Chapter 4: Jonathan Hamilton Is (Not) an Easy Lay

“I’m so freaking excited.” Ray bounced up and down as they joined the other students pouring like a stream toward the same destination. “Man, you look amazing,” he commended Jonathan.

After some deliberation and many of Ray’s exclamations regarding his wardrobe, Jonathan had settled for a burgundy shirt and charcoal grey pants. While Ray had asked him at least a thousand times if he didn’t think that was too formal for a college party, he had acquiesced to leaving a couple of buttons open in front and rolling up his sleeves up to his elbows, and that had finally agreed with his roommate’s insistence that he should let go a little.

It was true that he did look a bit out of place among the other young men and women who seemed to have opted mostly for jeans and short skirts, but Jonathan had no intention to pretend he was someone else. Not this year, and not ever again.

“So many pretty girls,” Ray said and swooned exaggeratedly. Then he grabbed Jonathan by the arm and leaned against him. “Should we do that guessing game?”

“I hate to break it to you, buddy, but everyone is well aware now that I’m gay,” Jonathan said in an apologetic voice.

“It wasn’t me who said it,” Ray replied.

“I know. And don’t you worry. I’ve never had the intention of keeping it a secret. This way, I can openly pursue someone without leaving room for interpretations.”

“We could still ask them if they think I’m gay or not, but I don’t think it will have the same impact,” Ray said mournfully.

“I’m afraid I’m not as good a wingman as you imagined I would be,” Jonathan offered.

“I heard Connor is going to be here,” Ray said in a conspiratorial voice.

Everyone appeared to be there, so that wasn’t news, but he didn’t want to deter Ray from his desire to help him. The problem was that he hadn’t thought of Connor almost at all, although he had wished to do so with every cell in his body. Unfortunately for him, his body kept remembering quite often of another student attending Sunny Hill, who was everything Connor wasn’t.

Straight.

Unavailable.

And hot.

Jonathan hated himself to the extreme for being so superficial. He needed to grab the reins and do the right thing. Even if he didn’t care for Connor, he would at least talk to him if he were there at the party. Anything was better than having wide-eyed – and closed-eyed – dreams about Maddox and his perfect body. The guy was muscular but not in a heavy way like his friend Dex, and the way he moved was enough proof that he knew how to use his body, and by that, yes, Jonathan meant using it inside the bedroom, between the sheets, with someone under or on top of him.

“That’s good to know,” he told Ray. “I’ll try talking to him, see if we could start again, this time on the right foot.”

“Wait, do you mean you got into a fight with Connor, too?”

Jonathan hadn’t had the heart to tell his roommate that Connor had proven quite unsociable toward him before the peace was declared between him and Maddox. “No, nothing of the kind, but we had a very short conversation which didn’t give us the chance to know each other.”

“Well, once we’re in there, if you see him, you don’t have to mind me. Go talk to him. I’ll be fine on my own.”

Jonathan didn’t feel enthusiastic in the least about the prospect, but he needed to deal with his absurd fascination with the ultimate catch on campus. Maddox was out of reach, and since Jonathan wasn’t female, he had absolutely no chances with the guy.

Besides being an ass man, Maddox had never been particularly pretentious about the girls he kept hooking up with. Relationships and dating, he had done too little of that to matter. Therefore, his constant, no matter how polite, refusal to strike conversations with people of the opposite sex, conversations that could lead to some heated action in one of the rooms upstairs, was starting to make him grow weary. The girls who knew him not to be so fickle were getting bored quickly with him and moving on to other guys, which didn’t bother him at all.

Before the party died down, he needed to decide on one of the many pretty girls who stole glances at him in the hope that they would be noticed, or else, he had moved his ass to this party for nothing.

The whole point was to get laid with someone who didn’t care about strings attached and all that. Someone easy and fun who could make him forget about a particular pair of amber eyes. Yeah, he had ended up so low that it was enough to think of the guy’s eyes, and he was getting a boner.

He was leaning against the wall, sipping from his rum and coke, while examining everyone who came inside. His friends were already mingling, and after teasing him a little about waiting for his chosen one, they had left him to his musings. While Kane was there to hang out with his lacrosse buddies, most of all, Dex and Rusty had already found some girls to have fun with, and they were nowhere in sight.

Heads began turning, and people started whispering, so Maddox craned his neck to see what the commotion was all about. He bit back a curse when he saw who the new star was, making an entrance right now. Jonathan looked perfect, in a shirt the color of dark wine or something like that, which he wore casually, letting slightly sinewy forearms and a bit of chest show. Someone was hanging from his arm, and Jonathan was leaning toward that person, laughing in a carefree manner, his eyes all twinkling.

Maddox made an extra effort to see who that was. His eyebrows shot up when he noticed that boy who was always with Jonathan around the campus. What was his name? Ah, Ray ... something. He had quickly learned that the boy was Jonathan’s roommate, but as much as Maddox kept racking his brain, he couldn’t recall if there had been any mentions of him being gay or not. Were they together? Jonathan certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. Now that was a letdown.

Well, why the hell was a letdown? For all he knew, Jonathan could have a boyfriend or more. Or he could play the field, seeing how that day, he had unsuccessfully tried to get with Connor, who was also openly gay.

The thing was, he knew nothing about the guy. During their project get-together, they had only talked about what they would do for it, and nothing personal. Jonathan’s private life seemed to have tighter security than Fort Knox, and the most experienced gossipers on campus had so far come up with nothing, no matter how all perked up his ears had been to catch the slightest whiff of information on the topic.

But a guy like that had to get his rocks off somehow, right? That tall, lean and muscular body had to know all the ropes of horizontal cha-cha, and now that he looked at him more, Maddox was pretty sure he would be great as a top, too. Still, he kept to his guess that Jonathan was at least versatile because there was no way gay dudes getting it on with him could ignore that fantastic view from behind.

Maddox examined Jonathan’s companion with a critical eye as Ray went to get some cups for the both of them. Was that what made the new star on campus tick? Well, if he stared long enough, maybe, just maybe, Ray what-was-his-last-name had a somewhat twinkish charm. Nah, Maddox shook his head. He was just too plain; no charm whatsoever.

But Jonathan’s face lit up again when Ray handed him a cup, and their heads moved closer as they talked like there was no one else in the world. Maddox pursed his lips and turned on his heels. There was no point in watching Jonathan Hamilton’s love life being played out in front of him while he sat there thinking of masturbating to him for the umpteenth time since they met. On his way towards the main room, he casually linked arms with a cute blonde girl who beamed at him in an instant.

See? Things could be simple, he told himself. Only if you want them to be.

Except for Ray, Jonathan didn’t know anyone too well to do any actual hanging out, although many people stopped by their side to greet them and exchange a few words. He hadn’t realized he was unconsciously looking for a certain someone until he noticed his retreating back, as well as his right arm wrapped around a back on which lovely blond curls bounced. So, Maddox was present, and he was already having fun.

Jonathan stared into his cup for a moment. He could always leave the drink somewhere and pretend he had drunk it, but being part of college life meant that he needed to adapt, as horrendous as the taste of that beverage was. With newfound courage, he took another sip and decided that maybe he could just find a good moment to throw away the dubious liquid as discreetly as possible.

“Hey, Jonathan,” someone called for him.

To be completely honest, he was surprised to see Connor making his way through the throng of people to get to him. Ray squeezed his shoulder quickly. “I’m off to make friends with some other nerds like me. Have fun, JJ.”

Jonathan wished Ray would have stuck around some more, but soon he was face to face with Connor, so he smiled politely. “Hey, Connor,” he replied.

“Having fun?” the guy asked him with a sly smile and pointed at his cup.

“Trying,” Jonathan offered.

“What?” Connor cupped his ear, a sign that he could barely hear him over the loud music.

“I said --” He decided to forget about trying to have a conversation in all that noise. Not only was the music the problem, but all the cheering and hooting everyone was engaged in.

Connor smiled and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Let’s step outside,” he shouted in his ear and dragged him away.

After almost one hour of listening to Connor, Jonathan had had it up to his ears and beyond with the guy. At first, he had been polite and tried to follow his reasoning, but when he attempted to offer a different point of view, Connor just cut his words short and insisted on being right.

That made Jonathan regret not drinking more when he had still had a chance. Maybe then enduring through Connor’s lecturing would have been a little more fun. However, his reserve of politeness was starting to wear thin. The worst thing was that Connor didn’t even say anything interesting. He was a walking encyclopedia of random facts and numbers, but he offered absolutely no new insight or what they meant. Even worse, he sounded like the mouthpiece for opinions everyone who watched the news already knew and quite repetitive after a while.