Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:18:37 -0500
From: Jonothan Wolf <jwolf24450@gmail.com>
Subject: The List Chapter 13: Riley

	**Standard disclaimer applies. This is purely fiction (if based
only slightly on actual events). Don't read if you shouldn't because you're
under 18 or live in a backwards area. I appreciate any and all feedback, so
please email me at jwolf24450@gmail.com. Enjoy the story!

	Chapter 12: Riley

	Specimen's Name: Riley

	Height: 5'9''

	Build: 145, slim

	Age: 18, freshman

	Occupation: Student (English)

	Measurements: 6' cut

	The bomb dropped on Monday afternoon and I remember it like it was
yesterday. After falling asleep at Kyle's on Saturday night, we woke up,
cleaned his house before his parents got home, packed up our cars and had
dinner with his family. I remember being extremely nervous at dinner,
thinking about how much I loved hanging out with the Wriggs clan-- I
didn't to screw it up. His parents were really nice and sweet. His brother
was a politician in the making and Kyle seemed right at home with them once
his nerves softened after a glass of wine.

	As we drove back to campus, Kyle and I in my car and Jason taking
back Kyle's BMW, we decided that the next two weeks before Christmas break
would be big weeks for school, so we talked through when we'd hang out
during our busy schedules. I had exams starting the Monday after school
resumed, so I'd probably be hustling all weekend to get ready.

	"The Sigmas usually have a midnight breakfast as a study break
before exams start," Kyle said as we were pulling into University Park. "I
think it's Sunday night, if you want to go." I didn't say anything. I had
my reservations. My interaction with the Sigmas up to now had been kind of
weird, especially with three different ones saying that they'd heard great
things about me. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend too much time at the frat
house until I figured out what they were all talking about and why.

	"Yeah," I finally responded. "Let me know."

       When we parted ways to go back to our rooms, we'd decided to have
lunch on Wednesday, dinner on Friday and to spend Saturday "studying"
together. The rest of the week would be a master class in cramming.

	When I got to the room and saw Spencer, I was reminded that I was
annoyed with him. He was on his computer watching Hulu and I immediately
grilled into him.

	"We need to caucus," I said, putting my duffle bag down and sitting
on his bed.

	"How was the weekend at la casa de sus novio?" he asked me, closing
his laptop and turning to face me. I noticed he had his Spanish textbook
out next to his computer. "Did he fuck your face blue?"

	"We're not talking about me and Kyle right now, amigo," I said,
looking at Spencer. "We're talking about you, and how you told Kyle about
you and me."

	"I didn't think that was a big deal," Spencer said cavalierly. He
reached into our fridge and pulled out a Gatorade. "It was before ya'll
started dating."

	"I know that, and it shouldn't be a big deal," I said to him. "But
Kyle is... you know. He was bothered by it."

	"Hmm," Spencer said, taking a drink of Gatorade. "Not my problem."
I gave him a look with my eyebrow raised and my lips pursed. "Ok, ok. I'm
sorry. Listen, I didn't mean to upset him or anything. What did he even say
to you?"

	"That it was wrong of me to not tell him that you took my
virginity," I said. "As if we're still hooking up or whatever. It was just
awkward and stupid."

       I lay back onto Spencer's bed and crossed my hands behind my head.

       "And then when I asked him who he'd slept with before we started
dating, he acted like he was already asleep or something, which probably
means he's hiding something he doesn't want to tell me." Then I had a
thought. These two were old childhood friends. Of course Spencer would know
more about Kyle's sexual past than I did, even if he didn't realize he knew
anything at all. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would
you?"

	"About what?" Spencer had gotten up and was putting a pack of
popcorn into the microwave.

	"No, never mind," I said, pretending like it wasn't a big
deal. "It's just that Kyle said he'd had sex with two guys before we
started dating. Of course you wouldn't know any of them because I'm the
first guy you found out about."

	"Yep," Spencer said, popping some popcorn into his mouth. He sat
down next to me on his bed and offered me some popcorn. I shook my
head. "Of course, I always sort of suspected when we were in high school."

	Bait bitten, I thought. "Oh yeah?" I asked casually. I had to let
Spencer slip out whatever he knew. I'd process the info on my own.

	"Yep," he said. "He'd always come out here and visit his brother
our senior year. He thought he was a real hotshot. He'd be out here like
every other weekend at a Sigma party, or whatever. I always thought, you
know, who the hell is he driving down here to see? Him and Jason are close,
but come on, you know? That's a little excessive."

	"Yeah," I nodded along just listening. "Did he ever talk about
anyone?"

	"I guess I had conditioned myself for all of the girl stories,"
Spencer said. "Be he did almost always talk about hanging out with this guy
named Rusty at Sigma parties. I just thought the guy had taken Kyle under
his wing, or something."

	My ears perked up. He'd always go back to Colleyville with stories
about Rusty? What kind of stories could those be? Did Kyle come all the way
down to Dallas every other weekend just to hang out with Rusty? `He has a
thing for younger guys,' Michael had said when he was rubbing me down. Did
that `thing' start with my boyfriend?

	"Any stories in particular," I asked Spencer.

	"Oh hell no," he said to me. "I'm not getting in the middle of
this. If you want to know if he's hooked up with Rusty, you should just ask
him yourself."

	"You owe me this, Spence," I said sitting up and looking at
him. "You're the one that started this whole thing. I don't want to know
that much; I just want to know if he slept with Rusty."

	"Why does it matter?" Spencer asked, looking at me square in the
face. He was asking a valid question. Why did it matter to me? Probably for
the same reason it mattered to Kyle that I'd slept with Spencer and didn't
tell him.

	"It doesn't," I said with feigned nonchalance. I lay back
down. "I'm just curious. He knows about everyone I've been with now. I just
want to even the score."

	"One, you're a liar and you're bad at it. I know the thought of
your tiny little boyfriend writhing around with a hot and sweaty frat stud,
his cock all over Kyle's ass, just pumping in and out and in and out just
drives you crazy," Spencer said. He stopped describing it just as I was
getting ready to lose my cool. "Two, he doesn't know about everyone you've
been with. Should I pull out the list to remind you of all the guys you've
fucked that Kyle has no idea about?"

	"Not necessary, I think I'll remember on my own," I replied,
tartly. Neither of those reasons negated the fact that Spencer owed me this
and when I reminded him of that, he agreed to meet up with Kyle for lunch
tomorrow and ask him about Rusty.

       "I want verbal confirmation," I reminded Spencer when he'd turned
out the light and we were both in our own beds. I wasn't even pretending to
be sly about it anymore now that Spencer had agreed to go on this
fact-finding mission for me.

       That night, I slept as though my brain had been bitten by a
mosquito. The idea of Kyle and Rusty screwing each other nagged at me all
night, and the more I thought about it, the bigger the brain itch got. Kyle
was so svelte and put together. Rusty was so rugged and fratty. The image
that kept popping in my mind was of David riding on Goliath's dick and I
couldn't shake it.

	On Monday, I went to my three classes as usual, still itching at
the idea of Rusty and Kyle in the back of my mind. Why was I so bothered if
they had hooked up? Was it a game changer? I couldn't answer that question
honestly until I knew for sure what I was dealing with.

	I was phoning it in all day long, zoning out and not really paying
attention.

       "Can you pass those down?" I heard someone say in my English
class. I knew they'd spoken the words to me, but I wasn't paying attention.

       "Hey, pass those down, please." The voice talking to me got a little
bit more agitated.

        I turned to my left and said, "Huh?" I looked down and saw a stack
of papers sitting in front of me in the lecture hall bench desk.

	"Sorry," I said, looking at the guy next to me. He held his hand
out and I took a sheet of paper and passed the stack. Embarrassed that I'd
missed the entire line of conversation so far, I looked down at the sheet
and saw groupings of four names each. I scanned the paper for my name and
saw it was paired with two girls and guy. I had no clue who Kim, Samantha
and Riley were, but for some reason I was grouped with them.

	"Locate your group on the paper. Each team of four will be
responsible for coming up with a ten minute presentation on any of the
assigned literary works we've read in class coupled with a corresponding
literary term. For example, Symbolism in Frankenstein would be a good
pairing. Break up the work in the group however you see fit, but fifty
percent of your grade will be based on peer evaluation as well as the
finished product," the TA finished. "Presentations will be next Monday and
I need a list of your topics and works in my email by five o'clock
tonight." As soon as the TA was done talking, people were shifting around
and shouting out names.

	I heard a girl shout Cooper from the back of the lecture hall. I've
never actually met another Cooper before in my life, so I just looked up,
assuming it was me. She repeated my name; I spotted her and headed up the
stairs to the back row.

	"Hi," she smiled at me. "I'm Kim." We shouted around until we met
Sam and Riley. We decided to just meet there really quickly since no one
had class right then. We began to decide what our term and piece of work
would be and how we wanted to divvy up the assignment. Kim was a really
cute Asian girl who looked like she came from money. She was tall and thin,
almost model-esque, wearing clearly designer clothes. I noted she was
wearing high heels on campus; I'd always judged those kinds of girls. Sam
on the other hand was down to earth, dressed in jeans and t-shirt and
clearly wasn't part of the plastic sorority crowd. Riley had similar
dimensions as Kyle, I noticed right away. He was about an inch shorter than
me, slim, with a cute face and hair that sort of spiked up into a faux-hawk
that looked like he'd just rolled out of bed with it. One thing I did
notice right away, however, was that his eyes were jet blue against his
darker features. I'd never seen anything so interesting before.

	After meeting for half an hour right there in the lecture hall, we
decided to use the short story "Everything in This World Must" from the
Irish literature unit of our class. The term we chose to focus on was mood,
seeing as to the story was dripping with it. To me, mood was the most
abstract literary device we'd studied, and therefore the perfect one for a
presentation in which I didn't want to focus too much energy. We also
decided that the girls would read the work, write up the bullets and Riley
and I would get together over the weekend, compile the girl's research into
a paper and construct the Powerpoint presentation. We agreed to meet back
up on Sunday to rehearse.

	"Sucks that Richards is springing this on us in the last week,
huh?" Riley said to me as we packed up and headed out of the room. A couple
of groups were still lingering around.

	"Yeah," I replied. "As if I don't have enough work already."

	"Right," he nodded. "Say, there's this really great study spot in
the study abroad resource center that loud and obnoxious freshman haven't
discovered yet. If you're ever looking for a quiet place." He smiled at me
as we walked down the stairs towards the exit.

	"Thanks," I said. He told me where it was and I considered it. It
beat studying in my room-- I always fell asleep. And it would save me
from having to go back to Drip and explain to Ben why I couldn't take
"study breaks" with him anymore, now that I was standing at the border of
love-island with Kyle-- population two.

	I meandered around campus for another couple of hours, pretending
to read but not absorbing anything. After dinner on campus, I walked home
in the cold to find Spencer reading shirtless on my bed.

	"I thought you had practice?" I said to him.

	"Nope," he said, flipping through a physics text book casually. It
was unreal how easily this kid could pick things up. I'd have to be taking
endless notes to understand what was going on physics. "Freshmen are on a
morning schedule until after exams. You get to spend your afternoons and
evenings with yours truly," he said. He patted the side of my bed, I took
my jacket off and sat down next to him. It was weird. We had two beds in
our room, but Spencer and I, whenever we needed to talk, always ended up on
one bed, laying down and facing upwards. Today was no different.

	"So what's the skinny with Kyle," I asked, trying to sound like I
hadn't been thinking about the possibility all day long. Spencer put the
book down next to him and turned his face so he was looking at me. I was
sitting upright, taking my shoes off. He propped his head up on his elbow
as if he was about to deliver some news. And then the bomb dropped.

	"Kyle said at lunch today that yes, he and Rusty did mess around
both at the beginning of this year and a lot last year," Spencer said. I
lay down next to him, propped my head up so that we were facing each other
and listened. "He did say, however, and I feel like a douche telling you
this after he specifically told me not to, that it was over as soon as he
developed feelings for you."

	"And when was that?" I asked.

	"Will you let me finish?" Spencer said. "Apparently, Rusty showed
some interest in you the first night you went to a Sigma party. I don't
know the deets, I wasn't there, but he asked Kyle about you and then a week
later, Kyle said he set you guys up or something." The phone call in which
Rusty `demanded my presence,' I thought. I went over there with almost
every intention of hanging out with Kyle and ended up hooking up with Rusty
instead. After that came the bizarre, "I've been waiting for this," line
that I just didn't understand. What was crazy was that before that phone
call, Kyle and I had been on a great date and were heading in a solid
direction. After the phone call, it was like he'd changed his tune and was
suddenly open to an open relationship.

	"Who was the second guy?" I asked, thinking maybe someone else fit
into this as well.

	"The second guy was someone Kyle played tennis with at the country
club in high school," Spencer replied. "No big deal." Ok, I thought. That
one isn't a big deal, but the Rusty thing had to be. Why wouldn't Kyle say
anything? Why would he knowingly fix me up with Rusty and then turn around
and date me right after that. And then why would he pretend to be asleep
when I asked him about it?

	I sat there, quickly wracking my brain through the first couple of
weeks Kyle and I were a thing, wondering what about it I was missing.

	As I thought about mine and Kyle's relationship, two things began
to annoy me. First and foremost, how dare he get upset with me for hooking
up with Spencer and not telling him when he was guilty of the exact same
thing? I was also irrationally upset that he'd hooked up with Rusty in the
first place. It just seemed like an odd pair. Plus, the first few weeks of
our relationship were so Rusty-filled, I couldn't help but be annoyed by
it.

	The second thing that struck me was how none of Kyle's actions
seemed to make sense those first two weeks we were dating. At first he was
into me and talking about dating and seeing where we were going and then he
was pulling me over on the side of the road saying that neither of us had
the capacity to remain faithful. It just seemed like an odd flip-flop and I
couldn't help but think that his relationship with Rusty might have had
something to do with it.

	Finally, I thought that maybe Kyle was just willing to sleep with
anyone in Sigma, including the President, because he thought being related
to Jason Wriggs wasn't enough to get him in. After all, he hadn't pledged
the Big 4. All that stuff about family lines that Kyle had said after the
auction kept rolling around in my brain.

	As I was mulling over my thoughts, it finally hit me. The
auction. Kyle spent the first few weeks we were together flip-flopping
about the two of us. He was probably still messing around with Rusty at
that point. And then the auction happened, and Rusty was supposed to dress
me, but he didn't. He sent Michael up instead. And Michael had heard of me
from Rusty, and so had Dixon who bid almost a thousand dollars to get into
my pants. But why, if Rusty liked me so much, did he not contact me after
we hooked up? And why, when he had the chance to hook up again, if it was
good enough for him to babble on and on to Michael and Dixon, did he not
even bother to show up on auction night? There were more questions than
answers and more inconsistencies than certainties at that point.

	I got off the bed and put my shoes back on. "Where are you going?"
Spencer asked me, sitting up.

	"To talk to Kyle," I said. I thought I had put all of the pieces
together, and the conclusion I'd come up with was so unreal I had to talk
to Kyle right away. If what I was thinking was correct, it was definitely
nearing deal-breaker territory.

	"You can't do that," Spencer said to me. "You can't tell him I told
you."

	"It's too late," I said to him. "He's the liar who's been stringing
me along all of this time, and I need to hear it from him why." I had both
of my shoes on, grabbed my black pea coat and walked out of the door,
ignoring Spencer's protests. I didn't care if Kyle got mad at Spencer for
telling me. I just needed to confirm what was itching away at my brain.

	I hustled across the quadrangle to Kyle's dorm room, bound up the
stairs and knocked on the door. He answered it, wearing jeans, a wife
beater and his glasses. He smiled at me before he saw my expression and
then asked, "What's the matter?"

	 I let myself in, keeping my hands inside my pockets because they
were freezing and shivering. I could only imagine what I looked like
barging into his room at eight o'clock when we didn't have plans to hang
out for a full day.

	"I need you to tell me the truth," I said to Kyle. "Are you fucking
Rusty?"

	Kyle's eyes got huge. A tear drop immediately formed inside of his
eye well and I had my answer. "That's ridiculous," he said softly. I cocked
my eyebrow up at him.

	"Then why do I feel like you are? And have been for a really long
time, now?" I asked him. I was moving in closer to him and he was backing
away. He sat down on his bed, facing me with his huge eyes.

	"What did Spencer tell you?" he asked. I told him that Spencer had
said everything. "So he told you that I stopped sleeping with Rusty when
you and I went official, right?"

	"Did you?" I asked.

	"Yes, I did," he replied. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

	"Because I want to believe you," I said to him, trying my best to
keep my voice strong. "I really do, babe, but I'm going over everything in
my mind and I know you're hiding something from me and it doesn't make any
sense. I just know it, and I wish I could figure out what and why and why
you won't just tell me, but I'm afraid that if I know, if I find out, then
I'll--" I didn't want to say I'd dump him, but we both got the picture.

	"You have to trust me," Kyle said assuredly. "It isn't what it
seems like. Rusty and I are long passed over."

	"Ok," I said to Kyle. "Then tell me why you set me up with Rusty in
the first place?"

	"Why does it bother you? I made that call for Rusty ages before I
had serious feelings for you," he replied. "He liked hanging out with you
that one night, I let it slip that we'd gone out and he asked me to call
you over."

	"Okay, but why would Rusty tell all of his brother's how great I
was in bed if he didn't have any intention of coming after me again? If he
had such a good time, why not call me or Facebook me or pursue me in some
way, shape or form? Why pimp me out to Michael and Dixon instead?"

	"As soon as you hooked up with Rusty and he told me about it, I got
jealous. I told him that I had feelings for you and he agreed to back off,"
Kyle replied. "That is all."

	"No, it's not," I said to Kyle, the wheels finally turning in my
head. "That night at the auction, you said to just go with it. Whatever
happened, I was just supposed to go with it. And I did, with Michael, who
said he'd heard so much about me, too. I automatically thought he'd heard
about me from Rusty, but it wasn't from Rusty, because if it was, Rusty
would have just gone up there himself." The big picture was finally all
there in my mind. If I was right about this, then I was prepared to be
crushed. If I was wrong, then I just looked plain crazy for coming up with
this conspiracy theory.

	"What exactly are you accusing me of here, babe?" Kyle asked me
stoically, as if I had already fallen off of the deep end.

	"You set me up with Rusty," I said to him, figuring it out as I
went along. I felt like I was playing the board game Clue and I was making
my final guess as to what was in the envelope. "And then you orchestrated
the whole auction thing with Michael. You got me into that auction so that
Michael would come up and fluff me and then Dixon would bid on me and
win. Why would you want me to hook up with everyone in Rusty's family? Why
would you tell them each about me and then orchestrate this big thing so
that I had to hook up with all of them? And all along the way, you made
sure I fell in love with you."

	"I think it's the love part that we should focus on," Kyle said.

	"I'm such an idiot," I said, realizing that my theory was at least
in part, true. Kyle had put everything together, but the question still
remained why? The only thing those three guys had in common was Sigma and
their family line. Why in the world would Kyle want me to hook up with all
three of them? What did he get out of the whole deal?

	"Ok," he said. "Sit down." I did. "It started out as a sort of,
assignment thing. It was really stupid and you were never supposed to link
anything together. After we hooked up, I made the mistake of telling Rusty
about you. Me and him were a casual thing, no big deal, but I told him that
you and me were going on a date. He said that you must have been a good
lay, and I said yes you were. So he asked me if I could broker something
between him and you and I said fuck that. That was the first time I felt
like I had any feelings for you whatsoever. Then, the weekend after that,
my brother gave me a card. And on the card was an unofficial tap to
Sigma. Every freshman that they're looking at gets one at some point. And
on it, Rusty had given me some instructions. It was stupid for me to agree
to it, and if I could go back and spare you all of this, believe me, I
totally would."

	"What was on the card?" I asked, sifting through the bullshit and
only hearing the story.

       "The card had conditions and instructions. It said that I would be
extended a full bid if I completed the following task."

	"I was the task."

	"Getting you to sleep with the entire family was the task," he said
cautiously. "Rusty wrote it up as soon as I told him I wasn't going to hook
the two of you up. Jason was clear that the only way I would get a tap next
year was through the current president's family and the only way Rusty
would sign off on my bid was if I completed the task."

	"So you spent the entire first half of our relationship trying to
get me to hook up with as many Sigmas as possible? Like I'm some cheap slut
to you?" I had gone from suspicious to angry to furious to livid in a few
short minutes. I stood up, wondering what I was even still doing there; I
had the urge to throw things.

	"It isn't like that," Kyle said.

	"Then what's it like?" I shouted to Kyle. "You used me to get into
some fucking fraternity."

	"And you have every right to be upset, babe," he said.

	"No, no, fuck no," I replied. "You don't get to do the babe thing
anymore. You lost that thing when you agreed to whore me out to your future
brothers like I'm Pretty Fucking Woman."

	"I didn't hear you complaining when you were having sex with all of
them and then telling me just how much you loved me on the side," Kyle said
with enough attitude to sink a ship.

	"Not fair," I replied.

	"It isn't?" he countered. "At least I had a reason for what I was
doing. You slept with Rusty and Michael and Dixon on your own, sir."

	"You're an asshole," I said to Kyle, opening his door. "God, I
can't believe that I-- you said that my heart was safe with you, sir," I
shouted, turning around and facing Kyle. The tear that had been lingering
in his eye had finally fallen. "I guess that was just another part of the
lie to get into Sigma, wasn't it."

	As I was leaving, Kyle said to me. "The card didn't tell me to fall
for you, Coop; I did that on my own. Cooper," he called, but I'd already
walked out. My plan was to be gone for good.

	I walked back to my room feeling so angry, I could have killed
anyone that looked at me the wrong way. I felt like the world's biggest
fool. This whole thing had been a stupid prank to Kyle and I'd fallen for
it. I felt like I was stuck in the middle of a bad 90's romantic comedy.

	When I got to the room, Spencer was on his laptop typing away and
listening to music. He asked me if everything was alright and I just waved
him off and got into my bed. He asked me again, this time getting up and
sitting next to me. I turned away from him, wiped my face and just lay
there, too angry and too sad to say anything. I felt Spencer crawl under my
covers like he had during the first couple of weeks of school and lay next
to me. He put his arm around my waist, pulled me in close to him and let me
fall asleep, crying as silently as possible into his nook.

	I stayed in bed the next day. I had two classes on Tuesdays:
theater appreciation and political science. I emailed both professors and
told them that I had come down with something. My theater teacher was an
ass about my email and said that I'd better be ready to perform on Thursday
because it was the last day he was seeing monologues. My poly-sci teacher
was cool since it was my first absence of the term.

	After Kyle's third phone call, I turned my phone off and went back
to sleep. I woke up at four in the afternoon and watched Lifetime movies in
bed until Spencer came home with Chinese food.

	I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and I didn't know when or how
I'd ever feel better. What angered me the most wasn't what had
happened. Sure, that part sucked balls and I was pissed off at everyone
who'd been involved, including myself. The part that really made me cringe
was that I'd actually fallen for Kyle and he'd betrayed me. Forget about
the fact that I'd cheated on him a couple of times. The second I said the
"L" word to him, everything changed for me. But I wouldn't change for
someone I couldn't trust.

	The other thing that I kept dwelling on was how I'd allowed myself
to fall for him so hard in just a few months that I was literally unable to
get out of bed because we were done. I'd never moped around and cried like
this for anyone else. What made Kyle so special-- the most special person
I'd been with?

	I rallied on Wednesday, got out of bed and went to all of my
classes. I figured that my moping around period was over and that if I got
out of the room and faked it, I'd eventually start to feel better.

	As I was leaving my English class at the end of the lecture, I
heard someone say, "You look like hell." I turned to my left and saw Riley
packing up his bag next to me. "Don't tell me you were up all night working
on this final presentation."

	"No," I said. I sort of wished I had a distraction like a pending
presentation, but my prep work before Thanksgiving had eased my exam study
load for the next two weeks.

	"Well whatever's got you down, you look really rough," Riley
said. I wondered how long I had to listen to him before I could politely
pull down the stairs and make my exit. I hadn't even wanted to be out of
bed this morning, let alone get accosted by a group partner I didn't even
know. "But it's nothing that can't be solved by a little bit of frozen
yogurt. Bowls on me." I could hear Riley's words, but I had no idea what to
make of it.

	"Look, I appreciate that, but," I started to say, but Riley
interrupted me.

	"Don't get the wrong idea. My dad owns Mango right off of campus,
so it's really just a courtesy ask. I'll go without you," he said to me. He
slung his book bag over his shoulder and looked at me as though I didn't
have a choice but to follow him. So I did.

	"So, Gilbert Grape, are you gonna tell me what's eating you up?" he
said to me when we got outside. I buttoned up my jacket and followed him
down the sidewalk towards the north side of campus. "I figure if we're
going to be pulling an all-nighter together this weekend, we may as well
get to know each other a little bit." He sounded genuinely interested in
hearing what I had to say, but I was pretty sure I wasn't in the mood to
talk about it-- especially to a virtual stranger.

	"I don't know if I'm ready to talk about it," I said to him
truthfully. I could see Mango up the street and was grateful we'd be able
to switch the subject to fro-yo in a few minutes.

	"Not a problem," he said, cheerfully. "Wait until you get a taste
of this frozen yogurt. My dad has been working on the ultimate palate
cleanse-- a new ginger flavor that's literally to die for. You might
actually die."

	I chuckled. "Let's hope not," I responded. "Do you always crave
fro-yo when it's twenty degrees outside?" I asked, shivering just thinking
about how cold iced yogurt would be at this point. Couldn't he have asked
me to coffee?

       "It's not like we're eating it outside," he said. "And it's kind of
in my blood, so what can I say?" He opened the door for me and I followed
him in. The place was a nicely decorated frozen yogurt bar with dispensers
lining one wall and a serving bar set up with fresh fruit, granola and
candies. It was by far the biggest yogurt spot I'd seen in my entire life.

	"Let me show you how it's done," Riley said, noticing my
overwhelmed look. "Cup for you, cup for me." He handed me a cup and began
walking down the aisle of flavor dispensers. He described each one to me
from the tart Crème Fresh flavor to the javafied Cappuccino flavor. I
settled on sweet cream, mixed in some fresh strawberries, mangos and
granola and topped it off with condensed milk. I'd be lying if I said that
when we finally sat down at a table in the back with our bounty, I wasn't
salivating over what I'd gotten.

	"Your dad owns all of this? This is pretty cool," I said. There
were a few other people in the store, apparently craving frozen yogurt in
the cold as well.

	"Yep. He has like six or seven in California, but he's a Dallas
boy, so he wanted to open one up here," he said. We talked about his family
for a while. Only child, SMU legacy, mom was a dentist and dad was in love
with frozen yogurt. He grew up in San Fransisco, but the whole family
packed up when he started school in Dallas this year. "Yogurt was all my
dad got to eat growing up because he had type 1 diabetes." I wondered if
Riley had type 1 diabetes too, but thought it was inappropriate to
ask. While we talked, I forgot all about Kyle and how pissed I was and how
sad I was and I just focused on seeing Riley. It didn't feel like a date,
which was good. It felt good.

	Riley said something that I had apparently zoned out while thinking
about how good it felt to be around him. I muttered, "Huh?"

	He smiled at me warmly. "He really did a number on you, didn't he?"
Riley asked. How'd he know? Was I that obvious? I didn't care, but it made
me curious. I just looked at him blankly. "I mean, I'm assuming it was a
he. I guess it could have been a she, but you were kind of on my radar, so
I just assumed."

	Great, I thought. Now I'm tipping off radars. At least my radar got
me a free yogurt date; if felt like Riley considered it that even if I
didn't know exactly what it was.

	"Um," I said cautiously. "Yeah, he did. He did a real number on
me."

	"Well," Riley said casually. "The guy's an idiot." He picked up my
empty cup and threw it away along with his. He returned just as I was
standing to leave.

        "I know we can't work on the presentation until this weekend, but I
was wondering if maybe you wanted to study together or something tonight,"
he said to me.

	I considered it, I really did. But I was still on the mend and it
wouldn't be fair to this guy with gorgeous eyes to drag him down into my
pity party of one.

	"Actually, I was just gonna go back to my room and, you know, just
wallow and digest that yogurt," I said with a sigh, realizing I had no real
reason for not wanting to hang out with him. I sounded lame, even to
myself. "I'll see you in class on Friday," I replied, thanked him for the
frozen yogurt and walked back into the bitter cold.

	As soon as I was outside, I realized two things. Why the fuck did I
need to be wallowing anymore than I already had? I'd had two good days of
bitter sadness, not helped by the cold very much, and what did Kyle get? He
got to fall back on his future Sigma brothers that he'd sold me out to. Why
was I still punishing myself?

	I decided that the mourning period ended today. I walked back into
Mango, saw Riley talking to someone behind the counter. He smiled when the
bell rang and he saw that it was me. I smiled back.

	"Um, so I have this monologue to do in front of my theater
appreciation class tomorrow and I just realized I haven't practiced it in
front of anyone yet," I said to him. He walked around to the door to meet
me. "And I happen to know that you have nothing to do tonight, so would you
maybe like to be my test audience?" I tried to be charming and I was almost
certain it was working.

	"How do you know I have nothing to do? I happen to have a very full
dance card," he responded.

	"Your dance card isn't full," I responded. "I just rejected your
dance card two minutes ago."

	"You're right," he said, smiling at me. He reminded me of a young
Scott Foley. "And it's your lucky day. I happen to be a great test
audience."

	The coolest thing about Riley, I realized then, was that when he
looked at you, he really looked at you. He had an earnestness that was
endearing and childlike, but really cute. I wouldn't call it sexy, just
cute. I'm not sure I would have even been attracted to him had I not been
on the mend. But I was, and right now, he was the perfect ginger flavored
palate cleanse for my heart.

	We hung out in the yogurt joint for another hour, tasting flavors
and talking until it got dark. He told me he had a single in one of the
dorms on the north side of campus, not far from where we were, but a world
away from where Kyle lived. As we walked back to his place, I kept seeing
Kyle's face in the people that I passed. I pushed him out of my head and
focused on staying in the moment with Riley. I remembered thinking on the
way to his dorm room that if I got Riley to sleep with me, I might forget
about Kyle permanently. And then I shook the thought off. There was no way
to forget Kyle, and I wasn't going to whore myself out just to try.

	When we got to Riley's room, he moved his desk chair to the wall
opposite his bed so that I could stand on it for a "stage." When I was up
there, I chuckled and said, "This is too high."

	"Well I like the view from here," he said, laying back on his bed
and crossing his arms behind his head. I noticed his shirt ride up,
revealing a slim treasure trail just like Kyle's. I shook off the thought
and started reciting my final monologue. David had given me Angels in
America to read and I picked one of the long winded monologues from
there. He'd told me that the professor was a sucker for Kushner and AIDS.

	"But still," I started. I coughed into my hand, shaking the nerves,
and continued. "Still bless me anyway. I want more life..." I continued
reciting Prior's words, thinking that they were so extremely depressing. If
this was what other people were dealing with, I'd definitely be able to get
over my first major college break up.

	"Is it bad that you made a monologue about AIDS and death sound so
sexy?" Riley asked when I was done. I was thrown by the question. "I didn't
mean to say that out loud," he said, covering his eyes. I hopped off the
chair and walked to the bed. I sat next to him, trying to make the split
decision: would I kiss him or would I just sit there? I would have loved
nothing more than to fuck the brains out of this kid as a final "fuck you"
to Kyle and all of his shenanigans. But there was something about Riley
that was too cute and precious to use him like that.

	"I just broke up with my first boyfriend ever," I said softly,
lying down and facing Riley. He looked at me with his intense blue eyes and
I felt like I was under a heating lamp about to melt. "And I really liked
him, a lot. I even told him that I loved him. And I'm really messed up
about it because I didn't even think I was gay until I fell for him, you
know. And I don't think I want to drag anyone else into this mess just
yet."

	"Yeah, ok," he said softly, making me wonder what he'd been
thinking since he met me. For the past two days I'd been wrapped up in
myself, I'd forgotten that other people were living.

       "You know what it sounds like to me?" he asked. I waited for him to
say something extremely profound.

       When he didn't, I asked "What?" And as soon as I did, he craned his
neck up to me and kissed my lips something extremely sexy.

	At first I was jarred. I didn't expect or anticipate that he would
just attack my face with his lips like that. It wasn't a hard kiss or a
particularly passionate one. It was soft and warm. And just what I
needed. I leaned back, getting another gaze down by the blue eyes.

       "Do you always just kiss guys like that?"

	He laughed. "Not always," he smiled at me. "Not ever, really." He
paused and looked at me. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to."
How nice of him. The problem was, I didn't know whether I wanted to or
not. For the most part, I just didn't want to be alone. But I wasn't sure I
wanted to be with someone, either.

        While I was still debating, getting lost in Riley's eyes, he made
the decision for me. "There's a movie I have to watch for my psychology
term paper, so you can help me stay awake." He got up and walked over to
his TV and DVD player. This was a welcome compromise. No pressure to hook
up and still I didn't have to go home and feel alone.

       "I'm not watching a bunch of shrinks on TV with you," I said
scooting into his bed and getting comfortable.

       "Don't worry," he said. "I'm doing my paper on co-dependent
relationships. So we're watching... Twilight," he said turning around and
giving me a grin.

       "You're kidding, right?" I said, perking up. "I've never actually
seen Twilight."

       "No, you're kidding," he said to me getting back into the bed with
me. He pulled a throw blanket from his feet so that it was covering us. He
scooted back so that he was the little to my big spoon and I marveled at
how perfectly he fit with my curved body. Within a minute, the Twilight
credits were rolling and Riley and I had maneuvered into a perfectly
comfortable groove.

       Two hours, one vampire and one werewolf later, the screen went black
and names scrolled upwards on the screen. Riley turned around and smiled at
me. "Still awake?" he said. His face was so close to mine. This time around
I had no hesitation. I leaned over and kissed him. He scooted in closer to
me and I put my arm around him to hold our bodies close together. There was
a heat that radiated off of Riley and even though we were both fully
clothed, I felt it.

       His kiss couldn't have been more different from Kyle's. It was like
drinking Coke all of your life and then all of a sudden tasting a sip of
Pepsi. It was similar enough that I wasn't bothered by it, but it was still
different. Whereas Kyle enjoyed making out long and deep and hard, so that
you could feel his tongue inside your mouth, it was almost as though Riley
was pulling me into him. There was something magnetic about his kiss and I
found myself being the one to press into him harder and deeper and more
passionately.

       After a few minutes of laying side by side, making out like eighth
graders, I rolled over and climbed on top of Riley. He had his hands on my
side, pulling at my shirt. I sat up, straddling his midsection and pulled
my own sweater off. A second later, I was back down on top of him, kissing
him some more.

       I have to admit once and for all that Riley was the perfect
Kyle-eraser. As soon as I had my shirt off and was kissing Riley again, the
guy really got going. It was as if something bit him. He wasn't taking it
slowly anymore. He dug his nails into my back and ground our bodies
together so that I could feel every inch of him, including the hard-on that
was pressed between us.

	Riley was aggressive in a strange way. I was clearly in control of
the situation, taking it at my pace and doing the heavy lifting top work,
but he was reacting in such an aggressive manner. I could feel his nails
dig into my back every time our cocks rubbed against each other. I wondered
if those claws would leave a mark.

	Before long, I had Riley's shirt off and our grinding had turned
into full on dry humping. My cock desperately wanted to get out of my
pants. As hard as it had gotten, keeping it confined was no longer an
option. I had the mental debate about whether or not I was going to go all
the way with this guy two days after breaking up with Kyle, but the debate
didn't last long. Riley did something that ended the debate once and for
all. While we were kissing, he bit the bottom of my lip and tugged me
further into him. After the lip nibble, he sucked my tongue into his mouth
so hard, I actually thought he might swallow it. The feeling was so intense
and raw and good that I thought, for the first time, that I could cum just
from making out.

	I cocked my head back and asked him if he had any condoms. Without
missing a beat, he opened a drawer next to his bed that had two video
tapes-- not DVDs, but actual video tapes-- a bottle of Slick, a dildo
and a pack of condoms. I was about to fuck my first power bottom and the
thought of it literally riled me up.

	Before I knew it, Riley and I were both naked. I was still lying on
top of him, rubbing my rock-hard dick back and forth near his ass. He was
making a sort of panting sound and digging his hands into my arms. It was
like he never wanted to let go of my mouth, and for that moment in time, I
was ok with that. The less we talked and just fucked, the easier it was to
have my "Revenge on Kyle" sex without thinking about Kyle.

	When my teasing his ass with my cock had gone on long enough, Riley
let go of my lips, leaned his head back so that I was kissing his neck and
panted, "Oh fuck yeah, babe. Stick it in me." It was so pornographic and
filthy, I couldn't help but be turned on. Where did this guy learn to sex
talk? The Rusty Stevenson School of the Sexual Arts?

	If I thought his pre-fucking dirty talk was sexy, it's `cause I
hadn't heard what he sounded like once I was inside of him. From the moment
my condom covered cock slid into his warm, wet hole, the guy was shouting
insatiabilities at me that would've made a sailor plug his ears.

	"Oh, fuck yeah, fuck yeah, fuck yeah," was the beginning of it. It
was like he was trying to keep my thrusts on beat with his moans, and I did
my best to do so. I thrust in and out to his "fuck yeah" cadence, feeling
my cock bury him to the hilt. Thinking I was doing a pretty solid job, he
switched his shouts to "Harder, harder, harder." Fuck, I thought. I thought
I was going hard enough. I guessed not, bucked up, and plowed him faster
than I thought possible.

	I pulled back, slowing down for a second. I grabbed Riley by the
thighs and pushed his legs towards him so that his thighs were a centimeter
from touching his chest. He helped by grabbing his legs by the back of the
knee and pulling them down, leaving his ass extremely exposed for me to
plow in.

	And plow I did. Turned on by my inner rage towards Kyle, and
coupled with the fact that I couldn't fuck hard enough for this guy, I dove
into his ass and pulsed as hard as I could as fast as I could. Riley did
all of the classic maneuvers to indicate that I was doing a standup
job. His eyes rolled back. He continued to slur "Fuck yeah, fuck me, fuck
yeah, please..." over and over. He tilted his head to the side and closed
his eyes. As I started to break a sweat, I moved him so that his body was
lying on its side and I had one of his legs sticking straight up in the
air. I hugged his leg close to me and humped his ass like I was a dog in
desperate heat.

	The words quickly turned into orgasmic slurs every time my cock
quickly grazed across his prostate and I could tell that Riley was going to
come soon. A minute later, I pulled him back into the missionary position,
bent down as far as I could go and kissed him. I thrust in one last hard
time, and as if we had choreographed it, Riley came all over our chests as
I let my load rip into the condom.

	I kept my cock buried inside of him for a minute, kissing him. He
grabbed a tuft of my hair with his claw like hands and pulled me hard into
his face. This guy was just as aggressive post-orgasm as he was pre-orgasm.

	I lifted my head away from his, feeling my sweat drip down my face,
chest and back. I smiled at him and he very weakly smiled up at me. I
pulled my cock out of his ass and collapsed next to him, my arm draped
across his chest.

	He turned to me and said, "It's only nine. We can go another
round."

	I smiled at him, closed my eyes and whispered, "I'll need a little
break first. That was just unreal."

	He leaned over and kissed me, getting some sticky cum on the side
of my arm. I knew if I stayed there, I'd fall asleep. It was nine, meaning
if I got up, went by the U and got some coffee, I could still put in a few
good hours of studying before tomorrow. I told Riley I'd see him soon, got
dressed and walked across campus in the biting cold.

	"I got you coffee," I said to Spencer when I entered our room,
holding two cups of coffee. He turned around and gave me a suspicious
look. I set one cup down next to Spencer and sat down at my desk chair next
to his.

	"You look surprisingly chipper today," Spencer said, taking the hot
coffee, getting up and crossing the room over to his chair. "Where have you
been?"

	"I didn't know I needed to check in," I said with a tad bit more
attitude than I had planned. I started to get undressed as I looked at
Spencer and told him that I turned my phone off because Kyle kept calling
and I needed to study. I pulled my sweater and shirt off and tossed them
into the hamper.

	"Yeah," Spencer said. "He's been calling me too. He's worried about
you."

	"Well," I said, taking my pants off and walking towards my bed in
just my boxers. "Next time you talk to him, you can tell him that he can
stop. I'm doing fine."

	I sat up at the head of my bed and pulled my history notes out of
my back pack.

	"Tell him yourself," Spencer said. I didn't know what he was
talking about until he stood up and opened the door that led to the
restroom that we shared with our neighbors. Before I even saw Kyle step out
of the bathroom, I moved to get up and then remembered I was in my own
bedroom.

	"Cooper," I heard Kyle say. I went flush and my face got hot.

	"What is he doing here, Spencer?" I asked, deliberately taking a
sip of coffee and flipping through my notebook.

	"Cooper, I just want to talk to you and explain the situation,"
Kyle said softly. I noticed that Spencer wasn't even standing there
anymore.

	"What is there to explain, Kyle?" I asked, looking up at him. "I
know everything I need to know."

	"You don't know everything, Cooper," Kyle said. He walked slowly
over to my bed and sat down next to me. I almost involuntarily shouted for
him to get out, but controlled myself. I feared that the grip I had on my
coffee cup would burst the cup, it was that intense. I looked at Kyle with
a look that challenged him to tell me something I hadn't figured out on my
own. "I um, I saw Rusty today."

	"Wow. Well, all is forgiven, then."

	"I told him that even though I finished his little task, I wouldn't
be taking a bid from Sigma next year," Kyle said.

	I looked up at him. He'd dropped the Sigmas, the legacy his brother
had built, and his entire pre-ordained future as a grandeur gesture for me?
When he was right, he was right... I didn't know everything.

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