The Jealousy Game

My name is King Rhodes. Honestly, I think I am not anything to look at, but apparently others disagree. But there is only one person whose opinion I want. Most people expect me to want girls' attention, but instead, my attention is drawn to a cutie in my chemistry class. We are in the same major, even if I am in my senior year, and he is just starting his sophomore. Jeffrey Rogers, turned twenty just last week, I first saw him at student orientation.

Our university 'strongly suggests' students to join in extracurricular activities, whether it be volunteer work, sports, or clubs. I was there to represent our basketball team with my best friend Jake. All right. That's a lie. Jake was there to check out the incoming freshman girls, and he had dragged me along. 'Come on! You seriously need to get over that asshole! He got married a YEAR ago!'

'Jake, he was my boyfriend since high school!'

'Was he really? You pretended you were single the whole time, he pretended to have a girlfriend. All so he wouldn't be outed. You couldn't even go out on dates! Shit, the only reason our teammates found out you were gay was because you were playing so terribly the coach threatened to kick you off the team.'

'You told them, asshole.'

'They needed to know the real reason. And look how it turned out! Everyone acted like you had broken up with your girlfriend, except for that one homophobic bastard. And Coach kicked that guy off the team.'

'Hmmph. He nearly bashed my head in.'

'At least you are loved by the rest of us. We'll seriously hunt down anyone who tries to hurt you.'

'And thus I should stay forever single.'

Jake laughed at me, then swore, 'Hot damn! You need to open your eyes. Cutie at 8 o'clock.'

'Jake, I am not interested in your bimbos.'

'No! I mean for you! He's freaking adorable! Hell even a straight boy like me would eat him up!'

I to be honest didn't trust Jake one bit, but I looked anyway. Well shit. I owe Jake or something. He was one hundred percent right. He sat alone on a bench, wearing a white button down shirt, a pastel blue tie, black rectangular frames, and khaki pants. He was a bit on the short side, thin, and his soft looking light brown hair curled into gorgeous curlicues resting just on his shoulders. He looked young, and had an almost childlike demeanor about him. Something about him just begged for protection from a cruel world. 'He looks so innocent,' I mumbled.

Jake heard it, and laughed. He knew I was smitten. Of course, just to torment me, Jake told everyone about the cutie who struck me hard. He even had secretly taken a picture of him and showed it off. However, my dream was quickly shattered. One of the then seniors on the team was from his hometown.

'I don't think you stand a chance, King.'

Jake growled at him, 'Don't crush his dreams! He finally is vibrant again!'

'That's why I am telling him now! There is a girl in his year, and she is a bombshell. From what I know, there isn't a guy in his grade who doesn't want to marry her.'

Jake rolled his eyes. 'Isn't that just hearsay? Plus, a girl like that isn't going to want a cutie like him. She'd be too intimidated by his beauty.'

Honestly, I didn't even think I could get close to him. So I didn't pay much attention to the conversation.

*. *. *. *

A couple months later, Jake came running into me. 'Oh my gosh! Guess what?'

'Which blonde babe did you bag this time for you to be this excited?'

'No. No. I can't believe you aren't already excited!'

'Why should I be?'

'Cutie is in your major! He is like the most talked about student in the major!'

'Uh...'

'Dude! There is even a group chat for your major! Are you not in it?'

'No. I'd be harassed way too much!'

'Join it damn it! Then you would get to see pictures of Cutie all the time! Dammit just give me your phone.'

For some reason, I did as I was told. 'I swear, you are more gay than I am.'

Jake laughed. 'I told you, even a straight boy like me would eat him up! He's too adorable.' Within a few moments, my phone was pinging incessantly.

'Thanks. Now I am never going to hear the end of it.' I looked down at the group chat, to find someone say,

-'Oh my gosh! Here comes the other department beauty! I can die happy!'

I rolled my eyes as more comments like this came up. I pretended like he had no idea what they were talking about.

-'Last I heard there was only one department hottie. Who is this new one!'

-'Oh King, you idiot, it's beauty. He's a beauty!' Then the person posted a picture of Cutie staring absentmindedly out a window in the library.

-'Does Cutie have a name?'

One of the girls replied,

-'Oh? Did you call him Cutie? As in a nickname?'

I blushed.

-'What is our department's young beauty's name?'

-'Uh oh. King's got a crush on our department beauty!'

-'Err... That's actually our entire basketball team's name for him. Jake saw him from afar and took a picture and then showed it to the entire team.'

Jake was peeking over my shoulder, and laughed then stole my phone.

-'Jake here! It's true! And I keep telling the team he's so adorable even a straight boy like me would eat him.'

I looked at Jake and muttered a thanks.

-'Are you sure that was from the man-whore Jake! It sounds like King talking! We all know Jake is purely a skirt chaser!'

Another girl said.

'Oh for heaven's sake!' Jake muttered. He opened my camera app and did a selfie video of him and I. 'Will you believe us now? I am the one who pointed Cutie out to King at freshman orientation. He was so adorable sitting there on his own. I wanted to introduce ourselves, but King was in a bad mood that day. It's dangerous for others' health when our dear King is in a bad mood!'

'Who wouldn't be in a bad mood when you drag them around so you can flirt with every girl who catches your eye!'

'I told you, it was a good opportunity to put yourself out there too!'

'Jaaake!'

'Oh. Right! Anyway! Cutie! Come to the games! Our basketball team would love to have you cheer us on!'

Suddenly our captain appeared behind us. 'Speak for yourself Jake. My girlfriend would kill me if I promoted Cutie cheering for me.' He smacked the back of Jake's head.

Jake smirked and stopped the video and uploaded it.

It was a couple of minutes before people started talking again.

-'Oh my god! Even Captain Feng calls him Cutie!'

I laughed and showed Feng the messages.

'What chat is this?' He asked.

'Chem/Bio department.' Jake answered for me. 'Apparently Cutie and King are in the same major.'

Feng looked at me curious. 'How am I just finding this out? More importantly, how do you not know who he is yet?'

'Uh... you do know I don't like these group chats, right? And how am I supposed to know everyone in my department?'

This time Feng took my phone.

-'Someone stop torturing us and tell us Cutie's name! - Feng.'

-'Jeffrey Rogers. That's my name.'

Feng handed me back my phone and then said, 'Okay time to hit the courts. Our first game is only a few weeks away.'

I nodded grateful for the escape from the incessantly pinging phone.

*. *. *. *. *

The rest of the year followed much the same pattern. Now we come to the present. Like I said at the beginning, he is in my chemistry class this semester. It took Professor Styles all of 2 days to figure out that I was getting distracted by Cutie. The second day of class, he told me to visit him during office hours.

So now, here I am standing outside his office door, wondering what the hell I did to land myself here. He had only given me the slightest hint after class, saying, 'You might want to stop drooling over a certain male student.'

As if he had a sixth sense or something, the door opened, and Professor Styles let me in. 'Mr. Rhodes. Please have a seat.'

'Yessir.' I sat down nervously on the couch.

'Now -- will this be a problem having your crush in your class? As you know, I only teach this class Fall Semester, and it is the only section. I am also aware that this is your last year.'

'I understand sir. I will make sure that I don't let my feelings interfere.'

Professor Styles smirked and then said, 'I do wish you the best of luck. Coach would kill me if I was the reason you couldn't graduate. I would probably be kicked out of the house.'

I stared at him. 'Wait, what?!'

'That's right, I am Coach Barnstead's partner.'

'Shit! We had no idea he was even gay!'

'He's bisexual actually.'

'That explains why that homophobic asshole was kicked off the team after Jake made me come out to them.'

Professor Styles nodded. 'Anyway, are you going to go after Mr. Rogers?'

'I don't know. I'm not even sure he wants anyone to get close to him.'

'I doubt that's true.'

'He's only spoken once in the major chat.'

'Well, he is is considered the department beauty. They always talk about you two. Maybe he just doesn't like being the center of attention.'

'That's true. I mean the only reason that I added department chat was because Jake found out Cu-- err Jeffrey was in my major and forced me into the group to prove it.'

I ended up having frequent visits with Professor Styles during his office hours just to talk. I didn't have many people around me who were gay, so having a working adult there who was like me really helped.

*. *. *. * *

A couple of weeks passed when an incident happened that set the whole school abuzz. And it was related to Jeffrey. I had been absent from class that day, so I didn't have the first hand knowledge of it. But the chat group was very much alive.

And Jake had heard about it and brought the whole basketball team to my house to check up on me. 'King! King!' Jake banged on my bedroom door. 'If you don't open the door yourself we're barging in!'

'Dammit Jake! What is the big fuss! I just have a fever! I am not dying!'

Jake sighed and opened the door. The entire team poured in. 'So this has nothing to do with what happened to Cutie today?'

'You guys too? Even Professor Styles called to check up on me! And I have no idea what the fuck is going on nor do I care! My head is so fuzzy I can't think!'

Jake showed me a video of some blonde girl lunging toward Cutie and then Professor Styles leaning down and saying something. Jeffrey looked relieved and the girl looked mad.

'Yeah, all I see is a displeased Cutie. Now can I go to sleep? You all can stay if you must, but just be fucking quiet.'

It turns out while I was asleep, Jake got a call from Feng, our captain last year and the year before to check up on me. I guess Jake had texted him what happened and Feng also became overly concerned. Honestly, once I woke up, and saw my whole team present, along with Jake ready to do a video call with Feng, I felt relieved. It felt like they all were genuinely my brothers.

I had slept for two hours, according to Jake, and I felt a little better. 'Okay, someone hand me my phone. And someone else please explain why the whole team came rushing here thinking I am suicidal or something. I mean breaking up with my asshole boyfriend didn't even make me go that far, it just fucked up my game for a few months.'

The team laughed. One of our freshman recruits handed me my phone. Henry I think his name is. I am not so good with their names since we only just held recruitment/tryouts. But I am pretty sure on Henry's name at least.

Jake repeated what he said when they first arrived. Then he added, 'But I guess we did overreact a bit, considering he didn't seemed pleased with her at all. But now there are photos going around of the girl flinging herself onto him at PineRed Pond.'

I raised my brow, and then asked, 'As in, one of the couples' spots on campus?'

'Yes.'

'Does anyone know who she is?'

Henry said, 'She's from one of the neighboring towns. A sophomore in my major, named Molly Kleinberg. She is what we call the rose of the department.'

Jake and I exchanged glances with each other. We both remembered the words of one of our senior teammates last year. I decided at that moment to scroll through the department chat. 'Okay, he says, "Thank you all for worrying about me after the frustrating incident just outside of Professor Styles class this morning. That girl was a girl from my hometown who most of the guys in my year in high school were head over heels for. You've seen the pictures, I am sure you can see why." This message is followed by laughter and some students crooning over her. Then he just posted, "I see pictures of us at that damn pond are also circulating. She took me there to ask a favor. All I can say is that if there are further rumors about me and her, I can guarantee she started them, if I appear to be making the rumors hold weight, I have my reasons. You are free to believe what you want though." Some people dared to ask him if they can still fawn over him like they have been. He responded, "As long as it poses no threat to me nor serves as a distraction to my study, I don't really care if you lick your phones or masturbate to my pictures." '

I laughed and typed a message,

-'I'm glad to hear you are all right! I'm sick so I will avoid licking all your pictures. I make no promises about a certain creepy teammate of mine though.'

I then had my teammates pile on my bed, (thank heavens for a king size bed, or all ten of us would not have fit) and we took a picture and sent it to the department chat. I then forwarded the picture to my teammates.

The next thing I did was post the picture to my Facebook. I tagged all my teammates, Coach, and even Feng.

'These guys, I only had a small fever, and they came barging into my home as if I was dying. And Captain Feng called (while I was asleep) but now we are video chatting. Win or Lose, we are family I guess! Thanks everyone!'

As I finished posting, Jake handed me my laptop and Feng's face appeared on the screen. 'Hey old man! How's retirement,' I teased. Feng graduated and immediately started teaching in the big city, high school boys' basketball and girls' volleyball.

'Eh. These runts are tiresome. I thought keeping you idiots in line was bad.' Feng was smiling as he said that though. 'Besides Captain Rhodes being out for the count, how are you all doing? Ooh, I see some innocent looking freshman there. You guys just filled up the empty spaces huh?'

'Yeah. Results announced just a couple days ago.'

'Oh no wonder Jake has corrupted them yet!'

Jake feigned offense. 'Hey now! I am not that bad!'

'When's the first team mixer?' Feng asked him.

'Next Thursday after practice.'

'Point proven.'

I laughed. Jake walked right into that one. 'Are you coming to our first home game?'

'Send me the schedule. And I will send you mine. I expect you to show up to some of my home games too.' Feng then grumbled. 'I gotta go. Apparently one of my runts wants me to allow him to skip class.'

'Bye!' Everyone waved.

I then looked at everyone on the bed. 'All right. Is everyone satisfied? Now get out of here before you all catch this!' He neglected to mention it wasn't anything contagious. The fever, fuzzy head, migraines, were from eating seafood unwittingly. Thank heavens it wasn't a more serious allergy.

*. *. * *. *

Over the next few weeks, I didn't pay much attention to the rumors. Sure, I heard Molly bragging around the campus about how she was going to marry the beauty of the chem department. I had seen some of the pictures she spread around. But honestly, Cutie looked like the last thing he wanted to do was be with her.

I saw him with a purple haired punk a few times as well, but as much as he seemed happy around the guy, he didn't seem like he was interested in him either. Meanwhile, I worked with Professor Styles to formulate a foolproof plan to see if I stood a chance with Cutie. Nothing seemed like a hood enough plan though.

Then one day, he came to class wearing a light smattering of makeup. I had to pretend I was yawning to hide the fact he made my jaw drop. By this time, I think most of my class figured out that I was gay, and the person of my dreams was one Jeffrey Rogers. Thankfully, they were kind enough to pretend not to notice, up until today. I noticed a number of people taking pictures of both me and Cutie.

'Okay, today we are doing an experiment.' Professor Styles started explaining the experiment, but I was barely listening. The only things going through my mind were, 'Damn, Cutie! If we weren't in class right now, I'd be on you like white on rice!'

Professor finished the instructions and then said, 'Today, we are partnering alphabetically by surname.' He started reading names off, and I got the distinct impression that he chose this way on purpose. After all, My name is Rhodes and his is Rogers. I sure as hell knew there was no one in our class that had a last name that fell between the two. Sure enough, he called, 'Rhodes and Rogers.'

We moved to an empty lab table. I was undeniably a bundle of nerves, but somehow, I managed to appear cool as a cucumber. 'Hey. Guess it's you and me today, J.'

'Guess so.' He replied with a blush.

Fuck, he was too adorable! I pretended I didn't see the blush, and stupidly said, 'You put on makeup.' He was one of those people who looked great without makeup, but adding a dash of makeup enhanced his beauty.

'Mm. I visited my friends from my hometown a couple days ago. They gave me a bit of a makeover, and I realized I didn't hate it. So I tried to replicate the makeup at least.'

'Looks good.'

'Thanks.'

I knew Cut-- err Jeffrey wasn't a big talker, but I really wanted to break the ice. And to be honest, I wanted to know more of the story behind that Molly girl. So, rather dumbly and tactlessly, I asked, 'What does your girlfriend think?'

He looked at me like I suddenly sprouted a second head. 'Girlfriend?' He asked me. He definitely had no idea who I was talking about. It was as if he hadn't been the center of many rumors.

'The girl hanging off you after class a few weeks ago? She isn't your girlfriend?'

He laughed. Damn, that was such an angelic sound. There was no doubt in my mind anymore, I was hopelessly in love with him. He pushed his phone in front of me and there was a long wall of text.

-'Ugh. Molly. She is such a bitch! Would you believe she was so desperate for me to be her boyfriend that she offered me ten thousand dollars? She was so obsessed with this idea that like every other guy our age in our hometown, I was head over heels for her. So she wanted to take advantage of my supposed feelings and use me to make her ex jealous. No matter how much I said no, she kept pushing. Finally she said, "Fine. Just be my fiancé." As if that was somehow more convincing. She told me it would be just for one night, and we'd then stage a very public breakup at the engagement party. Honestly, I caved simply because I lost energy from arguing with her. Now she's got me taking pictures and talking with friends and family to prove we really are engaged! My saving grace is that her brother is often here at this university, being an assistant professor of the bio major, and my best friends go to the nearby community college. So no. She's not my girlfriend. Hopefully in a month, I will be rid of her for good.'

I couldn't help but smile when I finished the message. I knew that he couldn't possibly be attached to that blonde bimbo. 'Oh. Good,' I said aloud. I deleted his wall of text and wrote back,

'Home game tonight. You're going to go.'

'Oh I am, am I?' He challenged me. I could see a hint of mischief dancing in his eyes as he spoke.

So of course, I course I could only respond in kind. 'Mhm,' I said while typing out another message.

'Of course my boyfriend should come.'

He read the message then dropped his phone and froze out of shock. The noise caused our classmates to focus their attention on us. I knew the department chat was about to blow up with messages about the two beauties, but if I were to be honest, that thought thrilled me. What broke the silence and Jeffrey's shock was our professor saying, 'Oh... did you finally confess, King?'