Off Campus

Seth’s Perspective

The first couple months of the semester were action-packed at the duplex. I was busy with my internship, Zach had been working out like a madman, ready to take his game to the next level next Soccer season (and damn he was looking hot). Downstairs, the three guys were living as roommates and all doing their own thing, it seemed to be working out. Eric was on a mission to get his shit together; although I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on with him. He had a rough start to the semester and kind of went off the deep end for a while, but with the help of Cam, Max, and the school therapist he seemed to be tackling his demons head-on and turning things around. Max and Brody were getting more serious and seemed to have found the right balance between being together, hanging out with everyone, and Brody still having his alone time. Cam was playing the field a little, nothing major but he was enjoying the single life and dating different guys trying to figure out what he wanted. And lastly, Elliot had become a regular fixture around the duplex. He had become friends with everyone in the house and spent a lot of time there after classes. He bought an old silver Civic from a friend of his mom, it was a clunker but he loved it as much as I loved Grammaw’s car. That old Civic spent a lot of time parked at the curb in front of the duplex. Elliot was always hanging out with one (or all) of us and would crash on one of the first floor couches or in our spare room occasionally. We all liked having him around and he fit right in.

I Was at work one Monday afternoon when Dr. Aarons called me at my desk. “Seth, I’m with a patient, could you join us in my office?”

“Yes sir” I replied. Dr. Aarons had a few patients that consented to me being in the room to observe, it only happened a couple of times before, but I never said no to an invite. Watching him in action was fascinating to me.

I knocked lightly on the office door, then turned the knob and entered. Dr. Aarons was sitting on one of the leather chairs in the conversation pit of his office, it was a more casual seating area where he met with patients instead of sitting across the desk from him. “You know Elliot, Seth” Dr. Aarons said with a smile.

“Hey, Seth” Elliot said with a big smile on his face, I was surprised to see him there.

“Today’s a big day for Elliot, it’s his last appointment” Dr. Aarons explained, “and he asked me if you could join us.” I had a smile combined with a look of confusion on my face. Why would Elliot want me there?

“My last appointment… well, for now at least” Elliot joked.

The Dr. replied “You’ll be fine on your own, but you know where to find me if you need me” Then he looked at me and motioned to the other vacant chair “have a seat Seth.” I had no clue why I was there.

“Seth, I feel confident enough to stop coming here, and face life on my own” Elliot said looking directly at me, “and I wanted to thank you for that.”

I chuckled a little “Me? I didn’t do anything, Elliot, this is all you and Dr. Aarons.”

“And you. You treated me normal when my parents didn’t know how to treat me, and I didn’t have any friends because I was afraid to be myself.” He said in a sincere voice. The doctor just sat the with his legs crossed, listening, and smiling. “That first night you invited me over to watch movies with you and the guys was the first time I just hung out with people and didn’t have to hide myself. That night changed my life.”

I didn’t know how to respond; I was honored and embarrassed at the same time. I just said “Well, yourself is pretty awesome. YOU won the guys over” Elliot beamed; his smile could have lit a small city. The Dr. talked to us both very casually asking us about what we did when we all hung out, which classes we had together, and about our friends. It was just a friendly conversation among friends as we chatted and laughed. After about fifteen minutes later Dr. Aarons excused me and finished his session with Elliot.

Elliot gave me a hug and whispered in my ear “Thank you.” I was really surprised by the entire episode. I never thought of myself as helping Elliot, I just saw him as a friend. When Elliot was gone, I got called back into the office.

“Hey, Seth. I wanted to say thanks for spending some time with us during Elliot’s session today. He’s a totally different guy since you introduced him to your friends. More confident, more outgoing” Dr. Aarons said.

“Is he gonna be alright without his sessions?” I asked with a look of concern.

“Oh, hell yes” Dr. Aarons uncharacteristically bellowed without hesitation, “There’s not a damn thing wrong with him. All he needed was someone to talk things through with, now he has friends for that… thanks to you.” He smiled at me again. I really felt guilty about taking credit for Elliot having friends, he had friends because he was a good guy and fun to be around, not because of me. “Listen I see all kinds of kids like Elliot whose parents can’t relate to what they’re going through and don’t know how to deal with them, so they send them here. All I do is listen.” He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Anyway, thanks. But I really wanted to talk to you to invite you and Zach to our house for dinner with me, Bill, and the kids.”

I was totally caught off guard by his invite “really?”

Dr. Aarons chuckled at my reaction, “yeah, we always invite ‘new staffers’ over for dinner to welcome them. We should have had you over sooner, but Bill just finished up with a high-profile case so it’s a bit overdue” he said with a smile. “Are you guys’ free Saturday night?”

I was excited to meet his family and flattered by the invite. “Yeah, that should be fine, can I check with Zach and text you tomorrow?”

“Absolutely, if Saturday doesn’t work, we’ll come up with some other options.”

“Sounds good. I’ll let you know once I talk to Zach” I said, then we said goodnight and he walked me to my car.

“So, this is the new ride?” He asked smiling as I nodded with pride. “It’s awesome” he said as he told me stories about his first car, surprisingly, it turned out that his first car was the same year as mine, that made us both laugh. I loved that we were talking like friends and couldn’t wait to tell Zach about the dinner invite.

Things were quiet at the duplex when I got home that night. Zach and Eric were sitting at our dining room table studying together. Eric was having some trouble with a couple of his classes and Zach was trying to help him out… academics came easy to Zach. He looked up from the table when I walked in and said, “hi. We ordered a pizza, and the other guys are coming up. Is that cool?”

“Great, I wasn’t in the mood to cook” I said as I walked over to where they were and kissed him on the cheek. The two of them were engrossed in whatever it was they were studying and barely looked up. I went into the bedroom to change into my sweats, when I came back, I stopped in the hallway and just stared at Zach sitting at the table in the other room. Goddammit he was hot! He was wearing gym shorts and a side less tank top, his defined muscles and abs were visible. He had put on some more muscle recently and I was totally into it. I was just kind of zoning out as I looked at him appreciatively when the back door burst open. Max, Brody, and Cam all came in and suddenly the place was loud and crazy, just the way I liked it. The guys all grabbed drinks and got comfortable in the living room, we all threw some cash on the coffee table for the pizza guy and it was only a few more minutes before he rang the doorbell, Cam grabbed the cash off the table and went to meet the guy. Meanwhile, Zach and Eric closed the books for now and came over to join us.

“I texted Elliot to come over, but he’s having dinner with his parents” Cam Said. I wanted to tell them about how much they helped Elliot, I was proud of them and him, but I couldn’t say a word. Being friends with Elliot was a great test of my ability to honor Dr. patient confidentiality. I don’t think Elliot would care if I told the guys, but it wasn’t my place. The guys started playing video games while they were eating, and about two hours later they all started to leave. To my surprise, Eric and Zach went back to studying for a while, so I went to bed alone.

When Zach finally came to bed, I was propped up shirtless against the headboard reading a book. “Hey” he said as he kissed me then jumped on top of the bed sitting on top of the covers with his legs crossed under him. God, he looked amazing in that shirt.

“How’s Eric doing with school?” I asked

“Good. He like just blew off the entire first month of the semester. He had two classes that he didn’t even show up to until February.” Zach said with disbelief in his voice. Zach was an amazing student and just couldn’t imagine taking school so casually. “I think he’s catching up for the most part, but honestly… statistics is over his head. I think he’d be better off dropping it and taking it next semester when he can show up on day one and try to grasp it. It’s frustrating as hell trying to tutor him.” He sighed heavily and asked about my day.

“Guess what happened at work today?” I asked. Of course, Zach had zero clue, I don’t know why the hell I phrased it that way, so I answered my own question. “Dr. Aarons invited us to his house for dinner on Saturday night.”

Zach shot me a quizzical look, “just us or is he having a party?”

“Just us” I said closing my book and setting it on the nightstand. “He said he always has new staffers over, but Bill was tied up with some big case so they haven’t had a chance to invite us. Can you make it?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing going on. Where does he even live?” That was a great question. I had no clue. You know how when you’re a kid you don’t think about the teachers having a life outside of school, that’s kind of how it was with Dr. Aarons. I just thought about him as Dr. Aarons, in fact, I had to think a minute to remember that his first name was Ryan, I never used it.

“I have no clue.” I said, “I guess we’ll find out Saturday.”

“Do I have to dress up?” Zach asked.

“Probably not, but wear something pretty so I can show you off” I joked.

“So, is that my role at this dinner?” Zach asked as he flexed his muscles “To shut up and look pretty?”

“Yup” I said chuckling, “You’re my trophy husband.” Then I looked him up and down and added “Damn just wear what you’re wearing, you look hot as hell!” I leaned into his armpit and inhaled deeply. He went from classes to the gym to studying with Eric and he still smelled of man sweat with a faint hit of body spray. Fuck it was hot.

We started to make out and just as things were heating up Zach pulled back and said, ‘I didn’t shower after my workout, give me a minute to shower” and started to pull back.

I grabbed him and pulled him into me “Hell, no! I love the way you smell!” I took a big, theatrical whiff of his armpit and let out an “ahhhhhhhh” making him laugh, then he put a hand on my head and shoved my face into his it for more. I tried to break free add we ended wrestling. Bad move on my part… I was no match for Zach and within seconds, he had my shoulders pinned down on the bed and my ass in the air.

He growled “Let’s get you out of these” and tugged off my sweatpants and threw them on the floor, then he did the same to my underwear. He had me bare-assed naked on the bed with an arm under my neck and one under my lower back. He shot me a devilish grin as he turned his face towards my ass and licked my crack from balls to my hole. He spent several minutes there starting out with light licks, almost as if he was kissing it then he started to probe with his tongue. It was euphoric! Within minutes he was eating my hole with… I guess the best word is enthusiasm. He was so into it and had me moaning and groaning out of control. He smacked my ass as he ate me out, damn the sting of pain mixed with the amazing pleasure his tongue was giving my hole was almost too much to take. I was writhing underneath him begging for more, more, MORE!

He let me out of the wrestling hold then straddled my face in a sixty nine and went back to work on my hole. He lowered his sweaty, musky hole onto my face and I inhaled his pungent scent before devouring his hole. Oh my god it was dirty, hot, and fucking amazing! The dirtier Zach and I got with each other over time, the more I wanted. There was just something irresistible about him and I could never get enough. He ground his sweet jock ass against my face almost smothering me as I slobbered, licked, and lapped. Meanwhile on the other end of the bed Zach continued his ass-ault. After several minutes of pure, lust-filled heaven Zach flipped around again. This time he straddled my face and fed me his engorged manhood. I scooted down the bed so he could angle himself to fuck my face. And fuck my face he did. He braced himself with his hands on the wall above the headboard as he thrust deep himself deep down my throat choking me. He kept thrusting and invading me deeper and deeper as I gagged and my throat slime made his cock slick.

My eyes were watering and I was gasping when he pulled his saliva-slicked cock out of my mouth and got between my legs. He reached under my thighs and pushed my knees into my chest. He gave my hole a few more licks and then lined himself up and slowly entered me. I let out a gasp, then a blissful sigh as the long, wide shaft entered me inch by inch until his warm, smooth balls were resting on my wet ass crack. I heard Zach moan as his cock bottomed out in my passage. He just held it there for a moment as he looked into my eyes, grinned, and said “how’s this for a trophy husband?” I laughed through my ecstasy as he started to withdraw. He pulled out all the way and then pushed his way back in to the hilt again. Over and over, he thrust into me with his eyes locked to mine and a look of euphoria on his face. He leaned in and kissed me with passion and lust as his thrust became faster and harder.

“Zach, Zach, fuck, I... I…” I was gasping out as I dug my nails into his back trying to fight back my orgasm. My efforts were futile. I shot my load handsfree between us as I yelled “Oh Shit! I’m cumming. I’m cumming!” Zach quieted my screams by covering my mouth with his again as he made his final thrust and shot his load into me. Stream after hot stream of Zach filled me and warmed my bowels. Oh. My. God! My head was spinning with pleasure as I lay there with his still-hard slab inside me, and his panting body above me.

“Holy fuck” He growled out as he shook his head and the sweat splattered from his blond locks. “Whew!” He yelled just before he kissed me with that satisfied smiled on his face. “That never gets fucking old” he laughed as he pulled out of me and laid by my side. “After a few minutes he said something surprising. “I don’t get it. Eric keeps looking for new guys to have sex with. You know me so well, and the more we get to know each other the better the sex gets. No stranger could ever know how to push my buttons the way you do.” It was his tone that made the statement so surprising, he said it in this weird tone of disbelief, as if he couldn’t even fathom sex with someone else being better than with the one that he loved. Maybe it was just me, maybe it was the afterglow of the sex, I don’t know… but that just seemed like the most monumental statement to me. He was telling me that he couldn’t imagine sex with anyone else. I was his everything. Let me tell you, he got a hell of a kiss for that statement!

We took a quick shower together to rinse off, dried off, and hopped back into bed. It was cold as hell in there after the shower so we cuddled, I had my arm draped over him and my head on his chest as I dozed off into a blissful sleep.

The next morning on my way to class, I texted Dr. Aarons that we would be honored to have dinner with them on Saturday. He sent back a text that included his address. To my surprise he didn’t live too far away, I don’t know, I guess I expected him to live out in the suburbs in some brand new McMansion.

The rest of the week was boring and drama free. School, internship, a Thursday night fill-in shift at Starbucks so Cam could go out on a date. Elliot hung out at the house a couple of times and we studied, Zach was still tutoring Eric, and Max and Brody spent most of their time in the studio on the third floor. Friday night came and it was Chinese food and movies With the entire gang, including Elliot.

Spring Break was a couple of weeks away and everyone was talking about their plans. Last year we all went to AZ together, including Teddy and Gina. This year would be different as we were all splitting up. Max and Brody were heading to NC to work on Grammaw’s house, Zach and I were going to Phoenix to meet my new niece and nephew (Brooklyn and Maddy), Cam, Eric, and Elliot were still trying to figure out what to do. They were talking about road-tripping together in the Fiat but hadn’t solidified their plan yet and Eric was still thinking about staying behind to catch up on his schoolwork. Max was trying to recruit them to come to North Carolina and help him and Brody, but they didn’t have a commitment yet.

“Well, what’s up for tomorrow night?” Cam asked. “Are you guys up for going out or something?”

“We’re having dinner with Seth’s boss” Zach responded.

That got Elliot’s attention. He looked up at me with an odd expression, it was kind of like fear mixed with curiosity, then he surprised the hell out of me and chimed in with “Oh, Dr. Aarons? He’s a great guy. I used to see him.” Elliot just shared his deepest secret with all his friends. I looked at him and smiled, I was damn proud of him. That was a bold step.

“is he any good?” Cam asked. “I’ve been seeing Dr. Walters for over a year and I really like him.”

“I’ve been seeing the lady at the health center on campus; we don’t really click, hell I don’t even know her name” Eric added. “Maybe I should check out Dr. Aarons.” Then the three of them just kept chowing down while they had a normal conversation about their therapists. Nobody else seemed to even care, no judgment, no bad stigma attached... nothing. The look of relief on Elliot’s face was incredible. I don’t really know if relief is even the right word, it was almost blissful. Like this massive weight had been lifted off him. For the rest of the night, we just hung out like we always did watching movies, playing video game, and eating everything we could find.

When it was time for Elliot to leave, I walked him down the front steps to lock the door behind him. I took the opportunity to tell him how proud I was of him. The little guy just beamed at me and I heard him swear for the first time “Fuck that felt good!” he said with a belly laugh. “I can’t believe I just put it out there like that and told them I was seeing a therapist…” he paused and took a deep breath, “…and no one gave a shit!” He was so happy it was like he was about to burst. “Hell! Cam and Eric are getting help too!!! I feel so fucking normal, Seth” He said as he threw his arms around my neck.

“You are fucking normal. Everybody needs help sometimes, El. It’s not a big deal.”

“you didn’t even tell Zach, did you?” Elliot asked me

I looked at him with confusion and shook my head. “Absolutely not. It’s not my information to share.”

“You’re gonna be an awesome psychiatrist” Elliot said with a smirk before he turned and headed down the walkway to his silver Civic and headed back to the west side.

I went back upstairs and helped Zach clean up. We were in the kitchen doing the dishes when he said “So, you knew Elliot was seeing Dr. Aarons the whole time and didn’t even tell me?” I thought he was going to be pissed that I kept a secret from him, but instead he came over and kissed me. “You’re a good friend and you’re gonna be a great psychiatrist.” I just smiled and hugged him. I felt so good about how things worked out for Elliot, I didn’t do much, I was just being a friend.

Zach and I finished up in the kitchen and went to bed. The next morning, I got up and worked the eight to four shift at Starbucks, I got home with about an hour and a half to get ready before dinner with Dr. Aarons and Bill. I was excited, but nervous to meet his family and see him outside of the office. I took a shower with Zach, argh! I had to slap his hands off me like a million times. If I let him go, we’d be in the damn shower for two hours and miss dinner (not that I wouldn’t have loved that). After our shower we both pulled on our khakis, I wore my favorite bright blue button-down shirt, and Zach put on a black polo. DAMN! All the muscle he had packed on made it skintight, his nipples poked through and my eyes were riveted to the veins and muscles on his arms. He had added so much definition to his body, I just looked at him… he truly was a beautiful man. “How’s this for a trophy husband” he asked with a smirk as he flexed his muscles.

I moved towards him, squeezed his muscles, and whispered, “Apparently I won first fucking prize” and kissed him. Then I smacked him on the ass and said, “Let’s go stud muffin, we’re running late.” We locked the house up and jumped into the GTI. I navigated while Zach drove. They were only about a mile or so away from us.

We pulled up to the house and our eyes popped open wide. It was a beautiful old, stone house across from Lake Michigan, it was huge, bordering on mansion size. Zach pulled the GTI into the circular drive and under the vine covered porte cochere, right in front of the steps. “Do you think it’s okay to park here?” Zach asked.

I was looking around and it seemed like the perfect spot but before I could answer, a handsome man came out to greet us, he opened my car door, smiled, and said, “You guys can just leave it here.” I got out of the car as Zach turned the engine off “Hi I’m Bill’ the man said as he extended his hand.

I smiled at him “Hi Bill, I’m Seth and it’s so great to finally meet you. This is Zach” I said motioning to my beautiful trophy fiancé as he walked up behind Bill.

In true Zach fashion he put out his hand and said, “It’s great to meet you Bill, thank you for inviting us to your beautiful home.” Zach had a natural charisma about him.

It was the end of February and damn cold out there, “Come in already” Bill said hoping up the large steps and into the beautiful house.

We followed him into the foyer, it was huge with and old marble floors, I was in awe of the place. It was warm and smelled amazing inside. Dr Aarons came out and greeted me with a hug and Zach with a handshake and told us to call him Ryan… that would take some getting used to. I heard giggling in the distance as Dr. Aar… I mean Ryan offered us a seat in the living room and Bill went to get us a couple of sodas. “This place is amazing” I said.

“Thank you” Ryan responded. “We’re proud of it. It belonged to one of the old brewing families in Milwaukee and basically looked haunted when we bought it six years ago. We’ve been in a constant state of renovation since we closed on it.” Just then Bill walked in with our drinks and offered to take us on the grand tour. We went from giant beautiful, room to giant beautiful room of the old place. Six bedrooms, six and a half bathrooms, there was a den with floor to ceiling shelves built in and a ladder on a track that moved across the shelves so you could reach any of the uncountable number of books displayed there. The place was massive. There was a plastic sheet over the doorway of a guest ensuite bathroom that was under renovation on the second floor, but other than that the place was immaculate. We ended the tour in the basement rec room where their two kids Tyler and Liddy were hanging out, laying on the floor watching something on TV. Tyler was about eight and Liddy about six. They were cute as hell. We all introduced ourselves, Tyler scrunched his face and kept giving Zach odd looks, it was a little strange, but kids… go figure.

The adults headed up to the living room and Ryan and Bill brought out hors d’oeuvres and placed them on the coffee table. Cheese, sausage, crackers, a veggie tray, even a shrimp platter. They went all out for us. We all picked at the beautiful spread of food as we got to know each other. Bill talked about his latest case, the case was closed and public record so he could talk freely about it. Zach was enthralled. The conversation moved from the case to the law profession in general and Zach’s plan to be a lawyer. At one point Bill looked at Zach and said “You look so familiar, Zach” but he couldn’t figure out why, so the conversation just continued.

The two of them hit it off and our conversation turned from one big discussion to Bill and Zach talking legal stuff and Ryan and I talking about life in general, their last vacation, my spring break plans, etc. Then I said “Oh, can we talk business for two seconds?” Ryan smiled at that and nodded. I told him about our conversation at the duplex the night before and how Elliot told the guys he was seeing Dr. Aarons.

His eyes got wide and he asked, “What was their reaction?”

I laughed, “well my friend Cam asked if you were any good” Ryan smirked at that “Then Cam and my friend Eric started talking about their therapists. It was no big deal. The rest of the guys weren’t even paying attention.”

“How was Elliot?” he asked.

“All smiles when he left. He told me he felt normal and I told him that was because he was normal” I answered.

Ryan smiled at me and said, “You’re a natural, Seth.” About that time the kids came running into the room asking when we were going to eat because they were “starving” according to Tyler.

“Okay, okay,” Bill said as he walked into the kitchen to check on dinner. A few minutes later we all sat down in the huge formal dining room, Ryan put salads in front of us all and we talked some more, mostly driven by Liddy and Tyler. Tyler kept looking at Zach with a thoughtful look on his face like he was trying to figure something out.

Tyler started talking about soccer, he was so into it. Zach said “I play soccer too… I love it.” That’s when things clicked.

Tyler’s eyes lit up, he looked directly at Zach and he yelled in his best announcer voice “Number 10 Zachary Hall running down the field for the Gooooooaaaalllllll!!!!” Zach burst into laughter.

Bill hit the table, “That’s where I know you from!” he said with a smile in his eyes. “I take Tyler down to the field to watch the UWM Panther games all the time, some nights we hang out and watch you guys practice. You’re Tyler’s favorite player.”

Tyler was star struck “That goal you made last season at the end of the game against Madison was awesome!” He said to Zach, then got up and ran out of the room.

“So, this Zach is THE Zach?” Ryan asked Bill with a smirk.

“Yup” Bill said, “As far as Tyler’s concerned, you’re the king of the big leagues” He said with a proud grin as he spoke about his son.

“Tyler loooooooves you” Liddy said with a smirk before taking a tiny bite of her salad. That was the first time she had spoken all night.

Tyler ran back into the room with a UWM pendant and a Sharpie. “Can you sign this?” His parents and I laughed while Zach smiled with pride and blushed in embarrassment all at the same time as he signed his biggest littlest fans prized possession. Tyler thanked him, then ran back up to his room to put his treasure in a safe place.

Bill and Ryan were cracking up and Ryan said “It never occurred to me that you were THAT Zach. I should’ve put two and two together.” Zach blushed for the rest of the night, damn he was so adorable. I also noticed both Ryan and Bill checked him out a couple of times. Not in a predatory way as much as an admiring way. After dinner the four of us ate dessert and talked some more. Ryan and Bill told us about grad school, their first jobs, then moving to Milwaukee, their first house, then when they finally could afford this place and all their issues with renovating it, about adopting the kids… all the things we had to look forward to in our life. I hung on every damn word. THIS could be us. A Psychiatrist and Lawyer both with successful practices, an amazing home and family. Their life seemed perfect. This was one of the million possible futures we could build for ourselves.

It was an amazing night. Tyler asked Zach to tuck him in before we left, and I read Liddy a story. Bill and Ryan walked us to the door apologizing for the kids clinging to us, clueless to the fact that we loved every minute of it. We said goodnight and got into the GTI.

On the way home Zach laughed “Holy shit. I have a super fan” then he said “I’m gonna give you my old practice jersey to take to Ryan to give to Tyler.”

God, he was just a thoughtful guy, I smiled at him and pecked him on the cheek as he drove home. “He’ll love it. You’re the best fucking trophy husband ever!”

To be continued…