[Book I: David's First Year at College should be read first. This is "highbrow" porn with much culture, science, music and religion in its subject matter].
Chapter 16 David
When term began I was immediately plunged into a hectic existence. Although there were no university examinations in the second year, there was a vastly increased amount of laboratory work: with sessions from 5 to 6 hours per day compared with 2 to 3 hours in year 1. Often too, after a day in the lab, we had a lecture at 5 pm. Jon and I would leave the flat at different times, but Jon tended to work till 6 pm on the days that I had a 5 pm lecture and we would then go together to eat, either at a pub or a student restaurant. Evenings were also busy: I had Chapel choir practice on Thursdays and the basketball team had a new captain who expected us to spend Wednesday evening training if we had played in the afternoon, so that we ate together and then went for a drink, so I rarely got back home till 10 pm. Jon and I moved our midweek dinner in Hall to Tuesdays and on Fridays we would go to a film at the Rialto, or if there was nothing interesting being shown, we ate at home and then watched a DVD, often, but not always, a porn DVD. On Saturday mornings we went swimming, and returned to the flat for a snack lunch, after which we spent the afternoon making love. Generally we only had proper sex once a week, but if one or other of us needed it urgently, we would have a quick blow-job on some other day.
There were a few new faces in the Chapel choir and one of the the girls, like me, appeared for the first time in a scholar's surplice. At the time that the college admitted women there was a lot of discussion about what the women choristers should wear. Eventually they decided female scholars would wear a surplice and Canterbury cap, the commoners a gown and Canterbury cap. The choir's reputation was buoyed up by the invitation to tour the Netherlands in the following summer. Barbara was still in the choir and I often felt uncomfortable when I saw her watching me. About halfway through the term, I got a shock when Jon said that he was coming to the chapel to hear me sing. He had never set foot in there in all his four years as an undergraduate, and I think he was impressed by the 17th century furnishings. Choral Evensong according to the Book of Common Prayer with attractive music----we preferred 17th- and 18th-century settings to later church music----touched his musical and emotional sensibilities and he was very complimentary to me (or at least the whole choir) in bed that night.
So the term progressed with much activity and little fucking. But that seemed to enhance the experience when we did make love. And I found our sometimes hasty and occasionally furtive cock-sucking very enjoyable. Jon had a desk in an office shared with the other PhD students and at night he was often alone there and we were able to enjoy a quickie.
Most Sundays I had breakfast in college after chapel at 8 am and spent the day in churchy activities including singing evensong, until I met him on the Hall steps for dinner. He spent the day either on his research or doing the books for his engineering business. Early in November he told me that the time needed for the firm's business was too much, and that he was going to get the man who ran the business as day-to-day manager to hire someone to do it, and he himself would take steps to sell the business to the manager, if necessary in annual instalments, leaving him (Jon) with nothing more than a seat on the board and the director's fee of £2000 a year. He said the work was too much for the salary he had been paying himself. He needed time to concentrate on his other interests.
Chapter 17 David
I wondered how long Jon and I could keep our relationship secret. Although he was careful not to show any overt signs of affection in public, I was not so careful, and occasionally would put my arm around him in public. I reckoned that probably the first group to guess what we were up to would be the people in the Chemical Laboratory, as that was the only place where our circles of colleagues overlapped. As far as the Chapel choir was concerned, in spite of Barbara's rudeness, she could only guess, as she only saw us in Hall, and the rest were too polite to make any comment. As for the basketball team, most of them were too involved in their own affairs to notice, as none of them was a chemist.
Several of my friends in the lab began to notice the time that I spent with Jon, and I noticed them grinning to one another if he came into the teaching lab to talk to me. His commitments were also fairly active, as he demonstrated to the third-year class for one whole day per week. Unlike the other students, he did not need the money, but still felt that it was necessary for his career to do regular teaching. I asked him if any of the research students or postdocs had commented on the fact that we were frequently seen together. He said that he explained it by us being just on good terms as landlord and tenant, which did not to me, sound at all convincing.
I was very relaxed with my college tutor, Dr DC, whom I usually saw once or twice a week for an assignment. He was the senior of the two college chemistry tutors. Dr Y, whom I had had in the previous year only dealt with first year students. Dr C would be the only person with whom I would have regular contact for the rest of my undergraduate study, and I found him very understanding. Tutors are the only persons who hold dual appointments in both university and college, so he also gave lectures in the Department. Obviously in conversation with him I must have mentioned Jon's name several times, because once he realised that I was lodging in Jon's flat, he put two and two together. Camford had very strict rules about how members of the university talked to one another on formal occasions. Faculty Staff, postdocs and research students were allowed to use first names when talking to one another, but in any pedagogic contact such as a tutorial, the rule was that undergraduates were addressed as Mr X and Miss Y, and students in reply had to say Professor, Dr P or Mr Q.
Early in December Dr DC threw a party for all the college chemistry students, of whom there were about 25, spread over all four of the undergraduate years. To emphasise the social nature of the occasion, each student was allowed to bring a guest. Jon did not want to come as my guest, as he said that it would be tantamount to coming out, as everyone there would know him, however slightly. I said that he should come, but should leave early without me, on the excuse that he needed to complete an experiment in the lab. I would then noncommittally field any awkward questions that turned up after he had gone.
It didn't work. The party was held in the college function room and when we turned up together, the knowing looks that many of the other guests exchanged with one another, indicated that not only my tutor, but also most of the others present guessed that we were an item. After an hour or so, I slipped outside and Jon followed me. "Don't go" I said to him "I don't think I could cope with the questions I will be asked if you go. If you stay, no one will say anything" I was relying on the ancient "don't ask, don't tell" policy that had been universal in Camford for centuries. And it worked. The party got slightly noisier, but finished around 10pm, and most people then adjourned to the Lion, a pub near the college, to continue drinking. Jon and I didn't go, thereby almost proving that we didn't want to be asked awkward questions. I had no doubt that the others would be saying that we had gone off to fuck.
When we got home I said to Jon: "This can't go on. Even when I move back into college next year, we will still be seen together. The lads in my year and some of the girls have probably guessed already".
"I can't do anything unless I talk to the prof" said Jon.
"Why?" I asked, "you don't need his or anyone's permission to fuck me. No one in the department is under 18".
You have to remember that this was before the 21st-century of openness and equality, and recognition of homosexual partnerships. I was confident that the abilities that we both had were such that coming out would not damage our futures, moreover I felt that I didn't give a fuck if it did, I wanted Jon to be known publicly as mine, and I knew that his income made a professional academic career for him unnecessary. But I agreed to leave things to the following term.
Chapter 18 David
