Edited by NaughtyMike
The main disadvantage of me dating somebody who has never been to college was that Duane didn't always fully appreciate the pressures and responsibilities involved with higher education. It isn't that he deliberately stood in my way. It's just that he felt I tended to take my schoolwork too seriously, that it would do me a world of good to go out with him and get rip-roaring drunk and fuck like a pair of insane alley cats the night before I had an important exam at eight in the morning.
During my last semester at Hamner, I was deeply embroiled in the throes of โThe Final Project.โ All seniors were required to prepare lengthy research papers with audiovisual aids and present them formally before the professors in their departments. I was a communications major, so I'd decided to do my project on CNN, its history, impact and the variety and diversity of the stories it covered. My research was so groundbreaking, so enlightening, and so intriguing that I barely remember any of it today, which is probably just as well.
I spent a lot of time at Duane and Darby's trailer while I worked on the project, so I wouldn't have to deal with distractions from the other girls in my dorm. There'd always be somebody vacuuming at three in the morning or groups of smokers nattering away on the porch right outside my window. At the trailer, at least in the daytime, I was alone and could work for hours undisturbed.
At night of course was a bit different. It was damned difficult to concentrate with two healthy young men in residence, playing the TV and stereo, (often at the same time) and sometimes had equally noisy friends over.
I was staying up till the wee hours, then getting up early to go to classes and then coming back to work some more. I was not what you'd call a bundle of fun to be around. I'm sure Duane was feeling a bit neglected, which is probably the cause of what happened the night before my presentation was due.
It was a warm spring night and I was in Duane's room at his desk finishing up the big chart I'd done showing the diversity of stories covered by CNN as compared to the ones done by CBS. Only right then there was not that much of a difference. This was during the 1999 military action in Bosnia, so most of the datelines were in the Balkans.
I had a big posterboard and divided it into columns labeled CNN and CBS. I'll spare you the boring details, but basically what I was doing was listing the dateline of every story covered by either network within a given time slot, writing them on slips of paper and sticking them in the appropriate spot with Poster Putty. I could hear the TV out in the living room while I worked. Duane was watching Professional Wrestling or โwrasslingโ as it he would put it. At least I assumed it was wrestling from all the grunts and thumps and bellowed curses, though it might've been about furniture movers or high school janitors. Darby was already in bed, presumably asleep. I'd heard the moans and sighs of his nightly jack-off session an hour ago. I was sure he made all the noise so I'd know exactly what he was doing and know he was fantasizing about me.
After while the TV cut off, I heard Duane start the shower. He'd be coming to bed soon and I was getting near to finishing with the stupid poster. I was concentrating hard on spelling all those Balkan names right, things like Zagreb and Srbrenica (can I buy a vowel please?). I was so absorbed that I forgot where I was, and so when Duane came in the bedroom from his shower, I jumped .He strolled in, naked and dripping wet. He and Darby didnโt' bother with towels much; they were always walking from the bathroom to their bedrooms without drying off. They couldn't imagine why the hall carpet was rotting. Normally I didnโt mind the nightly โParade of Penises,โ but not tonight.
Duane shut the bedroom door, a little louder than necessary so I'd be sure to take notice, then he laid down spread-legged on the bed. This was usually my cue that I would now be allowed to suck him off, but tonight I pretended not to get it. Duane cleared his throat, whistled tunelessly and tapped his fingers on the mattress.
"What?" I finally asked, wearily, having a pretty good idea what.