Chapter Text
Gasps and moans echoed off the bathroom walls, filling Lance’s ears with the sound as he watched his cock move in and out of the pale ass in front of him. The muscles in his core contracted and loosed to roll smoothly with each motion.
Damn. He looked good.
The guy he was fucking was leaned over the sink, one hand splayed on the dirty mirror and the other gripping his cock. Lance couldn’t see his face, but he liked the way his bright red boxers looked around his knees and the way his spine curved before it disappeared under his jacket.
Everything froze again.
Lance sighed and looked up from his phone.
He lost track of how many times he watched this one 10 second video in the past hour since he woke up. It wasn’t like he couldn’t remember anything from last night, but he certainly didn’t remember fucking anyone. What he did remember was showing up at the house party, determined to blow off some steam now that midterms were over. He remembered going alone because all his nerdy friends were too busy working on their nerd projects to have fun.
Nerds.
Whatever. It wasn’t like he didn’t know anybody there. They were just more like casual acquaintances rather than actual friends.
Anyways, the point was that he only went there to relax and have some fun. At some point in the night, he remembered being challenged to a drinking game. He wasn’t the kind of person to back down from that sort of thing so of course he accepted.
It’s not like he’s never been drunk before, but he doesn’t usually drink that much, especially when he didn’t have one of his friends there to look out for him. He could make plenty of bad decisions without alcohol, but with it… Lance had made that mistake once before and he swore to never do it again.
Except, apparently, he did.
He wasn’t sure if banging a stranger in a dorm bathroom was better or worse than stripping on a dining room table and declaring yourself a god of love while everyone else in the room was tipsy, at best.
At least there weren’t 30 people around to witness this incident.
He hoped.
He groaned and dragged a hand down his face. What kind of dumbass fucks a guy over a sink and thinks Hey, you know what would be a good idea? Pulling out your phone and recording your cock going in and out of this guys ass. It’s genius.
Glaring at the screen, he hit the play button again. He focused at the corner of the video trying to catch a glimpse of his face in the mirror, but all he could see was the black hair at the base of his neck.
God, drunk me is fucking stupid.
He flopped back onto his bed, grateful that Hunk had an early class on Monday mornings, and let the hand holding his phone fall dramatically onto the mattress at his side. He still had another hour before chemistry class. That’s one more hour to try to piece his memories of last night back together.
Well, it was 40 minutes to glare at his phone and fail to remember anything, then 20 minutes to dress himself in a frenzy and run to class.
Lance turned his head to stare blankly at the wall. Who wore black skinny jeans and a black faux-leather jacket last night? He could recall approximately three people who were there that he knew owned one or the other, but none of them would’ve owned those bright red knock-off chucks.
Who even did that? If you were gonna buy them, you might as well buy actual Converse.
He raised his arm to glare at the image on his phone again, a little disgusted with himself. It was hard to believe that he would have sex with a guy like that. Even drunk, he should have noticed his off-brand shoes.
His shoes that matched the color of his boxers.
Okay, Lance could admit that was kinda hot. It was like he went there just to get fucked.
Giving up on the clothes idea for now, he switched his attention to the black strands of hair that he had seen. Hunk was the guy with the longest hair he knew, so it couldn’t be one of his casual friends. Maybe some guy that he met there? Lance didn’t remember talking to anyone he didn’t already know.
He let out a frustrated sigh and turned over, setting his hand with the phone in front of him so he could glare at it some more.
This wasn’t getting him anywhere. Maybe he was going to have to text some people to find out.
He exited the video player and opened up his text messenger. A couple of people had texted him asking if he made it back to his dorm alright. He could remember stumbling across the sidewalk in the dark and he could remember Hunk reprimanding him when he came in for walking alone while still mostly drunk, but he couldn’t remember having sex with a guy in a dorm bathroom.
Figures.
He replied to the texts but hesitated to ask about what he got up to last night.
The party had been at a house just off campus, not too far from Lance’s dorm. But the video he took looked like it was from the bathrooms in the building next to his. He could almost swear that the tile floor was the kind they had in South Hall.
While he contemplated whether or not to ask, he got a new text.
Darren (10:29am)
haha ok just wanted to make sure. you left pretty early last night but you were still rly drunk so i was wondering if you got home alright
The universe must be telling him to ask.
Me (10:31am)
yea do u kno why i left?
Darren (10:32am)
dunno. you said something about chemistry class and then you were gone
Well, fuck. That didn’t help.
Lance chewed on his lip, considering what he was going to do next.
Me (10:34am)
i didnt leave w anyone did i?
Darren (10:35am)
i dont think so? everybody i talked to said you left by yourself
Drunk me is a fucking moron , Lance decided.
He sent a quick thanks, closed the app, and let his hand drop back onto the bed.
Well, that was absolutely useless.
It bothered him that he didn’t even know who this guy was but… maybe it was time to give up. Maybe he should just delete the stupid video and forget this whole thing.
But…
Augh. He wanted to know.
And... he hated to think it, but this short 10 second video was… really hot.
He clicked on the screen to open it again before he noticed the time.
Jumping from the bed, Lance dashed to the small closet and pulled out a pair of jeans and a slightly rumpled grey shirt. Not his first choice, but he didn’t really have time to be picky. He gulped down the glass of water that Hunk had left on his desk, grabbed his bag and ran out the door.
-----
Chemistry class was as boring as usual. The professor was pretty cool and super laid back but the material was still dry as hell. Lance sat in the back of the room where he would normally be playing games on his phone for the 90 minutes that he was trapped here, but today he was trying to stay away from the device.
The question of what to do with the video still bothered him. So, he kept himself occupied by listening to the lecture for once and doodling random designs in his notebook.
Near the end of class, the professor announced that they were going to be switching partners in lab on Friday.
Lance looked up at the only other person in the class that he knew, a pretty girl who sat two rows ahead of him, near the center of the room. They had met during orientation and went on exactly one date before she found the love of her life. That had led to some rather embarrassing events that he’d rather that they both forgot, but they still remained friends when everything was all said and done.
She met his eyes, giving him a smile and a nod.
Whew. At least I have a partner.
“Don’t worry about finding a partner because I’ve already assigned them,” the teacher said from the desk at the front of the room.
Oh no.
“So please check out the list either up here on the board or online and meet your partner before you leave today.” She clicked something on her laptop and a list of names was projected onto the hanging screen.
Lance leaned forward and narrowed his eyes to make out the small text.
It looked like… she paired them off alphabetically? Lance found his name next to some kid named Keith Kogane.
He scanned his classmates for who the heck that might be but people were starting to stand up and walk around now that class was over and Lance had a hard time seeing faces from the back of the room. Giving up for now, he mimicked the other students and started packing away his own things. Most of the other people were just leaving instead of trying to find out who their partner was. Lance decided to join them and it would just be a problem for later. He still had plenty to deal with right now anyway.
Just as he was throwing his backpack over his shoulder, he noticed a guy standing near his seat looking at him.
Hmm… this must be Keith.
Lance vaguely remembered seeing this guy before. He sat in the back too, on the other side of the room. He always looked really bored the way he stared off into space and tapped his pencil against his desk. That was the extent of his knowledge about the guy, though.
He took a moment to look him over now that he was going to be spending the next few weeks working with him. His hair was dark and a bit messy, with his long bangs barely managing to lay just so they don’t completely block his eyes. It looked like one side had been twisted around a finger or pencil recently. But…
A mullet? Does he know what year this is? Lance bit back a snicker.
Still, it fit with the rest of his 80’s biker look, so he supposed he could let it slide for now. At least his jacket wasn’t black and leather with a bunch of biker gang patches on it. Instead it was bright red and the white accents made it painfully obvious that it needed a good washing. The ripped black jeans kinda helped bring his outfit more into the 90’s, he supposed, but that was the best Lance was going to give him. Overall, it could’ve been worse.
Except… maybe it was going to get worse.
He was just… standing there, holding his backpack strap on his shoulder and staring at Lance. It was a little unnerving.
“Um… Hey, are you Keith?” Lance tried.
His eyes narrowed at Lance before he spoke. “Yeah.”
Wow. I can tell this is going to be fun.
“Lance,” he announced as confidently as he could and held out his hand. A handshake felt a little formal but at least it was something. This guy wasn’t doing anything to help this conversation move along. “Guess we’re going to be partners,” he said with a smile.
Keith looked from Lance’s face to his hand.
That’s it. All he did was just look at Lance’s hand.
What the hell is this guy’s problem? I’m trying to be a good science partner and he’s just standing there?
After a long moment where Lance seriously considered taking his hand back, Keith reached forward and clasped it. His grip on Lance was weak and there wasn’t any attempt to shake or anything before he was pulling back. Lance wasn’t even sure it actually happened but the guy took his hand back and wiped it off on his jacket and he was certain he saw that.
What a douche.
“Well, uhh,” Lance scrambled for some way to get out of this as fast as possible, “I dunno about you but I prefer texting over email so I’ll give you my number and you can just text me later. I’ve got another class to get to.”
Keith shifted his weight a little but continued to just stare at Lance. It was beyond unsettling at this point.
“Do you not have a phone?” he tried to guess when the guy made no moves to pull one out of his pocket or anything.
Finally, a reaction. Keith’s face… did something. Like he was almost surprised or something? Lance was having a hard time reading him.
But, thankfully, he reached into the pocket of his red jacket and pulled out a slightly outdated smart phone that he handed to Lance.
He carefully took the device, a little confused by the situation. Most people would at least open up their contacts page before handing it to a stranger. Hell, he would open up his contacts even for Hunk.
Clicking the button to turn on the screen, he found that this Keith guy didn’t even lock his phone. He glanced up and found him staring again.
Whatever, let’s just get this over with.
His lockscreen wallpaper was a default blue and Lance quickly swiped across, revealing the home page. It still had all the default apps littering the space.
Does this guy even know how to use a phone?
Lance shoved down any snarky questions and touched the contacts app. He had exactly 5 numbers saved. At this point, Lance wasn’t surprised. He quickly typed in his name and number, hit save, and passed the phone back.
“So, uh, I gotta go but just send me a text later so I can have your number, okay?” Lance gave him a quick smile before heading around him to make his way to the door. “See ya on Friday.”
“Yeah, see you Friday,” he mumbled back.
Lance turned at the sound of his voice. Oh, now he was going to speak, huh? Still, he wanted the rest of this semester to be as painless as possible so he figured he should at least give him a friendly wave or something.
Oh...
OH NO.
Keith hadn’t moved and was still facing away from where Lance stood by the door, but his bright red off-brand chucks were hard to miss at this angle.
Lance gave what he hoped was another smile towards the side of Keith’s head, but it was probably more like a grimace, and made a much quicker exit than he had originally intended.
He hurried away from the classroom as he pulled out his phone to type a distressed text to Hunk. Everything he knew about Keith seemed to fit the limited description he had of his bathroom fuckbuddy, from those stupid shoes to his stupid hair. He even vaguely remembered Keith wearing that black jacket on one particularly cold day.
Me (12:42pm)
HUNK
EMERGENCY
Teddy Gram (12:43pm)
what? Did you get your head stuck in the mini fridge again?? lol
Me (12:43pm)
NO!
THAT WAS ONE TIME!!
THIS IS WORSE
Teddy Gram (12:44pm)
what could be worse than that???
Me (12:45pm)
MEET ME IN THE DORM ASAP AND ILL TELL YOU
He put his phone safely back into his jean pocket and practically ran all the way back to his room.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Keith stood in the nearly empty classroom for several minutes before slowly gaining control of limbs once more and slowly walking out and into the nearest bathroom. The men’s room was even emptier than the lecture hall Keith had just left but he still went into the nearest stall and locked it for the illusion of extra privacy. He leaned heavily against the door, letting his bag slide carelessly off his shoulder and slamming into the ground with a dull thud that echoed off the walls.
He took a deep breath and slowly released it, trying to calm his erratic heartbeat.
The stroke of luck he seemed to be on for the past couple of days just didn’t seem real. He looked down at his open palm.
I can’t believe I touched him...
Lance had initiated friendly contact between them and Keith held his hand. Well, sort of. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t really shake his hand either, like he should have. He was just so overwhelmed by everything that the only thing he could think about at the time was how sweaty and gross his hands probably were.
He clenched the hand into a loose fist and let it hang by his side again as he leaned his head back against the door and stared up at the light.
He was going to be working alongside Lance for this rest of the semester. That was about 6 weeks of them being in close contact at least once a week. Keith wasn’t sure how he was going to survive if he was going to have a meltdown every time they brushed up against each other.
Reaching his hand into his jacket pocket, he pulled out his phone and opened up his contacts. It only took him 2 tries to properly locate the app this time; he was getting better with this thing.
He stared at Lance’s name shining brightly on the screen and felt his heartbeat pick up again as heat spread across his cheeks.
He had Lance’s phone number.
When his brain caught up with the situation, he lifted his other hand to drag it down his face.
Ugh. It’s just a series of numbers. It’s nothing to get worked up over. Besides, he only gave it to you because you guys are lab partners.
He peeked through his fingers to look at Lance’s name again.
How embarrassing…
Resolutely, he turned the screen off and returned the device to the pocket, leaving his hand inside, still not quite ready to let go.
Lance had asked him to text him… When should he do that? He knew Lance didn’t really have class until tomorrow so he should be free for the entire afternoon..?
Wait. Why did he lie? What did I do? Was I being weird? Did I scare him or something?
Keith tried to walk his frantic thoughts through the entire conversation but he found that he remembered little more than being worried about his sweaty hands and how pretty Lance’s smile was up close. Not exactly the most important parts of their encounter.
Okay, that second part was actually rather important, but not really what he needed to remember at the moment.
Well, what’s done is done, I guess. Keith decided to put those thoughts from his mind as best as possible. All he could do now is try to watch himself going forward. Which brings him back to this text message…
How long should he wait before he sent it? What should it say?
Feeling the uncertainty beginning to overtake the giddy excitement he had been feeling only a few moments ago, he made a quick decision and pulled out his phone to send a text. He tapped on one of the few names in his contact list and sent a message.
Keith (1:04pm)
Hey. I need help. Can you meet me by that weird tree near the cafeteria right now?
~*~*~*~*~*~
“No!! I swear! It has to be him!” Lance had been trying not to shout but, at this point, it was pretty much a lost cause. “Same hair! Same jacket! Same knock-off Converses!!”
Hunk hummed to himself while he absorbed this information and Lance had to bite his lip to keep himself from ranting any more. He stared intently at Hunk while he thought about the story he just unloaded. Lance started chewing on his lip and tapping his fingers on his leg in impatience. Hunk just needs time to think it through , he reminded himself repeatedly, but it was getting harder and harder to keep quiet.
“So, what you’re saying is…” Hunk said finally.
Suddenly, the door swung open.
“What’s up, fucks?” Pidge announced herself as she walked in, kicking the door shut behind her, and dropped her stuff in the middle of the room before she flopped down next to Lance on his bed.
“Goddammit, Pidge! Can’t you knock like a normal person? What if we were, like, naked or something?” Lance exclaimed. “And get your shoes off my bed, you heathen!”
Pidge toed her shoes off awkwardly and let them fall to the floor before lazily raising a finger from where she had sunk into the pillows. “One, it’s the middle of the afternoon, so that’s unlikely. Two,” she raised a second finger, “I’ve already seen you naked, so that’s nothing new.”
Lance’s cheeks burned at the reminder of his drunken strip show last year. That was how they had met but, despite their close friendship now, she still refused to delete her recording of that night. He’s pretty sure she had a very large folder that she kept on her laptop that was just full of blackmail against him.
“Why can’t you be more ladylike?” he muttered, turning back to Hunk. It was a lame shot but lame shots were all he had going for him in his life right now.
Pidge had been lowering her hand but she raised it again to flip Lance off before she let it fall back onto the bed. He saw the gesture from the corner of his eye but he didn’t bother acknowledging it.
“So, anyways. What do you think? Should I just pretend like nothing happened?” Lance sincerely hoped that Pidge was too wiped from her math classes this morning to give a fuck about what they were saying. As long as Hunk didn’t say anything too specific then they could probably finish their conversation without drawing too much attention.
“You mean ‘pretend like you don’t know that you had sex with him in the dorm bathroom’? Or do you mean ‘pretend like you didn’t record it’?”
Thanks, Hunk.
“WOAH?!? What?” Pidge shot up from where she had been trying to assimilate into the pile of pillows. “What the hell happened?”
“It’s nothing!” Lance knew she wouldn’t buy that but he tried anyway.
“Well, Lance came back pretty drunk last night from that party,” Hunk started explaining ( traitor , Lance thought at him), “and he kinda forgot about it because he was so wasted, but apparently-”
“I got totally lost and I walked into a tree! Hahaha oops!,” Lance quickly interrupted.
Pidge kept her eyes glued to Hunk as she pushed at Lance’s face, forcing him from her line of vision.
“Apparently,” Hunk continued as if Lance hadn’t spoken at all, “he had sex with some guy from his chemistry class in a bathroom in one of the other dorm buildings before he made it here.”
“Uh, huh. And how do we know this, exactly?” Pidge asked, eyeing Lance who now had his face buried in his hands.
“He found a video on his phone this morning of him screwing this guy over a sink.”
“I hate you,” Lance mumbled weakly.
Pidge was silent for a moment before she burst into laughter. “What kind of idiot gets shitfaced and then records himself fucking one of his classmates in a dirty dorm bathroom?”
Lance managed to peel a hand away from his face to grab a pillow which he shoved at Pidge’s face, stifling her laughter and causing her to fall backwards onto the bed. “Shut it, you little gremlin,” he managed to get out.
“Does he know about the video?” Pidge asked when she could finally breathe again. She didn’t bother to sit up but she turned her head to look at Lance.
“I don’t think so,” Lance said slowly as he thought about it.
“Then, I don’t see what the problem is. It’s not like you guys were friends or anything, right?” She waited until Lance nodded before she continued. “So, then what’s the big deal? Yeah, it’s pretty awkward but you can just avoid him. This sort of thing happens all the time in college.”
“Hah, if only,” Lance said a little bitterly. “It turns out that we are going to be lab partners.”
“Wow, that sucks,” she said as she sat up.
Lance gave her a flat look. “Thanks.”
“Can’t you just ask your teacher to switch partners?” Hunk asked.
“I already sent her an email about it on my way here, but she’s probably gonna say no,” he sighed, leaning back against the wall.
“Maybe it won’t be so bad, then? It’s probably pretty awkward for him too,” Hunk suggested.
“Based on the way he acted when we met after class today? I’m pretty sure the dude hates me.” Lance thought back on their interaction, remembering how Keith barely spoke and then was practically offended by the handshake. He probably did or said something pretty dumb last night and pissed him off.
Unless he was upset for another reason. What if he was waiting to see if Lance remembered him or something? If there was some kind of test, he was certain he failed it.
Either way, the rest of the semester was shaping up to be a pretty terrible experience.
“Well,” Lance said into the silence that had been created while his friends tried to come up with a solution, “I guess the only thing left to do is to withdraw.” It was gonna suck retaking the class but not as much as it would if he tried to finish out the semester.
“The last day for full refunds was 2 weeks ago, Lance,” Pidge said, not looking up from the spot on the floor she had been glaring at while she thought.
Lance let out a frustrated groan. “Welp, I guess that’s it for me. I’m a dead man. It was nice knowing you guys.”
“What? He wouldn’t hurt you or anything, would he?” Hunk turned in his chair to face Lance a little better.
“You didn’t see the way he glared at me today!” Lance pushed himself off the wall to lean towards Hunk. “He looked at me with murder in his eyes! I mean, it was a little hard to see past his mullet but the menacing way his eyes locked onto me and then he barely looked away to look at my hand? OH, yeah! I forgot to mention that part!” Lance let himself get swept up in the story again. “I held out my hand for a handshake, ya’know, just trying to be friendly and all, even though he was just standing there, staring at me. So then he looks at my hand. And he just leaves me hanging there for, like, 5 minutes, I swear! And just as I’m about to pull back, he reaches out and grabs my hand. Well, sort of. It was the weakest handshake in my life. He barely touched me before he pulled back.” Lance looked at both of his friends, making sure they were paying attention for his last bit. “And then he wiped his hand off on his jacket! Like touching my hand was the grossest thing he could imagine!”
Pidge began to snicker but Lance wasn’t done yet.
“Like! I mean, come on! He let me put my dick in his ass last night, but suddenly he can’t stand the thought of a handshake? What’s this guy’s deal?”
Pidge was full-on laughing at this point.
“Maybe he was just feeling really awkward about the whole thing and he didn’t know what to say?” Hunk tried again.
“Yeah, right,” Lance shot down. “If that was it, then he could’ve at least pretended to be relieved when I tried to be friendly. It was just a handshake.”
“Maybe,” Pidge interjected, “maybe, he’s just really pissed that you tried to shake his hand like he was a stranger instead of your fuckbuddy from last night. Banging in a public bathroom usually creates a special bond between people, you know.”
“Oh, no.” Lance came to a sudden realization. “You don’t think he got attached, do you? Like last night meant something?” He gasped. “What if I said something like super romantic and swept him off his feet and he thinks we’re getting married in a month?!?”
Pidge started laughing again and even Hunk was smiling now.
“You guys, I’m serious! I don’t want to be a spring bride!”
“Lance, you don’t have to be a bride,” Hunk interrupted, trying to calm him down. “If you’re both guys, wouldn’t that make you grooms?”
He settled enough to stop shouting again. “I’d still be getting married in spring, so that doesn’t really fix the problem here.”
“And here I thought the main problem would be you getting married to a stranger you drunk fucked in the dorm bathroom,” Pidge said sarcastically.
“Well, yeah,” Lance tried to bring himself back on track. “But I also don’t want a spring wedding.”
PIdge snorted. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. But I highly doubt this guy wants to marry you, so you can stop worrying about that.”
“What? Why not?”
“Lance, I don’t think you’ve ever seen yourself drunk, but I can tell you for certain that there is no way you managed to say anything remotely romantic enough to convince someone to marry you in a single night.”
“Excuse me? I am plenty romantic, even when drunk,” Lance defended himself.
Pidge just looked at him, unimpressed. “I have video evidence that says otherwise.”
Shit. Lance made a face at her but he didn’t give up on the topic and tried again with a different angle. “So, then why exactly would he let me fuck him against a sink if I didn’t overwhelm him with my charm and charisma?”
She snorted again. “Who knows. Maybe he was drunk too? Maybe he likes tall, drunk Cuban boys? Maybe he just wanted to get laid and you happened to there? Could be a million reasons.”
The longer this went on, the more convinced Lance was that Pidge was wrong and that this guy was absolutely in love with him. Somehow, he was going to have to survive the next 2 months of having a scorned lover as a chem partner. Maybe he could bring flowers or something and apologize? Then he wouldn’t have to worry about being stabbed in the back with a pencil on Friday.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and he pulled it out, clicking the screen on without thinking about it. He had a new text from a number he didn’t recognize.
“Oh no, no, no, NO!!” Lance exclaimed at the phone in his hand.
“What’s wrong?” Hunk asked, leaning over the side of the bed to get a look at the screen.
“It’s him!” Lance whipped the phone around to show them the preview notification on his lockscreen.
All that could be seen was ‘Hey. It’s Keith from Chem….’
“Read it, Lance! What does it say?”
Pidge was looking far too amused for Lance’s liking but he turned his hand back around and unlocked the screen, tapping on the notification to open the text.
(***) ***-**** (1:57pm)
Hey. It’s Keith from Chemistry class. You said to text you later. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.
Lance stared at the message silently.
“What does it say?” Hunk echoed Pidge’s question, trying to peek at the text.
Before Lance could speak, she snatched it out of his hand and read it out loud to Hunk.
“It says: ‘Hey. It’s Keith from Chemistry class. You said to text you later. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.’” She started giggling as she finished and Lance took his phone back. “What an awkward text.”
“What does it mean , though?” Lance asked emphatically, staring down at the text message. “It sounds like he’s mad at me, right?” He turned the phone around again to show the other two. “I mean, look at all the punctuation. That’s a lot of periods.”
“Are you guys at the point where you would be texting more casually?” Hunk scratched at his chin and screwed up his face. “Sounds like you two are moving pretty fast through this relationship.”
“There is no relationship!” Lance exclaimed. “I just got drunk and fucked one of my classmates! That’s it! That’s our whole relationship! I think I said ‘hi’ to him once during our first week of class. That’s all!”
“You seem awfully worked up over this, considering your lack of a relationship,” Pidge said mildly as she examined the screen.
“Well, duh, I don’t want the guy to hate me because I did something dumb.”
“If everyone hated you for doing something something dumb, then the whole school probably wouldn’t even talk to you at this point.”
“Listen, Pidge, this guy is supposed to be my lab partner for the rest of the semester. That’s a little less than 2 months from now. It would make my life a lot easier if he didn’t hate my guts.”
“Hmm… What did you say his name was?” she asked as she slid off the bed and grabbed her backpack.
“Can’t you read? It says ‘Keith’.”
Pidge slid her laptop out and quickly logged in. “I meant his full name. But it’s fine. I’ll just find the list of your classmates in the system.”
“Wait. You can do that?” Hunk picked up his chair and moved it over to watch Pidge work.
“Of course. I have copies of both of your schedules so it should be pretty easy to find information on this ‘Keith” guy.”
Lance pushed himself over to Pidge’s other side and watched her open up a window that had a list of all of his Chemistry classmates. “There! That’s him.” He pointed to Keith’s name.
Pushing his finger away from her previously spotless laptop screen, she clicked on it and opened up his student file.
“Um, is this legal? Can’t we get in big trouble for looking at other students records?” Hunk asked, but he didn’t look away from the laptop.
“It’s fine. I do this all the time,” Pidge said flippantly. “Besides, I had to hack the system in order to get them so we’re already in trouble.”
She let her words hang in the air as Lance and Hunk made wary eye contact.
“You guys are such babies. Matt used to do this all the time too. You’d think they would’ve upgraded their security in the past 7 years, but nope!” She laughed to herself. “Now, let’s see what kind of information we can dig up about Keith.”
Lance wasn’t completely convinced that it was okay to break into the school system, but it was mildly reassuring that neither she nor her brother had ever been caught. Hunk got up and not only rotated the blinds all the way closed, he replaced up the small blanket that they used as a curtain over the window, darkening the room somewhat. He settled back into his chair but he looked up at the door more than once to check if it was closed.
“Hmm…” she scrolled through a few pages of information. His name, date of birth, home address, and all that other basic information that the school gathered weren’t particularly interesting to them right now.
“Apparently, he’s a scholarship kid,” she said stopping over the section and letting out a sharp whistle as she read through. “Full ride. Damn.”
“Pidge, you have a full ride,” Hunk pointed out.
“What? No way. What makes this guy so special?” Lance leaned closer to the screen and put his hand over Pidge’s, trying to scroll farther down.
“If you wait a second, I’ll tell you,” she said, shoving him.
Lance sat back down in his spot with a pout and waited.
“Okay, it looks like he’s on the football team?” She squinted at the text as she read it. “Yeah. He’s a sophomore like us, but he’s part of their 1st string.”
“No way,” Lance repeated. “I went to every home game during the season and I don’t remember him.”
“Maybe you weren’t paying enough attention.” She continued scanning through the information. “Oh, wait. It says that he just got promoted to 1st string at the end of the season. So, he’s going to be there starting in fall.”
“Really? Don’t they usually wait until summer to make that decision?” Lance leaned forward again, crowding Pidge.
“I don’t know. It just says that the coaches are really impressed.” She pushed at Lance’s shoulder. “Other than that...” she quickly skimmed through the rest of his records. “Yeah, there’s not much else. Grades are pretty average. Only has one family member listed. Oh,” she stopped at the last section. “It looks like he’s been in a few fights. Officially, they’ve been stricken from the records.”
“I knew it,” Lance declared. “You’re gonna find my body naked in a ditch somewhere by the end of the weekend. Please don’t let my mother know how I died.”
Hunk looked up at him from where he had leaned practically right next to the screen, almost blocking Pidge from being able to see. “He wouldn’t kill you over something like that, right? I mean it’s not like you forced him or anything?”
The uncertainty in his voice only made Lance’s nerves worse. “I don’t think so? I don’t remember it but in the video I took it didn’t seem like he was upset.”
“Lance, you are a lot of things, but you are not a rapist,” Pidge said matter-of-factly. “If anything, you asked him to fuck you and then you cried when he said no.”
“I wouldn’t cry!” he protested.
“Besides,” she continued over him, “all of the fights he’s been in were at parties where a lot of people got completely wasted. Apparently, he threw the first punch every time.”
“So what? I got hammered and then he let me fuck him. I’m pretty sure I don’t have any bruises on me. So, what does that mean?”
“Will you just let me finish talking?” Pidge said, exasperation making her raise her voice. When Lance quieted she resumed her summary. “The first couple of times, they chalked it up to aggression due to him being a football player. But a few weeks ago he started talking to a new school counselor and he’s been asking a lot more questions. It says here that all the guys Keith got into fights with were tormenting other people at the party. A couple of girls have actually testified and said that they were being sexually harassed.”
“Oh, well...” Lance wasn’t sure what to do with this information. It looked less likely that Keith was going to murder him but that brought him back at square one. “That’s pretty cool of him to do.”
Pidge was silent as she scrolled back through the information, looking for any important bits that she missed the first time.
“At least he probably isn’t the kind of person to punch you over something like this,” Hunk said.
“Yeah,” Lance agreed, looking back down at his phone. He unlocked the screen again and stared at the message. Making up his mind, he saved the number to a new contact. He hesitated over the contact name. Most of the contacts in his phone had unique nicknames and he debated whether or not he should give one to Keith. Maybe it would bother him? But it’s not like he’d ever see his name so Lance just decided to do it anyways. He quickly rejected the first few that came to mind for being too mean or too inappropriate for his lab partner and settled on ‘Red’. That sounded generic enough that nobody should ask too many questions about where he got it from.
He opened up the conversation again and tapped on the reply box.
“Hey, guys…” He stared at the flashing icon and the greyed out message that said ‘Type here’. “What should I say?”
“Tell him that you were just thinking about how you wanna ride his dick.”
Lance glared at Pidge. He hated that she wasn’t completely wrong.
“NO. I was NOT thinking about that, thank you very much.”
“How about you just let him know you got the message and that you’ll see him on Friday at lab?” Hunk suggested.
Lance stared at his phone for another moment. “Yeah, good idea, Hunk. Thanks.”
Me (2:10pm)
haha no, you’re good. thanks! see you on friday
He hoped that was good enough and hit send before he could think too much about it.
“Okay, now that we know I have longer than a week to live, let’s get some pizza,” he said with a smile. The sooner he could forget about this and move with his life, the better.
“Ugh,” Pidge groaned loudly and fell back onto the bed. Her computer slid off her lap and hit Lance’s knee. “Can’t you guys get it and bring it back here?”
Hunk stood and placed the chair back at Lance’s desk. “If you don’t come then we’re gonna take our sweet time getting back.”
Putting the laptop in a safe location, Lance slid off the end of the bed and grabbed his green jacket from where he threw it on his desk. He slipped his shoes on, quickly redoing the knots as Hunk gathered his own things.
“That’s fine. I don’t care.”
“Well, okay,” Lance said, heading for the door, “if you’re sure.”
“Yes. I am sure,” she spoke up to the ceiling because she had refused to move even her head to look at them.
“Then I guess we’ll just have to eat all the pizza there and bring you some cold leftovers. If there are any,” Lance teased. “We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
He shut the door just as he saw her sit up and the two of them headed down the hallway in silence as they waited for her to catch up.
Sure enough, the door slammed open and Pidge came rushing out with her wallet in her hand.
“I can’t believe you assholes were going to leave me,” she half-shouted down the hall at them.
Lance and Hunk didn’t stop to wait up for her but Hunk did call back a reminder for her to lock the door if she was coming.
They laughed when they heard her curse as she ran back and fiddled with the door handle.
-----
Lance looked at his clock again. It was the middle of the night and he had an early class the next morning but he just could not fall asleep. He could hear Hunk’s even breathing from across the room, but he’d known for hours that he was sleeping.
Picking up his phone from where it was charging on his makeshift nightstand, Lance bit his lip and unlocked it. The screen was blinding in the darkness and he took a few seconds to allow his eyes to adjust. He opened the video from last night and played it for the first time since that morning. He cursed at himself when the sound started playing and he fumbled to mute it.
He laid there for several seconds, listening to Hunk shifting in his sleep before he exhaled the breath he had been holding.
Safely assured that he hadn’t been caught, he hit the play button again, this time with the sound on the lowest setting. Hunk was usually a pretty heavy sleeper so if he hadn’t woken up the first time, then Lance was probably in the clear.
He watched himself moving on the screen. It was less awkward to watch himself have sex with someone than he thought it would be. He had never seriously considered the idea of making a porn video before, but now he just wondered why he hadn’t done it already.
He pressed play again.
This time he watched the other guy - Keith, he corrected himself. He had expected that this video would be super awkward now that he knew the guy he was fucking was his weird lab partner. He was a little disappointed that it only made him wonder if Keith would be willing to do it again. Maybe next time they could set up a proper camera and he could bottom. Or maybe they could…
No.
He stopped that thought before he could complete it. Knowing who it was was supposed to make him less turned on.
Now that he knew, it was pretty easy to tell that it was Keith, even though the video was taken at such a weird angle. Lance could, of course, easily identify the shoes and the jacket by now. But the shape of his hips and the muscles in his legs were pretty obvious in the skinny jeans he always seemed to wear.
Wait a second…
Lance leaned closer to the screen, squinting through the brightness.
Holy shit. Those are the same jeans he was wearing earlier today.
He felt heat rise to his face as his mind immediately took the next step to wonder if he also wore the boxers he got fucked in last night to class. If he was standing right next to Lance wearing them under those tight jeans. If he got off on that sort of thing...
Lance put a stop to his runaway thoughts again and closed the app, opening up his music library instead. This was his last chance of getting any sleep tonight. He dug out his old headphones that he kept under his bed for sleepless nights like this and settled back onto his pillow, letting the music clear everything away and he finally drifted off.