Chasing Rusty Parker – Ch. 44
By Laura S. Fox
Copyright © 2023 Laura S. Fox
All Rights Reserved
Gay Erotica
Intended for Mature Audiences Only
This story will contain graphic depictions
of sexual intercourse, strong language and it is not meant for readers who are
less than 18 years of age.
Consider making a donation to Nifty by
clicking the little blue button on the front page, as they help us all enjoy so
many great stories, while aiding authors like me to display their work.
~
Chasing Rusty Parker is the sequel to my
story Good Guys Don't Date Bad Boys that you can also find here, on Nifty.
Chapter Forty-Four – The Sorest Spot
Matty brought John a glass of water
and waited patiently while his unexpected guest took it with a guilty
expression on his face. Extracting uncomfortable truths out of his former
roommate wasn't high on his wishlist, but that was
the situation they were in, so that was that.
"Where do I start?" John declared and
shook his head as if he couldn't believe he was doing this.
"Start by telling me how you could go
back to Connor after he treated you like that."
John took a pendantic sip and then
stared at Matty, surprisingly confident all of a sudden. "I know things about
Connor. Things he doesn't want anyone to know."
"So you are blackmailing him into
being friends with you?" Now that was something worth noting. Whatever it was
that John held over Connor, it had to be important; the leader of the Implacables hadn't struck Matty
as the forgiving type.
John made a long face. "I wouldn't
call it blackmail."
"I would." Matty sat on the other
bed, convinced now that John wouldn't take off if he wasn't guarded from up
close. "Why do you even want to be friends with Connor? He's pretty shady."
John waved. "Oh, we're not friends.
But he cannot shake me off now. I believe in him, and he's going to see it one
day."
It was Matty's turn to shake his
head. "I don't think that is going to happen, John. Connor's the type of guy
who only cares about being number one."
"So's the case with your special
friend. Rusty Parker." John threw the name at him with the same disgust as
before.
Matty pursed his lips. That wasn't
true. He was about to argue, when John began talking again.
"At least you have Rybalt as another
option. He might be gay." An all-knowing nod followed.
Ah, well. No point in ruining the
desire for self-delusion running so strong in this one. "Okay, we're digressing
here. We were talking about you and Connor."
"Right." John took another sip. "The
things is, Connor needs to get this Rybalt out of the way, so he thought of
beating him at his own game."
"Is he going to try his hand at singing
opera?"
John's brow wrinkled like a sheet.
"No, tonight, he was going to unmask Rybalt. And I, you."
"Are you sure about that?" Matty had
had to abandon his cat claws but made a show of turning his hand into a very
close impersonation of them while giving John a withering look.
His guest made himself little. "Are
you going to beat me up if I do?"
Matty huffed. "Seriously, I'm
starting to worry about you. Do you have a kink for getting floored in one
kick? Because I think I already apologized for it plenty. Okay, let me talk to
you like we're both human beings."
John nodded eagerly. "Not cat and
superhero."
Not what he meant. Matty continued
after letting out a sigh. "I can't stop you from telling the world I'm Slicky
Coolplums. But I'd appreciate it a lot if you didn't."
John waited for a bit. "Is that all?
Aren't you going to frighten me? Blackmail me?"
"If you're going to add `hit me' to
that, I'm kicking you out and you can supervise yourself for the night while
sleeping in the hallway."
John took the threat at face value.
"Okay. I won't tell anyone it was you."
Matty would have liked to press the
matter more, but he needed to hit the iron while it was still hot. "So, back to
your silly little plans with Connor. What would this unmasking do? What does
your leader hope to achieve with it?"
"Come on, Matty, you're smart. Once
Connor unmasks this so-called hero, people will see that he's nothing but a
clown. And they'll get back to what's important, like studying, and leading
pure lives."
"Pure lives? John, my dude, are you
even hearing yourself?" Matty leaned forward. "Come on, spit it all out. That
can't be everything."
John's eyes darted sideways as if he
was trying to find a way out. So, Matty thought, that had to be it; Connor had
some evil plan up his sleeve, and John was trying to protect that ugly child.
"Well, you know how Rybalt is
disturbing the peace," John said slowly.
"The peace. What peace? World peace?"
"No." John scowled. "The peace on
campus. And we need to stand united to have a chance."
"A chance against what? The zombie
apocalypse? All right, all right, I'm listening."
John pursed his lips and appeared to
debate with himself whether it was a good idea to share everything he knew with
Matty or not. Before needing a bit of encouragement on that front, he began
speaking. "Once he has Rybalt's real identity, Connor
can go to the dean with it. Also, to the authorities." The last word came out
very softly, as if not even the person speaking it was sure about how valid
that would be.
"Authorities? Really? Like reporting
him to the police? On what grounds?"
"Connor intends to collect evidence
that what Rybalt does is breaking the law."
"He's not breaking any law," Matty
said through his teeth.
John gave him an odd look and then
smiled. "You like Rybalt, Matty. More than you do your special friend Rusty
Parker."
"I assure you. I like them both
exactly the same. Come on, spit it all out. What kind of law breaking is Connor
thinking about?"
"Vandalism, for starters." John
leaned forward and whispered. "And he's thinking of luring him into doing more
than that. Connor believes that he could make the guy hit him, because he looks
like someone with a short temper."
"Bad idea," Matty said promptly.
"Wait. I hit you. Are you going to report me to the police?"
"Of course not," John replied and had
the nerve to look wounded.
"Good to know. And what if he cannot
convince Rybalt to give him a fat lip? What then?"
John shrugged. "That part, with the
actual police, even he admits is a stretch. But Connor thinks that he can turn
Rybalt into persona non grata with the dean and everyone else on campus.
Because, let's face it, Matty, at this point, Rybalt is fooling everyone. And
people don't like being fooled. That's the plan." As if he had just gotten a
big weight off his chest, John sighed deeply and then leaned back, his hands
crossed over his belly. He looked like a man happy to have gotten over the biggest
trial in his life. Now, it was out of his hands.
And transferred to Matty. "Seriously,
John, what's up with Connor? What dirt do you have on him?"
John averted his eyes. "That's
something I can't tell you. You could hurt Connor with it. Even if you promise
you won't... I just can't risk it."
"Why are you on his side, again?"
Matty tried to catch John's eyes but it was futile. "John, really."
"I... I just think he needs me."
"It doesn't look like that to me. You
could do better."
John scoffed. "Easy for you to say
while you rock that body in your cat boy suit."
Matty frowned. "I do work for this
body, and you know that. It's not simply a gift from the heavens above."
"You say that, but you're beautiful
and you don't care." John crossed his arms and pouted.
"Connor is a scumbag. Stop deflecting
and making it about me. Ditch the asshole, John. He's going to drag you down.
For the life of me, I can't imagine what you see in him."
"He means well," John said, but the
seeds of doubt were already taking root in his mind, if the traces of
hesitation in his voice revealed anything.
"He only means well for himself. He
likes being adored. Don't you find it odd that he has no actual friends?"
"He had friends, but then... you know
what happened last year," John said pointedly.
"Yeah. His so-called friends tried to
publicly shame Jonathan. I do remember very well."
"Are you on first-name basis with
Jonathan Hamilton?" John gave him a look full of envy and longing.
"Yeah, because I'm friends with
Jonathan. He's an awesome person, you know? He didn't deserve that crap from
Connor's friends."
"Sure, but people like Jonathan have
everything, and it's not fair."
"Or maybe you just don't know
everything. He's had his fair share of problems. All last year, he had to work
to support himself in college. And his GPA was still the best in the entire
school."
John didn't seem too moved by
Jonathan's trials and tribulations. Matty could tell when he was dealing with
people who had their minds made up about something. Also, it wasn't his goal
here to turn his former roommate's mind around about everything. It could very
well be a losing battle. What he needed was to make sure that John understood
that Connor was a major creep and staying by his side wouldn't bode well for
him in the future. Another thing was more selfish, since he didn't want to be
outed as the cat boy on other people's terms. Not when he was having so much
fun fooling around with Rusty-slash-Rybalt.
As if he could read his thoughts,
John started talking again. "I won't tell a soul that you're Slicky Coolplums."
"Connor is going to ask you what
happened since he put you up to it."
John shrugged. "I'm going to lie."
"He suspects me anyway, right?" Matty
gave John a long look.
"Yeah." John shifted uncomfortably in
his place. "But he agreed that we would need to be sure before talking out loud
about it. I'll just send him a message that I got sick to my stomach and rushed
to my former dorm room, where I found you sleeping. That should absolve you of
any suspicion."
"I'm not so sure about that, but
okay."
John stretched out on his former bed.
"Can I sleep here tonight, Matty? I don't feel like going back to Connor just
yet."
"Okay. It's your room, too, until the
end of the year, anyway."
John turned on his side to face the
wall. "Do you really think I could do better than Connor, Matty? He's pretty
handsome."
"Handsome doesn't mean squat with a
rotten personality like his. You could find someone kinder."
"Okay." John sniffled for good
measure. "What did you think of my Nightwing
costume?"
"Pretty neat," Matty said. He wasn't
going to nitpick about that of all things.
"Okay. Thanks for letting me sleep
here. And the other stuff."
"Don't sweat it. Sleep tight. But if
you feel anything weird, just wake me up. I hit you pretty hard."
"Actually, I think it's good that you
did. We had a chance to talk."
"Yeah." How much good that did,
they'd have to wait and see.
***
O. M. G., Connor dear, it looks like you've lost the plot completely!
Accusing Rusty Parker of being Rybalt, our new beloved leader... Come on, we all
know that our former royal figure could not sing if his life depended on it.
That only goes to show that you'd pick on anything just to get ahead. And what
do you even expect to obtain with such accusations? Even if it were true... which
obviously it is not, it wouldn't endear you to the masses.
The prince of cats won last night's battle, boys and girls of Sunny Hill!
And yes, if you haven't got it by now, we do have a new king, and his name is
Rybalt!
As for Connor Williams, let's put this in words you can understand... Booo, booo, booo!
That wasn't surprising at all. Rusty
wished he could have been a fly on the wall when Connor had dished his heart
out to Xpress, probably via direct message on their site, about the real
identity of the prince of cats. He even loved it that now Xpress called him
that as well, due to his main rival's detractions.
That guy must have been so mad. Rusty
couldn't stop grinning just imagining it. The only thing that had thrown a
wrench into his plans to take over Sunny Hill was not having his muse by his
side. It didn't matter; they'd have other chances.
He felt his face turning into a
grimace when he checked his phone. His mom had called again. She seemed to be
in one of her usual down spells, when she needed to talk to him. This was the
third time she had called, and it was starting to wear him out. She wasn't
saying much, actually, just letting long silences stretch between them, and she
remembered something she wanted to talk about only when he tried to bring the
conversation to a conclusion.
"Hi, mom," he said, picking up the
phone.
"Rusty, when are you coming home?"
She sounded agitated, not exactly her usual self.
"Not too soon. I mean, I'm not
planning to. I'm busy with school and all that."
"Don't give me that. You've never
cared much for school. That was your dad's idea, that you should go to college."
Rusty considered his next words
carefully. When she talked to him, she always tried to guilt him into
something, and the main villain in that story had to be his dad, one way or
another. While he held his own grudges about how Roy had chosen to leave them
behind and build a different life and family for himself, he was mad enough at
his mom for not even trying to make things work in his dad's absence. He hated
the guilt trip she always tricked him into; and he didn't plan on hurling that
guilt back. It was the least he could do.
She had been the abandoned one, and
that had been a card she'd played for a long time now. It was part of their
interactions as natural as needing water. "Why did you call me, mom?"
"When are you coming home?" The way
she ignored his previous answers to the same question was also one thing she
did. Until he gave her what she wanted, she would continue in that vein.
He didn't have time for getting into
a battle of wills with her right now. "When do you want me to come home?"
"It's not a matter of what I want."
So untrue. He staved off his growing
irritation. "Okay. I'll come this weekend. Is that all right with you?"
"Yes. But I must warn you, Rusty. I'm
not in my best shape. That doctor keeps changing my medication."
In hope of finding a combination that
would truly work for her, without a doubt. After so many years, and being an
adult now, Rusty suspected his mom of not wanting to feel better. The
therapists she'd seen throughout her life had tried all sorts of things to make
her life more bearable. While it had to be true that his mom's chronic condition
couldn't be cured, a part of him just couldn't let him side with her forever
and unconditionally. He also had a hunch that she did all that because the
costs came out of her ex-husband's pocket. She was punishing his dad, but why
did she have to punish him now, making him feel guilty about not going home as
often as she wanted? He was just there, while Roy hadn't been.
An entire weekend with his mom. He
wasn't sure he wanted to face her alone. "Can I bring a friend?"
"Yes, of course you can." She seemed happy
with the suggestion. A third person might act as a buffer between them and stop
any attempt at a guilt trip. Also, his mom loved visitors. When it was just him
visiting, she soured quickly, but if a stranger was there, it took her longer
to find other people's presence unbearable.
That was what he was counting on.
"That's great, mom. We'll be there." He waited for a moment before asking. "You
do get out, right? You don't spend all your days at home?"
"Yes, I do. Although people are so
busy these days. Mrs. Kingsley comes over once every few days, as you know she
does. I'm not a hermit."
That was another thing that irked
him, his mom's refusal to get close to anyone. Maddox's mom was a real saint to
put up with his mom's moods, but, after all this time, she still called her Mrs.
Kingsley, not Florence or, god forbid, Flo.
"Do you want me to bring you anything?"
"No, you don't have to. I can bake
something. Does your friend have any allergies?"
Rusty was pretty sure his mom
wouldn't bake anything if it killed her. "Yeah, some," he lied. "We'll bring
all the food we need, just to be safe," he said.
As expected, his mom seemed relieved.
"Of course. You can never be too careful."
After the conversation ended, Rusty
felt his good mood failing to return. He hadn't seen his mom in a while, and
maybe that was where the guilt he felt came from. Well, he'd do his duty as a
good son, the weekend to come. That should settle that matter for a while.
One other thing he had learned while
watching his mom wallowing in her misery as if she were addicted to it was that
getting in a good mood was doable if you put in the work. Smile even when you
didn't feel like it, laugh just to push everything negative out of the way,
find pleasure in the silliest things. He was an expert in the field.
Nowadays, it was a lot easier. All he
had to do was call.
***
Matty felt relieved when he saw the
caller ID. Rusty had been incommunicado after the interview fiasco, and he was
trying to bide his time before calling himself. There would be veiled
questions, without a doubt, but unless Rusty wanted to call it quits on their
game, they wouldn't be asked directly.
"Hey," he said as soon as he heard
the familiar voice at the other end.
"Do you like ice cream, Matty?"
"Who doesn't?"
"Some people. People who aren't my
friends, obviously," he said cheerfully. "Let's go, then. My treat."
"Is it far?"
"Maddox let me have the car. So we're
set."
"Sure. Doesn't he mind lending it to
you?"
Rusty laughed, the sound of that so
pleasant to his ear. "Maddie's my brother from a different mother. We share
everything."
"Hopefully, not boyfriends." Matty
bit his bottom lip. Fuck, he needed to control himself.
"Nope. That's a pretty thick line,"
Rusty agreed. "Don't get me wrong, that Hamilton is smoking hot, but he's not
my type."
"Really?" Matty turned on his belly
and swung his feet in the air, feeling as excited as a schoolgirl getting a
much-awaited phone call from her crush. Which, in a way, pretty much summed up
his situation.
"Nope," Rusty confirmed.
"Yours are cat boys," Matty teased.
"Yeah, but maybe not so much these
days." Rusty fell silent, as if he had just caught himself before saying too
much.
"Well, I suppose all kinks fade away
sooner or later."
"Yeah, probably. For some people. Not
in my case."
"Are you jealous he's fooling around
with the sexy singer Rybalt?"
"Not much fooling around between them
lately, apparently."
"Really? What a shame," Matty chirped
happily.
"Let's leave others out of this. I
want to eat ice cream with you."
"Sounds like a plan."
Indeed it did. Matty held the phone
to his chest and smiled long after his conversation with Rusty was over. He
hadn't had the nerve to prod Rusty for his type these days, so to speak, but,
in his book, he'd been doing well enough for himself. How many people in the
world could say that they had taken a chance with their crushes like he was
doing?
Surely, it was more than a crush now.
But everything felt just as exciting as it had in the beginning.
***
"You've been staring at my ice cream
for the last couple of minutes. Do you want some?"
Rusty accepted the spoon and steadied
Matty's hand to enjoy the tasty offering. Wanting to have a sample of what his
date was having wasn't the reason why he'd been spacing out for the last few
minutes. He looked at Matty, who was smiling at him. He really loved how Matty
looked at him. That was a guy who knew nothing of his flaws. Of course, that
made things so enjoyable and easy between them. The question that had been on
his lips faded away.
"You really like mine, don't you? We
can switch." Matty made a move to push his tall ice cream dish to him, but
Rusty stopped him.
He moved closer and wrapped one arm
around him. "Do you know what would make it taste better?"
"I have a hunch," Matty said and
turned to look over his shoulder, "but I believe that we are in a way too
public space for it."
"Yeah, you're right. Although I
really want to taste it off..." he began while tipping Matty's chin and dropping
his eyes at the tantalizing lips parting slightly.
"...your dick."
Those two words were barely mumbled,
but Rusty caught them right away. "What?"
Matty's eyes grew wide with alarm.
"Sorry, sorry, I just spoke my mind by mistake."
"No mistake there," Rusty said and
laughed. "Gawd, Matty, you're so damn kinky, you know that? Just to be clear,
do you actually want me to taste it off your dick?"
"No." Matty turned away and
snickered. "I was thinking about what I wanted to do to you."
"For the record, I was totally
vanilla. I wanted to say `your lips'."
"For real?" Matty blinked lazily.
"That's too romantic for you."
"No way is it too romantic," Rusty
protested. "This is an ice cream date, so it's normal for me to say romantic
things."
Matty patted him gently on the cheek.
"You really say the craziest things sometimes."
"Ice cream isn't crazy."
"A romantic Rusty Parker might be a
bit, though."
"Ah," Rusty groaned theatrically,
"you really only want me for my body, is that it? Hence your `mistake'," he air-quoted.
"You got me. Hey, do you have plans
for this weekend?"
Rusty straightened up in his place.
"I have to go see my mom."
"Oh. Everything fine? You don't look very
happy about it."
"Easy to tell, right? Well, it's the
kind of thing that's an obligation."
Matty put a hand on his. "Do you want
me to come with you?"
No, he didn't want that. He didn't
want Matty to see that house left to crumble in on itself, or his mom, who
could run hot and cold at the drop of a hat. Just looking at him convinced him
of the thing that mattered now more than others; Matty was his happy place now,
the guy who knew nothing about all that part of his family drama, and Rusty
realized that he wanted to keep it that way. His mom wasn't his dad. She was
his sorest spot. "No. It's okay. It's going to be uber boring."
Matty appeared quite disappointed. "I
can do boring. I study all day."
"I'm sure you're qualified." He
didn't add anything and returned to his ice cream. "You really have to taste
this." He pushed the spoon in Matty's face, forcing him to take it only so that
he wouldn't speak any more.
Matty smiled. All was brushed over,
then. All good.
***
"Look what the cat dragged out,"
August welcomed him and, unlike her words, her arms were wide open. "I was
starting to think that you forgot I was living around here. Although, I do
understand. You're a big star now. No time for old acquaintances, right?"
"Yeah, busy as a bee, that's what I
am," Rusty said with a forced smile.
August read him right away. "Why the
long face? Has anything happened? Don't tell me Matty gave you the boot."
Rusty glared. "Why would you even say
that? Matty and I are just awesome."
"I see. Come on in." August made room
for him to step into her tiny space. "For the record, I don't mind being your confidante,
okay?"
She sat on the sofa by his side,
turned toward him with a knowing look in her eyes. "If it isn't Matty, what's
going on? The stardom getting to you already? Feeling purposeless? A fraud?"
She knew exactly what to say to make
him laugh. "I'm never purposeless," he said while slapping her knee, "what the
hell? Nah, it's just that I have to visit my mom this weekend, and it feels
like such a drag."
"Your mom. She can be a lot from what
you've told me. So, why don't you take Matty with you? He could keep you
distracted."
Rusty grimaced. "I don't know. He
offered, but I don't want him to meet her."
August inspected him with keen eyes.
"You know, Rusty, this might come as a great shock to you, but people don't
have to like your parents to like you. Didn't you take him to your brother's
birthday? You had no trouble with him meeting daddy from hell."
"Come on, August. He's a breeze
compared to her. At least he tries to act like a regular person. Well, as regular
as a douchey dad can be, but still. With mom, I don't even know. I mean, I know
it's not her fault, and that it's a condition, but sometimes I feel like she's
not even trying."
August's face changed as he spoke.
"Well, I guess I know what you mean. It was never easy meeting my friends after...
you know. Having to hide my bruises and everything. Pretending everything was
fine. I guess we can't change people."
Rusty felt slightly relieved. If
there was one person in the world who understood shame in that deep, raw way he
did where his mom was concerned, it had to be August. He didn't do heartfelt
conversations with other guys, unless he really had to. And he just preferred
to be the one listening, anyway. That had to be it.
"So," he began, "what do I have to do
to convince you to come with me and serve as my human shield?"
August sighed. "I still think you
should take Matty. Don't you want him to know you? Warts and all, as they say."
"Fuck no." He intended to let that
out in a joking tone, but it ended up sounding exactly like he felt on the inside.
"Well, if you don't want to come with me--"
"I'll come with you. I know how hard
it can be to face people you love but don't like."
Rusty pursed his lips. "I don't even
know why you're doing this for me. It's not like I helped you when you needed
it."
August surprised him by caressing his
head in a motherly manner, which was quite apropos seeing what he was asking of
her. "You helped me more than you can imagine. Your words back then, even if
they hurt me, they stayed with me. I mean, I was just hooking up with you and
didn't expect to have a few horrible truths thrown back at me. But there you
were, this guy younger than me, trying to get me to see things for what they
were." She shifted in her place for a moment. "When you're caught up in a bad
relationship, but you still love the person, it's easy to find justifications
for everything. You know, to think that you might be the problem."
"I have no idea what to say to that."
There was a reason why he avoided heart-to-heart conversations like this.
Dealing with the truth was never easy.
"I'm coming with you. And I'm going
to be your shield."
"I was joking about that. She's going
to be happy to have visitors, so I'm betting on her forgetting to be mad at me
for simply existing for at least the time we're there. Also, no need to invest
too much in physical defense. She weighs like a hundred and twenty, sopping
wet." He was trying to laugh it off, to steer the conversation away from
hurtful truths.
August's hand was now on his
shoulder. "Not all abuse is physical, Rusty. Sometimes, a word spoken the wrong
way, if it's repeated often enough, if it aims to hurt, well, it's going to
reach its goal."
"Yeah," he said and took a deep
breath, "yeah."
"How are things with Matty?" August
changed the subject, much to his relief.
"Great, just swell. We went to get
ice cream the other day."
"You took him out on a date. How
nice. I'm happy to see that you're growing up, Rusty."
"It was an ice cream date." Making
those important clarifications was mandatory.
"Yes, a date, like I said."
"Why are you insisting on this? It's
not like I said it wasn't a date." August could be a little annoying, needling
like an old lady trying to get everything out of everybody for lack of anything
better to do.
"I'm letting you discover it all by
yourself. It's going to be so funny when you finally see it. I just hope
Matty's in for the long haul with you because, Rusty, for real, you're a ton of
work. Fun and cool and exciting, but a ton of work."
"He totally is. He agreed to remain
friends after college."
August snorted and got up to get
herself a cup of coffee. She leaned against the counter and raised the cup as a
salute. "Your Matty is a saint. That's good. It means that he'll teach you how
to worship him properly."
"That's so kinky, August. I do
worship his ass, though."
"Yeah," August said with an all-knowing grin, while placing
her cup back on the counter, "totally what I meant."
TBC
Support me on Patreon and
read a few chapters ahead:
https://www.patreon.com/laurasfox
My patrons receive early access to
chapters for works in progress, complete books, bonus stories for finished
series, and other nice extras.