Chapter 19
One of my favorite aspects of UW Madison was the campus itself. Everything seemed perfectly positioned to suit me. For instance, here I sat biding my time before my next chemistry class began with the department of chemistry before my eyes across the street.
The chemistry building was quite modern in appearance. It consisted of two multistoried towers connected at the base by a few stories. One tower contained all of the lecture halls while the other contained al of the laboratories. My favorite part about the building was not the building itself, but what lay across the street, where I was sitting right now.
The campus had several well maintained gardens, my favorite of which was right across the street from the chemistry building. I sat underneath the gazebo staring intently at the building in which I would be spending the next two years studying, and that didn’t include graduate level work.
I decided to get up and stretch for a moment, stood there, and enjoyed the gentle breezes which carried the lovely aromas of the surrounding flowers. The plethora of plants was stimulating my nostrils and almost made me forget what time it was. I checked my watch and realized I my first class in five minutes!
Luckily I had already familiarized myself with the area and I was quick on my feet. I sprinted across the garden and down to the street. God must have known I was in a hurry since there was no traffic coming from either direction, a rarity. I rushed into the open lobby of the chemistry building and turned sharply left, ran up four flights of stairs, sprinted down a hallway, and came to a screeching stop in front of my classroom.
The lecture hall itself was fairly large. This was an intro class, so it often ha a fair number of students. Of the three hundred seats, one hundred fifty were probably filled. I carefully made my way down the steep stairs in the room while just beginning to catch my breath. I took no bother to scan the room to see if Chad was here yet and I soon reached the bottom and took what would be my usual seat in the peak of the “T,” front row center. Yes, I was one of those students. I’ve learned to take every advantage I can get to succeed in school, and sitting where I was now was one of those advantages.
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My brain was just about tuned out after fifty minutes of learning why carbon’s four spots for covalent bonding make it one of the most important components in organic molecules, so once class was over I headed straight home to the apartment and plopped down on the couch. Kallie and Angie were both away at class, so I just relied on my own intuition to wake me up for my next class.
After a half hour or so, I woke up from my nap, grabbed my backpack, and trudged back to the chemistry building.
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Today was my first discussion period too. This was the time when the T.A., i.e. me, led the class in discussing the past material covered in lecture. Not to my surprise, I was the first, and only one there with five minutes before the class started.
The room was small and windowless, about twenty seats, with a whiteboard in the front. Due to the size of the class, there were several discussion classes, this as merely the one I was assigned to, or to which I was assigned, rather (can’t end a sentence in a preposition now).
With one minute left to go, the door burst open and in rushed a familiar face.
Chad stopped halfway into the room, looked around and for a few moments, and then up at me.
“Ummm, where is every one?” he asked.
“First game of the Preseason for the Packers; I wasn’t expecting a huge crowd.”
“Preseason, Packers?” he asked inquisitively in that cute accent.
“Oh, sorry. It’s for the NFL…football?”
“Oh yeah…”
“The Packers are the professional team from Wisconsin.”
“So are we not having class then?”
“Well, I’ve got an hour to blow, so I can stay if you want.”
“Thanks, I could really use some help with the stuff the prof said today.”
“Sounds great.”
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“So when we talk about hybridization, we mean that when an atom bonds, its valence electrons are not quite the same as when the atom is alone. If, for example, a molecule has two double bonds, like in carbon dioxide, we only count each double bond as a single electron group. So we say that the hybridization around the carbon atom is…”
“S P one?”
“Exactly.”
“Great, I think I’m finally getting this.”
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit it. He was cute and I hadn’t gotten any since Derrick. I hadn’t done the solo thing either, since once you’ve had the real thing like I did with Derrick, NOTHING compares. I did all my hardest to hide my semi-hard cock whenever I looked over his shoulder. I could only imagine those strong arms holding me down as he passionately made love to me, the powerful thrusts of those strong thighs bringing me to climax.
“So what do you think?” he suddenly asked.
“What?” I replied as I snapped out of my daydream.
“About the functional group; it would be an ester, right?”
“Oh yeah, most aromatic compounds contain either benzene rings, or esters. That’s what we smell a lot in things like flowers and perfumes.”
“This is all starting to make sense now. I’m glad came.”
“Me too,” I almost blurted out.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” He gave me a sly grin.
“Well…,” I stammered, “I believe that best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else.”
“Really, and what else do you have to teach then, oh mighty professor?” he said half-jokingly.
“Very funny Chad, very funny.”
“I really do appreciate al the help you’ve given me though. How can I repay you?”
This seemed like a trap. I wasn’t sure if we had been flirting or not, or if he even knew I was gay. I was absolutely at a loss for words.
“Because I was thinking dinner,” he suddenly continued.
“Really?” I asked
“Really.”
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“Holy shit!”
“Kallie,” I shouted, “watch your language! The walls in this apartment are paper thin.”
“Sorry, it just seems kind of funny and surprising.”
“How so?”
“Well,” Angie answered, “I think Kallie means it’s funny and surprising because we’ve lived in this city for over a year and we could hardly get a date or two when nine out of ten guys are straight. Meanwhile, you’re here a week and you’ve already met a gay guy, a hot Australian gay guy. It just seems almost unfair to some degree.”
“Please Angie; every guy is gay, especially in college. It’s just to what degree. Anyone with a dick can be converted…or so I’ve heard.”
“Well if there’s any evidence that God doesn’t hate gays, it’s right here. Lucky son of a bitch,” Kallie said playfully as she nudged me.
“Trust me Kallie, I haven’t had as much luck as you may think. I did a little dating back in Baraboo near the end of the summer. I signed up on one of those online dating services just to see what would happen. I was just curios to see what kind of guys were out there, you know. So I made up a profile, posted it, and waited to see who would find me and contact me. I don’t know particularly why, but I just did. Maybe I was bored, maybe I need a little…you know, or maybe some part of me just wanted to leave Derrick in the past and move on.
“And…” Kallie pried.
“Well…The first one I met, Eduardo, was a little…much for me. We agreed to meet at a Pizza Hut”
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“Well, I would have to say my favorite is the Sound of Music.” I responded.
“OH MY GOD,” he screeched in his nasally voice, “That is sooo cute, I love music!”
“Really,” I commented awkwardly.
“I know, isn’t that soooo cute!”
“Here’s your pizza gentlemen,” the waiter said as he placed our order on the table.
“OH MY GOD, that pizza is soooo cute! There is, like the same number of pepperoni on each slice. Isn’t that soooo cute?!”
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“I may have ben gay girls, but I wasn’t that gay. So of course I was a little turned off since my first experience wasn’t really a fond one, but I decided to continue and see what else would come up.”
“And…”
“And then there was Jon…”
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“Would you like to start off with something to drink?” the waitress asked.
“Sure, I’ll have a Diet Pepsi,” I responded.
“Diet?” Jon commented, “Do you know what diet sodas do to you? The aspartame can give you Alzheimer’s. Plus the acid in the soda will rot away your teeth.”
“I’ll just have water then.”
“Do you know how much chlorine they put in tap water?! Enough to give you cancer! Plus they can’t always filter out the urine and feces at the sewage treatment plant!”
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“So needless to say that one didn’t work out. The guy had so much worry; I’m surprised it wasn’t making him go bald. But the last guy I dated topped all the rest.”
“What do you mean?” Angie asked.
“Well…”
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“I don’t get it. You’re smart, handsome, already have a good job. You’re…normal. What’s the catch?” I said jokingly.
“Nothing,” he chuckled, “What you see is what you get. And look at you too. Remarkably intelligent, cute as hell. I just love your wrists; they’re so thin and perfectly rounded.”
“Thanks, I guess…”
“They would look incredible in a pair of handcuffs…”
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“So I just pretty much gave up on the whole dating thing after that last one.”
Kallie asked next, “So did you…”
“Oh, God no. I’m not into the kinky stuff.”
“I don’t know Tommy, I always pictured you having some secret wild side underneath that ordered, polite exterior.”
“Yeah right…so you can see things haven’t been as great as you may think.”
“Yeah Tommy, actually makes me feel a little better,” said Angie.
“Me too,” replied Kallie with a boastful smirk.
“Shut up girls,” I nudged Kallie back, “I just hope I don’t screw this one up as well.”
“Well,” said Kallie, “I wish you all the luck in the world.”
“Thanks Kallie.”
“So when are you meeting him, where?”
“Oh, now you pry into my life?” I said with a smirk.
“C’mon Tommy, remember, we live vicariously through you. So don’t screw this up, otherwise our lives will get boring again, and we don’t want that.”
“Oh really, why not just start dating yourselves and spare me the heartache.”
“We’re both waiting for the right person, like you. If you can get lucky, then maybe there’s hope for us.”
“Well, we’ll see. I don’t want to be too optimistic. Remember, he who is pessimistic, is never disappointed.”
“Yeah, but he may end up living alone with a houseful of cats, and will only leave one thing behind when he dies, one hundred fifty pounds of cat food.”
“Okay, okay. Point taken Kallie. Well, I’m going to see him tonight at a bar and grill off of State Street.”
“Well, have fun, just don’t screw it up.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
And for once, I was right. I wasn’t going to be the one who would screw this up.