Elroy moved closer and said, "Don't be pissed, man. We're going to be seeing a lot of each other."
Kyle took a deep breath and exhaled. He sat on the bed and shook his head. "It's cool. I'll live."
"So we're good?" Elroy asked. This was almost too easy. If he could play a prank like this on Kyle and get away with it, the things he could get him to do in the future were endless.
"Yeah, we're good," Kyle said. "I don't hold grudges."
"It's cool that I'm gay?" Elroy said. He wasn't going to let him off that easily.
"Give me break," Kyle said. "I knew you were gay the minute I saw you earlier when you helped me with the footlocker. Just like you knew I was gay. I'm shy but I'm not stupid, so stop playing games." He shot him a stare and looked into his eyes. "And never, ever underestimate me."
Elroy turned and walked back to his bed. It was evident this guy was far from stupid. "I'm curious about one thing, though."
"What's that?"
"Where the hell did you get that ugly fucking scarf?"
"I yanked it off some girl's backpack on the way to the main entrance," Kyle said.
When Elroy heard that, he started to laugh again and didn't stop until Kyle went into the bathroom and slammed the door in his face. He thought about getting up and joining him in the shower, but decided it was too soon for that. He'd wait until later that night. He had to be careful with this one, especially if he wanted to control everything about his life that semester.
Chapter Five
The first night they spent together in the freshman residence seemed to set the tone for what Elroy portended would be an extremely boring, sexless semester. Though Kyle was filled with raw sex appeal in a natural, unplanned way, he reminded Elroy of those clueless people who loved to watch birds all the time with binoculars. They got erections when they saw yellow-bellied woodpecker sapsuckers, but show them a real honest to goodness man-pecker and they either yawned or screamed.
The event that led Elroy to come to this conclusion about Kyle happened the first night they spent together. Elroy saw no point in wasting time, especially when it came to sex. He'd been planning ways to get into Kyle's pants all day. When he returned from a party that night around midnight, he found Kyle alone in the room, sleeping on his side. There was enough light shining through the front window for Elroy to see that Kyle slept in the same gray sweatsuit he'd seen him wearing earlier. He had made up his bed with what looked like one of those bed-in-a-bag affairs sold at discount department stores. This one had a black background and little gold stars; the sheets and pillowcases matched the comforter. Elroy didn't even touch the synthetic fabric and he cringed.
While Elroy undressed-he never wore anything to bed-Kyle grunted a few times and turned on his other side so his back faced the room. Elroy dropped his clothes in a heap on the brown carpet and went into the bathroom for a moment to pee and brush his teeth. When he returned he went to Kyle's bed instead of his own. He gently pulled back the offensive synthetic comforter, climbed into bed naked with Kyle, and snuggled up against him in a spoon position.
In a matter of minutes Elroy grew hard. He pressed his erection into Kyle's body and started rubbing up and down very slowly.
But when he put his arm around Kyle and licked the back of Kyle's neck, Kyle opened his eyes and asked, "What are you doing? Did I invite you into my bed? Did I say, 'Hey, Elroy, why don't you hop into bed with me and lick my neck?' Because I don't remember saying that."
Elroy moved his hips a little faster, rubbing with more intensity. Then he squeezed one of Kyle's chest muscles and said, "I thought we'd have a little fun. You look like you need a good boning."
Kyle laughed. "Seriously, dude. What made you think that? Did I give you the impression I wanted to sleep with you? Or are you just a natural perv?"
Elroy licked the back of his neck again and said, "I'm just a natural perv. I figured since we're both gay, why not take advantage of it? I saw the way you were looking at me when I was naked earlier today. Let's not pretend. You know you want it."
With that statement, Kyle sat up and turned around. He pulled the covers back and pointed at Elroy's erection. "You need to put that away, seriously. It's not going to happen. I don't sleep with guys I just met. I have standards and I have rules by which I live."
Elroy grabbed his dick and shook it. He'd never met a guy who couldn't resist it. "Fuck rules and standards. Shut up and lie down."
That was when Kyle reached down with both hands and grabbed Elroy's side. With one quick heave, he hoisted Elroy up and rolled him off the bed. He landed on the floor with a thump and Kyle looked down at him and laughed. "I think it's time for you to shut up and go back to your own bed, because this isn't going to happen."
Elroy felt the blood rush to his face. He lifted his head and flung Kyle a glare. "What the fuck's wrong with you, man? No one treats me that way. Are you some kind of virgin or something?" "Of course not," Kyle said. "I haven't been a virgin for three years. I just don't think it's a good idea to screw around like this. As the old saying goes: I'd rather not shit where I eat. Besides, you're not my type. I like bigger guys with more facial hair. You're a little too skinny and way too fucking arrogant for my taste. And I don't get boned. I prefer to make love."
When he said this, Elroy felt a sting in his gut. He'd had roommates who were shy; he'd had roommates who were guilt-ridden about being gay and were terrified to admit it. He'd even had one who had tried to kill himself once after he'd had sex with Elroy. But he'd never had a roommate reject him in such a rude, obnoxious, superior way. So he stood up and went back to his own bed. Without looking back he lowered his voice and said, "Sleep tight, asshole."
Kyle pulled the covers over his head and said, "You, too, perv."
But Elroy didn't sleep that night, and he wouldn't sleep the night after that either. The people in the room next to theirs played loud music until three and four in the morning and Elroy couldn't even drown it with the pillow over his head. He cursed the fact that his dead father had insisted he get a Harvard degree before he could take over the company. He cursed Kyle for being a frigid bitch and being able to sleep so soundly through all that noise. The music didn't seem to bother Kyle in the least. Each time Elroy got up to use the bathroom and he glanced down at Kyle's bed, he saw Kyle on his back sleeping, with his arms back and what looked like a half smile on his face. Elroy felt like kicking the bed, ripping the ugly gray sweatsuit off his body, and smacking him in the face with his dick just for sport.
In the mornings, Kyle rose early and left the room before Elroy was awake. He was so quiet Elroy didn't even hear him leave. When they passed each other between classes later in the day, Kyle barely even glanced at Elroy. He seemed to be holding a grudge because of the prank Elroy had played on him the first day he moved into the room. And Elroy couldn't blame him completely. He'd seen and heard the way the other guys poked fun at Kyle and made jokes about him running around Harvard Yard in his jock strap. Some of them came up with the nickname Jocko, and they called him that when he passed them in the halls. Elroy was there when they did this in the library late one afternoon. He'd been trying to organize his class schedule when a group of frat guys saw Kyle enter the library. They leaned into each other and laughed at Kyle. They called him Jocko and told him he had a great ass. They might have suspected he was gay, but it was hard to tell with Kyle. This was more of a general hazing, with anti-gay slurs the idiots didn't even realize they were making.
When they did this, Kyle froze and his face turned bright red. He clenched his fists and turned toward the guys who were making fun of him. But instead of glaring at them, he glared directly at Elroy sitting at the table next to them. He flung Elroy such an intense look of hatred, Elroy gulped and swallowed hard.
When Elroy went back to the room later that night, he tried to talk to Kyle, hoping he could say or do something that might make him feel better. He wasn't doing it because of any deep sense of remorse; he did it because he still wanted to get into Kyle's pants. But Kyle turned on his side and threw out his hand. Before Elroy could say another word, Kyle said, "Just leave me alone. You've done enough."
By the end of that first week, Elroy had come to the conclusion that they would never be friends or lovers. So he went to a bar in Boston that Friday night hoping to hook up with someone to relieve some of the stress he'd been under that week. For the first time in a long time he wound up going home alone, even more stressed than he'd been earlier that night. But when he walked into the room at two in the morning and glanced down at Kyle's bed, he clutched his chest and smiled for the first time in three days.
"There you are," Kyle said. He was stretched out on his bed, naked except for black leather cuffs around his wrists, ankles, and neck. "I've been waiting for you, stud."
It had been three weeks since Elroy had fucked a dude. He could have fucked a watermelon by then. "What's all this?" He moved closer and pursed his lips.
"I thought we might have a little fun tonight," Kyle said. He rose from the bed and walked to where Elroy was standing near the door. He ran his hands up and down Elroy's shoulders and said, "Why don't you take off your clothes and put on that outfit I left on your bed?" He gestured to Elroy's bed, where he'd left a pair of kinky latex shorts and a set of wrist and ankle restraints. "I think you're going to like this a lot, you big handsome perv."