Peter Grandon sat moodily in his dorm room staring at his literature textbook and studying for finals. He had read the same passage four times and he still couldn't tell what the paragraph meant. His mind was elsewhere.
He was in the middle of a crisis. In a week he was supposed to leave for home on winter break. Four weeks away from his state college—books, tests, the lousy food in the dining hall. The emphasis was on the word
supposed
, because it didn't look like he was going anywhere. Not even for Christmas.
Peter was a freshman on a full-ride scholarship. This was partly due to his grades since he graduated in the upper eight percent of his high school class with a high GPA and partly because he ran cross-country in the fall and was a distance runner on the spring track team. The biggest reason for the scholarship, however, was because his family was poor and couldn't afford to send him to the university.
The major challenge was that Peter's southern California home was seven hours away from Sacramento where his college was located. His step-father had fallen off a tall ladder at work and injured his shoulder and had no employment to speak of at all right now. Peter couldn't afford to spend money on traveling; even purchasing an inexpensive bus ticket was out of the question. There was simply no give in his paper-thin budget for a visit, not even to go home for the holidays. Just like the words in that old Christmas song that made him sniff and deny he was crying.
Peter knew the value of a dollar: he'd spent his high school years mowing countless lawns after school, packing boxes at the electronics store in town and lifeguarding during summer vacations. Even though he missed his mother and step-father, some unanticipated expense always came up at school and he was broke.
Peter hoped that his best friend, a boy named MJ Wilkins, might help him find an answer. They had met for the first time a few months earlier when they were assigned to the same dorm room, and they had a lot in common. Like Peter, he was majoring in computer technology and part of his college funding was scholarship-based. Both of them realized earlier than the typical freshman that while they, like most teens, enjoyed weed or beer on occasion, the reason they were in Sacramento was to study. College was hard work and not an opportunity to squander. Neither MJ nor Peter were in the habit of bringing girls back to the dorm. Neither was sloppy or overly zealous in cleaning, nor did they infringe on each other's space. They enjoyed the same kind of music and video games. They had the same zany sense of humor, and they shared friends too.
Being the intuitive friend he was, MJ soon noticed Peter's gloom and asked what was bothering him. Once explained, it wasn't hard to come up with the perfect plan—rather simple really since MJ had a good head on his shoulders. Both boys lived in the same southern direction from their college, but the Wilkins' home was closer; the Los Angeles area as opposed to southern Orange County. MJ also had a cousin at State named Kevin, a junior who was allowed to drive his car back and forth to school, and the two students were traveling home together for Christmas. He suggested giving Peter a ride to his house if his step-dad didn't mind driving up the rest of the way.
"It's no problem, Peter," MJ told him. "Mom's cool with me bringing friends home, and it's only for one night. Your step-dad can pick you up the next day and bring you back after the holidays so we can return to school. You can sleep in Kane's room overnight."
Kane was MJ's wiser, twenty year-old brother and a junior majoring in pre-med at a large university in Riverside. MJ talked about him all the time, complaining like younger siblings do, but Peter knew he loved his brother. Kane too would be going home for winter break, but he wasn't expected until the morning after the boys' arrival. Would Peter be interested?
It was the perfect solution, Peter thought. A fourteen-hour round trip would be daunting for his step-father in both time and money, but a three-hour drive, well that was entirely do-able. He agreed at once, and eight days later found the three boys on the road home, already in a celebratory mood as they contemplated a full month off from school and the approach of the Christmas holidays.
Mrs. Wilkins greeted the boys enthusiastically, relieved to see them arrive because it had begun pouring rain as they traveled south and the roads were flooding. She made them a late dinner, and by nine p.m. the boys were sitting out on the enclosed porch watching the storm and listening to music. The weather was so bad that Kevin was also spending the night, taking the second twin bed in MJ's room, instead of driving to his house an hour east.
MJ brought out a beer for each of them. He and Kevin talked about their families, and Peter shared anecdotes about his mother and step-father, saying he was an only child. They talked about the pros and cons of having siblings. He listened as the Wilkins boys discussed Christmas and what they hoped their gifts would be. They talked about Kane, older brother and cousin, who they described as the type of guy who didn't know how to let loose and have fun. Always studying and playing the mature older sibling role, he kissed up to the elder Wilkinses and probably thought he was better than everyone else because he was going to be a doctor. He was so quick to point out everyone else's flaws.
MJ and Kevin were both tall and blond with pale eyes and said that Kane looked a lot like them. Peter was already aware of this fact because he'd seen pictures of Kane all over the house, and he was gorgeous. His hair was shoulder-length and curly, and his sparkling aqua eyes had dark lashes and brows. His face was nicely shaped with a square jaw, straight nose and lush lips on a pouty mouth. He appeared to be athletic with great muscle structure and a lean, narrow waist. It was hard to tell the shape of his ass in the pictures, but his legs were long and tanned. Yes, Peter thought he was very attractive.
There was one thing that nobody at Peter's school was aware of; in fact, very few people anywhere knew about him. He was gay. His mom and step-father were cool and said they loved him no matter what, and he'd never experienced any form of condemnation over it. Unfortunately, he lived in a small town where he didn't know a single gay person. Peter had put his hopes aside of finding anyone special for a long time, but going to college had opened up an entirely new world for him. When the time came and he met the man of his dreams, he hoped he'd be able to admit who he was.
Not even MJ was aware of the truth, but it wasn't because Peter was afraid he'd misunderstand. Actually, he had been waiting for an opportunity to talk about it. Peter was aware that MJ knew several students who were gay; homosexuality had come up in one of their early heart-to-heart discussions. MJ had never shown one sign of being bigoted, but for one reason or another Peter held back. He decided to wait until he was more secure before revealing this secret.
Yeah, gay
and
a virgin, that was an attractive combination for a college student. When he was much younger, before he figured out that he didn't especially like them, he'd kissed a couple of girls. Now? Not even to throw off suspicion about himself would he even consider the idea, and it helped that he was so shy and quiet most people didn't believe he dated at all. He'd had a few crushes on some of his male classmates in high school, but dreaming was as far as it ever went. He played the role of the techie nerd who couldn't get a date, and nobody was the wiser.
He didn't own or watch gay porn, but he read gay love stories. In his mind, finding someone who was into him and being loved and romanced had turned into this huge deal that he wanted very much. However, there was that tricky closet thing at school, so unless a miracle popped out of nowhere, he wasn't likely to meet his Prince Charming.
