Chris knew it could have been worse. His roommate could have been messier, louder, more rude. The kinds of things his friends all complained about. Instead, he complained about Tyler. Tyler, who walked around in his underwear with the window wide open so everyone could see. Tyler, who stared at him while he got dressed and made comments. Who kicked Chris out every week to have sex with a new guy or girl from one of his classes.
His roommate just had to be Tyler, who jerked himself off every night while they were both in the dorm. It started pretty early, just after orientation week. The instant the lights went out, there was a certain shifting of sheets and the swallowing of urgent breath. Sometimes Chris would roll over, crack open an eye to watch Tyler's face lit up by the porn on his phone screen. Sometimes he'd even reach cautiously under his own sheets, gripping his cock beneath his underwear and giving it a tentative stroke, but he could never really commit. He was always too cautious.
Most of the time he just laid there in silence, desperately hard. He watched Tyler let out a few beautiful little gasps, cumming onto himself and wiping it casually onto his sheets. Adding one more stain to the sea of them. Though he pretended to be asleep, Chris always saw Tyler falling asleep in his own filth like nothing had happened before Chris could even convince his body to rest.
He tried talking to his friends about it.
"Ew, and you haven't told him to stop?" Kayla said when he told her. One of Chris's closest acquaintances, Kayla had maneuvered her way out of two roommates since starting at the school.
"No. I don't know," Chris shifted in his dining hall seat. He couldn't stop glancing up at Tyler, who sat across the dining hall laughing with a group of friends. He hated the shock of pleasure that ripped through his body when Tyler laughed. "It just feels weird," he continued, "I wouldn't know how to bring it up."
"Well, if you can't bring it up to him you can always bring it up to housing." Chris nodded along with what Kayla was saying, but didn't really listen. Instead, he watched Tyler's ass as he stood up from his table. He imagined grabbing it, pressed crotch to crotch with Tyler, both pulling each other closer, faster. Chris caught his breath in his throat when Tyler turned and met his eyes with a cocky smirk. He felt like he had been caught doing something horrible, and tried to play it off like he had meant to be looking at something else.
"Oh my god," Kayla broke Chris out of his fantasies, "Is he over there? You really have a little sexy roommate thing going on, huh?" Kayla laughed.
"Shut up. It's embarrassing." Chris was mortified by the whole situation, and spent the rest of his dinner with a running stream of embarrassing thoughts about Tyler in the back of his mind.
When Chris walked back to his dorm building that evening he glanced up and, sure enough, there was Tyler. Fully illuminated in the open window, his cock and balls visibly cradled in his grey cotton briefs. Tyler glanced out the window too, and waved down at Chris with a grin. Chris was mesmerized by his body as Tyler approached the window. Chris watched him press a hand against a mirror. Slowly, Tyler pushed the band of his underwear down, showing his hip bones, then his pubic hair, then just the edge of his cock before Chris's head snapped forward. Did he really? Chris couldn't look. He just couldn't. With his eyes turned down, Chris walked quickly into the building and hoped no one else had seen Tyler's display. Or, even worse, he had connected himself to the event. Chris shook off his embarrassment and twisted the doorknob to enter his room.
"You didn't like my little show?" Tyler said with a snort, pulling on a pair of overly-tight jeans.
"Not really," Chris responded, though the flutter in his abdomen said otherwise. He threw his bag beside his bed and glanced over a few times at Tyler, who was currently cycling through a series of different tank tops revealing his narrow, muscled shoulders.
"Are you going to Deckard?" Of course Tyler was going to some party. Which meant Chris would probably be kicked out again so his roommate could have a random drunk hookup.
"No. Don't you have an 8am tomorrow?"
"Yeah, but Rebecca's friends are hosting thirsty Thursday so I can get jungle juice for free. Plus, I think James is gonna be there." Chris remembered James. He was probably the closest thing their small school had to an athlete, with a broad body and the competitive temperament to match. Chris could have sworn he was straight, until he noticed him pressing Tyler up against a wall and shoving his tongue down his throat.
"How do I look?" Tyler asked, after Chris had spent a good moment pretending to work on a philosophy essay. Chris stared at his roommate, who struck several elaborate and overly-sensual poses. He couldn't stifle a small laugh at Tyler's behavior, but appreciated the chance to take in his body. Those long legs, with pants that hugged his muscular thighs. The collarbone, tan skin, and sharp bones of the face. Chris figured his roommate was probably philipino or something, but had never asked. It felt rude to ask. It felt rude to say any number of the things he wanted to say to Tyler, so Chris swallowed his pride and said simply,
"Good." Tyler held his gaze with a silent intensity, then broke into a smile and responded
"Thanks, have fun studying," as he pushed his way out of the room.
Chris was thankful for any moment he got in the room alone. Unlike his roommate, Chris needed to be alone when he masturbated, and every time Tyler went to a party he knew he could really settle in. He straightened up his bed and moved to pull down the blinds on his window. Outside, he could see Tyler walking across the lawn. He walked his roommate walk until, halfway across the lawn, Tyler stopped, turned around, and met Chris's eyes with a smile. Chris looked on in an anxious silence as Tyler lifted up his shirt, revealing his stomach and the bar piercing in one nipple. He saw Tyler's body all the time, but these public displays still made Chris nervous. So he closed the blind and got back to the business at hand.
When Chris masturbated, he liked to make a big show of it. He wasn't one for quickies. Instad, he locked the door, spread out on his freshly made bed, and pulled out his laptop. Chris really scoured the porn website before settling on something to watch, with a title like "Caught barebacking in public bathroom." It was one of those videos Chris knew would make him feel guilty later, but he still couldn't resist watching it. Sure enough, there were two men onscreen pounding their bodies together, captured from a strange angle as if someone was recording over the top of a bathroom stall. Chris tugged his pants off, letting the moans and pants emanating from his laptop wash over him. He spat in his hand and wrapped it around his dick. With slow, deliberate strokes, Chris brought himself to hardness. He watched the man onscreen arch back against the dick in his ass, letting out some cry like "Yeah daddy, please cum in my ass." Chris picked up his pace, clenching one fist around his dick and the other on his bedsheets. Suddenly, the cameraman made a noise and the aforementioned "daddy" turned around to face the camera. Chris stopped breathing. He jerked his cock rapidly. "What the fuck?" the man onscreen said, before the camera was shut off and the video ended all too soon.
Chris still hadn't cum yet. Dick in hand, he glanced around the room, and his eyes fell on Tyler's bed. He had left it unmade, and a faded white stain was visible on the dark-colored sheets. Slowly, Chris approached the bed. He let himself lean towards the sheets, nose brushing the stain, and inhaled. It smelled like sweat and stale cum. Chris's head swam. After a furtive glance to the door, Chris hoisted himself onto the bed. He took his shirt off and slid under the sheets. He could feel the crust of dried cum on his back. It was filthy, but he couldn't get enough of it. Chris pulled the sheet over his head and breathed in deeply. He stroked his cock fast, imagining Tyler doing the same thing every night. He rubbed his dick into Tyler's sheets. He imagined those little grunts Tyler let slip out sometimes, imagined those groans coming out unrestricted. He imagined wrapping his lips around Tyler's cock, looking up to see him with that stupid grin on his face. He hated Tyler. He hated him, and stroked faster, rubbing his body into the dirty sheets until he came.
Chris let himself lie back in the bed. He steadied his breathing, and pressed Tyler's sheets into the cum splattering his torso. With slow deliberate movements, Chris wiped himself clean, enjoying the way his cum stood out against the dark-colored sheets. Tyler wouldn't notice a few more stains, he told himself. Besides, that's what he deserved for masturbating while Chris was awake in the room. Or for stripping in front of the window, lifting up his shirt, making Chris feel so fucking embarrassed. Chris jumped down from the bed and pulled the sheets back up to hide his cum. He took a shower, and let himself drift into the first peaceful slumber in a long time.
That is, until later the same night. Through the haze of sleep, there was the messy opening of a door, and whispers. Chris rolled onto his side. There was heavy breathing, some indistinguishable wet noise like kissing. "Is your roommate here?" Chris was only half-awake, but he recognized his roommates voice in response "Shh don't worry. He's a heavy sleeper." Chris was not a heavy sleeper. He resisted the urge to open his eyes when he heard the jangling of a belt coming undone, the sound of clothes hitting the floor. Chris heard that telltale squeak of Tyler's bed as his roommate and the other man climbed into bed. "Do you have lube?" "Yeah, it's in my top drawer." Chris wanted to pop out of existence. He heard a bottle opening, and Tyler's quiet grunts: "Oh, fuck yeah." Chris wished he wasn't alive. He wished he could escape.
He wished he wasn't getting hard.
Chris heard more creaking, the crinkling of a condom wrapper, more wet kissing noises. He shifted in bed subconsciously, rubbing his dick against the sheets. There was a moment of silence and then Tyler's voice again. "Ah, ah" quiet exclamations like he was in pain. Now the creaking really started up in earnest, and the moaning, and Chris was struggling to keep up the facade of being asleep. Trying to keep his breathing even, Chris opened his eyes. In the dim light from the window, he saw Tyler on his back and the muscled figure of James pushing furiously into him. Tyler's mouth was open, grunts and expletives pouring out with every thrust. Chris watched Tyler pull his lover's head down to the side of his neck, watched him breathe sharply when James sucked bruises into his skin. Tyler's head was turned, so Chris could see the sweat glistening in his furrowed brow.
And then Tyler's eyes were open.
