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“God damnit,” Link mumbled under his breath. He stared at the textbook page with utter disgust. He’d attempted this math problem at least four times now and each time his answer became more and more outrageous compared to the simple “36” printed on the answer key. This time, he’d somehow come up with 128 over 3… needless to say, the college sophomore needed help with math, and he needed it fast since a unit test was rapidly approaching in the coming weeks. Rubbing his tired eyes with his palms, Link rose from his desk to stretch. The second week of school was not treating him kindly. It was far to late on a Sunday night to go to the student center and sign up for a tutor, but Link made a mental note to go first thing in the morning before his 9:25am English class.
Link arrived outside the sleek steely grey building that held a lounge, cafeteria, and a few classrooms and study rooms. All of his academic advisors, as well as the tutoring sign-ups, were contained in this stout, many-windowed building. A frigid gust of wind assaulted Link and an aggressive shiver passed through his lean body. Pushing open the glass door, Link stepped into the inviting lounge, which held a few groggy students waiting to meet with advisors early this morning. The news played on silent on a flatscreen TV mounted on the wall to Link’s left. He walked down the four steps into the lounge area and crossed it to reach the far wall, where an enormous bulletin board was plastered with various sign-up sheets and flyers for events. Link scanned the board and quickly located a long sheet of paper with a green border. There were already several names on the list that tutors had yet to claim, so Link felt uneasy and that help would not come in time for his test, but he neatly printed his name, “Link Neal,” the subject, “calculus,” and his school-issued email in the appropriate boxes. The last column, where a student tutor would sign up to teach him the complicated math, remained empty. Link clicked his pen shut and stuck it in the side pocket of his backpack before turning and walking back to the lounge area and kicking back on a vacant sofa, plopping his backpack down beside the couch. Link still had 20 minutes until his class, his watch told him, and since the building where his class would take place was right across from the student center, Link decided to wait here rather than venture back out into the chilly February wind. As Link made himself comfortable on the couch and took out his phone to browse twitter for a little bit, a few students made there way into the lounge from the adjacent cafeteria, chattering amongst themselves idly. They seemed liked a pretty studious bunch, Link gathered from their talks of physics and, the thing that caused Link’s ears to latch onto their conversation, the upcoming Calc 1 test. Link subtly watched the group of four migrate toward the bulletin board. One of them, an outrageously tall (and handsome, Link had to admit) thin blond guy with a chinstrap beard, was among the bunch, and Link couldn’t help but stare at the stranger.
“Please, God, let them be tutors,” Link silently prayed. Much to Link’s excitement, the small herd took out pens and began signing up for tutoring jobs. Link hoped they would choose his request over the smattering of English or foreign language requests he’d seen on the board. After the friends vacated the student center, Link casually sauntered over to the board, not even earning a glance from any of the other three students in the lounge. Link let out an audible sigh of relief when he saw that a name had indeed been printed next to his request, “Rhett McLaughlin.” Link had never heard of the name Rhett, but then again there weren’t too many people around with the name Link either, so he figured he probably shouldn’t judge. Checking his watch, Link noticed that it was 9:18, so he promptly collected his backpack from the floor by the couch and made his way across the quad at a brisk walk, flipping up the hood of his black North Face jacket to keep his exposed ears warm. Thankfully, Link’s goatee helped to shield his face from the cold breeze. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and continued walking across the wide expanse of grass.
At last, he reached the opposite side of the quad and quickly ducked into the warm sanctuary of the academic hall. Link arrived to his English class with a full 2 minutes to spare, and sat down at a desk somewhat close to the front so he could see with his faulty vision, and all the way to the far wall where large windows let morning Winter light flood into the room. Link would start to feel somewhat claustrophobic if he wasn’t near a window during such long classes. His elderly but engaging professor, Mrs. Bradshaw, greeted the class with a “Good morning,” and began her ramblings about the English language, time periods of literature, various authors from those eras, and eventually ended up on the topic of William Shakespeare’s outrageous and inappropriate humor. Link struggled to scrawl down some half-coherent notes as his charismatic professor babbled on until a glance at the clock reminded her that her students did, shockingly, have other engagements after the end of this class, at which point she cut her speech short and dismissed the class. With a flourish of her colorful silk scarf, she followed the students out and half-ran in the direction of the staff room to get her hourly tea. “Drinking green and white teas prevents cancer, pupils, so perhaps consider that instead of your usual, hm, recreational beverages,” she would always say, lowering her silver-framed glasses down her nose to give them a glare.
As he exited the building, Link felt his phone buzz twice in his pocket, signaling that he had received an email to his school account. When he had once again crossed the quad and reached the cafeteria at 10:15, he prepared himself a bowl of mini-wheats, swiping his ID card to pay from his meal plan, and sat down at a table with some friends from his class, Greg and Nick. As Link hoped, the email was from [email protected], his calculus tutor, the subject line reading “Calculus Tutoring."
Link Neal,
Hi, I’m Rhett. I’ll be tutoring you in Calc 1. I’m a sophomore planning to major in Civil Engineering. I’d be happy to meet up in the library or a study room any day this week except Thursday. Today and Wednesday I’m done all my classes at 4, and tomorrow I’m free from 11 to 3:30. Let me know when and where you’d like to start tutoring.
Rhett McLaughlin
Link nodded, pleased by the quick response. He tapped back a reply asking to meet in the student center around 4:30. “sure, bring your textbook and notes” was the prompt reply. Link scarfed down his cereal, having to be in physics at 11 in academic hall B, which was across campus. He gathered his belongings, told Greg and Nick he would catch them later, and headed out once again into the cold. This time, Link decided to take the campus shuttle to the other side of campus where his next class was, in order to escape the chilly weather for much of the journey. He waited a short time before the shuttle showed up, making its rounds to the different stops around campus. Link boarded the silver and blue bus, which wasn’t overly crowded, and sat close to the front on the right side in an empty seat. He occupied himself by scrolling through Yik Yak on his phone and saw a few funny posts, but when he refreshed his feed, one yak in particular caught his eye: “To the guy with the goatee and a red backpack on the shuttle: damn, son, you fine as hell.” Link felt a light blush fall across his cheeks and he glanced in the rearview mirror of the bus to gage how many girls were there. To Link’s slight confusion, there didn’t seem to be any girls on the bus at all that he could see. Who he did see was the attractive dirty-blond man he’d been all but gawking at in the student center, along with his group of friends, all looking down at their phones and chattering idly amongst themselves. Link’s blush intensified, and he looked back at his screen at the yak which was almost undoubtedly about him. Boldly, Link decided to add a comment. He sat for a minute trying to think of a witty response, but as the bus pulled up to their destination, he wimped out and clicked his phone off, placing it back in his pocket.
Link quickly got off the bus and speed-walked toward the science building to avoid the other group of students. When he reached his class, Link sat on a stool at one of the tall tables in the second row from the front of the room. He opened his notebook and began mindlessly doodling in the margin while the rest of the students filed in. Out of the corner of his eye, Link saw an unusually tall, dirty-blond boy enter the room, and his eyes widened slightly. How had he never noticed that this beautiful creature was in his physics class? Granted, it wasn’t even half a month into the semester, but Link thought he would have noticed such a man immediately, as he did in the student center this morning. Link pushed the thought from his mind as the tall guy sat at the back of the room out of courtesy for the people who otherwise would have to try and lean side to side to look at the notes on the board around his enormous frame. Link nervously tapped the bottom of his pen on his notebook, feeling a little bit self-conscious of the way he was sitting, “do I look weird from the back?” Link thought absentmindedly, before realizing how much he sounded like a middle school girl and mentally kicking himself. “This is college, you’ve gotta learn to be cool with having crushes on people at this point,” Link thought to himself, embarrassed. Although this wasn’t Link’s first male crush, it was the first time in college he’d felt so drawn to someone. He’d had a few short-lived relationships freshman year, but nothing serious. Link only hoped he could work up the courage to speak to the blond-haired wonder before the first month of school passed. Everyone knows that if you haven’t talked to someone within a few weeks of first seeing them, you would never be able to penetrate their established friend group.
Link could hardly concentrate during the lesson on linear motion. “Was he the guy who yakked about me earlier?” he couldn’t help but wonder. It would be far too convenient to have his crush call him “fine as hell” before ever even talking to the man. Although, there were only about four other guys it could have been, and Link had to admit that the attractive stranger’s friends were nothing to turn his nose up at either. No matter what the case, the yak was certainly a boost to Link’s under-inflated ego. He was actually a rather insecure person when it came down to it, but college was slowly but surely bringing Link out of the shell he'd sheltered in throughout middle school and high school.
Finally, the class was over, and Link neatly placed his notebook and pen back into his perfectly organized backpack. He filed out of the room along with the rest of the students and left the science building, thankful that the cold was a little less biting now that the sun was high in the sky. Since his next class wasn’t until 2:30, Link could afford to kick back for about about two hours before his dreaded Calculus class. Then, he would go right from there to meet with Rhett McLaughlin, his new tutor. Link suddenly came to the realization that the tall and attractive boy from his physics class could quite possibly be his calc tutor, and he got a little bit giddy with excitement. Embarrassed by this sudden influx of glee, Link took a deep breath and walked on in the direction of his nearby dorm building.
Once he reached his room, Link kicked off his high-top Converse shoes and set an alarm for 2 o’clock, determined to take a nap. He removed his jacket and crawled onto the top bunk bed in his red NC State sweatpants and black V-neck tee shirt. Link was what some people would consider an expert at napping, but he just couldn’t seem to fall asleep when that handsome blond was on his mind. After 20 minutes of trying to sleep, Link rolled over with an exasperated sigh and took out his phone instead. He decided to try his hand at commenting on that yak again, now that he had more time to mull over what he was going to say. “Fine as hell,” Link repeated, chuckling softly to himself. He typed out a rather dorky but simultaneously sassy response: “Now, I don’t know how fine hell is, but I’m gonna take this as a compliment.” Link hit send and resumed his attempts at a nap, eventually succeeding and soaking up an hour and a half of sleep before he had to reluctantly drag himself out of bed and head off to his calc class. Link discarded his english and physics books from his schoolbag onto his desk, and replaced them with his calculus textbook, notebook, and calculator. Tugging on his black and white shoes and his jacket, Link exited his room, making sure to lock it, and descended the 2 flights of stairs in order to exit the sophomores' dorm building.
The building his calc class would take place in was in the same part of campus as his english class as well as the student center and library, where he would be meeting Rhett after calculus. Link had strategically planned their meeting at that time so he would already have his calculus books with him and not have to travel back to the opposite side of campus to retrieve them, or carry double the books if he were to meet Rhett after a different class. Link would also be able to meet with his tutor with calculus still fresh in his mind. Instead of taking the shuttle over, Link decided to make the 20-minute walk instead, since it was a little less cold now. If he kept a brisk pace and didn’t stop to talk to anyone, he would arrive at class with 5 minutes to spare. Link once again put on the hood of his jacket to keep his ears warm, as he’d long since abandoned the longer hairstyle he’d sported as a kid. On his way to class, Link saw a few people he knew, and said hello to them, but for the most part the journey was uneventful. He was still wondering whether or not the tall boy from physics was Rhett McLaughlin, and silently hoped that this was the case. Link knew he would no-doubt be a little disappointed if it wasn’t.
As expected, Link sat through calculus entirely lost and confused, grateful that he was momentarily going to meet with someone who actually knew what they were doing. It didn’t help that Link was in a class of over a hundred trying to learn this advanced math with little or no access to one-on-one time with the professor. Link tried to decipher some of his own convoluted notes to see if he could get any semblance of meaning out of them, but it was a hopeless endeavor. Luckily, he had written the chapter numbers down so he knew, at least in theory, what it was he had to to learn with Rhett’s help. Link decided he would go to the cafeteria and grab something to eat since it was only quarter to 4 at this point. When he arrived at the student center with Nick, who was also in his calc class, Link settled on getting a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke. Link ate at a reasonable while maintaining conversation with his companion, not wanting to be late to his meeting with Rhett in the library next door. He discarded the remainder of the fries he hadn’t eaten and got up to leave. Nick asked where he was going and Link replied that he was going to get some help with calculus because he had no clue what the hell was going on in that class. Nick nodded understandingly as Link made his exit from the cafeteria.
Link adjusted his backpack to hang on one of his shoulders so he could take out his phone. He had no new messages except an up-vote on his response to the yak from earlier. Link entered the library minutes later since it was right next to the student center, and strolled toward the back part of the library which held smaller rooms used for private studying or tutoring. They were all empty, so Link decided to occupy the one nearest to the direction he’d come in from, so he would be easy for Rhett to find when he arrived. He put his backpack against the wall beneath the large window that looked out across the quad where some students were sitting around eating and talking with each other in the grass. Link removed his calculus materials from his bag and put them on the large table in the center of the small room. He pulled out one of the four chairs surrounding the table and made himself comfortable, opening his textbook to the first of the three chapters Rhett would have to explain to him before next Thursday’s test.
Five minutes or so later, Link checked his phone to find that it was 4:32. "Rhett should be here any minute,” Link thought, getting a little more nervous now about the prospect of Rhett being that lanky guy with the buzzcut and chinstrap beard who he’d started to think about so much today. Not a minute later, there was a soft knock on the doorframe of the small study room and Link looked up to see that same impossibly tall figure standing there.
“Uh, hi, are you Link Neal?” The boy asked.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Link replied, flashing a welcoming smile to the newcomer, “I guess you’re Rhett?"
“The one and only,” The handsome blond replied, smiling somewhat awkwardly back at Link. Link gestured for Rhett to sit across from him at the table, and the skyscraper of a man had to duck slightly to fit through the doorway, shutting the door so they wouldn’t disturb others studying. He pulled out the black-painted wood chair and made himself comfortable, trying not to invade Link’s personal space with his incredibly long legs.
“So,” he started, “what are you confused about?” He asked, placing his enormous hands on the table in front of him.
“Um, well, everything to be honest,” Link stated, slightly embarrassed, “I didn’t think calculus would be this rough. I haven’t understood any of the three chapters we’ve done so far and there’s a test next Thursday. That’s why I signed up for tutoring.” Rhett nodded.
“Well, let me see what chapters you have to learn and we’ll go from there. By the way, you’re in my physics class, right?” Rhett inquired, making eye contact with Link, which made him squirm in his seat due to Rhett’s piercing silvery blue-green eyes. The smaller boy nodded meekly, secretly glad Rhett had noticed him.
Throughout their tutoring session, the pair continued to make small talk while Rhett tried to explain the basics of each chapter to Link. They made a substantial amount of progress, and by the end Link almost felt like he knew the material, maybe even well enough to not fail the test next week. However, Link found himself asking Rhett to explain things many times before he got even the smallest grasp of the concepts, due in part to the fact that he kept getting distracted by how handsome Rhett was, so they both agreed they would have to meet again closer to the test date just to make sure Link still knew the math for the test. Whenever Link spaced out looking at Rhett’s face or hands while he was explaining something, Rhett would trail off after awhile and give a lighthearted chuckle, which snapped Link back to reality and caused him to blush as he prayed Rhett didn’t notice that he was blatantly checking him out. The way Rhett’s eyes sparkled when he laughed in those awkward moments made Link’s heart skip a beat. "I am so fucked," Link thought exasperatedly as the full force of his attraction to Rhett became apparent. He was falling fast for the tall boy and it was obvious he wouldn’t be able to push those feelings aside easily.
It was almost 6 o’clock and the sun was sinking low in the sky. A comfortable silence hung in the room. As he was packing up his math books, Link decided to be a little bold.
“So, uh, I was on the shuttle over to physics and got a little shout-out on Yik Yak,” Link started, smiling lopsidedly over his shoulder at Rhett, who noticeably shifted in his seat as his eyes widened ever so slightly. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” Link added with a flirty smirk, standing up and turning to face the visibly nervous man. Rhett rubbed the back of his neck as his face began to flush and he tried to form a coherent sentence, an excuse, anything, but it was a lost cause, so Rhett just laughed awkwardly and, leaning his head to the side a little, finally said, “Y-yeah, man, I know about that.” Link’s face split into a wide toothy smile and he lifted his backpack onto one shoulder.
“So the next question, naturally,” Link continued, “Was it you or one of your buddies?” He tried to hold Rhett’s gaze, but the taller boy looked away out the window with a smile, knowing he’d been found out.
“Ya got me, man. It was kind of a snap decision, y’know? Didn’t expect you to see it and definitely didn’t expect to be stuck in a room with you for an hour and a half.” The blond said, turning his eyes back on the attractive male before him. Link nodded in understanding, the remnants of a smirk still present on his face. Link felt an odd sense of victory that he had managed to gain the affections of such a flawless specimen. To Link’s surprise and delight, Rhett made the next move by asking if he wanted to grab food or something, to which Link wholeheartedly agreed. “We could just get takeout pizza and hang out at my place,” Link suggested. He wanted to get to know Rhett better, and being alone with him outside the context of school would be a great opportunity. Rhett smiled and said that sounded great, silently hoping Link’s roommate wouldn’t be around during that time.
After exiting the library, the pair called in two Pizza Hut pizzas: pepperoni for Rhett and a meat-lovers for Link. Rhett felt compelled to make some kind of dirty joke, but he settled for an amused scoff when Link said his order into the phone. A heavy blush fell across Link’s face and he promptly told Rhett to shut up, all the while sporting a wide grin. Link texted his roommate, Nick, that he was bringing someone to their room and not to disturb them “just in case.” Link knew what shenanigans hormones could cause, and didn’t want Nick to have the same unfortunate experience he’d had last semester of walking in on Nick and his girlfriend fooling around. The two college boys decided to walk across campus back to the dorm building despite the fact that it would be dark by the time they got there. A soft Winter sunset was visible behind the distant trees and buildings with pinks and purples lighting up the evening sky. Link struggled not to stare at Rhett and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, shivering as a gust of freezing air blew through the quad. Both boys flipped their hoods up with complete synchronicity, and then both realized the coincidence and grinned to themselves.
They arrived outside the sophomore dorm building, having been buffeted by the frosty wind. Their fingers were numb and stiff from the cold and they vigorously rubbed their hands together as they entered the lobby. The pizza hut guy walked quickly toward the building, attempting to shield himself from the cold with a thin windbreaker. Link jogged back outside and took the pizzas from him and gave him the money for them, thanking the man politely before speed walking back to a hungry Rhett. The boys ascended the stairs two at a time, both becoming hungrier by the second due to the irresistible aroma wafting from the boxes in Link’s hands.
Thirty minutes and 16 slices of pizza later, the two boys groaned and sank into the cheap sofa in Link’s dorm room, both stuffed to the brim with cheesy goodness. It was 7 o’clock and pitch black outside now, and the room was dimly lit by the floor lamp in the corner and the small television across from the couch. A strange sexual tension hung in the air, the kind of sexual tension that can only arise between two college kids who each just scarfed down a whole pizza and happen to be extremely attracted to one other. Rhett casually placed his inhumanly long arm across Link’s narrow shoulders as a comfortable silence filled the room. Link instinctively looked up at the other man, who was already staring intently at him, making the shorter boy shudder internally. Rhett’s eyes flicked down to Link’s plump lips and back up to his shining blue eyes before he leaned over and planted a kiss on Link’s mouth, which he accepted graciously, straightening his posture to meet Rhett’s tall frame and deepen the kiss. Eventually they broke apart for air and gazed at each other with dilated pupils and slightly labored breathing. Link shook his head slightly to clear his head, reminding himself that taking things any farther would be a little sleazy when he’d literally met Rhett for the first time just 3 hours ago. He smiled coyly at the taller man before relaxing again into the sofa and turning on the TV. Rhett got the message and got comfortable as well, prepared to watch Netflix late into the night with his new friend.