welcome to crvboy - The Living Years

On the one hand, each week down was just one less week they had to be freshman and could move on to getting on with the rest of their lives. On the other hand, the one that everyone was thinking about the most, each passing week was leaving them all with precious days to go until midterms.

Which was every single student on campus’s main concern. Midterms.

Everyone’s concern, expect for Noah, apparently, who continued to climb up the covers he was hidden under, kissing every inch of Trey’s chest that he could as he did.

The two of them were recovering from the throes of their latest session of lovemaking, made possible thanks in part to Jeremy’s early Spring Break away, due to his online classes all being complete.

"God, can you believe we don’t have to worry about Jeremy not being here for like ever?" Noah asked as he finally lay next to Trey.

"Didn’t he say more like this week plus spring break week?" Trey asked.

"Yeah but doesn’t it feel good to know that we don’t have to wear clothes in bed because Jeremy won’t be sitting in that damn chair of his when we get up in the mornings?" Noah asked.

Trey giggled when Noah started kissing his neck in a pecking like motion. They continued in this manner before Trey found himself falling to the floor unexpectedly. The laughing stopped on Noah’s end as he looked over the bed to check on his boyfriend.

"Oh shit, are you okay babe?" he asked.

There wasn’t an immediate response from Trey at first, which worried Noah for a moment before he heard what sounded like laughing coming from Trey.

"I think this official means it’s time to get up," Trey spoke, picking himself up from the floor.

Noah moved in bed so that he was sitting upright, his legs hanging over the side.

"We haven’t really talked about it have we?" he asked watching Trey’s back as he peeled a shirt over his toned frame. "Spring Break?"

Trey finished putting his shirt on and turned around to face Noah.

"Haven’t really had time, I guess," he replied. "Worrying about midterms is keeping me from even thinking about life after this week."

Noah agreed. While most freshman he knew were taking 12 hours or less for their first year, him and his group of friends were all taking 15 or more hours. He was amazed they had time to meet up as often as they did during the day with each of their varying schedules.

Still, spring break for them was next week and he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to have to spend the week away from any of his friends. Or most of all, Trey. He kind of wanted to plan something special for just him and Trey but felt like he wasn’t creative enough to come up with a way to make every day of their break worthwhile. One day, definitely. Two or three maybe. But definitely not 7 days or 9 if you counted the weekend before break started. That was his excuse for not saying anything.

And now he had and it was out there.

"Still, don’t you wanna have something to look forward to?" Noah asked.

Trey sat next to Noah on the bed, not moving or saying anything for a moment almost as if he had something serious on his mind that he wanted to discuss before leaning over the bed to begin putting on his socks and shoes.

"What and completely forget about this week, the one I’m currently trapped in?" he asked. "Why would I wanna get myself excited for something that won’t happen for another 7 days?"

"Five if you count this weekend," Noah said.

Trey looked over at his boyfriend and smiled before giving him a quick peck on the lips.

"Five," he said. "If you count this weekend."

Noah watched while Trey walked over to the sink and started brushing his teeth.

Noah felt like being with Trey made him forget about everything that could quite possibly be wrong or go wrong and made him feel more like wanting to try harder at making the best possible outcome occur. He felt like he was in a good place in his life finally after having spent the past 2 years of his life in a downfall and a semester here agonizing over Trey’s doubts in himself.

And now they were in a good place and here he was wondering how the two of them were going to spend their spring break.

"Well, we gotta come up with something," Noah decided to say. "Maybe just not right now."

Trey, who’d finished brushing his teeth walked past Noah but found himself being pulled on top of him on the bed that had yet to be made.

"Not yet when we can do this as many times as we want, whenever we want," Noah spoke after a brief kissing session between the two of them.

"Noah, we have class," Trey spoke, giggling as Noah kissed on his neck again.

"It’s midterm week remember? Who’s gonna give you new material when you have tests to take?" Noah said before going back to working his lips over Trey’s neck.

Not wanting to worry any more than he was, Trey decided to just go with the flow for the time being. He didn’t want to cause unnecessary worry for Noah and he appreciated the distraction, even though he knew what was waiting for him every day this week.

Jesse liked to wake himself up. No surprises. He didn’t use his alarm clock, only set it so he’d have something to worry himself about if he didn’t get up. He didn’t have someone give him a call in the mornings so that he could drag himself out of bed. And he certainly didn’t count on anyone using pots and pans to make loud enough noises to shock him out of his sleep.

This, however had become Jesse’s reality as a combination of pots, pans and apparently a rather loud vacuum cleaner were all being used to unceremoniously wake him up much earlier to a fashion in which he was accustomed.

"Bloody hell," he mumbled to himself before catching sight of the time.

It was a bit earlier than normal but not so much it was cause for immediate concern. Still the goings-on outside his bedroom door were irritating him to no end. He felt like he had a headache. He didn’t and knew he didn’t have one but he felt like he did.

He reached over into his drawer and pulled out a bottle of aspirin, dry swallowing a handful of pills from the bottle before throwing it aside and hopping out of bed.

He started towards the door but first stopped upon coming across the mirror on the wall not too far from the door. He looked his shirtless frame over, noticing what looked like scratches and bruises over his body. He squinted, feeling the pain from the headache he didn’t have. The light seemed to be just a little too bright and the noise was beyond belief but it hadn’t stopped him from noticing that his room was once again in disarray. This time it looked almost like someone had had some kind of food fight in his room.

Annoyed, he let out a sigh before picking up a shirt he was almost sure was dirty from the floor below him and shoved it onto himself as he made his way out of the room.

The vacuum he’d heard going before had stopped at his feet just before Charles, his new housekeeper could bump into him. He’d been listening to his Ipod and hadn’t even noticed that Jesse had come out of his room.

Meanwhile the loud banging of pots and pans had since settled as his nose began to fill with various smells he hoped would soon become something he actually wanted to smell. Chad was in his kitchen and Charles was in his living room.

Two guys in his flat this early in the morning was something he definitely never thought he’d ever have to get used to but since he had agreed to let Chad stay with him until he got his memory in order and had offered Charles the job of his new housekeeper, he realized that it was going to become something he’d have to get used to.

"What’s all this then?" Jesse asked.

Charles, who was standing with his back to Jesse turned around slightly as if to check whether he’d heard Jesse or not before taking out his Ipod earbuds and turning around.

"Hey," he spoke in a less than warm way.

Jesse watched as Charles looked down at the vacuum and started to wrap the cord around it as he talked.

"Wanted to get the place cleaned before you woke up," he said. "I thought I’d be done by now but getting food out of carpet isn’t the easiest thing to do."

Jesse sensed the hostility in Charles voice. It was just enough to realize that there was a problem but not so much he was leaning in the very unprofessional side of the line.

"Yes well, that is the job I hired you to do," Jesse thought he’d respond. "Inconvenient carpet stains and all."

"Just wish I could’ve got a heads up or something first, you know?" Charles asked. "Most people know what kind of jobs they’re getting themselves into before they start them."

Jesee wasn’t sure how he felt about the way Charles was speaking. On the one hand, he felt a bit like telling him off. He felt like being defensive the same way he always was anytime he felt threatened. But he also realized that Charles was right to be upset about his place being a total wreck. He wasn’t quite sure how it had happened as the details always came later. All he knew was that it was dirty before and clean now and Charles was rightfully upset about it.

That was probably the thing keeping him from firing him.

"Well, I’m appreciative, despite what my shamefully party laden demeanor would lead you to believe," Jesse spoke as he walked towards the kitchen and sat at the bar.

Chad, who was busy trying his hand at preparing breakfast, looked briefly over at Jesse before turning back towards the stove to check on his pancakes.

"Why is it you’re in my kitchen and not Charles?" Jesse asked. "Have you taken it upon yourself to kill my kitchen?"

"What?" Chad asked, looking over at Jesse briefly before beginning to chop peppers for an omelet.

Jesse looked back towards the living room, realizing that Charles had now made his way into his room to begin cleaning that before turning his attention back towards Chad.

"So pending a final taste judgment, I take it you’ve found yet another thing you’re good at," he said.

"Yeah," Chad started, tossing chopped onions into a skillet. "Chuck let me take care of breakfast. I wanted to see if it was something I could do."

"Smells like something you can do well enough" Jesse spoke, looking over everything. "That was thoughtful of Charles, too. If it was me, I wouldn’t trust you within five miles of the nearest fire setting tools but I see you’ve managed alright."

"Chuck helped," Chad replied with a thoughtful smile on his face that Jesse noticed. "He’s really....I like him. He’s a good guy."

Jesse stared at Chad’s loopy, off into space look for a few moments before deciding he felt a bit too weirded-out to let the moment continue.

"Yes well I expect you’ll have everything finished soon, yes? I’ve important business today and not a lot of time to waste," Jesse spoke.

He considered everything he did important even though he had nothing particularly important to accomplish apart from studying for his finals. But he knew not to do it for too long. He never did well with having to hold a large amount of information in his head from a variety of different sources all at once. The more he studied the worse he did. He was one of those rare students that benefited from limited study time.

Things grew as quiet as they could between them under the circumstances as Jesse turned sideways in the bar stool, missing entirely the stare-down session that Chad was giving him.

"So, your father is a publishing tycoon?" Chad asked, mixing something Jesse couldn’t quite see when he turned around.

"Yeah well, some would call him that, yes," Jesse replied. "I prefer the term loosed businessman, but to each his own I suppose."

Jesse turned again, grabbing the television remote from the counter and turned it on, beginning to flip through the various channels.

"Do you know if he ever does business overseas? Like here maybe?" Chad asked, hoping the question seemed innocent enough.

"He does business all over the world," Jesse replied. "Provided someone is there to manage the details. My father isn’t a fan of having to leave London. He thinks everywhere else is beneath him."

"So he sends people to do his work for him sometimes?"

"Yeah," Jesse replied, barely paying attention to the conversation. "I guess you could call it that."

"Did he ever send...you, maybe?" Chad asked.

This time, Jesse stopped, just staring at the television screen for a moment before turning around and staring at Chad, who felt so put on the spot that he had to turn away from his gaze.

"Why would that information be at all relevant to you?" Jesse asked.

Chad walked over to the stove, flipping the cooking pancakes over.

"I don’t know. I guess I just was interested in you and your family, that’s all."

"Yes well my family’s escapades could fill an entire trilogy of novels and then some," Jesse replied. "Believe me when I tell you that there are just some things you don’t want to know."

Chad turned around and offered Jesse a slight smile he hoped would seem friendly enough to keep Jesse from finding his line of questioning more suspicious.

"Okay so I’ll keep it simple," he said, scrapping one of the perfectly shaped and cooked pancakes from the plate ready to go, complete with sausage, bacon and eggs, onto a plate in front of Jesse. "Brothers? Sisters?"

"One, brother," Jesse replied, taking a bite of sausage. "Not something I take pleasure in admitting, either."

"You two don’t get along?" Chad asked.

"I get along well with everyone," Jesse replied. "It’s him that has the suitcase full of problems. Is there any tea?"

"There’s coffee," Chad offered.

"Good enough," Jesse spoke as Chad poured him a cup.

Chad thought carefully before starting with his next question.

"Are you on some kind of painkiller binge I should know about?" came the voice of Charles, who completely cut Chad off and took Jesse’s attention away from him as he exited Jesse’s room with a handful of empty aspirin bottles in his gloved hands.

"You may not have noticed but I’m one extremely handsome and fit individual," Jesse started. "Athleticism keeps the female persuasion looking my way. It’s not always a painless process."

"Who needs this much aspirin?" Charles asked, looking over the empty bottles.

"Just shut the fuck up about the pills and go get me some more!" Jesse snapped, much to both Chad and Charles’s surprise.

Chad stared at Jesse’s back while Charles stared at him from the front. Realizing he’d came across much more harshly than he’d have liked to, Jesse cleared his throat in an effort to mentally prepare himself not to raise his voice again.

"Please," he said, thinking of a good lie. "Can you go to the chemist and get some more? It doesn’t bring me pleasure to admit that there’s actually a sport in the world I haven’t completely mastered yet. The practice takes its toll on my body. That and finals."

Neither guy seemed too convinced but both realized they weren’t in any position to offer Jesse any opposition to his claims and decided that he was the one who was going to be right no matter what.

"Yeah," Charles sighed, not happy to be agreeing to it. "Anything else?"

"Anything else Chad?" Jesse asked, looking over at Chad.

Chad looked over at an annoyed Charles.

"No, I’m fine," he replied softly.

"Great. Now that that’s settled, I can enjoy this excellent breakfast you’ve crafted for me," Jesse said. "I believe I’ll add it to the list of things you’re actually good at."

No place was good enough. Her roommate could care less about studying for midterms as she only had four classes, three of which counted towards her physical education credit, the other of which was online. She was completely in 24 hour party mode and making Grace’s dorm life hell.

The cafeterias were for eating. The libraries were for anything but studying. And the classrooms were basically for partying if you asked the right people. Midterms were a vastly different plane of origin for the school and everyone took advantage of it.

For everyone else, the people that actually wanted to stay in the minority, the people who actually gave two shits about studying, finding a good place seemed to be something that went completely against reason. It was almost impossible.

Still, Grace had to find somewhere. She needed to be on her own, away from everyone so she could think. The only places she could think of that were far enough away from all the crazy were the frat and sorority houses, which were usually the homes of the 24 hour party people.

She figured she’d give it a shot anyway and had pretty much snuck her way into the first place she could get into to do a decent bit of studying, taking solace in its kitchen, to which she had books scattered all around. She’d completely taken it upon herself to not give a fuck about what anyone had to say about her not being a sister and had decided to concentrate on studying. Because if there was one thing she knew it was that no sorority girl was going to dare show her face in the kitchen. Everyone knew they didn’t eat.

"I don’t know what’s weirder for me," Amber started as she opened the fridge door and pulled out a water bottle. "Seeing someone from the non Caucasian spectrum here or seeing anyone at all in here. No one uses the kitchen."

"That yo ass know about," Grace added, not even bothering to look up at Amber.

It didn’t surprise her that the first person at all to enter the kitchen in the three hours that she’d been studying in it was Amber. Sierra was always calling her a fat whore. She was the first in the kitchen. Go figure, Grace thought.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Amber asked. "Jesse send you here to spy on me?"

"Please. Ain’t nobody thinking about that damn boy," Grace replied. "I’m trying to study and this, believe it or not, is the only place I could think nobody would come. Guess I was wrong."

Amber, amused, walked over and sat on the edge of the table looking over all of Grace’s various books and study materials.

"You really take all of this stuff seriously huh?" she asked.

"I’ll pass on the working at McDonald’s all my life, thanks," was Grace’s reply.

"Studying makes my head hurt," Amber said. "So I just don’t. I don’t wanna get wrinkles, you know?"

"Oh no, wouldn’t want that," Grace sighed, annoyed that Amber was bothering her as she tried to study. "Look should I be going somewhere else? Cuz if yo ass is gon keep talking, I might get a little ghetto up in here."

"You mean more than normal?" Amber asked, half serious, half sarcastically as she took a sip of water and walked away from the table, just missing Grace swiping at her in anger.

"Girl, yo dun lost yo damn mind talking to me up in here like that," grace started.

"Oh you mean in MY kitchen. Yeah somebody should really stop me huh?" Amber asked sarcastically.

Grace gritted her teeth, trying to decide whether or not to start snatching hair from Amber’s head while Amber walked over to the kitchen sink and opened the blinds to look out the window.

"Chill down, Sequoya. No reason we can’t play nice and get along during this high stress week of finals," she said.

"That you conveniently don’t seem to have to study for," Grace said, rolling her eyes.

"That’s because I practice my very own brand of stress relief," Amber replied.

Amber turned around to face Grace.

"Shopping. All day, every day when I’m not taking a final," Amber replied. "Keeps the wrinkles away, guaranteed. In fact, I was just about to start the day off at Macy’s. Wanna come with?"

Ordinarily Grace wouldn’t have thought twice about turning Amber’s offer down. She was a dumbass freak show who annoyed the hell out of her with prolonged exposure but she couldn’t deny that she was feeling overly stressed out about a lot of things. She still wasn’t talking to the liar of a boyfriend she had and he still couldn’t seem to figure out why. Her mom was dating a fat ass ex con loser. Her best friend was with the wrong guy and everybody seemed to know it but him. She had problems up to yin yang and had to worry about studying for her seven final exams on top of everything. She felt like she needed some kind of release. And Amber, despite being the last person she expected to do so, was offering it to her.

"You know what, I’m down with that," Grace spoke, standing up. "Let’s go."

Shawn considered himself fortunate. He didn’t have 7 classes like Grace and Trey. He didn’t have 6 classes like Noah and Zoey. He didn’t even have 5 classes like Ben or Jesse. He had exactly 4 classes, as recommended to him by his counselor before he even picked any. He’d done so poorly last semester that she thought it would be a better idea for him to take fewer classes until he brought his GPA up. So far he’d been doing well in his classes yet there was still one that seemed to be giving him trouble.

His psych class. He’d failed out of it last semester for lack of attendance and now that he actually was attending this semester he was finding it difficult to actually stand. It was a bunch of jargon and terms that went completely over his head and he knew there was no way he was going to be able to successfully pass the first test of the semester, which just so happened to be the midterm as well.

He needed help and that was exactly what he’d come here for. To the library. To the study session that every other person in his class had seemingly shown up for. And Ben, for support and lack of anything else better to do.

"Why am I the only one that had a test today while everyone else gets away with a free 24 hour study pass?" Ben asked, sulking back in his chair as if he had a legitimate problem.

"Yeah cuz soccer is something you need a day to study for," Shawn replied, looking through his study material.

"Hey I have other classes, okay," Ben commented.

"Yeah, none of which you’d fail if you don’t pass your midterm," Shawn retorted. "I have to ace this exam otherwise the highest grade I’ll make in this class is a 50."

"Whatever," Ben mumbled before deciding to be quiet altogether as Shawn looked for his list of study terms. Somehow he’d made his mess work for him but now when he actually needed it working the most it seemed like he couldn’t find anything that he needed and it was beginning to frustrate him.

He let out a sigh and sat back, looking around at everyone, mostly girls, that had shown up for the study session. Many of them seemed to be giggling about something that seemed a little familiar to him. He had no idea what they were talking about but he had a pretty good guess that involved a guy. It was the way the girls he came into contact with in high school always got whenever he was around.

He continued watching them closely not noticing someone walking past them and up towards the front of all the tables, bag and books in hand.

"You think they’re into me or you?" Shawn asked, leaning over to Ben to ask the question while not taking his eyes of many of the girls.

Ben, who’d been chatting with a girl next to him, looked over at Shawn.

"Dude, I don’t know but I gotta tell you, I had no idea you had this many hot chicks in your psychology class," he said. "If I had I would’ve transferred in here with you."

Shawn just continued looking around at all the girls before having his attention stolen by the voice of the guy up front who was bringing the session to a start.

He didn’t even have to look twice before decided that it was time to go.

"Ben!" Shawn exclaimed, shoving Ben in the shoulder before turning back to his bags beginning to pack up.

"What?" Ben asked, annoyed to be interrupted from wooing his latest catch of the day.

Shawn finished packing quickly before turning to Ben, giving him the most seriously worried look Ben had ever seen from his best friend.

"I need you to do something for me without asking any questions. Can you do that?"

Ben was a little worried with how strangely serious Shawn sounded in that moment but decided to flash a confident grin as he straightened himself up.

"Yeah, yeah no doubt. I’m your best friend," he replied.

"Great, let’s go then and please don’t ask me why," Shawn spoke quickly, throwing his bag around his shoulders.

He knew something was wrong given the way his friend was acting but he decided not to ask the questions he wanted to ask and just got up.

"Not running away are you?"

Both Shawn and Ben stopped, Ben looking up towards the front of the tables to see who’d spoken. Shawn knew exactly who’d spoken, which was the reason he was trying to leave. He turned around slowly, offering a slightly nervous grin.

"Who says I was here for you?" he asked.

"You’re not here for me?" Collin asked, a cocky smirk stuck on his face.

Shawn eyed him incredulously.

"The world doesn’t revolve around you, Collin. Glad to hear you think it does though," Shawn retorted.

"Glad to see you aren’t all woe is me the lonely gay guy," Collin shot back. "You could see how that’d get tedious?"

Ben looked between his best friend and Collin before looking around at everyone in the library. It seemed like it was noticeably quieter and most eyes were definitely on them. It was awkward and he didn’t like it.

"Shawn, come on," Ben started.

Shawn wasn’t even focused on anything but Collin. The absolute nerve of Collin was all he could think. After showing that he almost could be a normal guy he turned around and did this now. He was just incapable of not being a jackass, apparently. And Shawn was fully prepared to call him on his behavior.

"You’re not exactly the cock of the walk yourself, you know," Shawn started as he headed towards Collin up at the front.

Collin grinned as he crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Go ahead, freshman. Show your friends your maturity," Collin said. "I’m sure they’ll all appreciate it."

"As opposed to you who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else."

"We’ve been through this before, I don’t think I’m smarter than everyone else."

Shawn stared at Collin’s smug little grin before taking a step back, deciding to handle the situation with a different approach.

"No, you’re just a psychology major right?" he said.

"That’s right," Collin replied. "And the guy in charge of leading the student study session you’re now interrupting. I’m sure your friends appreciate that too."

Shawn looked around at everyone, mostly girls, who all had their eyes glued to him. It was weird and made him feel just a bit uncomfortable.

"I wanna talk to you," Shawn spoke as evenly as possible.

"What part of interrupting study session do you not understand?" Collin asked. "Thought you were smart, Shawn?"

Shawn felt completely exasperated at how wrong he seemed to be about Collin. He felt that for once they had finally come to an understanding just a couple weeks ago. And now that they were actually face to face again it was like all of that went right out the window and they were back to square one. And it was pissing him off.

"What is it about this library that seems to make you a jackass?" Shawn asked.

Collin, still standing with his cocky grin just shook his head and sighed, obviously amused with the entire situation.

"Oh, you think this is funny?" Shawn asked, getting increasingly more and more pissed with each passing moment.

"Hey, if you two lovebirds wanna fuck each other so bad, do it later," some guy from one of the tables called out. "We’re trying not to fail Psych here."

There were a few rumblings of agreement from many of the other students but the majority of the library, who all seemed to be fixated on the drama the two of them were causing, were booing and hissing in disagreement with the student who spoke up.

Shawn, realizing he was allowing himself to become fodder to people he didn’t even know, knew better than to let it continue and headed back towards Ben.

"Let’s go. We don’t need to listen to anything this hypocritical asshole has to say," he said while walking back.

Hearing this, Collin spoke up.

"No I won’t," Shawn replied already making up in his mind that he was going to do whatever it took to make sure he not only passed, but got the highest grade possible.

Noah knew exactly how stressed Trey had been feeling regarding his midterms. He knew even before the two of them had begun dating that Trey had high academic standards. That meant that he placed his studies pretty high atop his list of priorities in his life. Since midterms were all week long, Trey had seemingly been off the wall. Like there was nothing anyone could do or say to him that would calm him down.

Almost nothing. Noah was the only person who could do something to Trey that instantly made him forget all about their midterms. In effect it was helping him forget about his own midterms. He studied when he found the time but mostly wasn’t concerned with them because being happy with Trey was keeping him sane enough to not worry. As long as Trey was worried, he was worried and then he’d have something to worry about when it came to his midterms.

So essentially, whether or not he passed his midterms was directly proportionate to whether or not his boyfriend was happy. And there seemed to be only one way to do that.

"Hey, what is it?" Trey asked, exiting his class with a worried look on his face.

Noah had sent Trey a text message that was intentionally cryptic and may or may not have been misleading enough to make Trey believe that there was a major crisis going on.

When Trey saw the goofy smile plastered on Noah’s face he playfully shoved him.

"What?" Trey asked, unable to hide his own smile.

The truth was that he was in the middle of his first midterm of the week and it wasn’t going so well for him. He had so much on his mind, the foremost thing being that he had other midterms to get through, he couldn’t even concentrate on the one that he was taking. He was happy to see Noah and happy to return the kiss that Noah was hoping to get as he leaned in.

"Come on," Noah spoke a moment later, grabbing Trey’s hand as he led the two of them down the hall.

"What?" Trey asked, a little nervous but mostly excited for what was coming.

Noah didn’t even bother looking around before opening the door to the men’s room and entering it, looking around for anyone that may have been around. Once he determined there was no one around, he pushed Trey into one of the empty stalls, using one hand to lock the door behind him and the other to cup Trey’s neck as the two of them began to make out.

Things began pretty intensely, with several deep, tongue included kisses before Noah began licking Trey’s neck. Trey, who wasn’t the most comfortable with their first foray into public sex was too enthralled in the passion to pose any objections.

Noah, while kissing Trey, slid Trey’s jacket from his body, letting it fall to the ground. He reached back and took off his coat before starting to unbutton his shirt. Trey, taking Noah’s lead, pushed him against the stall door and began to gently kiss his neck as Noah continued on his shirt. Once it was off, Noah returned the favor by pushing Trey against the opposite wall of the stall and began to undo his shirt, grinning mischievously as he did.

"Horny, much?" Trey asked.

"Yeah," Noah replied. "All the time."

Trey just smiled as Noah began kissing him again, pushing his tongue as far as he thought it would go into Trey’s mouth. Trey was doing his best to keep up but knew he was no match for his more sexually experienced boyfriend.

Noah moved from Trey’s lips to his neck but didn’t stay long before moving down Trey’s chest with his tongue, then his pants, working his right hand into Trey’s boxers.

Trey noted that Noah’s hands were cold but didn’t care as Noah continued to stroke his near fully erect cock.

Trey let an audible ‘fuck’ slip from his mouth as Noah positioned himself directly in front of Trey’s crotch. Noah forcibly undid Trey’s belt and zipper, allowing the pants to fall on their own as he looked up at Trey. He grinned with satisfaction upon noticing the look of ecstasy on his boyfriends face before pulling Trey’s cock out of his boxers and began to suck on it. He didn’t bother playing with it all, just put as much as he could into his mouth working it over with his tongue.

By now Trey was no stranger to receiving and giving blowjobs but something was different about today. He wasn’t sure if had to do with the thrill of having sex in a public bathroom where anyone could walk in and catch them or the fact that it seemed like Noah was sucking his cock as if he’d die if he didn’t do a good enough job. All of it was enough to leave him squirming around on the cold tiled wall behind him, struggling to grab onto something but realizing there was nothing.

"Noah, I’m close," he let out.

Ordinarily he could go much longer but he felt like cumming minutes ago and was surprised that he’d made it as far as he had.

At first it didn’t seem as though Noah had heard what Trey had said, as he continued suck like a man determined to win a race of some sort. But after a few moments more, Noah let go, breathing breathlessly as he did.

"Wait," he said. "I wanna fuck you."

"Did you bring a condom?" Trey asked.

Condoms were something they both agreed upon a long time ago.

Noah thought for a moment before forming a frown on his face.

"I know," he spoke, sounding completely dissatisfied with himself. "I can go bum one off someone or something. There has to be someone around here with one. Wait here."

Trey didn’t say anything as Noah put on his jeans and shirt and rushed out the door still in race winning determination mode.

Trey sat back against the wall, letting out a sigh and running his hands through his hair. His mind was going a mile a minute but he was doing his best to keep all his thoughts from getting to him. He just wanted to enjoy what the moment was to him and let that be that.

When he heard the door opening again he smiled to himself, thinking Noah had been awfully fast. Only, when he heard the voices of two unrecognizable guys, he took a step back as the two guys lined up at the urinals.

"Dude, I’m telling you it’s fucking legit. Why do you think I’m done with this exam already? YOU aren’t even finished," one of the voices spoke.

"I don’t know, man," the other voice spoke uneasily.

Trey tried as silently as possible to start putting on his clothes.

"I wouldn’t lie to you. And it’s not like you’re giving me the money."

"Yeah about that. You’re really telling me that for a measly 50 bucks some guy is gonna give you the answers to whatever exam you want?"

"Not every exam. Just the ones that are multiple choice and most of them are. Look, I’m going back tonight to get answers to the rest of my exams. You should come with."

Trey stopped moving, taking an extra interest in the conversation.

"GAB building, room 219. Guy works there. Accesses the databases of the school’s tests on file system and gets us what we need. I’m telling you dude, I fucking aced that exam. I just sat there for like half an hour and replaced my exam with the one with most of the right answers."

"I had the guy change a few so it looks less fishy. Dude, just come. You don’t have to buy anything."

Trey listened to what sounded like nothing before the two guys moved over to the sinks.

"Okay, I’ll come. But you gotta show me what the shit looks like before I bite."

"No problem. Just come tonight. 11 o’clock"

A moment later both guys were gone. Trey didn’t move at all for a moment before he heard the door to the bathroom open again.

"Yeah," he answered, realizing it was Noah.

His mind was still focused on what he’d heard, however, and what he’d heard had been completely mind blowing to him. What if he could eliminate all the stress he was feeling over finals? What if he could find something to worry about that wasn’t directly tied to school? What if he could spend the extra time being a better boyfriend? There were so many what-ifs and all he wanted to do was take the plunge and find out if they’d be answered for him.

"I got one," Noah answered, sounding like he’d ran down the block to the campus clinic and back. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Trey replied. "I’m fine."

"Seriously, I really think you should have spread the money out more," Amber said as she and Grace walked back towards the sorority house. "I mean, what about tomorrow? Gucci sales wait for no woman!"

The truth was that Grace had nowhere near as much money as she’d spent. She did have, however a credit card, that she’d applied for at the beginning to the school year and so far had never used. It had a $6,000 spending limit and Grace had used half of it, buying the kind of clothes she’d always wanted to buy but could never realistically afford. She still couldn’t afford them, and on top of that she now owed people money. People that would end up charging her twice as much as she paid in interest.

There was that and the fact that she didn’t really want to go shopping with Amber again. She quickly realized while out the reason why no one liked her. She was a talkative dumbass bitch who got on people’s nerves. Spending an entire day with the girl did nothing to change those facts. Actually it probably just cemented them in stone even further.

Grace was just ready to get her stuff and leave so she could pretend like the day never happened, wear all her clothes once and then return them like she was planning on doing.

As the two girls got closer to the house both noticed a guy sitting at the steps. One of them knew exactly who it was, the other speaking first.

"Cute," Amber spoke. "I wonder who he’s for?"

"No clue," Grace lied as the two girls started up the path that led to the house. Once they were there, the guy on the steps stood up and spoke.

"Grace," Josh started, nervously.

"You know hot cutie?" Amber asked. "Normally I don’t do that whole threesome thing but if you wanted to get drunk and-"

"Girl, get away from me," Grace spoke as Amber just shrugged and entered the house.

"Zoey...told me you would be here," Josh spoke, nervously.

"Thank you white girl who can’t keep her damn mouth shut," Grace sighed, annoyed as she attempted to set her multiple bags down.

"Boy, don’t," Grace snapped.

Grace, just stood, upset and not bothering to look at Josh. Josh wasn’t really sure if he wanted to begin or not but decided to take a chance anyway.

"Look, I’ve been doing some thinking-"

"About some more lies you can tell me?" Grace interrupted, unable to hold back her anger.

"When you ran out of there and wouldn’t let me explain after-"

"No you NOT trying to make this MY fault!"

"Fact is, you lied to me boy. Ain’t nothing else."

"I realize that, Grace," Josh started, completely willing to take whatever Grace was willing to dish out as long as he figured he still had a shot. "Just. You have to understand where I was coming from."

Grace sighed and crossed her arms, looking away from Josh. Taking it as his cue to continue, he did.

"You and your friends thought I was this guy that I wasn’t. Somebody that takes advantage of people and exploits them. I wanted to be perfect for you so you wouldn’t even think of that again."

"YES...no, I mean....Grace, I just wanted you to like me, without all that negative bullshit and I’m sorry that I lied to you. But I promise you, PROMISE you...I’ll never do it again. And if I do, then you have every right to cut me out of your life because that’s what I deserve."

Grace looked back over at Josh for a few moments before uncrossing her arms and sighing.

"Well I did like you. I do like you," she said. "I just don’t like liars."

Grace wouldn’t admit it but she found it incredibly sexy how cute Josh looked when was depressed. She could really tell that he was sorry and that he genuinely did want her back in his life. And the truth was, despite how furious she was that he’d lied to her about a lot of things, there wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t think about how much she missed him since that day.

She was happy to give him another chance. She just didn’t want to make it so easy for him.

"I don’t know Josh," she spoke as evenly as she could. "Im’a have to think about it."

It almost killed her to see how crushed he looked when she spoke this and even worse when she turned away after he tried to say something else.

"Just go," she spoke.

She had a lot else going on besides Josh and really did want a little bit of time to think about him and where their relationship would end up after this.

She watched as he went, not feeling too happy about what she’d just done but realized she couldn’t undo it without looking like she was desperate for Josh. So she let him go, hoping he would wait for her to make up her mind. Otherwise she really would have something to feel crushed about.

"Hey come on your missing the fashion show," Amber spoke, rushing outside.

"Fashion show?" Grace asked starting up the steps.

"Yeah some of the girls are modeling my new clothes. Oh and I kinda brought in your bags for you and they thought they were mine too and...well, there’s lots of clothes to model now. Come on!"

Grace sighed to herself, annoyed she’d let Amber slip out of her sights with her things around.

"Well, guess I gotta get my ass a job now," she sighed entering the house, realizing that her plan of ‘wear and return’ was now out the window.

Trey didn’t like lying to Noah. He tried to avoid doing it whenever possible. There hadn’t been very many reasons for him to have to. And to avoid having to start, Trey had decided to just not tell Noah about where he was going. And to avoid that entirely, he’d pretended to have received an urgent call from his mother and had left Noah to take the call privately. He was hoping what he was getting himself into wouldn’t take that long so he could be back before Noah got too worried about him.

As it stood he was really nervous about the entire situation that he was allowing himself to succumb to. He had no clue who these mystery guys were that he’d overheard in the bathroom or whether they were safe people to be dealing with. What’s more he had no idea if the situation he was allowing himself to get into was even legit. For all he knew the two guys had known he was in the bathroom with Noah, followed them in after and decided to set him up, knowing he’d take the bait.

In that instance, Trey knew he was reaching.

It was the depths to which his mind travelled when he was feeling as nervous as he was. All he was thinking now was how much he wanted to get it all over with. He was far past the making a huge mistake part of the equation and ready for the instant gratification. He’d worry about the consequences some other time. Probably when they were happening.

But he knew it was worth it. He couldn’t let himself fail his midterms. He was an academic probation this semester after his ordeal with Nick and if he didn’t maintain at least a 3.5 GPA he was going to be kicked out.

There was much more on the line for him than anyone he knew when it came to midterms. He wasn’t about to blow it.

He knew he was in the right place. He hadn’t forgotten that fast. Only, he saw no one. He wasn’t really surprised that the back door to the building had been unlocked. After all, the school did hold certain night classes aimed at professionals who attended work during the normal daytime hours. He knew where to go and thanks to his subtle peeping tom skills he knew who to expect.

But not knowing what to expect was the hard part. He took in a deep breath and entered the building, looking around as if he’d never been in it. He’d been inside a few times but no so many times he knew where everything was. There was a set of stairs to his left. He decided that he was going to be as quiet as possible so he wouldn’t be expected. He wanted to be able to better hear his surroundings that way just in case at any point he had to run away.

The room he was looking for was only a few feet away from him but for some reason, he was hesitant to take another step forward. He thought he had prepared himself for this. Apparently not. He waited a moment before deciding that it was either now or never and walked straight over to the door and pushed it open and shut it behind him all in one swift motion.

There wasn’t anything really out of the ordinary with the room itself. The GAB building was home to a lot of the computers on campus so the room was filled with a few dozen state of the art computers all of them on.

The room was mostly dark except for a weird pattern of light coming from the back of the room. It was weird in the sense that it was multi colored and moving on the wall much in the way a lava lamp would. Trey found that odd but didn’t have time to dwell on it as he heard commotion coming from that area.

Trey looked behind him, to his left and to his right, doing a half turn to the back and then to the front as his fight or flight instincts kicked in. He wasn’t sure whether to run or hide or look for the nearest weapon looking object but he didn’t have enough time to decide as the next thing he knew, someone was standing in front of him.

"Who are you?" the guy asked.

Trey found him to be a mixed bag on the believability scale when it came to most threatening appearance. He looked quite gruff with a pretty heavy five o’ clock shadow and unkempt hair wrapped with a bandana around his forehead. But then there was the stuff like the oversized tie dye shirt and the out of fashion sandals with socks he was wearing that almost made Trey want to laugh at the guy. There was all that and the most obvious thing about him: he was short. As in a good 4’8 or 4’9 short.

"Um...I wanted to get test answers?" Trey responded

"You here with Cameron and Gray?" the guy asked, cigarette hanging halfway out of his mouth.

Trey wanted to answer but he was a little to fixated on the fact that this short little half dangerous half walking punch line man was smoking in a room that could easily set off the sprinklers and damage thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

"I don’t really think you’re supposed to be smoking in here," Trey found himself saying without really speaking.

"Hey, smart guy! I asked you a question!" the guy asked moving closer to Trey that actually caused him to flinch a bit.

"Yeah, yeah they’re on their way," he said, hoping the guys in question were in fact on their way. "I got here first I guess."

The guy said nothing, instead just mumbled a few things Trey couldn’t make out moving around in short semi circles as he did.

Trey felt a bit confused but figured he needed to get the ball rolling before things got out of hand.

"You are him right?" he asked.

"Who?" the guys asked.

"The one that’s selling test answers."

The guy eyed Trey, squeezing both eyes together so they were almost shut for a few moments, fully making Trey uncomfortable before responding.

"It takes a certain kind of genius to have such a backlog of test answers ready for the taking. They don’t save all of them you know. That was all me."

Trey wasn’t sure how to respond so he simply did not, instead just watched as the guy started back towards the corner of the room he’d originally emerged from and out of Trey’s sight completely.

Trey took advantage of this by deciding to use the time to look around. First he noted all possible escape routes. Then he quickly started looking through the computers for something he could possibly use as a weapon. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t trust Mr. Tie Dye but he wasn’t about to take any chances.

He was in the middle of looking through and around the computers when he heard the door to the room open. He stopped mid search still hunched over one row of computers looking towards the two guys he recognized from earlier.

"What are you doing?" one asked, eying him cautiously.

Trey was thankful the attention was taken from him when Mr. Tie Dye made his way back over to them.

"I was just tending to your friend here," he said, papers in hand.

"Friend?" the other guys asked, sounding confused.

"I gotta say, if you two idiots wanna learn how to get a guy sent to jail fast just watch the shit you’re doing to me. Tell everybody, why don’t ya!"

"No, Jed, we didn’t-"

"Here you go friend," Jed spoke handing Trey a sheet of paper and pen. "Write down everything you need and I’ll get it to you right off. Uh, you clowns did all bring fund-age right?"

Trey looked down pursing his lips while behind him Cameron and Gray exchanged nervous glances.

"Uh yeah," Cameron spoke, digging in his pockets before pulling out a wad of cash that Jed quickly snatched from him.

"Thank you," he replied swiftly before taking Gray’s money as well.

Trey unwittingly started writing down the list of test answers he wanted already deciding that if he was going to cheat in one class he might as well cheat in all of them.

He did this while watching the two other guys out the corner of his eye who both seemed to be suspicious as to how he’d even found out about the deal. Trey had only just lifted the pen from the paper after finishing before Jed took the paper from his hands and started back to his corner, leaving Trey alone with Cameron and Gray.

Trey briefly looked over at them before deciding to look straight ahead at the wall.

"Hey, do I know you?" Gray asked, inching a little closer to Trey.

Trey looked back in his direction but not directly at him.

"Uh no, I don’t think so-"

"How’d you find out about this?" Gray interrupted.

"How did you?" Trey retorted.

Things grew silent between the three of them before Jed emerged once again handing Cameron and Gray their test answers.

"A couple of these professors use three different versions of the final so you’re gonna have to study all three if you two idiots want even a shot at passing."

Cameron and Gray exchanged offended glances.

"And YOU owe me some cash," Jed replied. "You get the friend of a friend discount since you came with these two losers but mostly because I’m just a nice guy."

Trey chuckled nervously as he fished out his cash and handed it to Jed before receiving his test answers.

"ALL of your professors use different versions. Good luck," Jed spoke, sounding as if he believed Trey had no chance in hell of passing his exams. "Now everybody get the fuck out of here. I was meditating before you interrupted me."

Trey didn’t stick around and started away from the room briskly so as to avoid having to deal with either Gray or Cameron. He felt like his heart was pounding a mile a minute. He hadn’t felt this intense since the last ill advised activity he participated in regarding Jesse’s brother and jail time.

He felt like now he could relax a little. His future was literally now safely in his hands.

Ben had entered his room expecting it to look exactly the way he’d left it before heading off to his days finals and instead had walked in to find the walls covered in multi color flash cards and magazines cut to shreds all over the floor.

"Shawn, what the hell dude?" Ben asked, stepping in any empty space he could find as he made his way over to his computer.

"Sorry but I can’t fail this exam. If I don’t Psych this time I can’t take it a again and I need it to graduate," Shawn spoke, busy trying to shake a stray piece of magazine paper he’d accidentally glued to his left hand.

"Yeah....ain’t that a conundrum," Ben spoke, letting his backpack fall to his bed as he took a seat at his computer. "You aren’t going Jack Torrance on me are you?"

"Make fun of me all you want but if you want to see me alive at all after this semester you’ll help me study," Shawn spoke, finally managing to get the piece of paper from off of his hand.

"Sorry bro but I’m putting any extracurricular studying off until the last possible minute," Ben replied. "Besides, I can’t start worrying about studying for classes I’m not even taking. I might confuse myself."

"That’s all it takes?" Shawn asked sarcastically.

"What’s with this mess anyway? Psych 1000 doesn’t really seem like that hard a class," Ben said.

"It’s not for people who don’t fail it once before," Shawn replied. "Obviously, I’m having some difficulties."

"I see that," Ben said looking over the mess in his room. "You are gonna clean all this shit up right?"

Shawn didn’t respond, instead deciding to focus on gathering more flashcards together.

Shawn felt like a lot of things in his life had gone to shit but he wanted to start getting things in order. If not his love life and his friendships then at least he could start with his schoolwork. Or at least, that was the way he felt.

All he needed to do was manage to keep it all together. Which was actually proving challenging at best.

"So just this one class then?" Ben asked. "You’re not worried about the rest?"

"I didn’t fail the rest once already. Besides the rest of that stuff is easy enough. I guess I can’t figure out how to get inside people’s minds. Figure out what makes them tick. Sounds a lot like my life. Makes sense I can’t pass it."

Ben understood perfectly what his best friend was talking about but wasn’t sure how to respond so he simply chose not to.

Shawn started cutting a magazine apart before throwing it aside in frustration.

"Who am I kidding? I can’t even sort out my own shit. How am I supposed to manage?"

Ben, once again wasn’t sure what to say but figured that he needed to say something.

"It’s not like it’s the end of the world Shawn-"

"I don’t see your life all screwed up."

Ben didn’t respond.

Shawn let out a frustrated sigh and looked around at his mess.

"I mean, look at this shit! And I don’t even know what it’s for."

"Shawn, you gotta calm down man. Stressing yourself out can’t be helping."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know what helps!"

Shawn was completely ready to give up completely and had stopped working accordingly. He sat in the mess he’d created feeling completely defeated and ready to accept his fate.

"Was that the door?" Ben asked.

"Who cares," Shawn replied. "I don’t."

Ben, realizing his friend was in absolutely no position to do anything for himself, got up and headed to answer the door.

"You make housecalls?" Ben asked.

"Just one," Collin replied, with a grin he hoped was friendly enough. "Is Shawn here?"

"Tell him no, Ben!" Shawn spoke, sounding like a pouty five year old.

Collin looked into the room as Ben looked back.

"Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna fly," he said, as he stepped aside to let Collin in.

Collin took a few steps forward pensively as he looked down at Shawn. He looked vulnerable and beside himself.

"What are you smiling about?" Shawn asked. "You should be happy seeing me like this."

Collin took a seat on the bed next to Shawn and looked over at him on the floor.

"You think this is what I like? Seeing people looking defeated?"

"That’s the kind of game you talk. I just assumed-"

"There you go again. Assuming."

Shawn pouted for a few seconds before realizing something.

"Wait, that’s you!"

"I know," Colin responded, a grin forming on his face.

It was infectious to Shawn, who couldn’t help but to grin back.

"I’m gonna fail, you know."

"No you’re not," Collin said simply.

"And how do you know that?"

Collin looked down for a moment before looking back over at him as serious as possible.

"Because you told me you weren’t," Collin replied. "And you’re not. As long as you tell yourself that. It’s actually one of the biggest things to understand about psychology."

"Really?" Shawn asked.

"Absolutely. And I realized that if you knew that much already then you knew more than all those people there coming to get help for something they figured they couldn’t do on their own. You understand this stuff better than you think you do."

"Yeah well it doesn’t feel like it."

"Maybe you just need somebody to help make things a little clearer," Collin said simply.

Shawn stared over at him feeling like all of his insecurities were washing away as he did. Collin challenged him at almost every turn. And if he wasn’t pissing him off when he did he was surprising and intriguing him. This was definitely one of those times where Collin was intriguing him.

"How did you figure out where I stayed anyway?" Shawn asked, standing up.

Collin picked up a coat from the bed he assumed was Shawn’s and helped him put it on. It wasn’t Shawn’s but he wasn’t going to say anything. Because for the first time in a long time he felt like he could be unconditionally happy. Like he could be himself and not have to worry about anything. He was going to do less of the worrying and more of the enjoying of his life.

"You know I know a lot very important people," Collin replied. "Stick with me kid and I just might introduce you."

"I think I met them. My fist almost connected with one of their faces," Shawn replied as they started towards the door.

"Good man," Collin chuckled. "I guess there are some things I can learn from you fresh...er, Shawn."

Ben, only just realizing that Shawn was leaving looked back.

"As long as you’re going out do you think you can bring me back some of those..."

But it was too late he realized as the door shut behind them.

"Okay, cuz I’m completely fine here. All by myself."

"So, I know you’ve been completely stressed out about these exams after the whole...everything that happened last semester," Noah started.

He had walked Trey to his first class of the day and the two of them were standing just outside the building in which Trey’s first midterm would be taking places. Three today, 2 the next day and 1 the day after that. Needless to say, he was definitely feeling the pressure.

Noah for his part had been trying to help take Trey’s mind off things with all the sex they’d been having but he knew no amount of passionate sex was going to take Trey’s mind off of anything he was stressed about. He knew this about his boyfriend. He was just that kind of person. Now all he could hope to do was to tell him how much he believed in Trey’s ability to pull through.

"I just want you to know how much I care about you," Noah continued.

Trey grinned sheepishly. He felt like he’d be blushing if it could show on him.

"I know these midterms are important to you. I know you want to prove to this school that you’re not the person they think you are. That you’re fully capable of exceeding their expectations and being a better student than most of the rest of us."

That was exactly what Trey wanted and knew he needed to make happen. That was why he’d gone through such great lengths as he had in securing the answers to all of his exams. He felt so many different feelings for getting the answers but he knew there was no way that he could not do well. Even if he had studied on his own.

"Just know," Noah continued as he stared into Trey’s eyes. "Even if things don’t go like you want them to, I’ll still be here for you. Grace, Zoey, all of us are going to be here for you no matter what. And if you don’t do well on these exams and this school kicks you out, then we’ll just go to different schools. Because that’s how much I care about you and want to be with you, Trey. So...just try to remember that."

Noah kissed Trey on the forehead before saying bye and heading off to his own classes.

Trey wasn’t sure what it was but something had him standing frozen right where he was. He realized something. He hadn’t stopped to think about anyone but himself in any of this.

All he saw was him doing poorly and getting kicked out of the school. He didn’t think about how his mother would feel if he was caught cheating. He didn’t think about what would happen to him if his friends discovered how he’d passed his exams. He may have passes his exams but he would have to live with knowing that he didn’t have enough faith in himself or his boyfriend or friends or anyone in his life to care what would happen to him if he went through with things.

And at the end of the day he cared more about all of them than anything. If they were willing to put up with everything he’d put them through, why couldn’t he believe they’d stick by him if the worst came to pass?

"Fuck it," he mumbled aloud, deciding life was too short to stress himself out over nothing. Failing his exams and getting kicked out of the school wouldn’t be the end of his world. Not anymore.

"I say we all just tough it out and stay here, have another adventure like last semester," Sierra spoke.

"Nah, wouldn’t be the same since you’re actually allowed to stay on campus during spring break," Noah replied.

Everyone was in good spirits. Regardless of how well they did or didn’t do on their exams the one thing they knew for sure was that not only were they over and they wouldn’t have to worry about them again until May but their Spring Break officially began at midnight and they were free for 9 whole days.

"You guys do everything together huh?" Chad asked, looking around at everyone.

Chad had made the decision to throw a party for everyone to celebrate them finishing their midterms at Jesse’s apartment. It was partly for that reason but mostly to try to give something back to them for showing him so much kindness and patience. He was thankful to have met them all.

"No I think you invited her," Noah spoke with a straight face before grinning playfully.

"I like to help when I can," Sierra spoke, touching Chad’s leg playfully while looking over at him. "And you dig the theme too right? All the different countries and stuff?"

Everyone looked around.

"Uh, sure girl. They alright," Grace spoke, playing with the umbrella in her wine cooler.

"I just figured, maybe Chad likes to travel all over the world," Sierra added giggling as she did. "Who knows?"

"Uh, I know bitch!" Amber spoke up. "I know that you’re about as fake as they come."

"Says the girl with the tan in the middle of March," Sierra replied. "It ain’t sunshine and rainbows out there yet, hun. Didn’t it snow last week?"

Amber just pouted and decided to go speak to other guests.

"How do you feel?" Noah asked, so that only Trey could hear.

Trey was sitting on one of the armchairs with Noah leaning over it behind him rubbing Trey’s shoulders as he did.

Surprisingly, Trey felt extremely confident. All he had to think about was how things would be okay regardless of what the outcome would be and it seemed to get rid of all the stress he’d been feeling. As he soon realized, stress had been what was keeping him from remembering everything he’d studied and believing in his own abilities. Once that was out of the way, his exams were a piece of cake all week.

"Really good," he replied, looking up at Noah who leaned in to kiss Trey on the lips.

Grace sighed watching them.

"I miss him," she sighed.

Zoey put a hand on Grace’s shoulder.

"So tell him that," she replied sincerely.

Truthfully Grace had been meaning to tell Josh all her feelings and set aside time for them to talk. But between worrying about studying for her exams and finding a job to pay for the shopping spree she couldn’t afford to go on, Josh had actually slipped from her mind.

Now he was all she could think about and it was driving her crazy.

Chad meanwhile saw Trey and Noah kissing and had different emotions come over him entirely. He felt like everyone knew exactly who they were and who they were attracted to. But he still couldn’t figure any of that out. He felt like he was supposed to know that about himself but didn’t.

On the one hand he enjoyed all the attention that Sierra was showing him. He felt like she was a nice girl with a great body and personality if not a little strong at times. But then there were times where his mind would slip towards thinking about Jesse’s new housekeeper Chuck for some reason and he wasn’t completely sure why.

All he knew was that until he figured out who he was, he was going to be completely stuck down the middle in that regard and as long as he was he was never going to know who he wanted.

These were the feelings going around the party as everyone felt like they knew exactly where they were or where they were heading but all of them just happy to be right where they were in that moment, spending time with each other.

"Nobody told me Jesse’s pad was this hot," Dylan spoke sounding like a kid in a candy store. "I’m gonna have to start coming here more often."

"Yeah and become a mini Jesse wannabe, I don’t think so," Sierra spoke.

"Besides, yo ass can’t even make up your mind who you are right now," Grace added.

Dylan spun around looking at everyone.

"Oh, ya’ll got jokes huh?" he said, pouting as he stared at everyone. "You’ll see. One of these days I’m gonna be running this place!"

"Just like one of these days Pinocchio is gonna be a real boy, huh?" Sierra chuckled.

Everyone laughed, less about the comment more just to be happy in that moment.

That all quickly subsided when the front door came smashing open and everyone’s attention went flying over to it.

"What the fuck is this then?" Jesse shouted.

Everyone took sight of him. He was dressed completely un-Jesse like complete with a heavy black leather biker jacket, plain white wife beater and faded jeans with several holes in them. Not to mention the biker boats everyone could see he was wearing as he stepped inside and removed the sunglasses he’d been wearing previously.

"Jesse, happy birthday!" Amber shouted.

Everyone looked over at her.

"It’s my birthday and you lot decided to invite the retarded version of Satan?" he asked.

"No," Chad started. "It’s kind of an end of midterms, celebrating thing."

"Midterms....midterms......" Jesse mumbled to himself, spinning a couple of times as he did. "Were they given already?"

"Yes, boy..please don’t tell me yo ass forgot to take them," Grace spoke.

"Well, Jesse Yorkshire has the mind of a.....the mind of a....I don’t forget anything!"

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Boy is you drunk?" Grace asked.

Jesse didn’t respond as he took off his jacket and placed it over Dylan’s head, mistaking him for the coat rack.

"Who told you people you could throw a party in my flat?" Jesse asked, facing the direction of one of his plants as he asked the question.

"Jesse....are you alright boy?" Grace asked.

"I feel like I’m the only one thinking....and then I lose track of time and get phone calls from people who shouldn’t even exist. I have one bum living with me already!"

"Jesse," Grace spoke, walking over to him. "Come on, let’s get some water."

"Yes, water would be lovely. Lovely....water....yes."

At this point absolutely no one was speaking. The music had long been stopped and everyone was just taking in the wild batch of crazy that was Jesse Yorkshire at that moment.