Over the next week Zach found a rhythm for his new infinite free time--as soon as Mike started snoring at night Zach would slip out of their room and make his way to the gym and start his night. There he ran and lifted weights and swam and every other exercise he could do. Sometimes there would be a couple other people there late at night and Zach would only stay a couple hours to avoid arousing suspicion, but most nights he could work out all night long. Obviously he had plenty of breaks, and for every hour of exercise he probably had 3 hours of rest and cooling off in his watch world, but even by the end of the week Zach was starting to see gains in his arms and thighs and even some abs were threatening to push through on his belly. Zach loved pausing time and stripping in the middle of the gym in front of the wall mirrors along the weight sets, admiring his gains and obviously his big dick, which he never got tired of looking at.
Around 6-7am he'd make his way back to his room and pick out articles and videos and podcasts he could download so he could listen and watch and read them in watch world, while he waited for Mike to wake up and not be any the wiser to Zach being gone all night.
Once Mike was up and it was time for class Zach spent essentially every moment of every day with other people. He would introduce himself to classmates, he wandered around his dorm to chat with anyone whose door was open, he was eager to meet friends of friends. Obviously Zach wasn't making friends with everyone he met, and there were plenty of both guys and girls who were stuck up and didn't want to have anything to do with a guy seemingly as unimpressive as Zach, but on the whole he was building up a good stable of acquaintances and was becoming pretty widely known and liked.
Zach's core group of friends though was small and close--really just Sara, Jake, and Sean. Basically every day he'd spend at least a couple hours with one or more of them.
Sara could be annoying in the way overly woke people can be, but she was also a compelling combination of sweet and cynical. You'd think she was a spoiled rich girl, but she was at the school on a full scholarship, and had moved out of her abusive father's house the day she turned 18. She wanted to work in the film industry and loved every kind of movie, and she and Zach would often reserve a projector in a library room to watch some classic on a big screen. When Zach came out to her she said, "shit, shit, shit, why am I always into the gay guys!" before apologizing and giving him a hug.
Jake--well you remember Jake.
And Sean was in half Zach's classes so he spent the most time with him, and he was probably the friend Zach was starting to feel closest to, but weirdly he was also the only one of the 3 Zach hadn't come out to yet. Not that he was avoiding it, it just never seemed to come up--there was always classwork to discuss or gossip about the other freshmen or games to play or movies to watch.
Zach had two other close friends in more limited contexts--the first week Zach had known his roommate Mike he thought he was half brain dead, rarely saying more than a couple words to him, but after their senior smashing shot Mike would talk with Zach for hours into the night, telling him about the girls he was into, what he was hearing about the upcoming rush week parties, sports (even though Zach didn't give a shit about sports he didn't mind listening to people talk about them). They figured they saw enough of each other living in the same room so didn't hang out much outside of it.
And of course Dave, who Zach was banging 2-4 times a day. Zach had been having so much fun fucking Dave he hadn't even glanced at Grindr or the cruising spots around campus since the first night he'd tried them both out.
All this socializing would've been absolutely overwhelming to Zach a week prior--he'd always been more of an introvert if you were being charitable, or a hermit if you weren't. But then Zach found socializing great when he could click a button and take as much time for himself as he needed. If anything he was careful not to get on anybody else's nerves as too social, and he thought he was doing a pretty good job.
It was Friday afternoon and Zach was having lunch with Sean and Sara. Zach's stomach was full of butterflies--today was the tryout for *Our Town* and Zach had probably spent 100 hours practicing. Sara wasn't looking much better than Zach was feeling.
"You guys are gonna be great," Sean said, chowing down on his burger, "nothing to worry about."
"Easy for you to say," Sara said as she pulled her script from her backpack to study it again. Zach almost wished he could look at his own script again, but the words were already burned in his mind from countless read throughs and all he could think about was the movements and tone and feelings he'd been practicing.
"And once you're done, we're celebrating," Sean said, "I got the vodka and sprite ready to go. Gonna have a good pregame before rush tonight." Sean had gotten Jake and Zach invited to the lambda chi rush event that night, while Sara was going to a tri delta event with Adriana, and it'd been all they could talk about the last couple days.
"Jesus, you guys are a wreck," Sean said in the face of Zach and Sara's stony silence, "Zach, you need to eat something dude, you look like you're about to puke."
Zach took a couple bites of some fries before pushing them away, "if I eat I am gonna puke," he said.
"You guys are ridiculous, you're gonna kill it. We'll finish up lunch, go to the library and you can rehearse in front of me for practice."
"No, I'm sorry but no, I have my system and I don't want to hear Zach do it and be way better or worse than me and make me doubt my own performance," Sara said not taking her eyes off her script before quickly adding, "no offense Zach."
"None taken," Zach said poking at his food, "but sure I'll take you up on that dude." Zach hadn't actually performed his rehearsal in front of anyone yet (not counting frozen people), and he figured it would actually be a good idea to try it out with a live audience.
Jake pulled up a chair with a big plate of food, "you guys need to start getting a base going or you're gonna be blackout by 8," he said as he started digging in.
"They're hysterical," Sean said, "she's about to set that piece of paper on fire with her laser eyes and this one's turning green."
"Come on, I mean what's the worst that could happen," Jake said, "you forget all the lines and horribly embarrass yourselves in front of everyone?"
"NOT HELPING!" Sara screamed as she grabbed her bag, stood up and power walked out the door.
Jake burst into giggles, "whoops," he said as he started stabbing his salad.
