I Think You're Hot So What?
"Check out this chick from Tinder."
"Why are you on Tinder?"
"Why are you not?"
"Fucking hell, she's so hot. Should I ask her to meet up?"
The quadrangle is full of students trekking toward classes, coffee cups and books in hand. The campus buildings around them brick-coloured with plain glass windows, and square-roofs. Tyson walks with his group of foreign exchange students from America, earphones plugged in, rock music playing on low volume.
He can hear them talking above the song.
"Jesus fuck, it's not even nine a.m. and he's already made someone cry," says Eddie.
Tyson rips the cord out of one ear. "Who?" he asks, face serious.
"Mathilda from first year," he replies, reading a tweet from his feed.
"Not Mathilda!" Michael laments. "She's the sweetest."
"That poor thing."
"Tyson, next time you clock him, make sure you knock out a few teeth," Rick requests.
Tyson huffs an awkward laugh. The echo of Kai's fists hitting the punching bag still looping in his head. Yeah, he's not going to do that unless he wants to die.
Eddie shows him the video on his phone. Some drama-lover with no sense of morale had filmed the whole encounter which had taken place today morning, at 08:45, in the courtyard. Tyson catches the sight of Kai subtly rolling his eyes in the video as he listens to Mathilda. It brings back memories. He pushes the phone away. "I don't want to see it."
"I'm getting deja vu from that footage," says Michael. "Reminds me of what happened with Hilary on the stairs."
"Yeah, except Mathilda didn't have anyone to yeet him down the stairs for her."
"I did not-" Tyson's so tired of explaining the same thing to them over and over again. "How many times do I have to tell you guys? He fell."
"Yeah" Eddie gives him a sly grin, still disbelieving him. "He totally did."
Tyson drags a hand down his face. These idiots. He's not evil enough to push anyone down the stairs.
"Wait, hold up," says Eddie frowning at his screen. "Yo, isn't that your computer friend? Kenny? Ken? What's his name?" he asks Tyson.
"Kenny" he leans over to look at his twitter feed. There's a clip playing, of a bunch of girls dumping trash on top of his short friend, laughing and jeering, as he cowers next to a dumpster. "What the fuck?" Tyson curses, beyond livid.
"Who are those girls?" he demands.
"I don't know- they're all blondes," Eddie shakes his head. Blondes are not his type so he doesn't pay attention to them.
"Aren't they from that sorority? Beta Kappa Pi or something?" asks Michael. "Queen's minions?"
Rick gapes at him. "Fuck Michael, I almost forgot about those bitches. Why'd you have to remind me?"
Tyson's gaze cuts over his friends, piercing. "I know who else is going to cry today." He storms off, shouldering through the other students, rage radiating from his form.
"Nice" comments Eddie. "Fuck em up!"
"Stick it to that bitch Queen for me!" calls Rick. "I hate her face."
He checks up on Kenny first. He's in the central library, sitting at a table in the far corner, hidden behind tall stacks of books.
It takes Tyson a while to find him there.
"Hey," he says with relief when he finally spots him.
Kenny looks up startled at the sound of his voice. "Hi" he greets with a small smile.
"How are ya?" Tyson asks, pulling up a chair and taking a seat beside him.
He messes with his glasses. Reluctant to meet his gaze. Tyson swallows, his jaw working at the sight of his friend being so broken. "I'm fine," he says, quietly.
He has to be aware of the video floating around on social media. Kenny's always up to date on the goings on of the campus and he's not going to miss drama involving himself. "Buddy" Tyson scoots closer. "You know I'm here for you, right? No matter what? If there's something troubling you you'll talk to me about it?"
The brunette boy presses his lips together. A guilty expression overtaking his features. He fiddles with his pen. "You saw the video?" he asks tentatively.
"Yeah" he admits softly.
Kenny's mouth turns down. "It's those girls from Kappa. One of them came up to me for help the other day, in this library, and she was very sweet. She said she wanted to be my friend. I was so stupid I believed her." He wipes a tear that had streamed down his cheek. "Yesterday morning I said hi to her while her friends were around. She- I don't know what I did wrong, but she acted like a different person, and started insulting me. She accused me of stalking her. I never did anything like that. Her friends threw trash on me and called me all kinds of names for that."
Tyson's eyes fill with angry tears when Kenny starts crying. He puts an arm around his shoulders. "It's not your fault. You're not stupid for believing her. She's just a two-faced bitch. I'm sorry about what happened to you." Kenny sniffles. Tyson gives him his handkerchief. He blows his nose in it. He pulls him closer, planning murder in his head. "I'll get back at them."
"Don't" Kenny warns him. "They're bad people. Like Kai. You're already-"
"I'm not afraid of a bunch of sorority sisters, Chief. They're like mean Barbie dolls and they're so skinny you can break them like a stick."
A laugh startles out of Kenny. "Don't break them like sticks. They're girls."
"I won't, but they deserve a scare."
Kenny smiles, not crying anymore. Tyson takes his arm off him. He takes a breath, combing out his fringe. "I'll wash your handkerchief. Don't worry."
"Nah, keep it. I have a whole box of hankies in my room."
Kenny shoots him a weird look. "Why?"
"Last year's Christmas gift. From Dad."
The brunette returns his attention to his books. "I can't find Bell."
"What?" Tyson asks, puzzled.
Kenny unrolls a list. Checking it. "Basics of Electronics by K. K. Bell."
Tyson peeks at the creased piece of paper with a dozen book titles written on it.
"Ugh, I probably missed it. Excuse me-"
"Nah, I'll get it," Tyson gets up. "K. K. Bell, right?"
Kenny looks up at him gratefully. "Thanks. It's this one. I want the second edition." He hands him the list.
"Great. I'll be right back." Tyson folds up the paper and spins on his heel.
"It's on the third floor!" Kenny informs him. "I think!"
He rolls his eyes, heading towards the grand marble staircase situated opposite the main entrance. He whistles a funky tune as he strolls past the desk. The old librarian tells him to shut up. He grimaces and throws an apology over his shoulder. "Sorry, I'm a singer."
"Keep the songs inside yourself while you're here," she shoots back sternly.
Tyson turns to flash her a sarcastic thumbs up.
"I know you're not a singer," he hears the librarian mutter as he climbs up the steps.
The lights illuminating the staircase flicker when a sudden thunder strikes. Ooh, it's going to rain. He loves being in the library when it rains. Don't get him wrong, he's not a reader. Nor does he like books. But he likes the ambience inside a library during a rainy day. He skips up the last few steps to the third floor and sighs in happiness.
There's almost no one around. A lone desk help sits reading a thick volume at the front. "Where can I find books on Electronics?" he asks.
The staff answers without taking his eyes off the tome. "On your right. Towards the back."
"Thank you"
Tyson breezes past the tall shelves filled with books ranging from Math to Physics. He makes his way toward the end of the last column of shelves, reading the signs at the top.
"Electronics" he mutters to himself as he reads one above his head. There are five rows beyond where the sign hangs.
He decides to begin with the first aisle. He walks his fingers along the volumes as he searches for the name 'Bell'.
It's only halfway through the shelf he realizes that this is the 'A' section. The 'B's are probably in the next row.
He quickly exits the first aisle and enters the second. Starting from the far right. At the top. Aha! B's. Just as he expected.
Tyson's reading through the titles on the spines of the books when he hears something from the next aisle. A muffled gasp. Followed by a tiny moan.
The fuck?
Who is moaning? It sounded like a girl. He waits for further sounds. Is someone in trouble? Should he go around and take a look?
There's another gasp some five seconds later. And a thud against the shelf he's standing before. What the fuck?
"Shh" he hears another voice say.
A second person. Okay so there's two people. What is going on? Is the girl in trouble? Is she being raped? Tyson's eyes go wide. He almost strides out of his aisle when the girl moans again.
And says helplessly, "Kai, I can't."
Tyson freezes. Realization dawning on him.
He exhales through his nose. Worry being replaced by exasperation. And disgust.
Of course it's that motherfucker. Having shameless sex out in public. And of course it happens when Tyson is around.
It's like he's cursed lately.
He hears Kai speak, say something to her in low tones. He makes out the phrase "can't be loud". Yeah. Tyson closes his eyes. He needs to find that book. He cannot go back empty-handed and say Kai was having sex in the next aisle to Kenny as the reason.
So he tunes out the moans and murmurs as best as he could while perusing through the shelf.
He's successful for about ten seconds. Then he hears Kai make a sound, a brief and low blissed out moan. It goes straight to Tyson's crotch. His skin burns hot.
What he did last night comes back to him.
Shit
He grows half hard.
He needs to get out of here.
But he hasn't found the book yet.
Thankfully, the noises stop soon after. And he hears talking instead. Oh it's over. Thank god, Tyson sighs.
He searches the shelf in peace for a minute or so, before his phone decides to ring loudly and embarrass him.
'I'm a Barbie girl' is his ringtone.
Hilary had changed it during the party two nights ago to mess with him and he'd forgotten to change it back. Fuck.
Kai and the girl walk by his aisle in the same moment.
Tyson glances at them, his cheeks heating as he feels his pockets for his phone. He yanks it out as soon as he finds it and switches the ringer off.
Kai's watching him with a pitying smirk, the girl beside him looks at him weirdly. Then she shrugs her eyebrows and turns to Kai. "See you later?" she asks, looking up.
"Yeah" he gives a brief nod, his gaze remaining on Tyson, who checks his screen and sees it's Kenny. He sends him a quick text. 'Haven't found it. Gimme five secs.'
He looks up, pocketing his phone as the girl leaves and Kai walks in. Great.
Thunder rumbles above them. It starts raining.
"What?" Tyson asks when he reaches him.
"Your cheeks are pink."
"Fuck off" He directs his gaze to the shelf. Kai's staring at him.
"What are you looking for?"
"Eh..." He touches his finger to the spine of a book. He can't recall the name all of a sudden. He takes out the list and reads it again.
Kai lifts the paper from his hands. "Bell?"
"Yeah"
Tyson watches him as he tilts his head up and scans the titles on the third row from the top. The undercut is a nice hairstyle, he thinks. It can make even Tyson stare at a complete ass. He sees the scar on the side of his head. Oh, what a beauty. Tyson's lovely work. He snickers quietly beside him.
Kai doesn't react. Instead he finds the book. On the shelf right above Tyson.
"Oh! That was quick," he says when Kai gives him the book and the list.
"Didn't I tell you you were careless?" he asks with a sneer.
Tyson pulls a face at him. Then checks if the volume is the correct edition.
A breeze blows in from the open window at the end of the aisle. Ruffling his hair. A shock of lightning strikes the ground somewhere nearby and the following thunder makes Tyson jump.
The lights go out.
"You're brave enough to hit me but you're scared of a little thunder?"
"Can you like, I don't know, go away or something?" The library is lit with the help of the cloudy light from the windows alone. It's dark enough to make you think it's evening already, but it's just noon.
Kai's face is in the shadows but his jean jacket is directly in the light.
He shifts against the shelf with a snort. "You've found your book. Why are you still here?"
"Because-"
"Because you're scared."
"No! That's ridiculous."
His phone rings. 'I'm a Barbie Girl' screams from the device again. Fuck.
Didn't he turn the ringer off or was that the volume down button he pressed earlier?
Kai laughs, a low snigger from the bottom of his heart.
"Fuck you" Tyson mutters as he answers the call. "Hey, Kenny," he says chirpily into the phone.
"Have you found the book yet? Should I come up there?"
"Uh no" Tyson buffers. "I have it. I'm on my way."
"Okay" He hangs up.
Tyson locks his phone and slides it into his pocket. "Did you want something or can I go?" he asks Kai, who is putting a book he'd picked up back in its place.
"I'll tell you if I do," he says mockingly, a humourless smile pulling at his lips as thunder rolls overhead. Is he trying to scare him or...?
"'kay then, I'm audi," Tyson whirls before he gives him a chore.
He has a bunch of sorority sisters to burn before his break ends. He doesn't have time to linger.
"Granger?" Kai calls when he's almost out the aisle.
Tyson turns. "What?"
"Your cheeks are still red."
Tyson holds up his middle finger at him as he strides away.
Right. He did jerk off to him last night, so what? So what? The guy is super attractive. It's a known fact. His reaction to him was completely justified. No, Tyson does not find dudes sexy now. The dorms have communal showers. He sees naked men on the daily, and he's never, not once, felt the urge to ogle a penis or a chest. He almost finds them gross. Kai is just built very nicely. Model-nice. Nobody thinks models are gross. Tyson doesn't either. He had a very normal, easily understandable reaction to a well-proportioned, well-sculpted body. It happens to every straight dude once in a while. Doesn't it?
He's never seen skin like that before. Can you blame him?
When Tyson's halfway down the stairs, he realizes he has a tail. Kai's a few steps behind him. Heading in the same direction as he is.
He notices Tyson's gaze and raises his eyebrows. "What is it, Granger?" he asks.
Tyson turns. "Nothing."
"If you're so eager, go get me a glass of water. I'm fucking parched."
"I'm not- I was-" he's stuttering. "Fine" he grinds at last.
There's a dispenser at the end of the steps on the second floor. To his left. Tyson stops by it to fill a cup and hand it to Kai as he reaches there too.
His fingers brush over Tyson's when he takes the cup from him.
The blush worsens.
He escapes when Kai lifts the cup to his lips.
He's scanning all the faces walking past them in the courtyard. Eddie and Michael by his sides.
He notes a group of blondes strutting by. "Is that them?" he asks when he spots similarity between them and the girls from the Kenny video.
"Yep" confirms Eddie.
"Seems like it," agrees Michael.
"Alright!" Tyson whispers before jumping off the bench he was sitting on. "Hey!" he calls as he strides up to them. "Hey, hold up!"
"He was like so cute-" the girl in the middle is saying to her friends when she sees him. They come to a halt. "What do you want, tiny peen?" she asks, her ponytail swinging.
The evening sun's shining straight down at him while they stand in the shade.
"Salima, right?" Tyson asks. "You're the one who asked for my friend's help and then turned on him when he said hi to you in public because you were too embarrassed to admit you liked him."
She bursts into laughter, folding her arms. "What are you talking about? I liked him? He's the one who stalked me!"
"He never did such a thing. Why are you lying about the only person who tried to help you without wanting anything from you in return?"
Her expression grows sour. She shifts her weight. "Listen, Granger, you may be a star on the track, but that doesn't mean you can run your mouth around people in this school who are of a higher social standing than you."
"Well I may not be able to run my mouth but I can certainly run my fist into your face."
Salima's jaw falls open. "Are you insane? You think you can threaten people with bodily harm and expect them to lie down and take it?"
"Lie down and take it like you did on Professor Gideon's desk?" comes Kai's voice as he strides past them, his entourage trailing behind him.
Salima's face scalds red.
The other Blitzkriegs hoot and laugh as they pass. "Oooh buuurrrn!"
"Ha ha ha!"
Tala's skin-peeling jeers float in the air as he crosses with the rest to the parking lot.
Tyson stares after them, oddly buoyed by Kai's remark. He had forgotten about the rumours of Salima and Prof. Gideon that had spread through campus like wildfire last semester. Apparently, she did it to improve her grades in his class. She was harassed quite viciously when the rumours first came out.
Salima must still be haunted by those memories because she seems to have lost her fight.
"Stay away from Kenny," is all Tyson says to her after that, not wanting to add acid to the burn.
She curls her lips at him scornfully.
"Why are people mean to each other?"
"You punched Kai. You shouldn't talk."
"I punched him because he was mean to you first," he defends, head on her lap. They're in her pretty pink room. Hilary combs a fistful of his hair back and ties it with a band.
"Well, you have your reasons. He has his."
Tyson looks up at her. "Don't come at me with the whole he had a tragic childhood bullshit," he says to her as she reaches across the bed to grab a hair spray from the night stand.
Hilary laughs, shaking the bottle in her hand. "Okay"
"May be he was just born a dick," he says, turning to face the ceiling again.
"No one's born a dick, Tyson," she disagrees gently, spraying his hair. "People turn out the way they do because of the circumstances they grew up in."
"He grew up in a mansion."
"Do you know what his parents are like? Rich people can be ridiculously cold."
"Do you?" he shoots back.
They stare at each other. She sighs. "Nope" Hilary drops the spray on the bed. "Go wash your face. I'll put a face mask on you. Go."
Tyson hauls himself out of her comforter to trudge into her en suite bathroom. Her room is the only one in the entire girls dorm with a personal shower and a toilet. She completely lucked out during allocation. Him and the boys can only dream of having such luxury.
He splashes water on his face before squeezing some cleanser into his hands and rubbing it in. Hehe. She's going to be mad for using her favourite peach cleanser and not the one she lets him use. He has rinsed his face and toweled it dry when he notices the trash beside the sink.
There's a long and thin box discarded in the bin.
He bends to take a closer look at it.
Tyson brings the empty box out. He reads the label and feels the colour drain from his face.
Pregnancy test?
Why?
He throws it back in the bin and rummages through the drawers and the cabinet above the sink for the test.
Where is it? It's probably back in the room.
Tyson slams the cabinet closed.
When he goes back into the room, he doesn't mention anything about his discovery immediately. Instead he lies down on her lap quietly and lets her apply the mask on him.
It's thick. And full of granules that rub against his skin. The cream smells like mud and herbs.
"What is it?" he asks softly.
"Hmm" Hilary checks the label of the small tub. "Soulflower Herbal Charcoal Mud Mask," she reads.
Tyson smiles, his heart not in it.
"Hil, when you were with Kai," he begins gingerly. "You used a condom, right?"
Hilary's fingers halt on his cheeks. "Why're you asking?" she inquires, tone wary.
Tyson closes his eyes. "Just worried."
Her hands leave his face. He opens his eyes to look at her. She's grown pale. She dips her fingers into the tub, taking more mixture out.
Her resolve to stay silent doesn't take too long to break. "I-" she sighs heavily. Hilary plays with the cream. "We used a condom, but," she draws a breath. "It broke."
Tyson's jaw grits.
"I got my period right after so I wasn't worried. But, I'm late this month." Tears fall. Tyson sits up. Her lower lips quivers as she hangs her head. "So I took a pregnancy test. I haven't checked the results yet." She looks up to meet his gaze. "Ty, I'm scared."
"Hey" He grabs her hand. "It's fine. We'll look at it together, okay?"
Hilary nods jerkily. Then scoots toward the edge of the bed to take the test out from a drawer in the nightstand.
Tyson waits. She comes back, sitting cross-legged on the bed across from him. "Together?" she asks.
He nods.
They peek at the result.
There's only one red line.
"What does that mean?" He doesn't fucking know. He was expecting it to show a yes or no. Or a positive or negative. What the fuck is this?
"I don't know either," Hilary admits, her tone worried.
Tyson takes his phone out. "Let's google it."
'What deos singe red line no pregnany test men?' he types into the search bar. And reads.
Hilary covers her mouth with her hands. Panicking.
"You're not pregnant!" Tyson shouts suddenly, fist up in the air.
"What?" she gasps.
"You're not pregnant!" he screams again. Oh my god.
Hilary nearly faints with relief. "Oh my god!"
They hug and jump on the bed. "You don't have to marry Kai!"
"I don't have to drop out of college!"
Tyson's phone bounces off the mattress. Onto the floor.