Off Campus Read Free Page A

Tom?” He nodded and kicked his running shoes off. “You can’t stay here.”
    â€œSorry, kid. But here’s all they gave me. Trust me, if I could get out of your hair, I would.”
    â€œDid you even try to convince the Res Life lowlifes that they’d fucked up? Shit.” The kid was pacing, three steps and turn, three steps and turn, across the small open floor space. “Those jerks couldn’t find their own assholes with two hands and a flashlight.”
    Tom flinched. “Vivid. But there isn’t anything they can do about it. There’s nowhere for me to go. You can’t blame them for not fixing it. We’re just stuck.”
    Reese’s laugh was short and bitter. “Yeah, well, they don’t exactly have a brilliant track record with me and roommates.”
    Tom could tell there was something there, loaded and heavy behind the sarcastic words and the sharp head shake, but the pillow at his hip was calling to his head like a Siren to Odysseus and Reese didn’t look as if he was really up for probing questions anyway.
    He shrugged and stood up to slough off his jeans, planning to crash in his boxers and a T-shirt. It’d been a long time since he’d stripped in front of a stranger, at least in a situation that didn’t involve enough alcohol to sink a battleship, and he was weirdly aware of Reese watching him.
    Not like pervy watching him. More like someone plotting how to do away with him. Speculative. As if he were measuring Tom with his eyes and figuring out where he could hide his body.
    He stripped the comforter way back, not wanting to sweat his ass off in the early September heat of a summer that wouldn’t quit, and slid under the sheet to lie on his stomach. Kid could keep talking if he wanted. Tom was pretty sure he could sleep through an air raid alarm, much less a cranky twenty-year-old. He punched a pillow up and wedged it under his cheek.
    â€œYou can’t stay here!” Agitation overload. And still with the pacing.
    His eyes were getting tired of tracking the back and forth. Resting them for a moment was clearly the best option.
    Just a moment.
    â€œDon’t worry. Hardly be here.”
    â€œI don’t care if you check in once a quarter, dude. You having a key to this room is not an option.”
    â€œSorry.” He was really drifting now. “S’okay.”
    â€œNo, it’s not. I’m gay, you idiot.”
    He could tell from the dramatic flounce to the words this was supposed to be a big deal, so he made a valiant effort and cracked an eye open.
    â€œI noticed. So?”
    Which was enough of an answer as far as Tom was concerned. It wasn’t as if he could miss the rainbow flags on the door and the walls, or the black and white photography posters of naked people, all of them male.
    Reese’s sexuality was not exactly a state secret here.
    No surprise to hear that Reese didn’t consider that answer satisfactory.
    â€œSo? I suck cock and kiss guys and you’re telling me you’re okay with that?” His disbelief was raging as he took two steps closer to where Tom had perked up a bit at those last sentences, looming over the bed.
    â€œIn that order?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou do it in that order? Suck cock and then kiss? Seems a little backwards.” This conversation was enough to wake him up a little. Opening his eyes, he propped his head on one fist and watched Reese fling himself into the wooden desk chair.
    â€œSeriously? That’s where you’re taking this conversation?” He grabbed a pen out of cup on the desk and started tapping on the edge of the seat between his widespread legs. “You wanna talk about blowjobs?”
    Tom shrugged one shoulder. “Just saying. There’s no way you’d get a girl to go for that.”
    â€œYes, well, guys sometimes have a more pragmatic approach to sex. And can we not talk about vagina please? It