Jerry Hoskins closed his eyes and counted to ten, cursing for the hundredth time that he had ever accepted that fucking Craigslist ad looking for a roommate
He picked up his gallon of milk with a furious look in his eyes and shook it, watching the half-inch of milk left in the bottom slosh back and forth, growing frothy.
Written in bold, optimistic sharpie across the side of the jug were the words "JERRY'S MILK! BUY YOUR OWN!" As if messages like that had ever fucking worked on Chris. For a second Jerry weighed just letting it go. Their lease was almost up. In a month he would never have to see Chris Denson ever again.
But the principle of the thing was what mattered. Principle was why Jerry still marked all of his things in sharpie, even though it never even made Chris hesitate. And it was why he was going to march over to Chris's room, just like he always did, even though he knew that it wouldn't accomplish anything.
Jerry closed the fridge door with his hip and made a beeline to Chris's room, seething with resentment. Jerry didn't see himself as a difficult person. Disciplined maybe. Strict with himself and others perhaps. But difficult? Never. Jerry wouldn't even care if Chris helped himself to an occasional glass of milk, or a roll of toilet paper, or a frozen pizza Jerry had bought.
But it wasn't just once in a while. Chris's casual "borrowing" was fucking constant. Jerry's asshole roommate wouldn't buy anything if he could mooch it. And that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was his fucking attitude about the whole issue...
When Jerry swung open the door to Chris's room, his huge, muscular roommate was lounging back on his bed as usual. The bastard had a huge bowl of fucking cereal in front of him, happily munching away, milk fucking dripping down his chin.
But Chris wasn't alone tonight.
Seeing Kelly North took a little of the wind out of Jerry's self-righteous sails. Kelly was Chris's girlfriend, and she was the sort of girl who made Jerry feel awkward and tongue-tied just from her presence. She was a petite, spunky firecracker of a woman. She was the head of the college dance team, and she had the lithe, tight little body to prove it. Kelly had thick, natural blonde hair perpetually pulled up into a casual ponytail, a sprinkling of freckles over her cute features, and playful brown eyes that always made you feel like you were either in on the joke, or the butt of the joke, depending on her mood.
Jerry usually felt like the butt of the joke.
Kelly was the sort of girl who had been able to easily attract the hottest guys in high school, and never considered looking further than that when it came to dating. Why would she when she had the hottest, richest, coolest guys drooling for her?
The fact that this impossibly gorgeous girl was dating his asshole roommate was enough to make Jerry feel awkward around her all on its own. But what had happened a few months ago made being around the gorgeous young woman sheer torture for Jerry...
"J-man!" said Chris, around a mouthful of cereal. "Ever heard of knocking? What if me and Kelly had been getting busy in here?" His voice was joking, but there was an undercurrent of cold cruelty that was impossible to miss. Chris was a mean, spiteful meathead who had taken one look at Jerry on move-in day and instantly classified his new short, thin roommate as beneath him in every way. He had treated Jerry with casual disrespect ever since.
Chris raised a thick eyebrow at Jerry. "Well anyway. What can I do for you?" he asked, conspicuously taking another big bite of breakfast cereal. Kelly suppressed a giggle, covering her mouth in amusement at the sight of Jerry standing flustered in the doorway with his empty jug of milk.
"Chris..." said Jerry vaguely, trying to fight through the sudden awkwardness of seeing Kelly unexpectedly. He raised the empty milk jug and sloshed its pitiful remaining milk around. "You can't just take my stuff. You need to buy your own shit." He had planned to come in with guns blazing, but in the moment, his voice sounded weak and whiny even to his ears. Kelly snorted another giggle, turning to bury her face in Chris's shoulder.
Chris grinned and held up a finger, raising the bowl to his lips and gulping down the remaining milk, making Jerry wait as he downed the last of it. He let out a loud "Ahhhh!" much to Kelly's breathless amusement.
Jerry could see it in Chris's shit-eating grin. He was about to say it. That same old fucking phrase that he used every time. The one that made Jerry's blood boil.
"Jesus, J-man, didn't they ever teach you anything in kindergarten?" asked Chris with nasty fake-friendliness, "Sharing is caring!"
Jerry felt his pulse rev up. This time he wasn't going to let it pass. He had heard enough of that fucking phrase. He was really going to let Chris have it. It didn't matter that Kelly was here. She could listen too. Maybe then she would stop looking at him that way.
But as he opened his mouth, Chris bulldozed over him with his booming, confident voice. "Now get the fuck out of my room, Jerry. Me and Kelly need some private time, and we don't want a little perv like you sniffing around. Right, babe?"
Then Jerry turned and saw the amused disgust in Kelly's deep brown eyes. The same expression she always wore when looking at him ever since that day a few months ago.
And he caved. Jerry turned tail and retreated from the room.
There was just no way he could face a beautiful girl like Kelly now that she knew all his deepest darkest secrets.
...
Kelly North stared up at the ceiling, listening to her boyfriend snore noisily next to her. Kelly could never count on pillow talk or cuddling from her big lug of a man. After every session, he would roll over and be out like a light within minutes, no matter what time of day. It was one of his many bad habits.
Kelly sighed and shook her head at her own bitchiness. She was being unfair. In a lot of ways, Chris was talented in bed. His size was perfect: big but not painfully so. More importantly, he had stamina and power, which was a must for Kelly: she loved a man who could take charge and throw her around a little.
It wasn't his fault that Kelly's mind had been... focused on other things lately.
No, it wasn't Chris's fault. It was that pervy little loser that Chris had been forced to room with.
Jerry gave Kelly the creeps. Ever since the day they had first been introduced, Jerry's eyes had always seemed to linger on Kelly's body whenever he looked her way. Jerry was obviously checking her out at every opportunity he got. As if a little dork like him could have a chance with someone like her.
So, while Kelly recognized that Chris was being a major asshole by messing with Jerry all the time, she couldn't really fault her boyfriend. Jerry was the kind of creepy loser whose baseline existence was just a little annoying, and it was sort of satisfying to see a superior guy like Chris put the little perv in his place.
But if Jerry used to creep her out, he just flat-out disgusted her after what she and Chris discovered several months ago.
Chris had just broken his laptop again, and the new one his dad bought for him hadn't come in the mail yet. So, one day, while Jerry was off doing whatever nerds do, Chris decided to borrow his roomie's laptop to get some homework done.
It was the whole "sharing is caring" joke that Chris thought was so funny again. A series of petty little power plays that her boyfriend knew Jerry was too much of a pussy to stop. Eyerollingly immature? Yes. But boys would be boys, and even Kelly had to admit it was pretty funny to watch the weedy little nerd get all flustered and angry when Chris "borrowed" his stuff. Regardless, this time it was easy, Jerry had forgotten to lock his laptop, leaving it open on his desk for Chris to borrow.
That was how they found the pictures.
An entire album of some of the filthiest, most erotic images Kelly had ever seen. A pale, curvaceous woman bound with ropes. With leather straps. Blindfolded. Gagged. Her ass spanked red. An entire bondage photoshoot. Kelly and Chris spent an hour flipping through the pictures with fascinated horror. Then they found another album. And another.
All of them were filled with photos of gorgeous, naked women. All of them were bound at the mercy of the photographer, and all of them were in a state of wild arousal.
Kelly laughed along with Chris as he mockingly paged through his roommate's "porn stash", but, despite her disgust, she couldn't help but feel a certain... fascination. Kelly had always enjoyed rough stuff in bed, and a dominant, commanding attitude was usually the fastest way to get her hot and bothered. So the concept of a man getting even rougher and stricter with her, even to the point of ropes and whips... it wasn't wholly unappealing.
Once, on Valentine's Day, a previous boyfriend had brought along a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs, and, long story short, Kelly had cum her brains out. She had been too embarrassed about it afterward to request that they become a regular bedroom fixture, but the idea had always kicked around the back of her head. These pornographic images were bringing those thoughts back in a major way.
So by the time Jerry came back to the apartment to find Chris hooting and hollering at the private pictures on his laptop, was Kelly feeling the tiniest bit horny? Sure. I mean, that was only natural when you had just spent an hour looking at porn, right? It didn't mean anything.
Kelly had never seen Jerry get so angry. Chris just kept repeating his mocking "Sharing is Caring" line, but this time Jerry wasn't having any of it. Jerry started saying something about how those photos were private, and Chris looking at them was a complete breach of the pictured women's privacy. Then he said something that made even Chris stop in confused shock.
Jerry said that when he took the pictures, he had sworn to the women that no one else but him would ever see them.
