Chasing Rusty Parker Ch. 08

Chapter Eight -- Mr. Parker

Matty had a hard time focusing on the game, and Zoey was already throwing daggers at him with her eyes, but it wasn't every day that he sat at the same table, playing board games with some of the 'in' people, as she had so aptly put it. Ray and Hanna weren't in the wrong, in any way. They were friendly, cool, and Zoey was smitten with them. Only Matty was sitting there like he had a stick up his ass -- that was something Rusty would love hearing about, for sure -- and couldn't focus on either the conversation or the game. At any moment, he expected Ray to read too much into something he said, or just infer from various pieces of information he was collecting--

His mind was going in circles. Sure, all his thoughts revolved around Rusty, and that made everything else difficult to the extent that right now, Zoey had to push him to let him know that it was his turn.

"We could call it a day if you're tired," Ray suggested.

They were having their little sparring session, as Ray had called it, in the dorm suite that their host shared with Jonathan Hamilton. However, since Jonathan spent most of his time with his boyfriend, Matty hadn't been that surprised to see he wasn't there, even if the evening was setting in fast. It had to be nice to have a boyfriend and sleep at his place on any occasion that presented itself.

"Matty is just an airhead," Zoey offered. "And he's studying too much."

"Yeah, your grades are impressive," Hanna intervened in the conversation. "By the way, how is Rusty's tutoring going?"

Matty froze. So Hanna was going to conduct the interrogation. He had no idea what exactly he feared from Ray and Hanna, but playing at double life and wearing a cat boy suit made him a little nervous in polite company, as things stood. "It's going well," he replied in a deadpan voice. "Rusty is very intelligent," he added quickly.

"No one doubts that," Ray said. "But discipline is not his forte."

"And he gets bored easily," Hanna added. "So, unbeknownst to most people on campus, you're quite the celebrity in the making, Matty. Sorry for using the pretext of wanting to play games with you, guys, but the truth is that we're curious. And we also want to get to know you better. You must be a really fun person."

"You lied to us?" Zoey said in a theatrical fashion.

"Guilty as charged," Hanna admitted. "But you two are quite redoubtable opponents. We'd love to play with you again. And we're happy to have met you, Zoey. You're really cute."

"Oh, nonsense, you're cute," Zoey replied.

"I'm actually not fun at all," Matty decided to nip all of the gossip in the bud. Not that Ray and Hanna would go around spreading rumors since they had to be good people, seeing they were friends with Jonathan and the entire group at Rusty's house. But if they smelled something odd, it meant that others would be able to do the same. Ah, why was his mind so complicated sometimes?

"Don't listen to him," Zoey said in a motherly voice. To show that she meant to protect him, even against himself, she grabbed him and smothered him for a second. "He's fun. Of course, that's if you like board games, reading fantasy, studying--"

"You're really making a case for me, aren't you?" Matty said. "I'm simply a good tutor, not that I'm bragging. And I customize my tutoring sessions to fit the student."

Ray and Hanna craned their necks to listen to him closely. "How do you customize your tutoring when it comes to Rusty?" Ray asked. "JJ says he didn't expect anyone from this world to be able to make Rusty learn anything unless he allowed it to happen."

It was clear as day that Ray was in total awe of his BFF, and part of his curiosity came from there. Matty wondered briefly if Jonathan had told Ray how he had stumbled upon him and Rusty kissing. By how innocently both Ray and Hanna were looking at him, it seemed unlikely.

"You make a really cute couple," Hanna chirped away. "And we just want to tell you that if Rusty ever acts as if he would like to come between you two, he's just playing. Don't pay him any mind, Zoey, even if he pulls out all the stops to try and make you forget about your boyfriend."

That surprised both Matty and Zoey. They first stared at their hosts, then at each other, then back at Ray and Hanna.

And they burst out laughing at the same time. Zoey was holding her belly and wiping tears from her eyes. Their hosts, most naturally, didn't understand and looked at them in confusion.

"We're not together," Zoey finally managed while waving between her and Matty.

"Oh," Ray said and blinked. "But you do look like you're a couple."

"I keep telling her that's the reason she doesn't get a boyfriend," Matty said. "We're like Siamese twins, but that's about it. Also, I'm gay." It wasn't like him to say it so directly, so right away he fell silent.

Hanna smiled at him. "That's so cool. It makes total sense now."

"It does?" Matty asked. He had no idea what Hanna meant by that.

"Yes. Since you're not a girl, Rusty cannot wrap you around his little finger and mess with your head. As for guys, he'd just get them to drink with him or do who knows what crazy things men do to prove their masculinity--" Hanna stopped and looked at her boyfriend. "Of course, present company excluded."

"I would totally drink and do crazy things with Rusty," Ray replied good-naturedly. "But JJ keeps protecting me from him, I'm sure. He never says it, but I'm sure he does it."

Hanna beamed at him and gave him a quick kiss. "Because you're precious and you need protection."

"All right, my valiant knightess," Ray replied and looked at Hanna, his eyes full of love.

"Wait, guys, what makes sense?" Zoey reminded the loving couple that they still had guests.

"Yes, right," Hanna said. "Well, Matty is obviously not impressed by Rusty's fooleries and he's in no danger to be the target of the uncrowned king's obviously efficient seduction techniques."

"See?" Zoey said and looked at him. "There are still people who use the word 'seduction' in a completely non-ironic way."

Matty felt like he had something in his throat. A ball of fur, maybe?

Hanna linked hands with Zoey over the table. "You guys, that's great news. I mean, you took a weight off our chests. I was talking to Ray, and we were thinking Rusty might try to seduce Zoey, and Matthew might get angry at him, without realizing that he didn't mean to do any harm and--"

"Rusty's a good guy," Matty said, somewhat brusquely.

Hanna and Ray turned their heads toward him at the same time. "That's what we know, but we doubt that everyone thinks the same," Ray explained. "It was another reason we wanted to meet you. To tell you exactly that."

Matty nodded. "Okay. Although, just for the record, if Zoey had been my girlfriend and Rusty tried anything, I would have challenged him to a duel or something. I wouldn't have allowed him to tarnish my honor." He smacked his chest with his fist to make a point.

Hanna grinned at him. "Then how about you use some of that combative attitude on the next round?"

Matty felt relieved. Ray and Hanna just wanted to make sure that he didn't end up judging Rusty badly by accident. "You don't have to ask me twice. From the top?"

Ray seemed happy to restart the game. "Sure thing. We can barely wait to kick your asses. No offence."

"None taken," Matty replied with a smile.

***

"Finally, you remembered that you are part of this team." The coach patted him on the back hard enough for him to feel it.

"I never forgot," Rusty said lightly.

"Just get out there," the coach said and gestured with his chin. "Let's see if that's the only thing you didn't forget."

Rusty shrugged. So, maybe it would take him like a minute or so to get back into the flow, but it wasn't like he could forget how to play. His mates welcomed him with open arms. Yeah, everywhere he went, he was the king. It came with the territory that he always had friends.

"We have a game to win, boys," the coach reminded them and blew his whistle.

"What game?" he asked the guy closest to him.

"Pacific Grove's coming to town," his mate explained. "And we need to kick some ass."

"Yeah," the coach agreed, catching their conversation. "So, until then, no partying, no stupidity, no broken ankles while shooting the breeze, got it?"

The coach was half-joking, but he had to say it because of that one time, when Rusty had missed practice and arrived at the next one with a bandaged ankle, claiming that he had injured it while, exactly that, shooting the breeze. The man had to love him if he remembered small things like that.

***

He was in a good mood. Nothing worked better than practice to get his mind in order. Sure thing, the coach expected them to keep their head in the game and forget about hooking up and whatnot, although the man was too old-fashioned to use such words, but that didn't mean he would forgo making plans for the weekend.

He dropped onto the bench and was about to tie his laces when his phone rang. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath. One idea was to ignore it, but that wouldn't work for long.

"Yeah?" he answered, not forgetting to show his irritation.

"What were you doing?" His dad was just as little invested in using greetings as he was.

"Just finished practice," Rusty replied and smacked the door to his locker loud enough to be heard through the phone.

A grunt was the next reply. A man of few words. Maybe that was why he acted more; whatever he wanted, he did everything to get it. Driven, people said. Obsessed, more likely, Rusty thought.

"When's your next game?"

Rusty moved the phone from one ear to another, to win some time on his side. "Next week." There was no point in lying. His dad would just go online and check.

"I'll be there."

And that was it. That was the heartwarming conversation between father and son that took place now and then. If he collected all the words they had exchanged in his lifetime, they would probably fill a very slim book.

He threw the phone inside his knapsack and closed his eyes for a moment. His father, the mighty, the one and only Roy Parker, was going to come down from his throne to attend his son's game, as if college basketball was somehow important to him.

It was. Roy Parker searched for any proof that Rusty was growing up to be a man just like him like a trained hunting dog. And there could be no other way.

That meant he needed to win that shit, and he needed to put his all into it, just so he would be left the fuck alone until next time.

***

Matty pushed his glasses up his nose for the umpteenth time. Something was wrong with Rusty, and he couldn't put his finger on what that could be. He was slouching in his chair, offering strictly correct answers to everything Matty threw at him, and it looked like he had studied properly. All in all, he had no idea what to make out of his student's sudden change in attitude. There was a possibility Rusty had already forgotten about their little deal, or worse, that he wasn't interested in it anymore.

That was a good reason to feel foolish and inadequate. Matty looked at the textbook open in front of his eyes and tried hard not to feel desperate. "I think that's all for today," he said as he closed it.

"Okay."

Matty stood to his feet. It was better to grab the bull by the horns. "Look, Rusty, about that other thing, I know you didn't mean it. There's no point in being weird about it." He played with the shoulder strap of his bag, just to show that he didn't feel miserable about being forgotten and discarded so easily.

The green eyes, always so full of mischief, rested on him and seemed strangely empty. Matty fidgeted under a gaze that could mean anything, including Rusty hating him for not getting laid lately because of him and his cat boy suit, even if he didn't know Matty and that silly cat boy were the same--

"What are you doing this weekend?"

"Um, I don't know," Matty replied, taken by surprise. "Nothing in particular. I mean, I'm pretty flexible."

Rusty nodded, his eyes never leaving Matty. "I'm not allowed to go to parties," he said.

"Because of the game," Matty said and nodded. Was this Rusty's way of becoming uber-focused because he had a game coming? He didn't know, but he hoped that was the cause of all this awkwardness.

"Yeah." Rusty grimaced.

Well, the prospect of not having fun this Saturday night as usual could be enough reason for the king of the campus to feel so blue. Matty didn't know if he was just fooling himself into believing that.

"Is there something wrong?" Matty ventured.

"Like what?" Rusty asked him, somewhat aggressive and unpleasant.

Matty felt the need to backpedal and stop the conversation there, but it irked him that Rusty seemed so cold. He liked to think that it wasn't because of him it was happening. "I don't know. Are you worried about your performance at the game?"

Rusty smirked and put his hands on top of his head, while examining Matty with keen eyes. He seemed more like himself than he had looked for the last hour. But Matty didn't think it was the right moment yet to feel relieved.

"Worried? Nah, not really. Just pissed at little."

"All right." Matty relaxed a bit. "Why?"

Rusty shrugged. "I can't get laid."

Matty snorted. "For real? What's stopping you?"

"The game," Rusty replied. "Somehow, the coach thinks that if I keep my jizz in my balls, it'll miraculously make me a better player."

"I somehow doubt that Coach Anderson would say such a thing out loud," Matty pointed out.

"That doesn't mean that he's not thinking it," Rusty said matter-of-factly.

"Well, you're like the absolute rebel," Matty continued. "You can always do what you want."

"True," Rusty admitted. "But I don't feel like it."

"Why?" Matty asked.

Rusty examined him again. This time, Matty no longer felt cold under that green gaze, but hot for some reason. It had to be his imagination. Rusty was pissed because he couldn't get laid, and that involved a partner that was most likely female. So, he was simply just wide-eyed dreaming that Rusty looked at him like he was his next meal after fasting for three days.

"I have practice this afternoon," Rusty said. "Tomorrow evening, be here."

"What for?" Matty asked.

Rusty frowned. "Did you forget that I'm supposed to tutor you back? You're bad at sex, Matty. Don't tell me that already went out of your mind."

Matty gawked at Rusty, nonplussed, for several seconds.

"What?" Rusty asked. "Are you chicken?"

Matty had basically just pointed at their deal and how he didn't want to keep Rusty to a bargain he didn't feel comfortable with. And now, Rusty was talking like he hadn't heard a word. "Rusty, what did I say when I got up from the table, like five minutes ago?"

Rusty pondered. "I don't know. Something about homework. Why? Are you testing my short-term memory?"

"In a way," Matty said dryly. So, Rusty hadn't even heard him, his mind too wrapped up in the upcoming game and his role in it. "Wait, are you just assuming that I can come here tomorrow night? That I don't have other things to do?"

"You just said you're flexible," Rusty explained and grinned broadly. "I'll be your doctor and see just how flexible you are."

Matty gulped, short flashes of images involving him bent in various impossible ways, with Rusty's hands all over him, crossing his mind.

"And you said 'night'!" Rusty suddenly exclaimed and jumped from his seat. "That means, oh, that means," he continued in an excited tone while pacing around the room, "that we're going to have a slumber party!"

Matty had no idea how Rusty could go from zero to sixty like that, but he wasn't about splitting hairs these days. "A slumber party with a doctor?" he asked, just to check.

Rusty stopped and pretended to check an invisible stethoscope, blowing air over it and polishing it on his shirt. "Doctor Rusty, at your service," he said with a huge smile that lit up the whole room.

Matty smiled, too. He couldn't help it. However, as Rusty looked at him again, his smile began to fade, not because he felt less happy, but the opposite. The way those green eyes were searching his face, finally settling on his lips, the way he saw it, made his heart beat wildly.

"See you tomorrow," he said quickly, as if he was afraid Rusty would change his mind.

To his surprise, Rusty followed him to the door, and quite closely. He was about to open the door when Rusty put a palm above his head and forced it closed. "What?" he stammered.

Rusty pondered for a moment, and Matty felt his knees going soft. Rusty could ask him anything at this point, and he would say 'yes'. The way Rusty towered over him was enough to make a hive of butterflies go nuts in his stomach. He was slowly oozing down onto the floor, in the most literal sense of the word, because his knees were bending of their own accord.

"Funny," Rusty interrupted his meltdown. "I thought you were a bit taller."

Again, much to his surprise, Matty felt Rusty kissing the top of his head briefly.

"You're small," Rusty said and laughed.

"Yeah, and you're tall," Matty replied, for lack of anything bright to say.

"My bad," Rusty admitted and made room for Matty to escape.

That was an opportunity he couldn't refuse, so he scurried away. What was that little kiss all about? As if he could fall for Rusty any harder than he had already fallen. It looked like he could. Go figure.

***

What a thought, to suspect goody-two-shoes Matty -- Matty the virgin, Matty the one with a stick up his butt, and not the fun type, Matty the safe word user -- of playing cat boy in his spare time. Rusty shook his head. Maybe he could convince Matty to wear a cat boy suit for his entertainment, if nothing came out of his interactions with Slicky Coolplums. His face would be totally red. He'd be a shy cat. Rusty grinned just imagining that. Well, the cat boy chase was one thing. Teaching Matty how to be happy and gay was another.

And he had practice now. It was a good way to forget about next week. That and, of course, fooling around with Matty was a good distraction, too.

He threw himself on the bed. He should be out the door in five minutes or so, but that was enough time to dream a little about Matty's lips. That guy had lips to die for, it was a simple fact. Rusty had to ensure that they had plenty of objects that could serve as a substitute for the real thing, just to test how Matty looked with his lips wrapped around--

Five minutes was enough, he thought and searched for his dick in his pants. A knock on the door made him groan. Not only the coach, but other obnoxious people were trying to keep him from emptying his balls.

"Who's there? Go away," he growled.

The impromptu guest took that as an invitation to come in. Rusty kept his hand inside his pants obstinately. Maddox grinned when he saw him. "Ethics get you hard, Rusty?"

With a roll of the eyes and a scoff, Rusty abandoned his neglected dick. "You have no idea."

"I'm hearing that you're pretty serious about the game."

"Yeah, what makes you say that?" Rusty got to his feet and began preparing his backpack for practice.

"There's a huge article on Xpress about Rusty Parker abstaining from sex because of the upcoming game. I'm your friend, so I'm not supposed to learn about such things from the papers."

Maddox was joking, but he was sniffing around. Rusty knew very well what that was about. "Dad called," he said and pretended to be absorbed in the contents of his backpack.

"He's coming to see the game?"

Rusty nodded and began walking toward the door. Maddox stop him with a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "Don't let him get to you."

"I don't plan to," Rusty replied. "But you know that's not how it works."

He showed his real self to the people in that house on occasion, but to Maddox the most. They were brothers from different mothers, like Dex and Kane were.