Off Campus

Brody’s Perspective

Dylan brought Grammaw’s car up from North Carolina for Seth and was visiting me for a couple of days. I was damn happy to have him here. Since my place was basically one big room, me and decided it would be best if he stayed in his own room… gotdammit, I loved waking up with him, I guess I’d have to wait a few days.

Ha, and Seth was so funny when he saw that ugly old car, it was like someone just gave him a brand new Maserati, he went nuts for it. I felt so good about selling it to him, he worked hard for what he had and was a good, sensible guy who appreciated everything. My Grammaw would’ve been happy that her old car went to someone who needed it, appreciated it, and would take care of it. She would also have been proud of me for helping a friend instead of just selling it to the highest bidder, and she would’ve loved all my new friends, especially Max.

Anyway, Dylan was up for the weekend and ready to explore the city. I didn’t take any massage appointments or shifts at the Art Museum for the weekend and had put my paints away so we could just hang out together. I had a couple of classes on Friday morning, Dylan killed time by taking the car to the carwash and cleaning it up for Seth, when we handed him the title and keys when he got home from his internship that night, the thing looked brand spankin’ new. Seth handed me a wad of cash for the car, the tires, and Dylan’s gas. I gave Dylan the money to reimburse him for gas, and the rest to give to Daddy for the tires on Seth’s car, and the pick-up truck he had found me.

It was Friday night and we all went out to dinner together, then planned to hit the town to show Dylan a good time. Seth insisted on taking us out and to thank us. Since he had the biggest car, he drove; I rode bitch in the backseat between Dylan and Max. Cam and Eric had other plans so they took a pass on dinner and a night out. I found out that Max and the other guys had mostly stuck around campus since they moved to town and hadn’t really ventured out to the other parts of the metro area, so little by little I was introducing Max to my favorite places in other parts of the city. I took them to a place I knew of on the West Side that was known for its ribs. The guys went nuts for the place and it was fun sharing it with them, I had mostly gone alone in the past. Dylan and the guys got along great. He was like six or seven years older than them, and most of his buddies back home were blue collar, good ole’ boys, his age or older, but he took to my friends instantly and dinner was a blast. By the end of dinner, he had added “reckon,” “might-could,” “fixin’,” “bless your heart,” and a few other southern sayin’s to their vocabulary. At dinner Max sat between me and Dylan, and my brother had his arm around the most important ginger in my life the whole time as we all joked and laughed. It was like he was claiming him as family and protecting him. I had always worried about how my family would react if I ever found a boyfriend, that’s a big reason I had been worried about moving back home, but Max seemed to slip into my family seamlessly.

After dinner we decided to hit some bars, the other guys were underage so we were limited in where we could go. We tried a couple of clubs downtown but they got carded and turned away at the door. There were a few places in our neighborhood that didn’t check ID’s and most of the bartenders knew us and turned a blind eye, so we ended up there. The best part is they were walking distance from the duplex so we didn’t need to drive; we dropped Gramm… Seth’s car off at the Duplex and hit a couple of our regular spots. Seth and Zach were social and knew everyone, so every woman in the bar came up and talked to us. When they heard Dylan’s accent, they were all over him. I thought he’d would be a fish outta water, but he was totally in his element; having a few beers, hitting on college chicks, and joking with the boys. That was Dylan to a T. Simple and lovable. It was almost 1AM and I was wiped out, But Seth, Zach, and Brody were having a great time and whooping it up.

“Hey, Maxwell” I said. “I’m ready to call it a night.”

“Yeah, me too” he responded, then looked at the others and asked, “Are you guys ready to head home?”

“Oh, HAIL NO!” Dylan said making Seth and Zach laugh. “I still got a couple more beers to kill.”

“If you guys are tired, why don’t you head Home? We’ll hang with Dylan” Zach offered.

“See, now these boys know how to party” Dylan said as he chugged his beer, put an arm around Zach and ordered another round. “I’ll see you back at your place, these guys’ll get me home. Night Brody. Night Red.”

"Are you guys sure it’s okay?” I asked, feeling bad for bailing on my brother. They all assured me they were having a great time and convinced us to go, so we did. Max and I walked the half dozen blocks back to the duplex in the cold Wisconsin night. We were both bundled up in our pea coats and skull caps, I had on gloves but Max forgot his and had his hands in his pockets. We were moving at a quick pace though the darkness, I spoke with a shiver in my voice “Hey, um Max?”

“Yeah?” He responded, his breath visible in the cold air.

“Um…” I don’t know why, but I had to say this now, hell, I should’ve said it sooner. “Um… the other night when I told you I loved being with you, that wasn’t exactly the whole truth.”

He chuckled a little as I fumbled with my words “So, you DON’T love being with me?”

I nervously chuckled at his comment, still trying to say what I needed to say. “No… um, I don’t JUST love being WITH you, I… um… I love you.” There. I said it. I kept moving briskly as Max came to a full stop on the icy sidewalk. I stopped a few feet in front of him.

“Wait” he said, then moved the few feet up to where I was standing. He took his cold, red hands out of his pocket, put them on my forearm, cocked his head, looked me in the eye and said, “Did you just say I love you?” We were both shivering in the cold, it was dark but that smile warmed my heart and his hazel eyes lit the world.

I nodded. Yup, that’s exactly what I had said for the first time in my adult life. Yeah, I said it to Grammaw, but I don’t think I ever said it to my mom or dad, or Betty Ann, or even Dylan, and I for damn sure never said it to another guy. But I said it to Max and I meant every damn word. “Yup” I pushed out, “I love you, Maxwell.” This time when I said it our eyes were locked, and our frozen, wind-chapped faces were inches from each other. His expression told me he felt the same way, but gotdammit I needed to hear him say it.

Then, right there on Oakland Ave, on a dark, freezing cold January night he looked me in the eyes and said “I love you too, Brody James” then our lips met and we kissed right there. If anyone were awake to see us, they got an eyeful. My arms wrapped around his waist as his cold hands snaked into my pockets and his chin rested on my shoulder. He exhaled into my ear “I really do love you.” I gave him a little squeeze in response as we stood there under a street light hugging, my heart beating faster n’ ever and my face trying not to crack in the cold as the world’s biggest friggin smile tried to take it over. We gave each other a quick peck on the lips then turned to walk the remaining three or four blocks home in blissful silence. I took off my left glove and put it onto his cold hand. We walked the rest of the way in silence our gloved hands intertwined and our bare hands in our pockets.

When we got to the duplex, I walked him up the porch steps to his front door. “I don’t want to say good night” he said.

“Neither do I, but Dylan is staying at my place” I said.

“Seth has a key, text them and tell him to let Dylan in, you stay here.” Max said trying to find a way for us to stay together and bask in our first ‘I love you’ a little longer.

I took off my glove, pulled out my phone and started to text as Max put his key in the door. “Wait!” I whispered loudly, “what about Cam and Eric? I don’t wanna cause more trouble between y’all.” They all had made up, but it was still a little weird between them, especially him and Eric, and I kind of felt like I was crossing some imaginary line.

“Hey, if they can fuck two guys on the dining room table, I can quietly cuddle with the man I love behind my locked bedroom door” Max said with a hint of a giggle as he unlocked the door to the warm flat. I finished my Text to Seth, Zach, and Dylan. Seth gave me a thumbs up reply, and Dylan texted back ‘get some, little bro.’With that settled, we entered Max’s place. It was very quiet as we tiptoed past the closed master bedroom door doing our best not to wake Cam and Eric (and whoever else may be in there). When we got to Max’s room, he shut the door and quietly locked it. It occurred to me at that moment that I had never been in his bedroom before. The room was warm and smelled like Max, I loved it there. We stood in his room unbuttoning each other’s coats and stepping off our shoes. We pushed the coats off each other and pulled off our shirts. Then we fumbled with each other’s pants, and within a couple of minutes there was a pile of our combined clothes on the floor and we stood there in our socks and underwear. The room was pitch dark except for a sliver of light coming in around the blinds.

I had been with Max several times, but tonight felt different as we moved to the bed and laid down, me on top of him as we kissed tenderly and ground our hard, underwear covered crotches against each other; my socked feet pushed against his. As my hands roamed his lean body, I got an idea. “You got any lotion?” A whispered into our kiss. He reached into the nightstand and pulled out a bottle. “Get on your belly” I whispered as I got off his warm body and knelt at the foot of the bed. Max dutifully rolled over as I squirted some cold lotion into my hands and rubbed them together to warm it up, then I straddled his perfect butt with my hardness resting in his crack. He pushed up a little in response and I started to rub his shoulders and neck.

He moaned quietly and whispered into his pillow “Damn Brody, your hands are amazing.” I just kept going working my way down his back warming more lotion when my hands got dry. I finally got down to his ass, damn… that ass! I passed it by (that took some major will power), moved back down to the foot of his bed and tugged on his underwear. He arched his butt to let me pull them down over his sock-covered feet and off him. I couldn’t resist taking a whiff of his briefs before throwing them on the floor. Next, I went for his socks, one by one I peeled them off then bent his right leg at the knee, lifted his foot and massaged his sole, I went at it with my thumbs until he groaned in pleasure. When I finished his right foot, I kissed it, put it down and worked my way up his leg. Up his calf to his thigh then grazing his balls as I moved over to his left leg. This time I started at his thigh and worked my way down his leg. When I got to the foot, again I bent his leg at the knee and lifted it so I could massage his sole deeply. When I finished his left foot, again I kissed it and put it down.

When I finished with his legs, I got off the bed, stripped off my underwear, then my socks so I was completely naked and hopped back on the bed between Max’s legs. It was time to attack those firm, white ass globes, dear lord… they were right there in front of me and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. I put more lotion in my hands and while I was warming it up, I bent down, put my lips on his ass and gave it a kissed. I kissed his ass!! I don’t know why I did it, I just couldn’t resist. He let out a quiet moan of appreciation as I started to rub the warm lotion into his little round glutes, kneading them deeply. My dick was growing as my hands moved over his smooth ass and it didn’t take long before I was hard as a rock. I decided to test the waters and put a lotion-slicked finger up against his tight pink pucker. With a moan, Max eagerly pushed back and my finger slipped all the way in without any resistance. His hole was warm and soft like velvet. Max squeezed his sphincter around my finger holding it tight in a vice-like grip then releasing. He did that several times making me moan and probe even more.

I pulled my finger out of him and told him to roll onto his back. I warmed some more lotion as I knelt between his legs again and bent down to massage his upper body, as I massaged him, I leaned in for a tender kiss. “This feels amazing” Max whispered into our kiss. I couldn’t take the teasing anymore, I needed more. I hooked my arms under his thighs and lifted his knees to his chest as I slicked-up my manhood with the lotion and lined myself up with his hole. I pushed my way in and breached his tight hole, he clenched and tightened himself around me. Oh my god it was amazing! I slowly moved in until my balls were resting against his perfect butt. I just held myself inside him with our eyes locked and our lips just inches from each other. We stayed like that for several minutes, neither of us budging. Eventually I started to pull out, Max grabbed my ass and pulled me back in until I bottomed out again. I pulled out again and again, Max pulled me back in. Our eyes never left each other. It was so different from anything I had ever done with a guy before, we weren’t fuckin’, we were making love. I never made love before; and I loved it. Hell, it was Max and it was Everything. We moved slowly and made love for over a half hour, neither of us came. We were both edging but never wanted it to end, it wasn’t about getting our rocks off, it was about sharing intimacy. At one point I got behind Max, spooning him and entering him at the same time. He asked me to just stay inside him and not move, I did and we fell asleep like that.

We woke up around 7AM still spooning, my flaccid member had fallen out of him but was resting in his crack. I kissed Max on the neck and whispered, “I need to go home and spend time with my brother, he came all this way to hang with me.” Max kissed me good morning then we both got up, pulled our clothes on from last night, and he walked me to the back door to say goodbye. When we got into the kitchen there was Cam, Eric and two other guys having coffee. They were all in their underwear and the two strangers had obviously spent the night.

With a look of surprise and a little embarrassment on his face, Cam spoke first, “Oh hey, um… I didn’t know you guys were here.”

“We got in late” Max said.

The two strangers were both very hot black guys, I assumed they were RJ and Travis. We hadn’t met but they fit Max’s description. The lighter-skinned guy had the head of his penis hanging out of the bottom of his boxers as he put out his hand and introduced himself as RJ. “Brody” I replied as I reluctantly shook his hand. He looked me up and down, inspecting me with a smile. They were both leering at me, like a bird dog looks at a pheasant. I didn’t like it.

He let go of my hand, smacked me on the ass then kept his hand there and gave it a little squeeze and said, “nice to meet you.” I didn’t like that at all. It was uncomfortable as hell, I don’t like dealing with people to begin with, I don’t like being touched, and I hate being groped by strangers. Before I could say a word, he reached over and smacked Max on the ass and groped him too saying, “you’re looking good, Max.” It was clear by the look on Max’s face that he didn’t appreciate the gesture either.

My eyes went wide as I reached out and grabbed the guy’s wrist with a firm grip. He looked at me in surprise and all eyes turned to me as I locked my eyes to his and said in the politest voice I could muster “RJ was it? I don’t know y’all, but where I come from, we treat strangers with respect. I’d appreciate if y’all would keep your hands off me and my boyfriend unless invited to do otherwise.” He was a good six inches taller’n me and I was looking up at him, my eyes burning through him. I don’t anger easily, but I’ve been told that I get fury in my eyes when I’ve been crossed… and I had been crossed. RJ blushed and took a step back muttering an apology of sorts. I looked at Max, he had a little smirk on his face, the others were all wide-eyed and looking on in surprise. Then I addressed the room as I walked toward the back door “Have a good day, gentlemen.” Max followed me out.

We walked out the backdoor and into the yard, Max put his arms around me and in a high, mock Southern Bell voice he said “Mista’ James, I do declare you defended my honor” then he kissed me with a smile.

“I’m sorry, Max. But who the hell does he think he is touching us like that?” I was pissed. I don’t know if I had a right to be, but I was. In his mind he may have just been being friendly, but I felt violated. I didn’t know him and I didn’t want him touching me.

“They’re too friendly” Max replied, “I don’t care what Cam and Eric do, but leave us out of it.” I nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t want to be a dick, but I didn’t like that at all” I replied. Maybe I was overreacting, but I just didn’t like strangers touching me like that. I had been pulled way out of my comfort zone since the guys moved into the duplex, but my social anxiety was still lurking. I kissed Max goodbye, then I quietly snuck up the steps and into my studio to find Dylan snoring away in my bed with Witchy cuddled up next to him. I put the coffee on, then grabbed a pillow and blanket and laid on the couch until Dylan woke up. “Hey, sorry I bailed last night, did y’all have fun.”

“Hell yes” Dylan said with a smile. “Them boys is a lot of fun, especially Zach. He knows how to party. And Day-um. The ladies just flock to them.” His voice was full of excitement, “And since they don’t want ‘em they give me all the attention.” I laughed; my brother was discovering the joys of having gay wingmen. “When you and Max move back home, I’ll have my pick of women.” THAT was an interesting statement. It was clear my brother already had us married and living in North Carolina in his mind. I guess time would tell if he was right or not. We talked about what we were going to do that day, Dylan had a list, and number one on it was a brewery tour “they give y’all free beer at the end” He said excitedly as I laughed.

After we showered and got dressed, we headed down to find Max. RJ and Travis were gone by the time we got there and Dylan greeted Max with a bear hug, squeezing the little fella’ flat. “Hey big Red, you ready for a day of explorin’ the big city?” He asked. Then he introduced himself to Cam and Eric and invited them to join us. They were working together at noon, but agreed to join us for breakfast.

Dylan ran up the steps to talk to Zach and Seth. After he left, Eric and Cam apologized for RJ, then added “Listen, guys. RJ didn’t mean anything by…” Eric started.

I cut him off “thanks for the apology but maybe you should end it there. I don’t wanna hear excuses for him touching our asses. He was wrong.” Hell, Eric’s eyes popped wide open and Cam looked down, I rarely spoke up and I definitely had never spoken to them like that before. Max just stood there smirking; he knew my heart. Eric nodded and I added, “Let’s move on. So… you guys wanna join us for breakfast before work?” They agreed. A few minutes later Dylan came back with Zach and Seth in tow and the seven of us headed to my favorite breakfast place on the West Side. Dylan rode with Cam and Eric in the Fiat to get to know them better and the rest of us in rode Gramm… Seth’s car. We parked on the street and met the other guys out front. The three of them got out of the Fiat laughing and having a great time Dylan could turn anyone into a friend, I wish I had his confidence. I had taken Max there once before, but this was a first visit for the other guys. Cheryl the waitress greeted them all like old friends and we took seats together at the big counter. I loved sharing my favorite haunts with these guys. Dylan sat between me and Zach, and in the middle of breakfast leaned over and said “you have got the greatest friends. I like these boys.” That may not seem like a big deal, but it was to me. Dylan liked my friends; I think he was starting to see that I had built a good life there. Although I doubted that would stop him from trying to lure me back to North Carolina. Not that he had that much work to do, my mind was pretty much made up. If things worked out with Max and he was game to go back; I’d go back.

After breakfast Cam and Eric went to work, and the rest of us went on the Miller beer brewery tour. The other guys gave Dylan shit about spending an hour in the gift shop buyin’ souvenirs for all his friends back home; beer koozies, Frisbees, coasters, and a bunch of other overpriced shit with Miller logos on ‘em. He was such a good-hearted man, my brother, always thinking about other people. We went out again that night and had a great time, this time Cam and Eric joined us and we took Dylan out for his first sushi, I was dying! He kept sayin’ “this damn fish is raw… that’s disgusting” Then he’d pop another piece in his mouth. There were seven of us and he ate more than half the food by himself, all the while bitchin’ and moanin’ about how disgusting it was. Damn, I missed being around my brother.

The next day I drove him to the airport by myself so I could say goodbye. I ended up giving him one of my old suitcases to carry his damn Milwaukee souvenirs in. I parked in the short-term parking and walked him to the security line. We hugged harder than ever and he said into my ear “I want you home so bad little brother, but I’ll understand if you stay here. You got good people here.”

And with that said, I watched my brother go through the security line and head back home. I missed him the second he was out of site.

To be continued…