College Chronicles Ep. 15 Pt. 02

Author's Note:

I had a lot of fun writing this one; it gets a little twisted, but I think the ending is pretty wholesome. It might be a little light on the sex, but hopefully heavy on the sexiness. Please let me know if you like it, and if you'd like to see more.

Content warning: Dreadful double entendres, verbal humiliation, lots of alcohol and drugs. Includes a situation with handcuffs, threatened and acted violence and extremely questionable consent. (But Sami is not the victim!)

*

The day after we arrived, after Cindy turned me into Sami in my own house... We woke up late and ventured downstairs to find my mother standing over a busy cooktop.

"Good morning you two! Sleep well?"

She said it with all of her usual authentic good nature, but for a second I froze. She was on to us, why else would she say it? Luckily, Cindy kept a cooler attitude than I did.

"Slept like a log, it's so quiet out here!"

She nudged me with an elbow and shot my Mom an impish smile.

"This one was trying to be naughty, but I put him in his place."

I was mortified, for once the blood draining from my cheeks. How could she talk about that in front of my Mom?! And putting me on the spot like that?! Even worse than a lie, it was the opposite; she had been the one insistent on fucking me! I realized I was shaking as my eyes found my Mom's face, terrified of how she would react.

But there wasn't even a hint of a shadow across her heavenly face, just a knowing smile and exaggerated sigh.

"Ugh... boys will be boys! It's a good thing we've got you to keep him in line."

She smiled at me, letting me in on the joke. Cindy grinned too, but for different reasons, with an edge of sarcasm. She and I interpreted my Mother's statement very differently from how it was intended.

"Feeling hungry?"

My Mom continued, missing the glance between Cindy and I, good mood unabated. Cindy spoke before I could again.

"Yeah! It smells totally delicious!"

"Oh, thank you Cindy."

"You're welcome, Sophia!"

In a flash, Cindy and I were sat at the table, and Mom was serving us helpings of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. Conversation waned in favor of eating, and the dominant sound became the soft Christmas music floating from a radio in the kitchen. When our appetites had slowed down, my Mom restarted conversation.

"So, do you guys have any plans?"

We paused, thinking and chewing as we looked at each other. This time I answered.

"Uhm, not really. I was gonna show Cindy around town... Maybe take her to the highschool... I dunno..."

I wasn't totally sold on the idea; it would mean being out in the neighborhood, potentially seeing people I knew. But my Mom was positive about it.

"Oh that's a nice idea! Show her the 'old stomping grounds'?"

Then she paused, almost as if she was a little embarrassed to continue.

"You know... I was thinking... Maybe after Christmas we could go see a movie? They just built a new theatre-- you remember that little shopping center where you went to daycare? I haven't been to a movie in so long!"

I was a little dubious. Wasn't it lame to go to the movies with your Mom? But Cindy jumped in, game and enthusiastic about it.

"Oh yeah that'd be great! Did you have anything in mind?"

"Oh I don't know, whatever. What do you kids want to see?"

"Isn't the new Marvel movie out?"

Cindy turned to me, and by the sly smile on her face I knew she was up to something.

"I hear that Spiderman gets in a fight with Batman, and then summons the other Spidermen to defeat him."

I could tell she was purposefully trying to rile me up... But my Mom had no idea what she was talking about.

"'Other Spidermen'? I thought there was just one--"

I knew exactly what Cindy was doing, and even so her bait was too appealing to ignore, hand slamming down on the table to interrupt my Mom.

"--No, there's three Spidermen, the one from the new movies and then the two older actors from the last two versions. But they help the other Spiderman... And Batman's from DC, he's not even in the same universe! But so Peter Parker went to London..."

I could feel myself getting carried away, catching them up on the plot they'd need to know to understand the movie, but I just couldn't stop. I did manage to catch a quick look of amused patience that passed between them, but nothing could stop me on my roll; until my dad entered.

He threw open the back door with casual violence, and shrugged into the silence his entrance created. His first words were to Cindy, with a cheerful grin splitting his face.

"Good morning!"

As he turned to me, the smile faded, like he'd been reminded of an unpleasant chore.

"Oh, Sam, I meant to ask last night..."

I actually nearly jumped, just hearing my dad say my name. As usual, he didn't notice.

"I didn't get your tuition statement this month. Did you do something?"

So typical. Even with no signs indicating such, he assumed that I had caused some negative change. Even the accusation was phrased infuriatingly passively, so I knew it was there without him actually attacking, cloaked in just enough subtlety that I felt helpless to call him out on how it made me feel. I'd tried before, only to receive gas-lighting mockery.

Then I realized why he hadn't received my tuition statement; Jaxx's money. He must have gotten it in place already. How could I explain that? Luckily, Cindy connected the dots quicker than I.

"Sam, did you not tell them?!"

She turned to me, delivering a soft punch to my arm. At the same time, she winked slyly with the eye turned away from my parents, about to spin a story. As she turned back, my father pressed, too impatient about matters of money to wait, even for a guest as beautiful as Cindy.

"Didn't tell us what? You're not failing out, are you?"

Again, of course, the assumption of failure. I dropped my head to the floor, more ashamed by the second and nervous of what Cindy would say. I shouldn't have been; she had my back.

"No, not failing! He's too modest-- Sam got an ENORMOUS scholarship! It's going to pay tuition and like, everything else. For all four years!"

My dad just snorted, as if he couldn't really believe it, but wouldn't push back against Cindy, and walked away. My Mom, however, lit up even more, running over to hug me from behind.

"Wow! Sam!! You should have called! Oh wow, Daniel, did you hear that? I knew college was going to be great for you!"

I blushed under my Mom's rain of congratulations and praise, struggling to think of how to follow on from Cindy's spin. But as always, she was quicker to words, talking me up more. Even though she had my back, she wasn't above poking fun, just to watch me squirm.

"Yeah it's this HUGE, prestigious endowment. Really, really BIG responsibility. He started basically as soon as we got to school, and I know it was REALLY difficult to take sometimes, but now he's got his full ride!"

I was fucking horrified, staring in very poorly concealed shock. And she was looking right at me the whole time, with a very genuinely proud smile on her face. But I could see the fiendish glint in her eye; she knew exactly what she was doing. She might have been a genius. Some sort of insane, angelic, devilish, genius of a girl.

And my parents seemed to be buying it all, my Mom really invested as Cindy went on, my dad listening only to be polite, waiting to go back to his garage.

"I'm so proud of him, it's been such hard work. Pulling all-nighters, cramming really, REALLY hard... just getting totally... stuffed with knowledge..."

It was almost more than I could take, especially the extremely pregnant pause before the cherry on top. I winced at that one, sure that her subtlety had dropped, and at least one of my parents would take note. But instead my mother cried out from behind me.

"Ohhh... Cindy... Stop! You're making me cry!"

She ran over to a counter, grabbing a tissue from a box. Dabbing at her face, she turned back to us with one arm spread wide.

"Come here you two!!"

My dad groaned, and shrugged back out the door.

*

I could only tolerate so much more interaction after that, slinking back up to my room with Cindy as soon as a chance presented itself. I couldn't even confront her, too humiliated to bring it up. She knew though, and the smug smile she wore for a solid hour afterword told me everything about how much she entertained herself.

After we'd lazed around my room for a while, and I'd begrudgingly forgiven her, we forayed out for lunch. Luckily my Mom was staying home, and we borrowed her car. That made me feel a lot better; if we ran into anyone I knew, I could always just drive away.

Our destination was a little pizza place that I had used to love going to with my few friends. But we were in no rush, so I drove aimlessly, taking 'scenic' routes, going past places I knew. The baseball field where I had played little league, before all the other boys started to outgrow me. The town center, which was basically just a pair of shopping mall strips and a few government buildings. My highschool, which drew from all over, and was pretty massive as a result. Cindy seemed kind of impressed by it, explaining that her city high school had a very different situation. She seemed a little impressed by everything to be honest, commenting on all the open space, profuse with questions about everything I showed her.

It almost felt like a dream, like I was disassociated, just the tiniest bit. Definitely bizarre, being at home with Cindy commenting on places that belonged wholly to Sam. But I was Sami. It was as simple as that.

It was a lucky thing that she still let me outwardly be Sam, because I was in for a surprise getting pizza.

We'd just sat down in a cramped little booth, when a voice I recognized came from behind us.

"Sam?"

Lucky again, it was one of those few friends I'd mentioned earlier. Peter was one of my earliest friends, from the beginning of middle school. His best friend was Chris, but even so, I always felt a little closer to Pete than the other guys. He was much taller than me, and gangly, but also the youngest of our group, and so a little more innocent; the two of us had shared the brunt of teasing for that, both from our friend group and from others.

I realized as I'd turned, however, that other people could undergo changes too. I knew immediately the general where and how of how Peter had spent most of his time that year; doing physical labor. His body gave that idea away. The lanky string-bean had filled out with muscle everywhere, from his toned legs to strapping chest. My first thought, springing unbidden to mind, was 'God damn, he looks good.' But I shook my head, clearing that away as I stood to greet him.

"Oh my god, Pete!"

There was a moment of awkwardness as he approached, where I wasn't sure how to greet him. My first instinct was a hug-- but was that appropriate? Would he think I was being weird? Would he rather a handshake, or half-hug? While I was spinning out, he had closed the distance, and without a moments hesitance came in for a hug, pulling me on my tiptoes in the quick embrace.

When he let me go, I couldn't help but look at his face in a new light. He'd always had a kind, gentle appearance to him, but now, with a markedly changed perspective, I found him weirdly handsome, like when I was looking at Jaxx and just couldn't deny it. It gave me pause, and I could feel my heart beating a little harder. That was how I usually reacted to talking to pretty girls, not my nerdy childhood friends.

He'd paused for a moment too, staring at me, and we both became aware of the silence stretching between us at the same time.

"Wow, you look diff--"

"Wow, you look diff--"

We both stopped as the other spoke, then realized we'd been saying the same things, and giggled awkwardly. I couldn't remember, had his voice always been so deep?

"Sam, introduce me!"

Cindy piped up from behind me, and I saw Pete's eyes dart to the sound, then go wide.

"Oh shit..."

I turned, and suddenly it hit me too. Cindy didn't belong there. She was in a tight green turtleneck and dark jeans with boots, simple earrings, just a couple of rings, nails not freshly painted. Her auburn hair cascaded down her shoulders like usual, but wasn't really styled, just blown dry. Even so simply dressed, she was just too good for where we were. I'd spent so much time with her, I was used to how she looked. But if Cindy was a nine on her worst day at college, it made her a twelve in my hometown.

Pete was gawking at my beautiful companion, and I roused myself from a similar state to try to salvage the situation.

"Uhm... Pete, this is my girlfriend, Cindy."

His eye flashed back at me and he responded in disbelief, like everyone else did when I told them.

"Wow, girlfriend? Uhhh, I mean--..."

"--No, it's okay..."

I stopped him, not needing to hear an excuse. I knew what I'd been like, how odd it must be to see a girl like Cindy behind me. Then I was struck by uncharacteristic verbal inspiration, and made a little joke.

"...She's way out of my league."

We all chuckled, and it broke the ice a little, enough for conversation to jumpstart and Cindy to invite Pete to sit with us. It turned out that Pete had a job at his dad's garage, working hard and earning well. In his spare time, he'd watched 'Free Solo,' then taken up rock climbing, which is one thing our area was good for. Once we'd had his year, we filled him in on school... with significant details left out, obviously.

After the requisite catch-up, talk turned more nostalgic. Pete filled me in on how Chris, Brett and Tommy were doing. One thing led to another and soon we were reminiscing about late night lan parties, games of D&D, and studying at the library on weekends. Cindy tried her best to be interested in our nerdy pastimes, and took particular pleasure in the many stories that had some embarrassing element for me.

We finished our food, but still didn't leave, enjoying the meandering conversation. Was Pete seeing anyone at home? No, no romance of any kind. How did you meet Cindy? Through a mutual friend, and we left it at that. Wasn't Pete bored, still living at home? Sometimes, but people from highschool still threw parties that livened things up. What were the parties like at college? I went to say I hadn't seen them yet, but Cindy spoke over me, describing crazy exploits, and totally monopolizing his attention. When she dropped a hand onto his arm and it lingered, I felt the deep cut of a very confusing jealousy.

I was shamefully glad when Pete stood, shaking Cindy's hand, begging forgiveness for leaving.

"I have to go, running errands for my family. It was really good seeing you, Sam. And nice to meet you, Cindy!"

"Bye Pete."

"See ya!"

He got a few steps away before pausing, spinning, returning hesitantly.

"Hey, uhh..."

He stopped in front of the table, looking at Cindy awkwardly, like he was avoiding my eyes.

"...so, I don't know if you'd be interested, but..."

At the 'but', my stomach dropped, and I knew he was going to say something bad for me.

"...there's a New Year's Eve party that everyone from highschool is going to. It's gonna be fun-- like I said, they get kinda wild."

I couldn't speak, no question safe. Cindy had no such concerns.

"Oh, cool! I'd LOVE to do something on New Years!"

"...Yeah, it's just... Uh... it's... at Max's house."

There it was, the grim reveal. Pete knew how I felt about Max, knew how he'd treated me, and knew how the news he was dropping would fall.

"Who's Ma--?... Oh. Oh shit."

Cindy, took a second to make connection to what I'd told her about my bully. She trailed off awkwardly, and Pete jumped back in.

"It won't be like before, I swear."

He was talking to me that time, and finally his eyes found mine. I noticed for the first time how blue they were. Almost like Aurora's, but less icy; more of a clear blue sky on a sunny day.

"Everyone's chilled out. He's not... Well, he's still a dick..."

He was a little sheepish with the added caveat, acknowledging the obvious. Yet he still made his pitch.

"...But he's not as bad as he was."

Both turned look at me, waiting for an answer, but I was overwhelmed. I looked between the two, back and forth, and finally settled on the floor, unable to find words. Of course I didn't want to go, I couldn't go, I wouldn't go. But I knew neither of them would like those answers. And it had been such a good day!

Eventually, Cindy stepped in to move things along.

"We'll think about it!"

"Okay... Okay, see you around."

Pete took the non answer, and I breathed a little easier with him gone. We didn't follow up conversation about his invite, but I knew Cindy wouldn't just forget something like that. In fact, I was the one who would forget.

*

We spent Christmas Eve lazily, watching holiday specials on tv and helping my Mom with her cooking and baking. After a lavish dinner where we stuffed our faces full, we relaxed in front of 'Home Alone,' starting with just us and my Mom, but surprisingly eventually joined by my dad and even my brother.

When my parents called it a night, it was just the three of us sitting around. We watched tv in comfortable silence for a while, until Cindy had an idea. With roundabout questioning, she revealed that my brother had more weed, and was willing to share. We spent the final hour of Christmas Eve huddled together in my back yard, a lit joint burning between us as we passed it and giggled.

The weed was good, but nowhere near the shit Jaxx smoked, and it didn't hit me or Cindy as hard as it did Scott. Ten minutes after we blazed, he was red-eyed as the devil. That was when his crush on Cindy was really revealed, following her around like a puppy, unaware of how obvious he was being. When he was halfway through creating an early, early morning monstrosity of a sandwich, and offered to make her one to match, we decided it was time to head up. In bed, we giggled about how high and stupid he was until we both passed out.

On Christmas morning, we woke up relatively early to do presents, one of our few traditions. My parents even had an extra stocking for Cindy, a few small packages under the tree for her. It was mostly chocolate and socks, but still nice that they'd made the effort. Then Cindy went upstairs, and came back down with her presents, part of her ridiculous luggage. My Mom tried to politely decline, but Cindy was having none of it, saying it was the least she would do for hosting her, pushing intricately wrapped gifts into our hands.

First was a professional-grade set of tools for my dad; drill bits and saw blades and screwdrivers and all that. It must have been nice, because he got a little choked up hugging her. For my Mom, a rare fragrance in an ornate bottle, and a handful of tiny jars that Cindy explained at length as a variety of European moisturizers. It wasn't a minute before my Mom was dabbing one onto her and Cindy's face.

My brother's present was perhaps most and least appreciated; he was clearly speechless upon opening a PS5, still difficult to get then. He even hugged Cindy, before running up to his room to set up the new toy. For me, Cindy had brought a new e-reader, pre-loaded with a selection of classic fantasy authors; Tolkien, Pratchett, Asimov. It was a good gift, reflecting the attention she took in my interests... but every reader knows the tactile supremacy of print. I kept that to myself though.

After sitting around for a bit playing with our new toys, my Mom roused us to change out of pajamas, and we bundled into the car to go to my Grandmother's care home.

She was my Dad's mother, and I didn't really like her. Maybe that's horrible to say, but she was... fairly horrible to be around. It was clear why my dad was the way he was, from the way she criticized me. She was stuck in the time of her prime, and it came across in her language, how she often called me 'faggy,' even when I was too little to understand what that word meant. Every year we left the care home in dour moods, with celebratory air sucked out of our family dynamic.