Good Guys Don't Date Bad Boys – Ch. 36
By Laura S. Fox
Copyright © 2022 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.
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Chapter Thirty-Six –
What's That Word... Context?
"Are you worried about
something?" Jonathan felt the need to ask, while taking in Maddox's slightly
drawn face. His pretty features were tinged with a new kind of sadness and made
him look more mature, but that didn't mean Jonathan enjoyed seeing his
boyfriend suffer. Yes, he was thinking of Maddox as pretty, despite what he had
told Rusty about guys not liking to be called that. As long as he was thinking
it, not saying it out loud, there would be no incredulous glares directed at
him, so it was fine.
It was Sunday evening,
and everyone was back from their short Thanksgiving break. Jonathan had been
waiting for Maddox, eager to see him again, and maybe to gather the courage to
tell him the same words Rusty had wrenched out of him. Timing was everything,
and right now, seeing Maddox troubled like that, it didn't feel like a good
time at all.
Maddox lay on his belly
on the bed and he was munching on his bottom lip. They had kissed briefly, and
Jonathan had felt butterflies in his stomach as he anticipated how it would
feel to be in Maddox's room again, both sharing the same space, thinking of the
same thing.
Only they weren't
thinking of the same thing, and Jonathan withdrew into himself, not wanting to
behave like a horny teenager with disregard for the other's internal suffering.
He placed a sympathetic hand on Maddox's shoulder and began massaging it. "Is
it about your parents?" He lay on one side, so he had an unhindered view of
Maddox's frown and the drooping corners of his mouth.
"Well, they didn't take
it well at all, as I told you," Maddox eventually replied.
"Maybe it was too soon?"
Jonathan offered.
Maddox gave him a glare.
"Too soon?"
He was somehow saying the
wrong things. "I don't know. We've only been seeing each other for a few
months."
"What's that supposed to
mean?"
Apparently, any word he
said was just a shovelful of dirt out of the huge hole he was digging for
himself.
"Nothing," he hurried to
say.
The beautiful gray eyes
narrowed at him. "Are you kidding me?" Maddox scoffed and looked away. "I
thought we were serious." The last words came out quietly.
"We are," Jonathan said
in a defensive tone and let his hand slip from Maddox's shoulder. "It's only
that it might not look the same to the outside world, that's all. I mean, it
would be a different thing if we had dated for a year or two. In their eyes, I
mean." Usually, he was considerably more articulate when it came to what went
out of his mouth.
"Hmm." Maddox rested his
chin on top of his crossed forearms and let out a long sigh.
Jonathan began caressing
his head, running his fingers through the dark hair. It didn't take long for
Maddox to start purring, which was definitely a lot better than awkward
conversation.
"Are you going to
introduce me to your parents?"
The question took
Jonathan a bit by surprise. Maddox at his parents' estate took some effort of
imagination, for no other reason than his parents never invited anyone over who
wasn't of the same station. He could easily imagine the priceless look on their
faces, and he didn't want to expose Maddox to that sort of judgmental behavior.
A sudden and strong feeling of possession and over-protectiveness washed over
him.
His silence was misinterpreted.
"Don't tell me you didn't even about think it," Maddox said in a sharp tone and
turned his head to give him a hard look.
Jonathan felt like
shriveling on the inside under those hurt eyes. "Yes, of course, I did," he
said, and even to his own ears, he sounded unconvincing.
Maddox frowned and looked
away. Jonathan didn't know what to do to make it better. As long as they lived
their relationship here, in the large cocoon that was the campus of Sunny Hill,
everything went fine. The troubles began, apparently, when they tried to take
it out into the real world. It hadn't worked with Maddox's parents, who,
according to their son, were kind-hearted and open-minded.
"Look," he said, "it's
not like we're about to ask for their blessing. We'll convince them all in due
time. Until then, we have finals, and a lot of work to do."
"Fine," Maddox agreed,
but he did so in an exasperated tone. "So, you don't want to spend the night?"
Jonathan wanted to say
that he would like to, but he sensed that he had blundered enough. "We should
both get some rest," he replied.
He leaned over and kissed
Maddox's cheek. He could tell his boyfriend was pissed, but something told him
that even if he stayed, things wouldn't have gotten better, either. Sometimes,
people just needed a little bit of space.
***
The
name of the game? Secret love affair. (Of course, nothing's ever too secret
when Xpress is on the job.)
The
stars of the game? This is where things are getting juicy... and by that, we're
telling you, guys and gals, you're gonna lick the cookie bowl clean, once you
hear the names of those involved.
First,
the sexy, the mysterious, the too-good-to-be-true... cue drums! Jonathan
Hamilton! Yes, the accomplished new sensation of junior year, the one who made
Maddox Kingsley reevaluate his sexuality from the ground up, is in the
headline!
Second,
our very own college idol, the veritable king of Sunny Hill, the guy famous for
making the world tour (the world we live in, here, at our campus) in eighty
beds or more... ta-da! Rusty Parker!
But
what do these two have in common? You may ask. Aside from the fact that one's
Maddox Kingsley's official boyfriend, and the other's the same guy's bestie for
life, anyone would feel tempted to say `not much'. Jonathan Hamilton dresses to
impress when he goes out to buy popsicles. Rusty Parker just throws anything
that happens to be in his way on his perfect muscular body ... yet he still
manages to look perfect.
Where
one has a perfect GPA score, the other barely makes it from one exam to the next.
Where
one is clearly some one-percenter's offspring, the other comes from a broken
home.
Where...
you catch our drift, right?
Well,
as the old adage goes, opposites attract! Thanksgiving break proved the perfect
opportunity for these two opposites to meet and...
Well,
let's allow the pictures to do the talking for us! Stay tuned, this story is
not going to die soon. And we're here, ready to provide you with new tasty tidbits
as we wait for the drama to unfold.
Lastly,
a few questions for our heroes:
Maddox
Kingsley, have you decided to share your boyfriend with your bestie or...?
Jonathan
Hamilton, are you a superhero? Flipping two one-hundred-percent straight guys
in just half a year must be classified as a superpower. We're just saying!
Rusty
Parker, are you going to disappoint all the girls on campus you haven't gotten
to seduce yet? That would be a mistake...
***
Maddox didn't like how he
had let things go with Jonathan the night before. Obviously, he had made the
guy uncomfortable and caused him to feel judged. And he had looked forward so
much to getting together again. That short kiss they had shared didn't count as
much, and now he was itching to find a way to persuade Jonathan to forget about
studying for about one hour so that they could get together and stop talking
about parents and whatnot for a change.
He pulled out his phone,
determined to establish a short, hot date before getting to class.
You've
been tagged.
"What now?" he groaned
and swiped away the annoying notification. It had been fun for a while to be a
local celebrity, but he had come to think there was something wrong with being
too popular.
A few snickers a couple
of feet away from him proved enough of a distraction for him to let his thumb
hover over the screen without touching it. Maddox looked around; he was either
suffering from a serious case of self-importance, or everyone seemed to be staring
at him. "What?" he growled at a tall thin guy passing by him with a knowing
smirk on his face. Something about the way that dude was grinning at him like
he knew him from Adam or knew something Maddox didn't was extremely annoying.
He must have looked
aggressive enough, because the guy lost his smirk and turned on his heel like
he suddenly remembered he was going the wrong way.
However, a short chubby
girl pulling her boyfriend by the hand, a dude equally short and chubby, stared
at him without flinching. "Is it true, Maddox?" she asked with a fake grin.
Maddox considered the
girl, wondering if he had ever hooked up with her, but nothing about her seemed
familiar. "Is what supposed to be true?"
She leaned in and gave
him a conspiratorial wink. "Are you in a threesome?"
Maddox groaned and rolled
his eyes. "I've never been with two girls at the same time," he said. "Don't
believe everything Xpress says."
"Not two girls," the
female student waved dismissively. "Two guys."
"Not that kind of
threesome either," Maddox said with emphasis. So, the rumor mill was trying to
get Jonathan and him into some weird sex-scenario.
The girl faked surprise
so badly that he gave her a `are you kidding me?' stare just for the sake of
it.
"Then, in that case,
should I say... I'm sorry for you?" the girl asked and patted her lips with her
index finger.
"Why should you be sorry
for me?" Maddox asked and put away his phone to cross his arms and give the
girl a hard glare.
"Don't tell me you don't
know even now," she said and the stricken expression on her face was just too
much. "I'm not going to be the one to tell you. Just check Xpress," she added
and put her hand up like she had had enough by pestering him out of the blue
like that.
Curious looks continued
to be thrown in his direction, suddenly giving him a somewhat eerie feeling.
The girl walked away with her boyfriend without saying goodbye, and Maddox
pulled out his phone again.
He tsked at the title and
the text. Jeez, the things some people did to get some clout. However, the
self-assurance that was a part of him began to slip away as he reached the
pictures.
Jonathan was there. Rusty
was there. And the time stamp said that the pic had been taken during
Thanksgiving break. Whatever, things like that were easy to fake. And something
told him that Xpress had the resources to fake whatever they wanted, especially
for a fabricated story that was aimed to make trouble for him and his
relationship. Ever since he had turned the page and started dating Jonathan,
Xpress had expressed their concern with his lack of doing things popular kids
on campus did, but really, this was too much.
But were the pictures
fake, too? Nothing was impossible, not with today's technology, or they could
have been taken sometime before and only made to look like they were fresh out
of the oven.
He frowned as he took in the
way Rusty puckered his lips as if he was just about to kiss Jonathan. He shook
his head. So, his boyfriend and his bestie had played some ball together; it
wasn't like they needed to ask for his permission, but he didn't recall Rusty
being even remotely close to Jonathan. They obviously had talked when Jonathan
visited their house, just the same as had happened with Kane and Dex, but from
that to being so familiar seemed like a huge leap. It didn't matter. Rusty had
a way of getting under anyone's skin, and he was famous for not understanding
personal space as a general rule.
However, he didn't know
Jonathan was capable of throwing one arm so casually over someone's shoulders,
unless that someone was him, Maddox. Xpress called Jonathan the Cold Beauty for
the never too physical way in which he treated everyone. There was no one with
as many boundaries as Jonathan.
There was a possibility
that everything was completely `shopped. Yeah, that had to be it. Still, his
eyes remained glued to the screen, especially at the green sweater Rusty wore.
He couldn't tell beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was the same sweater, but
it looked exactly like one Jonathan had. And Rusty didn't do sweaters,
especially not one this nice.
Everything had to be
fabricated, he decided and ignored the pitying looks, the smirks, and the
snickers coming from all sides as he walked to class. He'd probably have a
laugh later with Jonathan and Rusty, and they would probably tell him how once
they had played ball together and stuff like that, or that everything was fake.
***
Jonathan rubbed his
temples hard as he stared, unblinking, at the screen. How on earth was this possible?
He had taken a place in the last row and now, he was reading Xpress, the phone
placed on top of his open textbook, the professor's voice far away and of no
interest to him. He should have known that it was a mistake to keep the fact that
Rusty had been with him on Thanksgiving break from Maddox, but now, things were
being blown totally out of proportion.
Xpress was making it seem
like some big secret love affair, but in all honesty, nothing of what was shown
in those pictures was remotely incriminating. At best, they looked like two
pals having fun, right?
But how had they taken
the pictures? Jonathan inspected them carefully. He had no idea what he was
looking for or why that aspect of the situation was important. There was a
possibility that they came from security camera footage, but he wasn't so sure.
It appeared that the stills had been hand-picked so that it looked as if something
was going on between Rusty and him, something that made them look very, very
bad.
Maddox had been
conspicuously silent all morning, and Jonathan feared what he might say.
Surely, he wouldn't be very angry at him for keeping Rusty's presence at the
campus a secret. The arguments were faint and insubstantial in his mind. Even
if Maddox didn't think they were cheating on him or something as ludicrous as
that, he had every right to be upset at being lied to.
He would have to make
amends. There was no other way. In the meantime, he read and re-read the text,
in search for clues, until something began insinuating itself in his mind with
a tinge of familiarity.
Jonathan pursed his lips.
He needed to shake someone up. And to begin ignoring all the looks thrown in
his direction that had been making his skin tingle with unpleasant apprehension
since the beginning of class.
***
Connor wasn't hard to
find, as his posse always made him stand out everywhere he went. Jonathan
stopped a few feet from the group and said loudly, "Can I have a word with
you?"
Connor stopped in
mid-tirade, something about how the Earth was dying, and stared at him with
quirked eyebrows. "Good day to you, too, Jonathan," he said pointedly.
"I'm not in the mood for
pleasantries," Jonathan cut his words short. "I want to have a word with you."
Connor dropped his hands
and stuffed his pockets with them. He gave an apologetic shrug, aimed at his
posse, and started walking toward Jonathan. "I would have thought you'd be more
concerned with damage control, given the breaking news you're currently the
star of."
Jonathan walked away from
the main thoroughfare and waited for Connor to follow. Once they were at a
decent distance from the guy's friends who were staring at them in complete
disregard of any semblance of respect for privacy, he stopped. "Don't you think
you've gone too far, Connor? I really don't understand you," he started.
"What, exactly, are you
talking about?" Connor gave him such an innocent look that Jonathan almost
bought his act.
"I know it's you. I don't
care about exposing you, or anything remotely similar, but I do have a problem
if you continue attacking my relationship with Maddox in this craven manner."
Without realizing it, he had raised his voice and barely reined in his impulse
to take Connor by the front of his shirt and shake him out of his stupidity.
Connor narrowed his eyes
and made a confused face. "Jonathan, be a little more specific. By the way, I'm
over you, so if this is your way of showing me that you feel neglected since
I'm paying you no more attention--"
Jonathan took out his phone
and pointed at the phrase that had awakened a particular memory in his mind.
"Aren't these your words?"
Connor squinted as he
looked at the phone, then at Jonathan. He began laughing. "Seriously, Jonathan?
Do you think I'm Xpress?"
"Yes, seriously," Jonathan
said through his teeth. "You said the same thing to me not so long ago."
To his annoyance, Connor
just shrugged. "I'm flattered that you believe me to be as clever as to run an
enterprise like Xpress, but you're wrong. And come on, saying that someone has
a superpower if he's good at something is basically a cliché. Or maybe, someone
from Xpress heard our conversation. Have you thought of that?"
Jonathan was boiling on
the inside. No, he hadn't thought of that, and it took great effort to stop his
anger from taking over. He could be wrong, yes, but he could also be right, and
Connor seemed to be a good candidate for running a sleazy thing like Xpress.
"Deny all you want. It doesn't do you any honor that you're using your little
publication to smear my reputation."
Connor laughed again,
grinding his gears. "It's college, Jonathan," he said in a sugary voice.
"You're popular, whether you like it or not. By the way, did you truly flip
Rusty Parker, as well?" He clicked his tongue. "Then I wasn't wrong when I told
you that you have an awesome superpower. And Xpress just happens to agree with
me, which makes me feel very flattered, of course."
Jonathan didn't hide his
disgust when he looked at Connor. "Aren't you a warrior for the good of the
Earth? How does that fit with your admiration for a thing," he spat the word,
"that does nothing else but bring people down?"
Connor shrugged. "I hate
liars," he said airily. "Xpress simply exposes them, shows their true colors.
I'd say it's a worthy cause."
Jonathan adjusted the
strap of the bag on his shoulder. He had had some time to cool down a bit. It
wasn't like it was a logical thing to expect Connor to simply admit that he was
behind that piece. "You're wrong," he said thinly. "But I suppose that says
something about you, something I should have seen from the start."
Connor's façade appeared
shaken for the first time since the beginning of their conversation. "What's
that something supposed to be?"
"You're a fraud,"
Jonathan said and stared Connor down. "It doesn't matter what lies you tell
yourself each morning when you get up. That's what you are."
And, also for the first
time since they had started talking, Connor didn't have a comeback. He stood
there, staring after Jonathan as he walked away.
***
"Can you believe the shit
they just pulled on Xpress?" Maddox started as soon as he was inside. He threw
his bag on the sofa and then plopped down by Kane's side.
"What shit?" Kane asked
while he continued to examine the textbooks open and spread out on the coffee
table. "Ah, you mean the shit about Jonathan and Rusty?"
"Yeah," Maddox said with
a scowl. He pushed his feet against the low table, making it teeter.
Kane grabbed it and
looked at him. "Don't tell me you're falling for that bullshit. They probably
fabricated the photos."
"Yeah, totally," Maddox
said. "Do you know I told my parents about Jonathan and me?"
"No, you didn't tell me."
Kane gave up on perusing his study materials. "How did it go?"
"Well, not that good,"
Maddox mumbled and stared down stubbornly.
"Like how?"
"Like they don't believe
I'm serious about Jonathan," Maddox replied.
"You'll show them, then.
In due time."
Exactly the same words
Jonathan had used the evening before. Somehow, they weren't enough for him. "I
really don't get it. Don't they want me to be happy? I've always thought that
they did."
Kane appeared to consider
his words carefully. "It's not the easiest thing in the world for parents to
accept. My future sister-in-law didn't have it easy, either, when she came out
to hers."
"Future sister-in-law...
look at him talking," Maddox said with a broad smile and punched Kane in the
shoulder playfully. "So, you think I should just give them enough time to
adjust to the idea."
"That, too. And it would also
help, you know, to reinforce the thing whenever possible. Maybe give them a
chance to get to know Jonathan. It is one thing for them to hear that you like
a dude, and another to meet the guy. And as much a stick-in-the-mud as your
Jonathan is, he's the type that parents like, usually."
"He's not like that,"
Maddox protested with a scowl. Kane gave him a look. "Well, maybe a little."
Jonathan was surely a bit too rigid and formal when it came to social
interactions, which was why the thing with Rusty in Xpress didn't make one bit
of sense. Kane was right to think the photos were fake. If it had been Ray in
there instead of Rusty, he would have understood it, because Jonathan's roommate
had somehow managed to break through those defenses, but that still didn't mean
that Jonathan would start hanging out and touching other people out of the
blue. "By the way, where's Rusty?"
"He might be sleeping,"
Kane offered.
"Did he go to classes today?"
"To some, I think."
Maddox shrugged. "All
right, I'll go upstairs. In case Jonathan comes, just send him up."
"Okay," Kane agreed and
returned to his textbooks.
Maddox felt restless
while he climbed the stairs. He needed more confirmation that the whole thing
in Xpress was made up. Kane's chill explanation and attitude were not enough.
And he wanted to talk to Rusty about how Thanksgiving with his dad had gone.
They hadn't had time to chat the day before, and it was overdue. If he knew
Rusty well enough, he had some things to say, even if they had to be wrenched
out of him, as was the case with all hurtful things.
He knocked on Rusty's
door before reaching his.
"Yeah," came from the
other side.
Good. At least, he wasn't
sleeping, and he hadn't even partied or hooked up the night before, which was a
miracle in itself.
"Hi, man," Rusty greeted
him. He wasn't sleepy, his hair was somewhat brushed, and even his room looked
a little better than usual. So, after all, Thanksgiving break had been a good
thing for Rusty, and Maddox was glad.
He was even at his desk,
writing something. Maddox wouldn't go as far as to consider it studying, but it
was still better than nothing.
"Hey," Maddox replied.
"We didn't get a chance to talk last night. How was your break?" As he talked,
he looked around, wondering once again at the decent degree of neatness of the
room. His eyes fell on the bed that had been made, unlike Rusty's MO, as its
owner said, always ready for some action.
"You know," Rusty
replied, suspiciously tight-lipped.
Maddox was about to begin
teasing the truth out of him when his eyes fell on something peeking from under
the pillow. He went over without thinking. It was something green and looked
like part of a...
He pulled at it,
disturbing the pillow. "The fuck is this, Rusty?" he asked, holding up the
offending object and feeling the floor shake under his feet.
Rusty turned toward him
and his eyes grew wide. "Um, it's a sweater," he said slowly, while his eyes
began to dart sideways, in search of escape.
"Jonathan's sweater!"
Maddox threw the thing back on the bed. He saw red. The only thing he knew
right now was that he had been lied to by two of the most important people in
his life.
Rusty jumped and put
himself in the doorway, blocking the exit. "Maddox, I can explain."
"Get the fuck out of my
way," Maddox growled.
"Jonathan is not to
blame," Rusty continued. "I told him to keep it a secret from you."
"Oh, and that makes it
okay?" Maddox tried to wrench Rusty away from the door. "For you to steal my boyfriend?"
Rusty stared at him, his
jaw slack. Like he would fall for that act. He had known Rusty to have been the
perfect actor so many times before that he no longer kept count.
"Are you nutso?" Rusty
bellowed at him while pointing a finger at his temple. "I didn't steal
Jonathan."
"It looks like everyone
thinks so," Maddox said pointedly.
"Maddox, chill. Xpress is
just throwing shit at walls, waiting to see if it sticks."
"Well, it looks like it
did. Or are you going to tell me that those photos were `shopped?"
Rusty made a sour face.
"At least I would have said they were deep fakes."
"But they're not, right?
They're real," Maddox said. He could feel steam blowing out of his ears. "Or
are you going to lie to me even now?"
Rusty looked guiltily away.
"As I thought," Maddox
concluded. "You just couldn't stand to see me happy with him." His words were
vindictive but he couldn't stop them if it cost him half an arm.
"What?" Rusty now looked
stricken. "Why would you say that? I've never touched him, not the way you
think."
"No shit. How about the
time when you grabbed his ass?"
Rusty worried his bottom lip
and stared at him like he could drop the act and start to cry at any moment.
That had to be bullshit, too. Maddox wanted to think Rusty wouldn't go that
low. He had seen his best friend cry once, and it had been serious. If he did
it to cover a lie, Maddox didn't want to think what he would start believing
about Rusty.
"I thought you forgave me
for that," Rusty said softly. "And I didn't exactly grab--"
"I don't care," Maddox
said aggressively. "You're not my friend anymore."
A stunned Rusty was easy
to overcome and forced to move out of the door. "Wait, Maddox, you didn't let
me explain," he called after him.
Maddox jumped down the
stairs two at a time, fast. Like he cared for explanations given by a liar.
***
"Are you cheating on me
with Rusty?"
Jonathan had expected a
lot of things from Ray, but not that when he set foot into their shared space.
"Really, Ray," he said with a long sigh. "I've had enough of a stupid day."
"You two look like he's
your new bestie," Ray said pointedly. He even stabbed the screen on his phone in
emphasis.
"At least you don't
believe Rusty is my secret love affair like at least half the campus," Jonathan
added.
"Who cares about that?"
Ray asked but then he smiled. "I got you scared that I was bestie-jealous,
right?"
Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, totally, as kids would say today."
"Ugh, not even for a
moment? I'll fail as an actor then."
"Was that ever a valid
career choice for you, Ray?"
Ray shrugged. "One needs
to have a backup plan."
"Maybe you should
consider another backup plan." Jonathan sank into the kitchen chair and ran one
hand over his face.
"Hey, are you okay, JJ?"
Ray squeezed his shoulder in sympathy. "Should I make some tea?"
"No," Jonathan said
quickly, "I'm fine. It's just this stupid story. Do you have any idea how long
it will take to die down?"
"I'm sorry, but I have no
idea. Just between you and me, the photos are fake, right?"
Jonathan shook his head.
There was no point in lying. "No. I didn't go to my parents, after all. And I
happened upon Rusty here." He didn't say a word about Rusty's singing. At
least, that was a secret he could keep without hurting anyone.
"Wow. So I do have reason
to be jealous," Ray concluded.
Jonathan hoped that his
glare was enough to stop Ray mid-performance. "I could use a friend who's not
jealous right now."
Ray hugged him suddenly,
making an attempt to squeeze the life out of him. His efforts in that direction
were laughable, but Jonathan appreciated them nonetheless. "You can count on
me, JJ. I'm totally your bestie. And just ignore stupid Xpress. As long as the
people who know you don't give a damn about their gossip, nothing else matters,
right? By the way, what is Maddox saying? I bet he laughed his ass off."
The words had barely left
Ray's mouth when they started at a loud knock on the door.
"I'll get it," Ray
offered. Jonathan hiked his bag up on his shoulder and headed for his room.
He stopped dead in his
tracks when he heard a familiar voice greeting Ray and asking about him. As
absorbed as he had been with proving that Connor was behind all that drama in
Xpress, he had neglected to call Maddox to tell him the true version of things.
Ray stepped out of the
way to allow Maddox inside, and Jonathan turned.
"What the hell,
Jonathan?" Maddox began without any preamble.
There was murder written
all over his pretty face, which immediately gave Jonathan pause.
"You're not even denying
it, are you?" Maddox threw his arms in the air.
Ray tiptoed around them carefully
and headed for his room. Jonathan threw him a short grateful look for his
delicate approach.
"Is this about Xpress?"
Jonathan asked as soon as Ray closed the door behind him quietly. "Look,
Maddox, it's all blown out of proportion. First of all, I owe you an apology."
"For cheating on me?"
"Cheating on you?"
Jonathan felt his face hurting and his chest imploding inwards. This wasn't Ray
making a joke; no, it was Maddox, with fire in his eyes, angry like he had
never seen him before. "That is so preposterous that I cannot even--"
Maddox moved closer until
only one hairsbreadth separated them. "Look into my eyes and tell me you didn't
lie to me."
Jonathan worked his jaw.
"I should have told you Rusty was with me. He didn't want you to know
because--"
"Because what? Because he
wanted to give it to you behind my back?"
Jonathan closed his eyes
for a moment. If he were an insulted woman, he would have slapped Maddox right then.
But he wasn't, and he was also to blame. "I'm in the wrong, Maddox, and I admit
it. But I'm not in that kind of wrong. So, please, let's just calm down--"
"I don't want to calm
down," Maddox interrupted him again. No, that was obviously the wrong thing to
say to someone breathing fire like that. "To think that I ruined my folks'
Thanksgiving because of you."
Jonathan turned rigid,
the words of apology freezing on his lips. "You shouldn't have done that," he
said, letting the words fall like pebbles down a mountain.
Maddox's eyes flashed
with hurt. "Yeah," he said, "yeah. It should have fucking occurred to me that
this is as one-sided as hell. `Cause
I wanted to take you to meet my parents, while you were just bullshitting me
with promises of showing me your frigging horses."
Jonathan paled under the
accusation. "That's not true, Maddox."
Maddox shook his head
impatiently. "I'm so mad right now at you and Rusty. How could you keep it a
secret from me that he was here, with you? Unless it was something worth
keeping secret, right?"
"You're twisting
everything, and you don't want to hear the truth," Jonathan countered. "And as
much as I regret not telling you about him when I had the chance, I also
understand why he doesn't want to be pitied and looked down upon."
"Are you an expert in how
Rusty feels now? He's my best friend," Maddox said through his teeth and
pointed at his chest.
"I'm not saying that I
am..."
"No, you're not." Maddox
tsked and began to walk back toward the door. "I was so fucking stupid."
"Maddox," Jonathan called
out and rushed after him. This couldn't be it. All because of that gossip rag
and their uncanny ability to twist everything? He caught Maddox by the arm.
"Nothing happened between Rusty and I. How can you even believe such a thing?"
Maddox's eyes were a
storm of emotions as they stared at him. "He even cleaned up his room," he
said. "Rusty never does that. But he did it for you. So don't tell me nothing
happened between you two."
Jonathan opened his mouth
to protest and say that he hadn't even set foot in Rusty's
room, but Maddox continued, "And you even gave him that sweater. When did you
ever do that for me? When did you give me anything?"
"I didn't know--"
"Forget it. It's all my
fault. I hope you'll be happy together or whatever."
Then Maddox was out in
the corridor, and a few curious heads peeked out from slightly opened doors.
Jonathan stopped; his good upbringing prevented him from causing a scene. He
stepped back into his dorm room and closed the door.
***
Maddox was still
trembling with rage when he returned home. Dex and Kane promptly barred his way
as he tried to head up the stairs and hide in his room. Wasn't that what people
did when they wanted to lick their wounds out of sight? Supposedly yes, but not
when their roommates stood there, like the last defense against barbaric
nomads.
"So," Dex started and
exchanged a short look with Kane, "is this the famous Kingsley temper in action
or am I imagining things?"
Maddox growled. "You two,
I'm not in the mood for your preaching. Get out of the way and let me be."
"You fought with Rusty,"
Kane said, "and I suppose you just came back from fighting with Jonathan, as
well. By the way, how did it go?"
"None of your business."
He tried to push and squeeze between his two friends, but Dex pushed him back
effortlessly. "Cut it out already!"
"Show us on this
diagram," Kane gestured as if he was painting with his fingers in the air,
"where Xpress touched you."
"Screw you, Kane!"
"Shit, Dex, it looks like
it's serious," Kane declared.
"Of course, it's
serious," Maddox exploded. "I told my parents--" He swallowed his words quick
enough.
"You told your parents that
Jonathan is an awesome guy and they should meet him," Kane said and nodded as
if he understood everything.
He understood absolutely
nothing. "He's not an awesome guy, `cause he's a
cheater."
Dex growled to get his
attention. "Maddox freaking Kingsley, have you lost all your brain cells since
this morning? Anyone in their right mind looking at those pics would think that
they're looking at two dudes hanging out and nothing else. If they got just one
pic of any of the thousands of situations in which Rusty tried to show me the weird
tricks he uses to get chicks, we'd become the latest homoerotic sensation, and
well beyond Sunny Hill. You know he's a touchy-feely dude."
"Yeah, he is, but
Jonathan is not."
Dex was looking at him as
if he was sprouting another head. "Kane, this is serious, my man," he addressed
his bestie.
"Just let me be already,"
Maddox insisted.
"Not unless you admit
that you're missing something important while you're letting your stupid anger
take over, keeping you staring at those pics in Xpress."
"And what exactly am I
missing?" Maddox growled.
"What's that word, Kane?"
Dex turned toward Kane again.
"Context?"
"Yeah," Dex agreed and
then annoyed the hell out of Maddox by knocking on his head with two bent fingers.
"Get that through your thick skull first before you ruin something else, okay?"
Like he would take advice
from his friends right now. They understood nothing about how the thought of
seeing Jonathan with another man burned inside his chest.
TBC
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