Author's Note: Thank you for all of the feedback and votes for the first two chapters. I'm honored! Here is the next chapter in Brett & Travis's love story. More to come soon!
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Back at school Brett noticed some immediate changes between Travis and himself. Ever since his dad had suspected their relationship and confessed to having a friend in the area keeping tabs on him, Travis was hyper-sensitive to people suspecting he was gay. He made plans to rush the fraternity his dad had insisted upon at the start of next semester and had even begun hanging out with some of the guys and attending a few of their parties. One of their roommates, Van, was also interested in rushing so the two of them starting hanging out more both around the room and at meals and other social events too. In public, Travis kept a bit of distance from Brett. He tried to be more social and interacted with others, inviting one of the other roommates to dinner for example, when before he'd have been content to have Brett all to himself. Since the car ride home from Virginia, Travis and Brett hadn't once mentioned their conversation or the fact that they'd made love. Brett was sad about the distance between them, but knew that he had to offer Travis some space. He'd never before been grateful to have a family that was so hands off as he watched Travis struggle with his family-fueled identity crisis.
While Brett struggled with his emotions, still loving Travis, but suddenly less able to get close to him, there were times when he thought it might be best to let Travis go altogether. He sometimes thought that what he really needed was to call his best friend back home, Wilson, and let him know everything that had been going on. At those times he thought about Travis's final words when they'd had their conversation about their relationship, "No one can know," and out of respect, and perhaps a bit of fear, he didn't let Wilson know about the developments with Travis. Every time he thought that things were at their absolute worst and he couldn't take keeping his feelings secret anymore and wondered if Travis was worth it, Travis would seemingly read his mind and offer a sign of hope, a ray of light, to keep him hanging on. While at dinner along with a group of soon-to-be frat brothers, Travis would reach for Brett's hand under the table and hold it tight when no one was looking. If they were sitting in the common room watching a movie, Travis might let his thigh rest on Brett's and linger there just long enough to let Brett know it was intentional, but not long enough to draw anyone's attention. The longer this went on without them talking about it, the more Brett realized that it was probably OK that they didn't discuss the nature of things between them, because the words hadn't been created yet to describe what they shared with each other.
Not being able to openly share their feelings in public, Brett and Travis still spent a good amount of time together in the privacy of their bedroom. However, Travis was careful to limit their time together to the late night hours when he was much less likely to fear being caught spending time with Brett. Most nights Travis would come back to the room by 10 or 11pm, even if he'd spent much of the evening hanging out with his new fraternity friends. Then he'd spend several hours with Brett until they'd fall asleep sometime just before dawn. Their time together was never overtly sexual and it usually centered around getting high - mostly smoking pot. But sometimes, they would blow the smoke into each other's mouths as they'd done the first afternoon they'd smoked together. Since they slept most of the day and smoked pot most of the night, needless to say neither of them was doing very well at school.
So the last several weeks of the fall semester passed in this way. Even though Brett had some closeness with Travis, he really never had felt more alone. The one thing that Brett did look forward to was the annual Nude Olympics. This Princeton ritual took place at midnight on the night of the first snowfall on campus. Every year, most of the sophomore class would strip naked and run laps around the courtyard of the dorm where he and Travis lived. As the days grew shorter and colder and the prospect of the Nude Olympics came closer, most of the underclassmen were abuzz with excitement about it. Even Brett and Travis who usually didn't get too hyped about all things Princeton, were looking forward to it. During one of their late night smoking sessions, they'd decided that on the night of the Nude Olympics they were going to hang out in their room, put on Hawaiian shirts, drink rum and cokes, and scratch records to accompany the activity outside their windows in the courtyard.
On the Wednesday of the last week of classes in the fall semester it finally snowed. It was a very minor snow event, but it was enough to set off a chain reaction of excitement. Sophomores started making plans for where they'd stash their clothes to begin their run to Holder Hall. Other students tried to find friends who lived nearby so that they could have a warm room from which to watch the festivities and enjoy some adult beverages. Campus police went on high alert as they prepared for several hundred naked co-eds and a dozen or so TV crews to converge upon the usually quiet little dorm on the corner of University & Nassau. Brett and Travis skipped all of their classes that day once the first flake fell and went ahead with their plans to celebrate Hawaiian style. Brett was excited to have a whole day with Travis since it had become more rare that he had Travis all to himself. Charlie was at a party with some football buddies and Van was nowhere to be seen, so they had the entire suite to themselves. Maybe it was the excitement of the event or the fact that they were alone, but it felt just like it had early in their relationship. They had been drunk since lunch, and as it neared midnight, they had just started to mix records when Travis decided it was time to put on their Hawaiian shirts.
"OK, man...I've got just the shirt for you," Travis giggled as he dug into the back of their closet.
"Tell me again why you have so many Hawaiian shirts?" Brett puzzled.
"Because they're awesome. They remind me of Jimmy Buffett."
"Who's that?"
"Are you kidding me?" Travis forgot about finding the perfect shirt for a moment, pulled a Jimmy Buffett album from the case of vinyl records on the floor and put it on the turntable. "I can't believe I'd never played this for you. You're gonna love it." It was Jimmy's greatest hits. Though Brett would never admit it to anyone, and would deny it if ever asked, he did actually kind of love it.
"Here, this is the one!" Travis beamed as he grabbed a blue Hawaiian shirt with several shades of green and gold palm trees from the back of the closet.
"Do I have to?" Brett whined.
"Promise is a promise."
"I think I changed my mind," Brett smiled and folded his arms over his chest defiantly.
"Well then I'm going to make you wear it," Travis smiled back and grabbed Brett by the arms playfully. Brett tried to wriggle free of Travis's grip and they grappled with each other for a minute or two, but Travis being stronger won out. Travis used his physical edge to wrestle Brett down onto his bed and straddled his waist. Brett could feel Travis's strong thighs pressing into his hip bones and the heat from his crotch hovering just above his own. His dick began to stir and he gave up struggling entirely. Travis pinned both of his arms over his head using just one hand of his own. He used his free hand to strip Brett's t-shirt off of his body, exposing his manly, furry chest and abs. As Travis took in the sight of Brett there on the bed beneath him, his own dick started to stir in his shorts. Travis leaned his face closer to Brett's and kissed him passionately on the lips. It was the kind of achingly full kiss that took your breath away and you could feel all the way down to your toes. Travis pulled his lips away and released his grip on Brett's wrists. He helped Brett sit up so that they could face each other while they sat on the bed. Travis picked up the Hawaiian shirt that now lay on the floor next to them and slowly slipped Brett's arms into the shirt one at a time. Keeping his eyes fixed right on Brett's eyes the entire time, he then carefully buttoned each one of the buttons starting from the waist and working all the way up to the lapel, leaving the top button undone, exposing just a bit of Brett's chest hair. When he was done he placed a hand on Brett's chest, just over his heart. "I thought this shirt would bring out the beautiful deep blues and gold flecks in your eyes," Travis pined as he leaned in again for another kiss.
They both were startled as the door to their dorm room burst open. From their vantage point on Brett's bunk they couldn't see who'd just come into the room, but they both scrambled to their feet quickly and made their way out into the common room. It was a very drunk Van along with 3 other guys affiliated with the fraternity that Travis planned to pledge.
"What up y'all?" Van had a funny habit of talking like a gangsta with a slight Southern drawl when he was drunk.
"Hey Van, where you guys been?" Travis asked.
"Man, there are so many parties out there tonight," Van replied, "And the ladies are not shy about showing off the good stuff right now." Van was right. Holder Hall on Nude Olympics night was Princeton's version of Bourbon Street on Mardi Gras. "What were you guys doing here?"
