Chris

  As Cal remained in bed snoring away, Chris was showered and getting his books together for his first college class. He was starting his college career with Latin 101 on Monday at 8 am—quite a start for an 18-year-old from rural Tennessee. Everyone shivered at the thought of Latin, but, to Chris, it seemed innocuous—just another foreign language. How hard could that be?

  Chris looked over at Cal. Chris sneered with jealousy at the leisurely morning Cal would have. He still knew so little about his roommate. How did such a lug like a Cal get into a prestigious school like Wellington? Surely, it could not have only been for football. Wellington was not a large well-known state school that drew in millions of dollars of revenue from football games. Cal had to be at least a little intelligent to get into this school. Perhaps, his parents were wealthy donors. Most of the student body were wealthy and benefitted from close family ties to the school. Was Cal’s family rich? Cal did not seem the type to have been raised in a privileged family. However, most of the other kids did not overtly flaunt their wealth at Wellington. Doing so would be considered crass.

  Chris was getting hungry and needed to get something at the dining hall to eat on his walk to class. He stood up and put his backpack on. He quietly left the room and locked the door. On his way out, he saw Ian coming out of the bathroom.

  “Hey, Chris. What’s up?” Ian said. He had just come out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around his waist.

  “Just off to my first class,” Chris said with an eager grin.

  “Like that?” Ian said looking Chris up and down.

  “Like what?” Chris asked puzzled.

  “Did no one tell you about the dress code?” Ian asked in a serious tone.

  “Dress code?” Chris asked now very confused.

  “Yeah,” Ian said rubbing a towel over his hair. “We have a dress code for class. Guys wear a blazer and tie; girls wear a blouse and skirt—at least until you figure out if your professors care about the code.”

  Chris panicked. “No, no one told me.” Chris was wearing a solid color t-shirt and a pair of jeans—a far cry from the requirements of the dress code.

  “You should go back and change—just for the first week,” Ian said as he walked towards his room.

  “But I don’t have a blazer or a tie. I never thought I’d need them,” Chris said suddenly realizing how out of place he felt.

  Ian turned around. “You came to Wellington without dress clothes?”

  Chris wrinkled his eyebrows. “I didn’t think it would ever come up.” Chris started to breathe heavily. He was starting college off badly already.

  “Come with me. You can borrow a coat and tie until you can get one,” Ian said smiling easily at Chris. Chris felt at ease once he realized that Ian was going to take care of him. “It might be a little snug, but it’ll work for now.”

  “Oh, thank you!!” Chris sighed with relief. “You saved me!”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ian said.

  Ian opened the door to his room and motioned for Chris to enter. He went over to his closet which was full of appropriate clothes. Chris could tell from Ian’s attire that Ian himself came from a family higher in status than Chris’s working-class family. All his shirts and slacks were neatly hung and arranged by general color scheme. It was clear that Ian, despite his alternative punk appearance, had been raised properly.

  “Take a coat and a tie that you like,” Ian casually said.

  As Chris looked over Ian’s selection, Ian went over to his drawers to get a pair of boxers and an undershirt. Chris’s eyes grazed over Ian’s shirts and pants. They were all designer brand names that Chris thought were too exclusive for him. He was used to Levi’s and Bugle Boy. Ian’s clothes were from Brooks Brothers, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Banana Republic. The only brand he had heard of was the Gap—one of the higher end stores in the malls that Chris knew. These other clothes came from stores in the “fancy” mall.

  Chris found a striped Nautica tie and a navy-blue Brooks Brothers blazer. He pulled them from the closet and held them in his hands. He turned around just as Ian dropped his towel. Chris quickly turned back around after seeing Ian’s naked ass. However, when he turned, he faced a full-length mirror on the door. There was no way he could avoid watching Ian put his boxers on. Ian had a rounder, more bulbous rear end than Chris imagined. Over the past few days, Chris had now seen every piece of Ian body—all by accident.

  “You may as well borrow an entire outfit. You can’t wear a tie and coat with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt,” Ian said still with his back turned.

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  Chris watched as Ian slid his undershirt down. Ian turned around as Chris looked away from the mirror.

  “That’s a good pick,” Ian said seeing what Chris had in his hands. Chris hung the blazer and tie on the doorknob and took his backpack off.

  “This is so nice of you,” Chris said going back over to the closet.

  “Anything for a friend,” Ian said and walked over next to Chris. “Do any of these shirts speak to you?”

  Chris looked over the selection but couldn’t decide. He was still a little stunned from seeing Ian get dressed.

  “I don’t know,” Chris said quietly.

  “Here,” Ian said. “I’ll pick something out for you.”

  Ian quickly scanned his attire and pulled out a solid light blue dress shirt and a pair of khakis. “Try these on.” Ian picked out a shirt and a pair of pants for himself.

  Chris took the shirt and put it on over his t-shirt. He buttoned the shirt up leaving the collar turned up. The shirt fit snuggly. He unbuttoned his pants and looked up. Ian was watching him with a grin on his face.

  Ian took his outfit over to the bed and started to get dressed. Chris shyly slid his shoes off and unzipped his pants. Ian started dressing himself, so Chris quickly slid the jeans off and put the slacks on. Ian was a little smaller in the waist, so Chris pulled the waistband tight and buttoned the pants. He was going to need to get some nice pants quickly because he didn’t know if he could wear Ian’s pants all week. It would have to do for today, however.

  He realized as he took the tie that he didn’t know how to effortlessly tie it. He had only worn a tie a few ties in his life. His efforts always ended up with one end too long. His mother would eventually do his ties for him. Chris attempted the tie but failed miserably.

  “Ian?” Chris said looking at his lack of tie skills in the mirror.

  “You don’t know how to tie a tie, right?” Ian said smiling.

  Chris blushed and shook his head.

  “When we have time, I’ll teach you,” Ian said. “Right now, come here.”

  Chris went over to where Ian was standing. Ian reached up and buttoned the collar. He saw that the collar was too tight, so he unbuttoned it. He wrapped the tie around the unbuttoned collar and started to effortlessly tie the tie into a Windsor knot. Chris watched Ian’s face as he slid one end through the knot. Ian had a look of concentration in his dark green eyes.

  As he completed the knot, Ian looked up into Chris’s hazel eyes. He gave Chris a little wink and finished the knot. “There. You’ll have to leave the collar open, but no one will notice.”

  Chris looked down at the perfectly assembled knot. He looked back up at Ian. “Thank you so much.”

  Ian laughed. “Come back tonight, and I’ll show you how I did that.” Ian went over to his closet to pick out a tie for himself.

  Chris put on the blazer and slid his arms through the straps of his backpack. He was going to have to skip breakfast today. He wanted to ask Ian if he had a granola bar but thought that would be asking too much. He would get a snack from the vending machine.

  “Alright, now I guess I’m ready,” Chris said.

  “Welcome to Wellington,” Ian said laughing. Chris gave Ian a smile and walked to the vending machine for a candy bar. He was going to cut it close in making it to class on time.

  Chris quickly walked across campus. He did not anticipate the distance. He was five minutes late for class. The professor was already reading over the syllabus when Chris quietly entered the room. The lecture hall for his Latin class was in an older building. The hallways were like a maze. The numbering system of the rooms was out of order. Chris had to ask a student where Room 145 was. It was on the opposite end of the building from where he entered.

  Chris was both flustered and sweating when he entered the room. Everyone looked up at him since the room was small. He gave an awkward smile. The professor grabbed a syllabus and waved it indicating for Chris to come up and get it.

  Dr. Bennington was a stooped over man in his 70s. He was bald and had thick glasses. Chris approached Dr. Bennington, took the syllabus, and politely thanked him.

  “There’s a seat in the back,” Dr. Bennington said pointing his wrinkled, bony finger towards the back of the room. Chris saw the one empty seat in the back corner of the room. Chris quietly walked to the empty desk while Dr. Bennington continued going over the syllabus.

  Chris noticed that the class only had 15 students. He knew the student-to-professor ratio was small, but the reality of the small ratio didn’t sink in until now. He quietly sat down in the desk. He looked over at the guy next to him who was impeccably dressed. His shirt was freshly pressed, and his tie was neat and tight. As he was writing a note on his syllabus, he looked over at Chris and gave him a nod and mouthed hello. Chris returned the silent greeting and got out a pencil.

  The rest of the class was uneventful. Chris was relieved as he had already had quite an eventful morning already. The class started working almost immediately on Chapter 1. Chris sat blankly as he learned about tenses, declensions, cases, and Roman history. In his first day of class, they already covered what would have taken weeks at Miners Creek. He was not prepared for the fast pace of learning at Wellington. Once class was over, Dr. Bennington assigned exercises in a complimentary workbook to the text to be completed by Wednesday. Chris knew he was going to have to up the speed of his class work.

  As he zipped up his backpack, the guy sitting next to him stood patiently. Chris got up and put his backpack on with his back turned to the guy. Chris turned around to face his neighbor.

  “My name is Dave. You must be a freshman,” Dave said extending his hand.

  Chris shook Dave’s hand. “Yes, I’m Chris.”

  “Nice to meet you, Chris,” Dave said. Chris couldn’t help but notice Dave’s slicked back wavy light brown hair. “That was quite an entrance.”

  Chris nervously laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t realize the walk was so long. I guess I’ll have to leave earlier.”

  “Yeah, you guess. Want to get breakfast?” Dave said.

  Chris was a little taken back. Dave was friendly enough, but Chris was not used to such a forward invitation from a stranger.

  “I’ve got a class in thirty minutes, and I don’t want to be late like I was for this one,” Chris said.

  “No problem,” Dave said. “I’m a member of Epsilon Lambda Zeta. We have a table in the dining hall off to the left. Come sit at our table sometime.” Dave walked out of the room leaving Chris standing by his desk. He had just been invited to sit with a fraternity on his first day of class. He smiled to himself as he started towards his next class. Maybe this day would get better after all.