In the morning, Ryan felt like crap, but he still couldn't help smiling. He kept imagining Jack's warm lips on his. Ryan wondered if this meant he was gay. Probably. But being with Jack really did feel right, he realized—more right than he'd ever felt about any girls.

Ryan was pondering this as he set down his tray on an empty table in his dorm dining hall while he waited for Michael and his regular group to finish getting their food. Ryan glanced towards the salad bar and was surprised to see Jack, with a tray full of food, heading straight towards his table.

"Hey Ryan, how's it going?" Jack asked, setting his tray down across from Ryan.

"Jack! What are you doing here?" Ryan exclaimed. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we have this thing called a meal plan where you have a certain number of meals per week that you can use at any of the seven campus dining halls," Jack replied slowly, but smiling. "So I like to mix it up. Plus, I'm still on the lookout for which dorm has the best Mexican food."

"Oh, ours sucks, unfortunately," Ryan replied, relaxing a little.

"Actually, I've heard of a couple good restaurants in town," Jack grinned. "We should go sometime."

"Oh! Uh, yeah!" Ryan replied, just as his friends sat down.

"Jack, this is David—" Ryan motioned towards a boy with curly brown hair who was Michael's roommate, "Michael—"

"Yeah, I think we met at the party last night," Michael responded, extending a hand towards Jack.

"And my roommate, Tony," Ryan finished. "Jack's in my Humanities section," he explained.

"Ugh, please, no talk about Humanities here, we're trying to eat!" Tony joked. Ryan smiled, feeling more at ease—though he still wondered what Jack was really doing here.

Dinner was fun, as Jack was perfectly outgoing and was talking with Ryan's friends as if they'd known each other forever in just a few minutes. Ryan didn't even realize they'd been there for over an hour until he glanced at his watch. "Whoa, it's already seven," he mumbled.

"Shit, it is?" Tony jumped up. "I've got to get to band practice, I'll see you guys later!"

"Yeah, I've got to go to," Michael agreed, rising from his chair. "David, you want to go check math problem set answers?"

"Sure," David nodded. "Nice meeting you, Jack."

"Yeah, you too," Jack said, standing.

Suddenly, Ryan didn't want Jack to go. "What are you doing right now?" he blurted out.

"Not much. Got something in mind?" Jack asked.

"Um, I was about to watch Gattaca—I borrowed it from the library—if you're interested," Ryan said. He hadn't really been planning to watch the movie tonight, since he still had a ton of chem to read, but that didn't seem so important right now.

"Sure," Jack agreed.

"Cool!" Ryan replied. He willed himself to be calm as they put their trays back and walked through the courtyard and then down the hall to Ryan's room. Ryan was suddenly very glad that Tony had left for band practice.

"Have you ever seen this before?" Ryan asked as he popped the DVD into his TV.

"Ah, like a dozen times," Jack laughed, settling himself across from the TV on Ryan's bed.

"Me too," Ryan smiled, sitting down next to Jack, willing himself to focus on the screen and not to stare at Jack on the bed next to him.

The movie had been playing for about four minutes when Ryan felt Jack's hand on his leg. That was all it took for Ryan, without thinking, to turn towards Jack and to kiss him lightly on the lips. Then Ryan hesitated, realizing that being sober, sitting on his bed, was a very different situation than being drunk outside of a party.

Jack didn't pause, though, before returning the kiss, slipping his tongue into Ryan's mouth. Ryan matched his intensity, and for once, he managed to silence his brain and just focus on Jack, here, now.

Ryan felt a tug on his t-shirt and then gasped when Jack broke the kiss—but smiled when he realized Jack was trying to pull of Ryan's shirt, which he happily helped him with before unbuttoning Jack's shirt and pushing it off his shoulders. Ryan captured Jack's mouth again and he shivered as he felt Jacks hands slide down his stomach towards the waistband of his jeans.

And suddenly, Ryan was loving college a whole lot more.