Chapter One

Gregory walked into the lounge area where hundreds of his fellow undergraduates were eating overpriced lunches and chatting in an over-animated fashion. There were definitely advantages of going to an artsy school, but there were also disadvantages. He smirked as this thought ran through his head for the third time in the last hour as he strode quickly past a group of acting majors having staged arguments over low-carb wraps and cold press juices.

Halfway through an eye roll to himself, he caught the gaze of a beautiful guy sitting across the room by himself. The guy, his jaw perfectly defined like a cartoon prince, was smirking right back at him as if sharing his annoyance at the dramatics still playing out behind him. Gregory smiled back, locking into the steely blue gaze in one of those movie moments he’d had far too rarely in his lifetime.

Dear God, this is the advantage of an arts school I was looking for, he thought as he slowed his pace, trying to gauge whether or not it would be too forward to walk over and introduce himself. One of the main reasons he had transferred after two years at his home state’s biggest university was because in a Midwest, southern school, finding pretty men without girlfriends was nigh impossible. He’d come to this small, primarily theater and dance school in the big city to find “his people” as his best friend back home, Wilson, liked to say. He wanted, at the very least, to find people for whom he would not be the first gay person they had ever had a conversation with. Finding a boyfriend was just a hopeful, added bonus.

Just as he had decided to be gutsy and do what he had traveled hundreds of miles on his own to do, another guy swooped on his Prince Smirking like a territorial mother bird.

Prince Smirking was shaken out of their electrifying staring contest as this other guy started talking at him rapidly in some monologue Gregory could not hear from his place a room away.

Oh, to be a straw in his cup, he thought, sighing and moving on to a newly-abandoned table. For more than just eavesdropping, he chuckled to himself as he glanced back and took in the full, firm lips on his still-unnamed prince. Was it his imagination or did they look tight with annoyance?

His internal question was answered as the intruder leaned forward, grinning, and planted a passionate kiss on his prince that was definitely not rebuked.

There goes that, Gregory sighed, unwrapping his sandwich. He pulled out his phone and texted Wilson: Strike one for romance.

Wilson responded almost immediately: Bowling strike or baseball strike? with a winking emoticon.

Gregory rolled his eyes, smiling again. He already missed Wilson, who he had begged on more than one occasion to come with him. Baseball. He responded, adding a frowny face.

Wilson sent an eye roll and then typed You’re so butch, which made Gregory chuckle, lightening his mood a bit. At least with Wilson around he could get an instant pep talk when he struck out with boys.

Anyway, enough sports talk. I can feel myself turning straight. Isn’t this your first day? Gregory read, forcing himself not to watch the beautiful guy and the other guy who he was now referring to as the wicked stepmother.

Yeah, he typed, knowing where this was going.

Okay, so calm down, drama queen.

Gregory smiled and texted back a heart, turning his focus to his lunch and the syllabus he’d just received from his first class. Wilson was right, there was plenty of time. Plus, making friends needed to be a thing if he was going to survive school in a city where he literally knew no one.

***

Gregory walked out of class number two, a math requirement that seemed like it would be easy enough but that he was not looking forward to nonetheless. He glanced at the schedule he had photographed with his phone.

“Room 235, building C,” he mumbled aloud, realizing he didn’t know where that was. He looked around as groups of people milled past him in various directions, all either engaged in conversations with each other or magnetized to their phones. He felt a slight tightness in his chest, something he’d been feeling since the day arrived for him to get on a plane and come to an unknown city and unknown school on his own. He took a deep breath, recognizing that the anxiety was better energized toward excitement or else it would end up being a very long semester.

His mind recalled the guy from earlier. Were his eyes really that radiant or am I just desperate?

“Lost?” a friendly voice sliced through his reverie. He looked up into the enthusiastic dark brown eyes and smiling face of a girl with lavender hair and a tasteful nose piercing.

“Yes actually,” he said, holding out his phone to show her where he needed to be.

She smiled and nodded. “Well, I was hoping this would be one of those sitcom moments where I happen to be going to the same class as you, launching our inevitable friendship instantaneously. But alas, I’ve probably just taken one too many script-writing classes.”

Gregory laughed, instantly liking her.

“I’ll show you, though. It’s on my way,” she added, turning and walking with the explicit expectation that he would follow.

“What’s your story?” she asked as he caught up. They wove their way through mobs of people, far too many it seemed to him for such a small school.

“Midwest. Gay. Poli-Sci major. Yours?”

“South. Bisexual. Two guesses what my major is.”

He made a show of thinking hard, which made her smile. “I’m gonna take a wild shot that it’s some kind of writing,” he said after a moment.

“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!” she made sarcastic jazz hands but her smile was genuine. So was his.

“You just transferred?” she continued leading him through a door that led to an outdoor seating area that connected multiple school buildings.

“Yep, first day. I figured it might be easier to find a boyfriend and harder to find homophobes in a city arts school.”

“I knew you looked smart,” she teased.

“Love your hair, by the way,” he said genuinely. He’d never had the guts to dye his hair, but he had always lived vicariously through Wilson who had a new color every month most of the time.

“Thaaaannkksss,” she said drawing out the word comically. “I was originally going to go blue but I thought that was too punk or angsty or something.”

“Lavender suits you,” he said affirming. He smiled to himself as they trotted down some stairs in one of the buildings he hadn’t yet been in. He felt the tension in his chest, his anxiety, dissipating.

“You know what? I’ve had five different people tell me they like my hair today and you’re the first one I genuinely believe.”

“Trust me, I’ll be blunt if the occasion requires it,” he said, pursing his lips to exaggerate his point. She laughed heartily.

“Okay, here we are. My name’s Joanna, by the way, but I go by Jo because I hate gender norms,” she held out her hand and he shook it, grinning.

“Gregory, and I go by Gregory because I think it makes me sound sophisticated. But mostly it’s because I’m pretentious,” he added in a deadpan.

“Do you mind?” she asked, nodding to his phone, and he shook his head. She grabbed it and programmed in her number.

“If you’re free for dinner or drinks I think we should keep this new friendship rolling, don’t you?” she asked, returning his phone to the stack of books in his hands.

“I’ll be free around seven hopefully. Dinner, please. And drinks. Especially if they’re at a place where there are cute boys who could potentially think I’m cute as well.”

“I know just the places,” she said, flipping her hair and walking away. He chuckled, feeling much calmer than he had all day. At least he’d found a friend.

He stepped through the door to room 235 and his chest tightened instantaneously, his breath catching in his throat. There was the beautiful guy from lunch, seated and looking at his phone, with an empty seat directly beside him as if fate was playing some kind of dirty trick.

Gregory froze in the doorway, hating himself for not acting more confident and smooth. He wanted to sit next to the guy and try his charms on him, see if the chemistry continued when conversation was added, but the image of him lip-locked with another guy swam in front of his eyes and he knew he would just be setting himself up for disappointment.

He sat instead at a desk in the front row, separated by two rows from his unrequited crush. Wishing it was not the first day and that he had some homework or a chapter in a book to read over, he glued himself to his phone, scrolling through social media which had little appeal to him these days.

“Mind if I sit?” a deep, smooth voice said, making him jump embarrassingly. He looked up and his prepared smile faltered. Of course it was the guy. He stuffed the leap of optimism he felt in his stomach back down, telling himself that it didn’t mean anything because this guy was involved with someone and he did not need to go down that road again.

“Uh, sure,” he said, swallowing hard to try to make his voice not sound like he hadn’t used it in a month. Why did this guy make him feel this nervous, especially when he knew he wasn’t available?

He sat easily, giving Gregory the perfect, tortuous view of his jawline and cheekbones. He was annoyingly even more gorgeous up close.

“My name’s Lionel,” he said, as if it were the most common name on the planet and not something out of a black-and-white film.

“You’re kidding,” Gregory said before he could stop himself.

Somehow, Lionel seemed to find his bluntness endearing rather than obnoxious. He smiled and responded, “I’m definitely not.”

“Sorry,” Gregory groaned, shaking his head at his rudeness. “It’s just…not the kind of name you hear most of the time, especially in our age bracket.”

Lionel nodded, giving Gregory a half smile and an eye twinkle that Gregory thought would surely turn him into a puddle. “My mom’s an old soul. Plus, it was my grandfather’s name. I hated it growing up, but then I got to like how distinct it was. My mom calls me…” he stopped himself and Gregory felt himself relax a bit as a blush of red crept into his cheeks. His sudden shyness was definitely humanizing. It also definitely made him even more attractive.

“Your mom calls you?” Gregory pushed, adding a flirtatious tease into his voice despite himself.              

“Her little Lion,” Lionel whispered, rolling his eyes. Gregory could tell by his smile that he secretly liked the nickname despite being embarrassed by it. Gregory swallowed the snort of laughter he felt coming on in an attempt to be cool as well as respectful. Lionel could tell he was amused, though.

“Okay,” he said raising his eyebrows and rolling his eyes again. “So, what’s your perfectly normal name then?”

It was Gregory’s turn to blush. He dipped his head as warmth spread to his chest at the dangerously-close-to-flirtatious conversation they’d gotten into.

“Gregory,” he responded and Lionel smirked.

“Not Greg?” he asked cheekily.

“Nope, please, never,” Gregory said, averting his eyes.

“Wow, someone’s touchy,” Lionel teased, but he didn’t press the issue. “Are you new?” he changed the subject smoothly, giving Gregory the out he wanted.

“What gave me away?” Gregory responded as the desks around them filled up. He was enjoying their banter and let himself forget, momentarily, that this could probably go nowhere other than friendship. It was just nice to have a guy to flirt with.

“Earlier, when you were being assaulted by the lunchtime soap opera, you had the look of ‘This is a new annoyance in my life’ rather than ‘Here we go again.’”

Gregory let a snort go this time. He couldn’t help it. Lionel’s inflection and facial contortions were hilarious and Gregory felt almost no shame in showing just how much. Lionel beamed in a way that not only evaporated the remainder of Gregory’s anxiety but caused his heart to stutter in a way that wasn’t anxiety but something different and much more lovely.

He felt a twinge of annoyance as the professor entered the room, announcing her presence in a way that dictated that their attention focus on her and nothing else.

Gregory kept glancing at Lionel, taking in his sculpted face and perpetually smirking lips. This close, he could smell a sandalwood scent from his deodorant or cologne and it made his head feel cloudy. He hadn’t had a thing for a guy this intensely and this quickly in a long, long time.

Every once in a while, he felt Lionel looking at him and forced himself not to catch his eye, but it did make him wonder how serious he was about the guy from earlier. It didn’t seem platonic to Gregory to be this openly flirtatious and interested if one had a boyfriend.

Well, maybe they do things differently here. I’m not in Kansas anymore, am I?

***

As the professor assigned their reading and the class wrapped up, Gregory felt his nerves returning swiftly. His impulse was to give Lionel his number or ask for Lionel’s. His other impulse was to ask him out, but he reminded himself that he’d promised dinner to Jo. Even more importantly, he reminded himself of the fact that Lionel, from what Gregory had seen, did not seem to be single.

“So tell me,” Lionel said in his silky teasing voice. “Do I get the chance to get to know you better now, or do I have to wait in anticipation for our next class together?”

Be still my earthquaking heart.

“Is that some round-about way of asking for my number?” Gregory responded, praising himself internally for matching Lionel’s smoothness at least somewhat.

“It sure is, cheeky,” Lionel rolled his eyes but he couldn’t hide the smile at the corners of his mouth and he didn’t seem to try to. Gregory felt pleased.

They walked out of the classroom side by side and Gregory decided to throw caution to the wind. But, just as he pulled his phone from his pocket, where he’d stowed it as their new professor began her droning lecture, an irritated, nasally voice barked “Lionel” loudly. There, just across the hall from them, staring down Gregory suspiciously, with more loathing than he’d ever felt from a stranger—besides the odd homophobe—was the guy who had interrupted his staring contest with Lionel earlier. Gregory’s heart sank and he sensed Lionel stiffen beside him. He glanced at him briefly, long enough to take in his tense jaw and the fact that all liveliness had drained from his eyes.

Whoever this guy is, Lionel doesn’t seem to like him, does he?

Somehow, that realization was not comforting.

Whoever he is he definitely has the worst timing ever.

Gregory sighed, deciding in the moment that he had not been in this school or this city long enough to get involved in whatever drama this was.

“I’ll see you next class,” he muttered, smirking toward Lionel and quirking a knowing eyebrow upward. Despite the territorial dude three feet from him, he couldn’t help flirting a little more with Lionel, especially since he’d definitely started it.

Lionel just nodded, the nearest hint of a smile his only response to Gregory’s farewell.

As Gregory walked away he heard “Who is he?” in a voice that was both heartbroken and angry. He felt a twinge of empathy that meant he couldn’t just automatically hate the guy.