Zachary Cortez-Johnson knew that there were rumors about him. What surprised him wasn't that there were rumors - he'd expected as much, being one of only two humans at the school along with her sister Carly, who nowadays had herself a rumored relationship with her swim coach.
No, the rumors Zach was aware of concerned his two roommates. He knew many of the other guys in his class were envious of his supposed luck.
Zach's rooming with two girls,
they murmured.
How does he get that lucky?
A clerical goof, that was how it had happened. Neither he nor Pemma nor Zel had objected. They were adults after all, and all three were in relationships, and there hadn't seemed to be a need to make a big deal out of it.
Apparently some people thought that he was sleeping with both girls, sometimes simultaneously. Zach had to roll his eyes every time he heard that one. For one thing, his girlfriend Debbie was very keen on them making long distance work, despite the light years that separated them.
For two, Pemma and Zel despised one another.
"So what's got them fighting now?" Debbie asked.
Zach turned up the volume in his headphones to drown out the kessa and the enn'cief arguing. "Some new development in the saga. Apparently after Zel slept with Pemma's other half and she retaliated by blowing Zel's favorite, Zel hooked up with the both guys." Zach paused for a moment. "Apparently this is also somehow connected to Zel's appetite. For food, I mean, not just for getting laid."
"You said she's how big?" Debbie asked, leaning back in her chair. She was fresh out of the shower, so she was wearing pajama bottoms and a shirt, attacking her black hair with a brush.
"Five ten, ninety-nine pounds, as she loves to remind me," Zach said. "Apparently that's a lucky combination or something to the enn'cief. I've never checked if she's just been pulling my leg. But she eats like she's got a hole in her leg and never seems to gain any weight, so."
Debbie hummed in acknowledgment. Their weekly vidcomm call was always a nice marker to reach, despite the fact that afternoons on this planet occurred when Debbie was getting up in the mornings for her own university classes. This was also in addition to the messages they sent back and forth to each other almost every day.
"On track for exams?" Debbie asked him as she finished with her hair.
"Just about," Zach said. He looked over beside his computer, where several datapads sat with his textbooks open. "Gonna be a slog."
"You'll get through it," Debbie said warmly. Her phone bipped and she gave it a glance, her expression neutral. "I've got to get going, unfortunately."
"No show?" Zach asked with a pout.
"I never said that," Debbie said, getting up out of her chair. She'd just come from the shower, so when she lifted her shirt over her shoulders her firm, perky tits came into view. Zach took a breath and leaned back in his chair. Debbie winked at him, then turned and slid her pajama bottoms down, treating him to a lovely view of her firm rear and the ghost of the sight of her labia between her legs. She turned in place once, treating him to a view, then blew a kiss at him.
"Love you, Debs," Zach said, his cock hard as iron in his pants.
"Love you too," Debbie said, running her hands up and down her sides. "Think about me tonight."
"And every other night," Zach said.
She blew him another kiss, then pressed the button to disconnect the call. Zach smiled. She always left him like that, and it always made him feel a sense of giddy longing. A part of him had never quite forgiven his parents for moving them to the Galactic Core a couple years previous, when Debbie was still on Mars in the Sol system. The day before they'd left had been his eighteenth birthday, and he and Debbie had said goodbye by losing their virginities to one another. It had been one of the best nights of his life.
Now he was thousands of light years from his beloved, already working on any way he could to return to Mars and be with her. The distance was getting to him. He wanted to have Debbie in his arms again, smell the scent of her tangerine shampoo and run his fingers through her hair. Though he'd be lying if he said he didn't want to do more lewd things to her as well. He'd gone two years only seeing Debbie's chest, for one thing. The thing he wanted to touch immediately after her hair was her tits.
Zach sighed and adjusted himself. He could take care of his erection later. Studying awaited. He made to put on music to drown out Pemma and Zel, then realized they weren't yelling any more.
His door slid open automatically as the pressure pad registered someone. He turned around. Zel stomped into his room, then comically threw herself face first onto Zach's bed. She growled loudly into his sheets.
"Uh, Zel, I'm kind of in the middle of something," Zach said.
"I need a minute," Zel said, rolling over onto her side. Zel was an enn'cief, an anthropoid race that looked like crosses between squirrels and fennec foxes. He didn't like to make sweeping generalizations about the species of the galaxy like his mother did, but all the enn'cief he had encountered at the school had all been rowdy and hyper. Zel was no exception, except she seemed keen on channeling her boundless energy into taking as many people to bed as possible. And as far as the rumors went, she was rather prolific in her appetites.
"You get two," Zach said, leaning back in his chair.
Zel sighed and rolled onto her back. She had dark fur, the same color and luster as a panther. Her big foxy ears were lined with small studs, and she had two talon-like piercings through her lower lip. She dressed in clothes that complimented her fur, dark greens, blues and blacks. Beside her side, her fluffy tail rested on his sheets, the tip twitching every once every few seconds. "Thanks, Zach," she said. "You're cool."
"I thought I heard something about the fridge?" Zach prompted. "Did you eat Pemma's food again?"
"Hey, it's not my fault those vegetable things she makes are so damn good!" Zel protested. "I can't just not eat them." She frowned. "Also I've been so fucking hungry lately. Like every day I feel like I need to eat the whole fridge. Pemma thinks it's... ah, whatever."
Zach leaned forward in his chair slightly, his eyes flicking over the contours of her slim hips. He always wondered if this was her natural color or if she dyed it. On his weaker days he wondered what her figure looked like in more intimate detail. Was her whole body black?
He shook his head, ashamed that his body and mind were going down that path when his girlfriend had just bared everything for him. "You know this is all because you slept with Baryan, right?"
Zel snorted. "I keep saying it, he came onto me, not the other way around. I have the message logs to prove it!" She deepen her voice, mimicking Pemma. "You can fake that stuff easily, you're a computer engineering student. Like that's a fucking excuse." She rolled her eyes. "Give me a break."
"But you still went through with it, though."
"Well, duh." Zel's grin was smug. "He's a male ervicen in his prime. He had a big dick. Of course I'm gonna go through with it. If you're trying to be monogamous in college you're wasting your time -- present company excepted. Settling down is for later, banging three guys at once is for now."
Zach stopped himself before he could ask if she'd ever done that. The answer was probably yes. "Just don't expect her to take this lying down," Zach said. "She'll up the ante on you now."
Zel snorted. "I'd like to see her try." She reached up and scratched at the back of her neck, and Zach noticed that the fur there was thinner, as if she'd been scratching constantly.
"You sure you're okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," Zel snapped. "Just need a nap is all. And some time away from bitchtits." She rolled off Zach's bed and stood up, her long fluffy tail flicking around behind her. Normally it hung casually, but lately it seemed to be creeping up and up even when it was at rest. He'd caught Zel yanking it down as if she didn't have full control of it, like a spasming limb.
"Alright, long as you're sure," Zach said.
Zel gave him a wave as she left, his door shutting firmly behind her. Zach turned back to his computer, trying his best to immerse himself in his work. Exam week was still exam week, no matter what part of the galaxy you were in.
He tried his best to focus on what he was doing, and not let extraneous thoughts into his mind. After coming to the Core he'd decided to major in physics, a decision which he had gone back and forth about whether or not he regretted it or not. He was current in a "didn't regret it" mood. The galaxy was a big place, and there were plenty of places that needed physicists to keep the progress of science going. Particularly back in the human territories in Sol, given that there were only a few hundred thousand humans left nowadays. Things still hadn't quite settled down there yet, from the news he caught snippets of occasionally. The identity of who had turned Earth's orbital defenses against it was still a mystery. Zach held out hope that someday someone would bring the truth to light, but for now it seemed the governing bodies of humanity seemed to content with trying to build up Mars and Colony Victory in orbit above Jupiter as the new epicenters of humanity. They needed everything -- scientists, builders, artisans, but more than anything else, they needed people.
Zach thought about Zel's comment about monogamy, and her "present company excepted" clarification. He didn't know what enn'ceif traditions about coupling and relationships were, but he honestly preferred Pemma's take on it. Ervicen were notoriously traditional in a galaxy where sexuality was often rather fast and loose. And that was what he wanted with Debbie. In a galaxy where humanity wanted to rebuild, he wanted that essential connection, the one thing that transcended all the tragedy of humanity: true, one on one love.
He realized he was thinking about relationship philosophies instead of the laws of gravity, and refocused on his books. However, there was a knock at his door, which meant it was Pemma, because she always knocked. "Come in, Pemma," he called over his shoulder.
The door opened as Zach put up his book and turned around in his chair again. Pemma was an ivory-furred ervicen, not a common color but not an artificial one either. She was also a bit of a bigger girl, though Zach would never count that as a mark against her. She wasn't fat by anyone's measure, but there was a maternal thickness to her chest and hips that was apparently considered incredibly attractive by the deer-like aliens. To Zach, though, her most prominent feature were her eyes. Ervicen had four, a primary pair and a secondary pair, and Pemma's were a clear, pretty blue.
Those four eyes lidded as she sniffed, her nostrils flaring. "Zel came in here?"
"About fifteen minutes ago, then stomped off to her room."
Pemma made a noise of disgust and fanned her nose. "Good, hopefully she stays there. I don't know how she can be in denial about something so obvious."
