Fair warning to readers new to this series: I don't usually bother with much in the way of recaps, and this story is no exception. You can certainly enjoy it on its own, but it will make a lot more sense (I think), if you were to start with A Reputation 1: Cleaning Up. Regardless, as always, do not hold your breath for realism in my work. I aim to be plausibly ridiculous.
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A REPUTATION 8: STUDY BUDDY
I returned to my dorm room, walking through the evening gloom with a distinct pep in my step. I had just had epic sex, with a professor no less, then gotten caught up in the delicious penumbra of non-tragic lesbian blackmail. What was not to pep?
I opened the door to my dorm, checking carefully for Captain America before doing so, and strode in, invigorated and ready for some homework. Mitch was banging out some epic prose on his laptop as I entered, and I was closing the door before he looked up. "You are back late..." he began, then his eyes narrowed as he took my bearing and appearance in. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Again?"
I couldn't even not look smug.
"Who was it this time?"
"Not a chance."
"Oh come on! You know you always tell me in the end. A guy like me..."
"Who was is Saturday night, Mitch?" I snapped back, feeling a titch of irritation at my gossipy roommate.
He stopped short. "I..." he started, then just shook his head.
"No?" I said, incredulously. "Dude you know everything about what I've been up to..."
"I don't know about..."
I cut him off. "Fuck off, dude! You have all the gossip your dark little heart could desire about me, and I can't even get a heads up from you about who your secret lover is. It's not like you are ashamed of her, I can read that much. But you are being a right selfish bastard about this and I'm not sure what the fuck to do about it!" Why I was quite this angry at Mitch, I was not quite sure, but things were out of balance between us, it was his fucking fault, and I was feeling more than sufficiently alpha at the moment to call him out.
"Hey, fuck you!" Mitch shot right back, also surprisingly hot under the collar. I was dimly aware of what my problem was, I could not fathom his. Telling each other 'fuck off' and 'fuck you' were not unusual or objectionable events, but there was highly unusual heat in both our tones that evening.
"You are surprisingly discrete with names, I'll admit, but you are such a huge goddamned gossip, dude!" I snarled. "I'm the one who keeps his mouth shut, but you can't trust me with anything?" I hurled my books onto my bed, now furious.
From top of the world afterglow, to having a knockdown drag-out with my roommate in five minutes. What the fuck was happening?
"You know her, man," Mitch snarled.
Light dawned. "Oh... wow. Um, hey. Still. I guess that might be awkward if I ran into..." I halted, because light blazed high overhead in the firmament. "Wait. I know her... or I
know
her?"
Mitch didn't answer me, but his non-answer, and his expression confirmed that I had biblical knowledge of his young lady.
Well. That might be... No!
"Mitch," I said, cooling down as much as I could, given the adrenaline still coursing through my body. "Dude. You think I'm going to get upset? Come on! Me? It would be hypocrisy you could see from space for me to get jealous, much less possessive about any girl!"
He looked at me warily.
"Mitch," I said, now genuinely wanting to get us back on friendly footing... and desperate now to learn who she was. My curiosity had only escalated at his revelation. I sat down across the room in relaxed fashion, miles from Mitch's personal space. "If she and I hooked up earlier, that's in the past, and it is not like you'd be outing her in some goddamned way..."
Mitch took a deep sigh, I and could virtually see his hackles settle as well. He looked at me soberly for a few long seconds, then smiled weakly and said simply, "Kate."
I did not see that coming.
I did not see any of this coming, in any way, of course, but I
really
did not see Kate coming as the one, um, coming with Mitch. The first time they had met, I had been balls deep in her when he had walked in on us...
I smirked. "Good for you." I sank into my chair and relaxed further.
Seeing that I really was not going to have a cow, Mitch also relaxed. A smile bigger than I think I had ever seen on his face broke out. Like a dam bursting, he started burbling. "Great for me! Oh God, can she su..." Just like that, he cut himself off again.
We looked at each other and silently agreed that discussing actual details about a girl that we had both been with would be... seriously awkward. Not to mention unnecessary.
After a pause, I leaned forward. "Yeah. But I do need to know
how
, Mitch. I mean... how?!?"
He laughed. Apparently this was a safe subject. "Freak wonderfulness," he exclaimed happily. "I was hanging at the Union with Dale and Tannis, just going over an assignment and having a snack, you know? Kate walks by, and she knows Tannis. So Kate just sits down next to her and across from me."
"Oh wow. Dicey situation," I chortled.
"I know! I recognized her instantly, of course, and just sort of sat there, frozen, praying she wouldn't recognize me!" he agreed, shivering in recollection of his feelings. "And she did not recognize me at first, either. Even when Tannis introduced us... nothing. Then, about a minute later, she gives me this horrified look. She obviously couldn't bail right in the middle of the long-ass story Tannis was telling, so she just sat there staring at me like somebody had dropped a live cobra in her bed."
"It must have taken her two solid minutes before she realized that I was not that dude--the one who was going to say, 'Hey, I know Kate! I met her when I walked in on her and my roommate bisecting the triangle.' At last, she gave me a little grateful look and I just shrugged."
"See? You can be discrete," I snorted.
Mitch flipped me off idly and continued. "Then, when Tannis finally finished her story, Dale looks at his watch, then at her, and reminds her that they both have to go. Tannis looks at her watch... and they just vanish. That left Kate and me sitting in the booth together, staring at each other. I couldn't leave. I mean, it would be rude to just say, 'My friends are gone, and you don't interest me, so I'm out of here,' right?"
"Plus, you were totally interested in her," I prodded.
"Oh, fuck yeah. In fact, I thought she looked hotter in her gym clothes than she had naked under..." He checked himself. "Anyway, she was kind of thinking the same way--that it would be rude to just leave me alone. And since I had not embarrassed her to death, she felt like not doing that to me. So we just sat there, extending the conversation in all sorts of desperately awkward ways, so as not to offend each other." We both laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation he had found himself in. "But half an hour later, the conversation wasn't forced, and we were vibing, man. Just vibing like I can't remember viking before."
"So the two of you left the Student Union, came up here, and slapped Captain America on the door for five hours?" I asked incredulously.
