk. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room
idly before his eyes came to rest on Adam's desk. He saw Adam's things
there and then glanced at the closed door.

"He must have been out late...he's usually up by now," Chris thought.

Turning back toward his own desk, Chris woke his computer to do his
morning routine...checking e-mail, a quick glance at CNN.com to make
sure the world hadn't gone to hell the previous night and then the
weather for the day. Just as the routine wrapped up, Chris heard some
noise from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Adam
shuffling out of his room, looking scarcely conscious. Chris was still
a little upset that Adam didn't show up the night before, but it
quickly faded...he always thought Adam was just adorable in the
morning...hair fussed up, eyes barely open and dragging his feet
along.

"Morning sunshine," Chris jested.

"Huhhghh? Grmm...morning," Adam grumbled out. Chris chuckled slightly
before getting up and handing Adam a bottle of coffee, which Adam
gladly accepted. "Thanks..."

"Hehe, no problem...so were you out late?"

"Huh? Oh...yeah, something like that."

Adam's nervousness about the subject was evident in his voice, so
Chris decided not to push it. Adam excused himself shortly after to
take a shower as Chris started to get his thoughts together for the
day. He remembered that he had an appointment with Ian, but also felt
that he should at least try to fix things up with Adam. Spending the
day in the hometown seemed like an ideal way to reconcile things, so
Chris sat himself down to wait on Adam. Slightly anxious, Chris began
to look around the room to try and fill the dead time. In a bout of
impatience and wanting to avoid any awkwardness with Adam, Chris
decided to go find Ian and to just leave Adam a note. Chris scribbled
a quick message for Adam to call once he was back to see if he wanted
to go to Quincy. Walking over to Adam's desk, Chris dropped the note
on top of Adam's things and quickly turned to leave. The note fell
perfectly atop the slip of paper bearing Sean's number, having
narrowly evaded detection.

"Adam, I'm heading to Quincy with Ian. Give me a call when you get
back if you want to go. --Chris"

Chris grabbed his bike and rushed out of the room, cell phone in hand
to track down Ian. As he left, the gust from the door opening and
closing blew through the room, rustling a few papers, the
curtains...and blew a tiny slip of paper off of Adam's desk to parts
unknown...

*****