David Gill Ch. 02

(All main characters are over the age of 18)

*

I was reading about Cthulhu and the Old Ones when the sound of the shower being shut off made me suddenly remember whose book I was reading. I put the book back on Matthew's bed and stood up. As soon as my my feet hit the floor the door to the bathroom opened and a figure stepped out, looking at the ground through longish, black hair.

"Hey, you must be Matthew." I said, perhaps a little too loudly.

"Ahh!" He jumped in surprise, nearly dropping his towel. For some reason I couldn't look away from him. I had never described another guy as beautiful before but the person standing in front of me certainly fit that description. He was about five and a half feet tall and had black hair, the color of which was accentuated by his fair skin. I also saw he had a silver lip ring and was reminded of Merrigood's policy against facial piercings. However, that thought was pushed from my head as my eyes traveled further down his torso. He was slim, and on his stomach I saw a small tattoo just below and to the left of his navel of a small star. I had never seen a tattoo look so good before. I blinked. What was wrong with me? I had never thought about another guy that way. It took me a second to find my voice.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you heard me come in." I apologized, "I'm Dave" He was blushing as he reached out to shake my hand. Jesus, he was so adorable when he blushed. I quickly berated myself, I liked girls, not guys. I needed to stop thinking like that.

"Hi, I'm Matt, and sorry, I should have checked to see if anyone was here before I strolled out in only a towel." Matt replied shyly. "I should probably put some clothes on." he said, gesturing towards his dresser.

"Oh, yeah. Uhm sure. I-I'll step outside for a minute. I've uh actually got to go, uhm somewhere. I'll see you later!" I stammered. What was wrong with my voice today? Deciding now was as good a time as any to go see the athletic director, I quickly moved towards the door.

"Uh okay, bye I guess." Matt said, I could tell he was confused. I practically ran down the stairs. What was wrong with my head today? I never have thoughts like that. It was probably the energy drink I had last night that was messing with my head.

I got to the Athletic directors office and found out that soccer practice would start the following morning at six am sharp. It seemed to start earlier and earlier every year, however, I was used to getting up that early so it wouldn't be a problem for me. The rumbling in my stomach reminded me that I hadn't eaten all day. I checked my watch and saw that dinner had started a few minutes ago. After much debate, I decided to bite the bullet, be a good roommate, and show Matt around, no matter how awkward it would be. Walking back across the quad to my dorm, I almost ran into Matt walking out the front door.

"Hey Matt, I was actually just coming to get you." I said, narrowly avoiding bumping into him. "I figured I should show you around, you know, since you're new."

"I'd really appreciate that, I got lost for the first few hours I was here. This campus is like a maze." He replied in a timid voice. I could tell he was at least a little shy. "At least I'm dressed now." he joked, and gave a weak smile. I looked at what he was wearing; black skinny jeans, a tee shirt for a band I didn't recognize and converse Hi-Tops. It was a pretty big deviation from the pastel polo shirts and khakis that seemed almost standard around Merrigood.

"Yeah, it's a pretty good idea to be dressed when wandering around campus." I replied. He gave that little half smile again. He was adorable. I mentally kicked myself for that last thought. I really needed to stop drinking those energy drinks.

"Did you have any place in mind to start the tour at?" he asked.

"Yeah actually, I figured we should go get dinner first, I'm kind of hungry. How about you?"

"I could eat." he shrugged. From the looks of him, it didn't look like he could eat much though. We started to chat as we walked the mile to the dining hall.

"So, I heard you transferred here. How's that?" I asked.

"Eh, it's not so bad. I prefer it here over my old school."

"Oh? What school did you go to?"

"It was Saint Francis' in Greensboro." Greensboro was the town right next to Branston.

"You're kidding, I live in Branston!" I exclaimed.

"Oh, cool. I live in Greensboro. That's like five minutes from Branston right?"

"If that, they're pretty close. Why'd you leave Saint Francis'?"

"I was kicked out actually." He said, looking away.

"I'm sorry to hear that, why'd that happen?" I couldn't see his face clearly as the sun was setting, but I could swear he started blushing.

"It was uh, a difference of opinion really." he said. As soon as he spoke, we arrived at the dining hall's front entrance. I looked up and saw a banner reading 'Welcome Back Students!"

"Well this is the dining hall, as you can see, it's a pretty straight shot from our dorm." I said, indicating the path we had taken.

"Alright" he smiled again, "it seems simple enough."

"It is, once you've been around campus a few times." I reassured. We climbed the steps and came through the big double doors to the cafeteria. I showed Matt how to swipe in with his student ID card and where the line for food began.

"After we get our food, we face the challenge of finding a table." I explained, gesturing to the slightly crowded hall filled with students sitting at long oak tables.

"Is that usually difficult?" asked Matt quietly. He seemed even more shy in here, his clothing looking out of place among the preppy Merrigood students.

"Not usually, but we're a little late, and the Hall fills up quickly. I think I see an empty table on the end though. Or, if you like, we could take the food back to our dorm."

"Uh, if it's the same to you, I'd rather not bring food to the room, I'm kind of a neat freak." he said nervously.

"Sure, I know what you mean. I'd rather not have the room getting messy either." Getting our food took almost a half hour, and by the time we were looking for seats, most of the hall had emptied out. Dinner was awkwardly quiet, albeit uneventful. At one point, however, Matt did catch me staring at him. For some reason I couldn't look away from him, and he blushed again when he saw me staring. I felt myself go a little red as well when I realized I had been looking at him for the better part of ten minutes.

We walked in silence back to the dorm, each absorbed in our own thoughts. I was thinking about the weird thoughts I was having earlier and was having now. I had never identified as gay or even bisexual, but here I was having inappropriate thoughts about another guy. It made my head hurt, and once we got back to our room, I immediately went to bed. I figured sleep was as good an escape as any from such a strange day. While Matt was in the bathroom, I changed into my pajamas and climbed into my bed. Matt came out of the bathroom wearing flannel pants and a grey Merrigood tee shirt. He dropped his clothes into the hamper by the door on his way to bed.

"Goodnight Davey." said Matt, and I chuckled at the childish nickname. If anyone else had said it, I would have found it annoying, but coming from him it was just cute, especially since he was so shy.

"Night Matt, sleep tight." I responded as I turned out the light, and rolled over to go to sleep. I kept thinking about Matt, and how he looked when we first met. Remembering the little tattoo on his abdomen, I realized I was aroused, but did everything I could to ignore my growing erection. After all, I wasn't gay, and I didn't find things like that attractive. It was probably the energy drink.

The next morning, I woke up at five thirty and got in the shower. After drying off, I dressed in sweatpants and a tee shirt in order to jog to the athletic field for soccer practice. The air was cold and the barely risen sun gave the sky a pale white hue as I stretched on the front steps of Fiske Hall before embarking on the trail through the woods that led to the field. When I reached the field, I found a few of my team mates from last year doing warm-ups and being supervised by a stockily built man in his fifties with a grey buzz cut and a windbreaker. This was Coach Conrad, the head soccer coach and Athletic director. When he saw me he blew his whistle and greeted me.

"Good morning, Gill, we're just getting warmed up. Five laps around the field then back here for indian sprints." He blew his whistle again as I nodded and jogged away and started my laps. I completed my laps and went to go wait by the coach until the others finished theirs. Soccer is the big sport at the Merry, and because of that, we were state champions for the past eight years. The last of the tardy members finished their laps and we started indian sprints.

At the end of practice, everybody was exhausted as they started to trudge back towards the school. We were lucky it was a Saturday and that we wouldn't have class for two more days. I was one of the last ones to leave the field when Coach Conrad called my name.

"Gill, come here." He said, while holding two large net bags full of soccer balls. "Carry one of these back to my office, I want to talk to you about something." We walked in silence, simply enjoying the morning air as we walked. Arriving at his office, we put the bags down right outside the door and went inside. Coach Conrad sat down at his desk and motioned for me to sit across from him.

"Gill, I'm just going to cut to the chase; I'm afraid I have some bad news." he said, looking uncomfortable.

"What would that be?" I asked worriedly. The coach was usually optimistic to a fault, so anything that he considered bad news must be terrible, and the fact that I was seeing him so uncomfortable only strengthened this suspicion. Coach Conrad responded.

"To be quite frank, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut you from the soccer team." I was floored, surely this had to be a joke.

"What? Why?" I was still in shock. Soccer was what gave me focus while I was at school. I didn't know what I was going to do with myself if it turned out he wasn't kidding.

"We've been under pressure from the administration to admit a certain quota of freshmen onto the team, and in order to do that, we have to cut some of the upperclassmen. Unfortunately, your name got the short straw." Shit. It looked like he wasn't kidding. "Look David, I'm really sorry about this. I did everything I could to keep you on the team, but we used a lottery system, and you got drawn fair and square."

"It's okay." I mumbled at Coach Conrad. I got up and left his office as fast as I could. I realized I was suddenly very angry at him and didn't want to lash out. I went for a run on my way back to my dorm to clear my head. I needed to think.