The Freshmen - 10. Chapter 10

August 14, 2004

Tribeca

New York, NY

JJ

This was our first night out in public since the charity dinner a week ago. We were going to a preview for Tom Ford, then there were a few parties on the potential list after that. I was in front of the mirror, working on my hair, when Kris walked up behind me and nibbled at the space behind my ear. I smiled and leaned back into him. “You look absolutely amazing,” he said.

“So do you,” I said, as I pivoted and really studied his appearance.

“I do, and it’s all you,” he said. He’d completely surrendered his wardrobe to me on the weekends or when we were going out, but maintained more control over his business wear. It gave me a huge sense of pride that not only was this hunk my boyfriend, he also let me dress him up and make him look pretty. “What are we doing tonight?”

“Tom Ford is putting on a preview show,” I said. He looked at me blankly. “He’s a designer.”

“Cool,” he said. We headed down to the car and sat back as Dave drove us to the event. “I’m wondering if you’d mind if I put a desk in my room.” I thought it was neat that he called it his room.

“Nothing is that simple,” I said. He looked at me blankly. “We don’t just toss a desk in a room.” He laughed at me.

“I didn’t want to create a whole decorating project,” he said. “I was just thinking that if I have a workspace, I could leave work earlier.” I was stunned that he’d want to get home even earlier and hang out with me.

“I think that’s a great idea, but that is not how we do things,” I said, mostly joking. “You have to sit down and tell me exactly what you need and what you’ll be doing.”

“I’ll be working,” he said, like that was enough of a description.

“Will you be mostly working on a computer, or will you be doing paperwork? Will you have a lot of papers to file, or will most of your stuff be stored at work? Will you be on the phone or actually working?” I asked.

“Oh,” he said, getting my point. I smiled at him, and he grinned back. “You’re good at this.”

“I am,” I said confidently. “Answer those questions, I’ll draw up some plans, then we’ll get it redone.”

“What do you mean, get it redone?” he asked.

“The bed in there takes up too much space for it to be a good office,” I said. “Plus your closet needs to be bigger.”

“I have a lot of room in my closet,” he objected.

“First of all, you don’t need to jam all your clothes together,” I admonished him. He had them smashed up so it was difficult to sort through and pick things out; plus that made them wrinkled. “It’s not like you can go out and constantly wear the same thing. You’ll need different stuff.”

“I thought you were the wife so you’re the one who had to look pretty, and I was the boring husband who got to wear his dark blue suits and look hot,” he said, cracking me up.

“We don’t live in Connecticut,” I said, conjuring up that stereotype. “Are you done questioning me about this stuff?”

“Yes,” he said, relieved.

“While I figure out your room, I’ll share my office with you,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said, and gave me a nice kiss.

We got to the preview and I strode in confidently. Part of that was my comfort with this group, where I had established my bonafides and earned my place here, but the other part was Kris. He really did prop me up. It was like he could dissipate my most damaging emotions. I led us directly to Bellona, of course, as one must do when one was merely a serf. “Jeremy, I am so glad to see you here. And you brought the prince!”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” I said, and gave her air kisses.

“Neither would I,” Kris said, and kissed her hand. She raised an eyebrow at how well he did that. My coaching had paid off.

We were chatting with our group when Kris suddenly froze up. I glanced at him and followed his eyes to find him staring at Sebastien Racamier. I was pretty shocked to see Sebastien all but glaring at him, because Sebastien was usually very cheerful. Sebastien was the son of one of the founders of LVMH, the company that owned the Louis Vuitton brand. He was very rich, and he was flamboyantly gay. There was something grotesque about him still trying to look like a 19-year-old twink when he was 40 years old. His father and another man had tried to fight Bernard Arnault for control of LVMH, a battle which Arnault had won. Sebastien was based mostly in Paris, but I’d seen him at events like this quite frequently. “Sebastien, I did not know you were in New York!” Bellona said.

“I arrived a few days ago, and wanted to show my support for Tom,” he said, trying to put on a pleasant façade. It was not entirely successful.

“I’m glad you could make it,” I said, and shook his hand. His eyes glanced at Kris, then at me, then he frowned.

“So am I,” he said icily. “One never knows what, or whom, one will encounter at these shows.” He nodded to us and went to talk to someone else.

“Someone is not his normal happy and charming self,” Jarvis said to me in a muted voice that only I could hear.

“Not sure what that’s all about,” I replied.

“If I were a betting man, I’d say it had something to do with your prince,” Jarvis said.

“I’m going to hit the bathroom,” Kris said to me. He looked quite unruffled on the outside, but I could feel his internal tension. I just smiled and nodded as he walked off toward the men’s room.

Bellona got into a rather in-depth conversation with Tom Ford, which left Jarvis and me alone, free to gossip. “What’s with that?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they dated, although I never saw them together,” Jarvis said.

“Must not have had a happy ending,” I said, referring to their tension.

“That much was obvious,” Jarvis said. We were watching Sebastien, who headed to the bathroom too. It was all I could do to stand there calmly and watch the action. I became paranoid, convinced he was going to the bathroom to persuade Kris to fuck him. I was just about to go in there myself to make sure that didn’t happen when Kris walked out.

Sebastien cornered him and began talking to him, although based on the way his hands were moving around, it seemed to be more of a rant. “That doesn’t look like a fun conversation,” I said.

“It doesn’t, and if it goes on much longer, it will attract attention,” Jarvis noted. He was basically telling me that this could become embarrassing, and not just to them, but to me.

“Thanks,” I said to him, then strode over to where the argument was happening.

“You abandoned me, left me like I was some disposable piece of garbage,” Sebastien said, much too loudly. “You cannot do that to me.”

“Excuse me,” I said forcefully, then turned to Kris. “I need to speak to you. It’s urgent.”

“We are having a conversation,” Sebastien said, glaring at me.

“No, you are making a scene,” I snapped at him. “If you want to humiliate yourself, that’s fine, but you will not drag my reputation down with yours.”

“And how does this have anything to do with you?” Sebastien asked viciously.

“Because Kris is my boyfriend, and my date, so if people notice, it will reflect back on me,” I said firmly. “And I will not be embarrassed.”

“You can both fuck off,” he said, but in a more muted tone, then he went into the bathroom, hopefully to calm down.

“I’m sorry about that,” Kris said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” I said. “In the meantime, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to paste on a smile and go back into this soiree and charm the shit out of everyone.” It was funny to see him bristle slightly at being ordered around, but he knew I was right.

“Let’s go,” he said, and charged back into the party like a knight after a dragon. I actually ended up having a really good time.

“Have you seen Sebastien?” Bellona asked us. Of course, she would have noticed everything, and this was her way of sticking a knife into the wound.

“I talked to him a while ago,” Kris said nonchalantly. “The last I saw of him, he was heading to the bathroom.”

“I wonder if he’s still there?” Jarvis joked, making us laugh, and moving the topic on. The show was good, but not great, which seemed to deflate Bellona’s mood considerably. I decided that it was karma biting her in the ass for her annoying question about Sebastien. I glanced around and noticed people starting to leave, so I called Dave to ask him to pick us up. We said our lengthy goodbyes, then were finally able to escape into the safety of the Maybach.

“So what’s the next party on our list?” Kris asked. I gave him a dour look.

“Dave, will you please drive around for a bit?” I asked politely then put up the privacy screen. “What’s next is you explaining what the deal was with Sebastien.”

“Oh,” he said, and his mood seemed to deflate. He sighed. “We might as well go home.”

I picked up the phone and told Dave to take us back to the condo, then turned back to Kris, who now seemed depressed. “Are you alright?” I managed to ask, remembering what my shrink said about being a caring person. I figured that since I wasn’t a caring person, I’d at least try to fake it.

“Remember how I told you that I’ve dated rich guys before?” he asked. I just stared at him, unwilling to answer his rhetorical question. “Sebastien was that dude.”

He’d put himself out there for me, so I decided to do the same thing to him. “You traded up,” I said, being cocky. He grinned at me, then laughed.

“I definitely traded up,” he said, and gave me one of his magical kisses. He handed me his phone and showed me his call log. I saw there were a shit ton of calls from ‘Seb’, which was most likely Sebastien.

“He called you like every minute after he must have left the party,” I said, stunned at how many calls he’d made. The phone vibrated again, and it was Seb. I hit the ‘talk’ button, totally freaking Kris out. “What do you want?” I demanded rudely.

“I want to talk to Kris,” he said, just as obnoxiously.

“Dude, you have called him about 100 times,” I said. “Can’t you take a fucking hint?”

“Oh you are so naïve,” he said with scorn. “He will do to you what he did to me. He will lead you on, get you to spend money on him, and the next thing you know he will be back at a club fucking someone else.”

“If he’s such a shithead, why are you calling him?” I demanded.

“We have some unfinished business,” he said bitterly.

“What?” I demanded. He said nothing. “You are fucking stalking him.”

“I am not,” he insisted.

“You are,” I said firmly. “So here’s the deal. You’re looking at a restraining order, at least. Do we have to go there?”

“I hope you two are very happy together,” he snapped, then ended the call.

I handed Kris’s phone back to him. “I feel like I was being bullied at school and you just kicked the dude’s ass,” he said. I started laughing, because not only was that funny, it was pretty cool that I was able to do that. My entire life I’d been the one being bullied, and even when I fought back, it came out as bitchy rather than fearsome.

“If he bothers you, we’ll lawyer up,” I said.

“What did he say to you?” Kris asked nervously.

“He told me that you’d play me just like you’d played him, and when you got bored with me, you’d be back at the club searching for a new twink,” I said somberly.

“You believe him?” he demanded, all outraged.

I gave him a steely look. “He just took my worst fear and threw it in my face,” I snapped. “So don’t go giving me shit about this.”

“That didn’t happen to him, and it will definitely not happen to you,” Kris promised. Dave pulled up to the condo and I was so freaked out I let myself out. Kris followed me in silence as we took the elevator up to the top floor, then let ourselves into the unit. I headed directly to the bedroom, sat on the bed, and used all of my self-control to keep myself from crying.

“Explain it to me,” I ordered when he followed me in.

He sat next to me. “His idea of a relationship is one where he is in complete control, and I am his bitch.”

“I don’t see how that’s any different than our relationship,” I said, then smiled to show I was joking. He rubbed my back to thank me for trying to make this easier.

“We are not like that at all,” Kris said, then smiled. “At least not entirely.”

“So did you cheat on him?” I asked. This was the burning question in my mind, and until I got an answer, I wouldn’t really hear anything else he said.

“No,” he said. “I was living with him and he smothered me to the point that it was unbearable. I came home from work early one day, packed up my stuff, and moved in with some friends. When he called me and screamed at me about it, I told him we were over.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, because I could feel how much this bothered him.

“The next night I went out to my favorite bar, picked up a dude, and fucked him senseless,” he said. “It was like I needed that to sort of cleanse my bad experience with Sebastien.”

I didn’t work that way, so it was hard for me to understand that, but I knew that a lot of guys did. I’d have to get some insight on that from Will or Matt. “Then why did he accuse you of cheating on him?”

“Because when I told him we were over, he didn’t believe me,” Kris said. “He does that. He spits out words, but doesn’t hear what other people say. In his mind, we weren’t over until he decided we were over.”

“Then why was he so freaked out when he saw you tonight?” I asked.

“We haven’t seen each other since I moved out,” Kris said. “He’s called me, but I just ignored him and didn't answer. This was his first chance to bitch at me in person.”

“I have a hard time understanding how he could do that,” I said. He looked at me curiously. “I’m way too proud to put myself in that situation. I’m not going to beg anyone, not even you.”

“And that is just one of the many reasons why you and I as a couple are different than it was when I was with him,” he said.

“This whole deal just rocked my world,” I said, trying to explain things. “I have been so happy since we’ve been together. The thought that I could end up crazed and ridiculous like him was pretty shattering.”

“You could never be like him,” he said. I raised an eyebrow at him because I was that neurotic.

“This isn’t your issue, it’s mine,” I grumbled, and looked down.

He gently pulled my face up so I was looking into his beautiful eyes. “Jeremy, I pledge, on my honor as a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, that I will never cheat on you.”

I blinked at him in surprise as I slowly digested what he said. I thought of Alex and his code of honor, then remembered how he’d thrown me to the wolves. It wasn’t fair to compare Kris to him, and the one thing that Kris seemed to value more than anything was his heritage. He’d put that on the line to make me feel secure about us. That was a massive oath from him. “That’s good enough for me,” I said. That was our cue to fuck, although I was starting to wonder if we were actually making love.

August 15, 2004

Marousi, Greece

Will

“You did a good job!” Gregor said to me. I’d just finished putting together a spreadsheet for him to help track event timing.

“Glad I could help,” I said.

“You should tell this dipshit he works for me too,” the asshole said. He had this way of popping up out of nowhere and bothering me. I’d found out that his name was Parker Gillis. I’d been ignoring him, but since that didn’t seem to be working, I needed an alternate strategy.

“Dude, if you want to go out with me, just ask,” I said. “But all this repressed bullshit is annoying.”

“You want to go out with him?” Gregor asked. It was hilarious to watch Gillis get so mad he was turning red.

“I don’t want to go out with him,” he said, gesturing at me with disdain. “I don’t want him around here at all.”

“Classic closet case,” I said to Gregor, making him snicker. “Why don’t you want me around?”

“Because you lurk around here, and it’s like you’re preying on the swimmers, trying to convert them over to your lifestyle,” he said with a sneer.

“Super repressed,” I said to Gregor, ignoring what Gillis said, because you couldn’t argue with stupid. “He sports an erection when Phelps is around.”

“One more comment from you and I’m gonna kick your ass,” he yelled.

“He doesn’t know that my father is a billionaire and that as soon as he gets back to the US, he’s going to lose his kneecaps,” I said to Gregor.

“Your father’s a fag too,” Gillis said. That was disappointing. I rarely ever tossed my family’s wealth out as a threat, so it bugged me that it didn’t work when I did it.

“He is, and he’s good at it, from what I hear,” I said.

“You can be done for today,” Gregor said, shaking his head in disgust.

“Thanks,” I said, then turned to Gillis. “I’m gonna find a hot swimmer to fuck.” I stood there, waiting for him to explode, taunting him with my eyes, until he turned away.

I tracked down Marie and we just walked around the grounds. “Yes, I fucked him,” she said to me in a grumpy way. She knew that I’d bug the shit out of her until she told me whether she’d slept with Grant. I had to stop walking because I was laughing so hard.

“You don’t seem very happy,” I said. “Was he a bum lay?”

“Dude, he was so much fun!” she said, and high-fived me. I loved it when Marie relaxed like this. “I kind of feel guilty, though.”

“What’s your deal with Ryan?” I asked, correctly identifying the source of her guilt.

“We talked about that before I left,” she said. “Didn’t go real well.”

“And you’re just telling me this now?” I demanded. She gave me an annoyed look, so I corralled my inner bitch. “What happened?”

“I told him that I wanted to be able to see other people, and he thought I was breaking up with him,” she said sadly. “So just as soon as I managed to talk him off the wall about that, he pissed me off.”

“Uh oh,” I said. “What did he say?”

“He said that was fine, but he didn’t want that to start until he hit the road,” she said. “I explained that he didn’t get to control the timeline.”

“Explained?” I asked, and got a slight grin from her. “So he didn’t want you coming to Greece to fuck Grant, and you did.”

“Yeah, so I tortured the fuck out of myself this morning, trying to decide if I’d fucked Grant just to spite Ryan or not,” she said.

“I’d have done that,” I said, knowing how consuming those mental spirals could be. “What did you decide?”

“Do you think I did that?” she asked, turning it back at me.

“Not really,” I said. She glared at me, because she wanted a solid ‘no’. “I think it was about having fun, and declaring your freedom. And if you think about what I just said, nowhere in there did I mention or refer to Ryan.”

“I came to the same conclusion,” she said. “So did you hook up with Ian?”

“We blew each other,” I said. “It was fun.”

“You don’t sound all that excited about it,” she probed.

“No, he was awesome. He’s really cute and he has a big dick,” I said, making her chuckle. “I just feel bad about the shit he has to deal with. It’s like the same stuff that JJ tried to handle, and look how fucked up he is. I don’t want to see that happen to Ian.”

“Not much you can do about it,” she said fatalistically.

“You just proposed that we both forget about other people’s bullshit,” I stated. “I’m in if you are.”

“I don’t know that I was proposing that, but I’m in,” she said. We hugged each other to seal the deal. She went to meet up with Stef to go shopping, while I headed back to the Aquatic Center.

I handed my badge to the security dude who was scanning people in, only to see his face get an alarmed look. “I am supposed to confiscate your badge and take you to Mr. Patonki.” He was the dude who supervised all the interns. He was Polish, although he was so rule-oriented he seemed German.

“Fine,” I said. We walked through the Center to where the offices were. He knocked on Patonki’s door, which was open, then led me in. The guard handed my badge to Patonki.

“Thank you,” Patoniki said tersely. The guard left and closed the door behind him. This guy studied me, totally trying to intimidate me, which was laughable. I just looked back at him like I was totally relaxed. “Mr. Gillis has filed a complaint against you. He claims you were disrespectful.”

I decided to create some problems for that fucking homophobe. “I was disrespectful,” I said. “I had to be.”

“Why would you have to be disrespectful?” he asked, because he probably couldn’t even contemplate doing something.

“Because it was like he was stalking me, and he was giving me creepy looks,” I said, pretending like I was virginal. His mouth opened, and he was going to say something, then he closed it. He waited about thirty seconds before speaking.

“It seems like the best solution to this problem is to separate the two of you, and in that case, I must terminate your internship,” he said officiously.

“I’m fine with that, as long as you let me keep my badge,” I said. That thing was golden. It got me into any event, and I could position myself to get the best views possible.

“We cannot do that,” he said, shaking his head. “Unless you are working here, you cannot have a badge.”

“Then I need to call my lawyer, and my father,” I said. “I’ll probably also need to call the cops.”

“Why would you call the police?” he asked.

“Because this man has been harassing me since I started, and the only reason he did it is because I’m gay,” I said. “I’m worried he’s a threat to me. He’s already been abusive.”

“Abusive?” he asked.

“Abusive,” I confirmed. I sat there for probably two minutes, watching his face contort into a bunch of different shapes, until finally he spoke.

“Here,” he said, and tossed me my badge.

“Thank you,” I said, then got up and left his office. I looked at my phone and pulled up Ian’s number, then texted him.

Will: I had a good time

Ian: Practicing soon

Will: Hang out later?

Ian: Can’t

I shrugged in disappointment, but it wasn’t a surprise. He was one of the golden boys here so there would be all kinds of demands on his time. I decided on a change in venue, so I went to watch the gymnasts. The Hamm brothers were pretty good, but some of the other guys seemed a lot better. I was watching this dude from France perform, and he kept looking back at me and smiling slightly. He was like the quintessential twink: cute, short, and super flexible. He had dark brown hair, but it took me a while to notice that, so focused was I on watching his lithe body. He finished his routine on the parallel bars, and as soon as he was done he looked at me and giggled. I looked down, freaked out to discover I was throwing major wood. I quickly readjusted my dick, willing it to go down, but it decided that it didn’t want to.

The dude walked up to me, stared at my groin, then at my face, then winked at me. He turned and started walking, while I followed him, keeping my hands in my pants to contain my cock, which was straining mightily at the sight of his cute ass. He walked into a bathroom, and I followed him into one of the stalls. I barely had the door shut and locked before I felt his mouth on my dick. I leaned back and enjoyed his attention, but I really wanted to fuck him. “Fuck me?” he asked, like he was a mind reader. I could tell he could speak almost no English.

“But of course,” I replied in French, getting a big smile for my multilingualism. I worked his ass with my mouth, savoring the smell of his freshly sweaty body, then pulled out a lube packet and got him ready. I slipped on a condom, then started to push into him. I went slow, letting him get used to me, and only when I felt his ass relax around my dick did I really start to fuck him.

He made me stop, turned around so he was facing me, and smiled. “This way,” he said. He all but jumped up, then I pushed him back into the wall, bending him almost double. It was so hot that one of his legs was almost wrapped around my waist. He was a lot of fun, and I was regretting that we weren’t in a place where I could appreciate how nimble he was. Ten minutes later found us walking sheepishly out of the stall, paranoid that someone would see us. We were lucky that the bathroom was empty. “Can I call you?” I asked.

“I hope you do,” he said, and gave me his phone number. “My name is Paul.”

“Will,” I said. I dialed his phone, let it hang up once I knew the caller ID had registered, then walked out of the bathroom and headed back to the apartment.