Adam looked angry.
"You're like everyone else around here. I'm not gay" he said loud enough that some people sitting nearby turned their heads.
Bobby felt his face become immediately warm.
"I just thought..."
"I know what you felt. Just because I carry my books different, am in the drama club, play chess, am pretty smart and don't like sports, everyone think's I'm a fag"
"Gay"
"What?"
"I think they prefer the word gay" Bobby said looking down at the ground.
"Yea whatever. Listen, if you got a problem then deal with it" Adam said as he grabbed his Lord of the Rings backpack and walked away.
Bobby dared not look around to see who was watching. He was more embarrased then pissed off. He had sat down beside Adam and tried to get his advice.
'I uh have some personal things going on" he had stammered "someone told me, or that is I thought, you might uh be able to tell me if I was you know just confused or what"
"What's up? Math or what?" Adam asked. "I tutor Clyde Arlando, Beth Tupac and Warren Miller, but I can help you if we find some time. Are you available Saturdays?"
"No uh it isn't that. You tutor Clyde Arlando? He's in the Key Club"
"How do you think he got there?" Adam was smug. Among the other facets of his reputation was his arrogance.
"OH. well what I was after as more personal. When did you find out you were uh you know different?"
That's how the conversation went. Now Bobby felt foolish and a bit angry.
He had been wondering about the mental images that were in his head when he masturbated ever since he was able to began pleasuring himself.
He went on dates like everyone else, shared late night sleepover jacking sessions with some of the guys and now at the age of 18 he felt like he was still thirteen.
While classmates and friends were getting seriously involved with girls, some even engaged, he had no attraction to them. Bobby had friends who were girls, some even accompanied him to obligatory date events.
But Bobby thought about men he saw at his parents country club, athletes seen everywhere and the guys on campus. His Playboy was evidence he was like his roommates but he looked at the males in the ads not the naked women.
"Oh shit" he muttered and walked as fast as he could away from the bench where he finally got the courage to talk to someone about it and where he failed to learn anything.
Days later, Friday's classes ended, Bobby stuffed books into his camoflage backpack and prepared to spend the weekend distracting his worries with classwork.
"Hey" Adam appeared. "Look I uh am sorry about the other day. It's just that guys think I"m gay because of how I move and stuff and I get sick of it."
Bobby stood preparing himself for another verbal attack.
"It's uh ok and all that. I just..well you know. Tell you what, come over tomorrow. Clyde will be there. Maybe you two should talk. He came to me like you did once."
"Clyde is gay?" Bobby asked.
"Well I'm not saying that. Let's just say he uh and you should talk" Adam smiled.
Clyde wasn't surpised when Bobby appeared at Adam's dorm room. He was still trying to understand some intricate formula Adam had explained.
"I gotta go to the john, be right back" Adam said and he winked at Bobby as he passed him.
"So Adam tells me you have a problem" Clyde said.
Bobby didn't know what to say.
"I think we have the same one" Clyde continued "but it's not really a problem for me. Well it was but as I read stuff, talked to some people, it all just seemed to fall into place."
"But you're a jock, Key Club, big man on campus and I thought you were engaged to Theresa Cartledge." Bobby said dumbfounded.
"Theresa and I've been friends since kindergarden class. We're best friends and she knows every solid geometry axiom I can think of" he laughed.
"I always thought you were ..."
"Straight?"
"No smart" Bobby blurted out.
Clyde laughed. "Well I get help from people like Adam, Theresa and a learning center my folks paid for. "As for my lifestyle, I still haven't found anyone to help me out there. Interested?"
Bobby didn't reply.
"It's ok if you're not, I just thought we might have coffee, talk at least" Clyde looked suddenly self conscious not the positive personality he was known for.
"Oh yea sure, that would be very cool" Bobby realized what Clyde said.
"So you two" it was days later. Maron Mulligan came back from his sweaty five mile jog and burst into the dorm room he shated with Clyde Arlando.
"Yea guess so" Clyde said, his half naked body visable above the sheets on his bed.
"This is Bobby Harness" he introduced the naked student in bed with him.
Bobby didn't know how to react. He was immediately preparing himself for some name calling type of confrontation.
Instead Maron peeled his shirt off and moved forward to shake his hand.
"Sorry about the smell, been running" Maron said
"Yea we see and smell too. Gay people are talented that way" Clyde said as he moved a hand across to Bobby's cock. "other ways too"
"You guys are disgusting. I gotta shower" Maron said grabbing his towel and leaving the room.
"So feel like being disgusting?" Clyde asked as he moved his head under the sheet.
"Sure everyone knows gays are disgusting. That's what makes us different."