Author's note: This story contains some anti-gay slurs. This is not meant to insult anyone, but they are necessary for the telling of this tale. I hope that the reader can see past any offense he might take, and understand why they are integral to the story.
*****
"Dude, I apologize! I think that I just fucked you over."
"Huh, what happened?" Danny asked his roommate.
"Listen, I'm sorry, but that girlfriend of yours, Mary Margaret, she came up a few hours ago, looking for you, and I blurted out that you'd stayed out all night. I'd slept in, and wasn't thinking straight when she knocked on the door. I'd thought you'd spent the night with her, and then I realized that I just fucked you over royally."
Danny sat down on his bunk, trying to figure things out. His head was still pounding, not as badly as first thing this morning, but still. Shannon had been in just as bad a shape as he had, and he hadn't gotten laid, but Mary Margaret was sure to assume that he had.
Just like he assumed she'd gotten laid when she stayed overnight at her boyfriend's on Friday, and maybe Saturday, too. No, she wasn't 21 yet, but who knows what booze or grass the boyfriend might have had at his place. Danny hadn't gotten laid, despite that being his goal, but surely she had.
"Listen, it's OK, man. She had a date Friday night, and didn't come home, so she's got nothing to bitch about. She's not my girlfriend anyway, she's just a friend."
"You sure? She sure didn't look like 'just a friend' to me. She didn't cry or anything, but just had that look on her face, you know, the look that tells you she's unhappy, when I spilled the beans."
"Well, she sure hasn't said anything about wanting to get closer."
"Dude, lots of girls won't ever say anything. They expect guys to do the asking."
"Yeah, well, how can I ask her to date the fag whore?"
"Look, Danny, I know that you still get called that, but most people have given that up. There's too much other stuff going on, anyway. Besides, how is she going to get it any worse than she did when she started eating with you? She was able to tough that out, wasn't she?"
oo0oo
Sarah looked over as Mary Margaret groaned, when her alarm sounded at 6:00. That was the normal time she had set, for her regular breakfasts with Danny, but, after listening to MM's complaints about Danny having spent the night with some girl, Sarah wasn't sure that her roommate really ought to keep up with their breakfasts.
"You sure you want to do this?" Sarah asked.
"Lord, no, but I don't have any choice, do I? If I bail on Danny this morning, whatever gain he's made will all be gone. I'm just hoping that he doesn't bring up his new girlfriend."
"What can you even say if he does? After all, you spent Friday night with Brandon, and he's sure to think that you got laid."
"I know, I know. And even though it's true, the 'It's not what it looked like' answer sounds lame, weak and lame."
"You know, if you really want to date Danny, maybe you ought to just tell him."
"You know I can't, Sarah, that's not the way I was brought up."
"Well, what about Brandon? Isn't this one of the days you have class with him?"
"Yeah, at 11:00. Can't say I'm looking forward to that, either."
"Well, if he's pissed off that you didn't sleep with him Saturday, then maybe he's just a jerk. I mean, it's not like you somehow owe him sex."
"I know, I know, and it's not like he acted that I owed him sex, and I actually wanted to sleep with him, but that giant box of condoms sitting there, it just made it seem like I'd just be next in a long line of conquests, and I couldn't do it. But anyway, I can't see Brandon in class today without at least having seen Danny this morning for breakfast."
With that, Mary Margaret grabbed her shower caddy and bathrobe, and headed to the floor showers. A long, hot shower, a bit hotter than she usually set it, helped to clear her mind a bit. Oh, she was still dreading seeing Danny this morning, but dread or not, she had to do it.
"Hey, Danny, how's it going?" she asked, setting her tray down caddy-corner from his at the breakfast table; he'd gotten down there before she had, but it couldn't have been long, because he was still just adding a couple packs of sugar to his coffee. Mary Margaret was her usual chipper self, Danny thought, acting like there's nothing different. She knew that he'd spent Saturday night out, and had to assume that he'd gotten laid, and she'd gotten screwed at least Friday night, if not Saturday, too. She sure didn't act like she was upset, the way Randy had said she was.
So, they sat there, eating, just like normal, without either of them bringing up their dates for the weekend. It was mostly meaningless small talk between them, but, with finals coming up just next week, they made sure that their evening 'study dates' were on for this week.
Breakfast hadn't gone so badly, Mary Margaret thought, but worried that Danny didn't ask her about her date. Was he not jealous at
all?
Then again, why should he be; he'd had his own date on Saturday, and apparently gotten lucky. But the most important part had gone well: they agreed on meeting for their regular evening study sessions, and with exams coming up, those were important for getting good grades as well as whatever they were doing for their relationship.
The weather was on the miserable side, and Mary Margaret hadn't dressed at all sexily. She was wearing a newer pair of jeans, which fit closely if not being 'skinny' jeans, and her nice, warm fuggs - fake Uggs - along with a heavy sweater under her winter jacket. A thick scarf kept her neck warm. Brandon was going to see her all covered up in class this morning, and she wondered what his reaction was going to be. After Friday night, he'd surely have expected her to sleep with him on Saturday, but she had decided against that. She knew that he was disappointed - heck, in some ways,
she
was disappointed - but this morning's class was going to be a test in one way: would Brandon be his normal, friendly self, or would her turning him down on Saturday reveal a different side of him? After all, he was so good looking and charming, she was sure that he never got turned down before!
This was one of the things she wanted to know, needed to know, and was dreading finding out. In the back of her mind was the thought that, with Christmas break coming up, Danny would be far away, at his parents' home near Paducah, while Brandon's family lived only about twenty miles away. If he was still interested in her, they'd have plenty of opportunities to see each other over the break, but maybe fewer chances to sleep together; they certainly couldn't at her parents' house.
That thought brought a smile to her face, just before walking into class: with exams coming up, they wouldn't have many chances to go to bed together before break, and then three weeks of break in which opportunities would be limited. That would mean she could see Brandon for what would turn out to be a solid six weeks, without having to sleep with him, and if he was still interested in her after that, then maybe she wasn't just another potential piece of pussy for him.
