This story is a sequel to My First Year in College and My First Year in Prison.
Tyler is finally ready to commit to a serious relationship when he moves in with his former College crush, Austin. After years of entertaining the idea, it is time for those two to figure it out: is their relationship meant to last?
This story is entirely fictional and all characters featured are above 18.
*
MY FIRST YEAR WITH AUSTIN
Chapter 14: Greek Fever
Mykonos... Greek ephebes wandering around in revealing bathing trunks, showing-off on Europe's most beautiful (and open-minded) beaches. In short: the gay Heaven!
I had heard so much about that place, but although it was tempting, I had never seriously considered going. Europe was expansive and my life had been too crazy to travel abroad.
That was until the opportunity presented itself when I took the spot of the psycho gogo-dancer who was supposed to marry my best friend!
Let me tell you, Janice made quite the impression when we arrived at the airport, 24 hours early to the flight she was supposed to take with Richard, in her full-on wedding dress.
Given the situation, the staff was not too difficult to put us both in an earlier flight. I guess the juicy story of the runaway bride leaving the country with her best friend was simply too good to resist.
One of the (cute) stewards even asked Janice for a selfie.
"I think I'm a celebrity when I wear this!" She told me, putting her seat-belt over the white dress.
When we got offered a glass of champagne, she shouted to the other passengers: "Fuck Richard! Cheers to that!"
"I'm not the husband..." I was mumbling on my side to avoid any confusion. "... neither the secret lover!"
Poor Richard... I had stolen his future-wife, one of his most expansive suits, and I was about to get his honey-moon too.
I would not cry for him though, especially considering what was going to happen next... If you think you have seen the worst of "psycho-Dick", you are sadly mistaken.
But more on that shit show later.
For now, we were high, and not only because we were sitting on a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. We had not taken any drugs either. We were thrilled by the escape! We were high on the rollercoaster we had just been through!
To be honest, I was anxious about the moment where the reality would hit Janice. She was drinking, taking all the attention in, she was laughing and talking loudly, but I was expecting her to fall apart at any point.
In the span of a couple of hours, she had gone from getting married to Mr. Perfect, to runaway to Greece after learning her fiancé was a gigolo who had lied to her about pretty much everything.
When we landed in Athens, she was still very excited though. Way too excited for it to last, but eh, everybody reacts their own way to trauma so I just went with the flow.
In this particular case, it meant going with the flow of gorgeous men.
In the first couple of days we spent in Greece, Janice was on fire. She was singing in bars, dancing like nobody was watching, eating every good (and unhealthy) thing she could, and drinking heavily... She was also flirting (and making-out) with every hot guy we would meet.
"YOLO!" She was shouting while sipping tequila over the abs of a waiter.
Konstantin, Dimitris, Giorgos... I was ordering a cocktail and she had already a new shirtless Greek boy in her arms! The girl was unsatiable!
I was starting to think that Janice was actually relieved by the situation, maybe she did not want to get married with Richard deep down and this had been a blessing in disguise, until she broke down on day four of our trip.
Sure, it was awkward when I saw her crumbing down into the arms of Giannis, a 21 years-old hunk we had just met while arriving on the island of Mykonos, - the poor guy had no idea what to do with that thirty-something American woman who was telling him about how "Dick had betrayed her" -, but it was ultimately for the best.
Janice needed to latch out and I was getting seriously concerned she would not confront her feelings.
I brought her back to our bedroom, -- the most beautiful "honey-moon" suite you can imagine, with a grand view on the Mediterranean Sea, (Richard really was loaded as fuck!) -, and we spent the rest of the day crying and hashing things out.
It was about time.
"You know what the worst part is? I'm angrier at myself than I'm mad at him!"
"Jan, don't say that. He's the asshole, you're the victim here."
"Women can sense stuff like that, you know. There were signs. Intuitions. I realized a couple of times that he could not have been where he told me that he was. But I let it go. I ignored it. I wanted this to work. So bad."
"You were in love."
She rolled her wet eyes.
"I was dumb as a rock! I mean... When I think that the day before our wedding, he was sliding naked into a bath with you, trying to blackmail you, what the actual fuck?"
I still felt very bad about that whole thing.
"I'm sorry, Janice. Maybe I should have reacted differently, I..."
"Tyler, the man was supposed to marry me and he drugged you! He was... He was shoving dildos up his ass when I thought he was going to work in a freaking trade centre. How fucked-up can he be? It's Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde."
Ouch. That hurt but it was also pretty accurate.
"You should not look at his porn page... You're only torturing yourself."
"Trust me, I did not have to look for long before I had to puke! I just... I just wanted to believe I had found the jackpot. A real man. Mature, self-made, who knew what he wanted in life, but it was whole just a mask. You know that he keeps on trying to call me. I want to burn my phone down!"
I hugged her as warmly as I could. I wanted to take her pain away. If only life was that simple.
"His fucking loss. That man does not deserve you. And you, Jan... You deserve everything in life. You'll find someone... Someone good."
"No, I won't. I'll have fun, I'll date, but I won't find anyone. Guys are assholes, all of them."
"Thanks for me!"
"Oh, come on, you know what I mean."
I chuckled.
"Not that my relationships are an example to follow anyway..." I conceded.
"We must stay strong, Ty. They'll ask us back, I'm sure. But we have to promise each other, we cannot go back to them. We should not answer to any of their texts or calls. Austin, Richard, two pathetic men, two fucking worthless liars!"
Although I was not too sure that we could compare Austin's lies when finding out his soon-to-be ex-wife was pregnant with Franck's double identity, I approved and promised Janice.
"At least, we have each other." I told her.
"The more I think about it, the more I realize that the friendship between a woman and her gay best friend is the best kind of relationships one can have in the end."
We drank some more. Maybe that was not reasonable.
"To us!" I said, raising my glass.
"You know what's funny?"
"What is? That I finally got to be with my all-time crush and it turned out that he had gotten his wife pregnant in the meantime? Or that I was fantasizing about a hot dude online without even realizing he was the guy who was supposed to marry my best friend?"
"Shut up, none of the above. When we met, in freshman year. You remember the first college party we went to? We drove there in the same car and then, we went back to our dorms, only the two of us. I was driving."
It was more than ten years before but I did remember that evening very well.
"A drunk dude had puked all over my shirt that night." I spoke.
"Oh yes, that's right, I had forgotten about this detail. Well... Before we went there, Ashley was telling me she wanted to shoot her shot with Austin and I... I was supposed to shoot my shot with you. Funny, right?!"
I swallowed my saliva. I was not too sure how I was supposed to react to that piece of news.
"You were into me that much?" I smirked.
"Don't be so full of yourself. It was my first week in college and I was looking for my very first boyfriend. You seemed nice enough. I did not make a move though, I... I sort of understood rather quickly you were more into the frat guys than into me."
All those years later, I still blushed thinking back of the time of my life before my coming-out. The ridiculous lies you tell...
"I did realize that you might have been interested but I also figured that you understood we, as a couple, were not really an option. Also, you were so uptight back then, it was hard to like you!"
I was holding her hands; the conversation was well-spirited. She laughed.
"I'm not so uptight anymore. Who would have thought we would end-up going on our honey-moon together?"
I laughed too and that was the moment when it happened.
Janice kissed me. On the lips.
We were both fairly drunk and exhausted. I was also freshly broken-up and in need of physical attention so I gave her back a second kiss. For a split second there, something might have happened.
I am glad that we came back to our senses though.
"Sometimes, I wish I were straight." I muttered awkwardly.
"Don't... Being gay seems to be so much more fun."
The cringy moment had passed. We did not even have to mention the kisses. We knew that they did not mean anything.
We slept in the same King Size bed for the next ten days, but of course, nothing else happened.
At least, not between Janice and I. We did manage to have a nice time, -- each on our own -, with the locals.
Rather quickly, Janice found herself an Italian guy, Ricardo, spending a few days in Greece. He was a bit older but handsome. He also was freshly divorced. A perfect match.
On my side, I was still thinking a lot about Austin and even though the Adonises walking down the gay beaches I was spending most of my time at looked handsome, I did not make a move... Until three days before the end of our trip.
His name was Nicholas, he was six feet tall, barely 22 and he was one the lifeguards on the largest gay beach I had become a regular to.
At first, we were going there with Janice, but since she was spending more and more of her time with her Italian boyfriend, I ended-up tanning there alone for a couple of afternoons.
I am not complaining, the weather was perfect, the food was delicious, I was paying these entire holidays with Richard's credit card, and the view -- both the sea and the boys -- was stunning.
I had noticed Nicholas and his brown curly hair the moment I had walked onto the beach.
He was rocking the typical red broad shorts with his hairy muscular thighs, the shorts were smaller than the ones worn by the American lifeguards which I heartedly approved, but I had no idea whether he had even just looked at me.
I mean, the beach was full of athletic gay men walking around in tiny revealing speedos and I did not think I was noticeable despite the sexy orange swimsuit I had bought my first day in Greece.
See, Janice and I did not really have time to pack considering how we ended-up going to Mykonos and I had to run to a store when I got there. Janice had helped me pick a couple of very gay, but also very fitting, pair of speedos.
Talking about grabbing the life guard attention, I should mention the most comfortable guys who were going for "no-tan-line" and enjoying their time in the beach fully nude.
You really should visit Europe if you have the chance!
