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voice. Dominic leaned down to Blake’s level so that they

were face-to-face, nose-to-nose. The tension between them

was thick and Blake really thought he was about to get in a

fight with this asshole.

“Would you boys break it up?” Professor Jakobs said in a

hard voice. The grey of her short-cropped hair and the

brown-grey of her eyes mirrored her tone as she peered over

her reading glasses. “Mr. Mercante, quit harassing Mr.

Weber and get in your seat please.”

Blake shot her a grateful smile and leaned down to grab

his notebook off the ground, only to be beaten to it. He

looked up just in time to see Riley holding the book out to

him with one of his winning dimpled smiles.

“Thanks,” Blake said in a slightly shy voice, taking it and

settling it back on top of his English book.

“You’re welcome. Was Dominic harassing you again?”

Riley asked, sitting beside him and pulling out his books.

Blake suddenly felt like he couldn’t breathe, but he nodded a

little. “Damn it. I thought I taught him a lesson the first

time.”

“Well, he was just taunting me and calling you my

boyfriend,” Blake muttered in an embarrassed tone, bending

down to pull two pens out of his bag— one for writing

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notes, and the other for doodling in his notebook.

“So he’s calling me your boyfriend now? Just last week he

was scoffing about Ethan being your boyfriend,” Riley said,

quirking an eyebrow in confusion as he got his own book

out from his backpack. “I think he just wants you, honestly.”

“Why would he want me?” Blake asked with a scoff,

missing whatever expression had come onto Riley’s face.

“Easy. You’re sweet, funny, smart, attractive and

all-around pretty awesome. All the things he wishes he

could be but he’s not,” Riley said.

“You say that so casually,” Blake remarked, but in reality

his heart was pounding hard in his chest and it was a hell of

a feat to control his breathing. Attractive? Sweet? Who the

hell was Riley talking about? If he thought he was talking

about him, he was delusional.

“Just the truth. What’d you expect me to do, sugar-coat

it?” Riley scoffed, but his tone wasn’t unkind, just plain and

matter-of-fact.

“No,” Blake said, turning his attention away from Riley.

Luckily, the professor started talking and he had to pay

attention to her, but that was just an excuse.

What Riley had just said went against everything that he

thought about himself.

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lake was still very much lost in thought as the class

B came to a close, and even as he automatically marked

the night’s reading, he was still thinking deeply about what

Riley had said. He wondered what made Riley say things

like that. It made him mildly uncomfortable, but also little

bit giddy, considering he was pretty sure Riley didn’t know

about his status. The praise had made Blake suspicious.

“Hey, you okay?” Riley asked from behind him, and

Blake jumped a bit and inhaled sharply as he glanced over

his shoulder with an unsure smile.

“Yeah. Everyone’s been asking me that lately,” Blake

laughed it off, but deep down he was wondering exactly

why that was. Had he really been that off? He also had to

stop and consider that the people who had been asking the

questions didn’t know him all that well.

“I dunno, you just seem very thoughtful ‘s all. Didn’t

mean to try and intrude or whatever,” Riley said, slinging

his backpack over his shoulder. Blake just smiled a bit at him

and shook his head. It kind of amused him, honestly, even if

it was annoying. Then again, it really wasn’t all that

annoying once he got over the initial shock that came with

people he barely knew asking about his well-being. The only

person he was used to it with was Ethan, and half the time

he didn’t have to ask.

“Nah, you’re fine, but you guys still have a lot to learn

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when it comes to me and what it means when I’m quiet, I’m

just saying,” he said, sliding his messenger bag over his

shoulders and turning to walk out of the room. Funny thing,

though, was that Riley was right. He was deep in thought

right now, not that he wanted to admit that or admit what

was going on in his head, but hey.

He shot a furtive glance over to Dominic as he stepped

toward the door and pulled it open, only to see the other

man glaring intensely at him. The thought nearly made him

squirm, but instead he straightened his spine and walked

right past him.

Was Riley really right or did Dominic just fucking hate

him?

He shook the thought off and walked with Riley out of

the room, parting ways with him with a smile and a nod.

Riley seemed to want to say something, but maybe he didn’t

know how to say it or maybe Blake was being hopeful, but

in the end they went different ways down the halls near the

113-114 Aspen classrooms and he walked alone down the

hall, glancing up at odd moments to make sure he wasn’t

going to run into anyone.

He had a nasty habit of looking down when he walked,

and so in high school he used to run into people all the time.

It was unfortunately a habit he had yet to break but he

definitely looked up more often now, so he didn’t run into

anyone.

Unfortunately, he looked down at the wrong moment and

slammed hard into someone anyway. He hadn’t actually

been walking all that fast though, so he had to wonder if

whoever slammed into him was pushed.

There was an emasculating squeak and Blake looked up

in time to see a smaller, thin man a little shorter than him

sprawling on the floor with his bag clutched to his stomach

as he seemed to tuck and roll away. He had a small build,

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very gangly almost to the point of being gaunt.

“Hey, dude, are you okay?” Blake asked, furrowing his

brows a little as the man scrambled up from his curled

position, dark eyes alight with both confusion and a mild,

diluted sort of annoyance.

“I…well, no, I’m not okay,” he said with a California

accent, using his hands to animate his words, and Blake

smirked a little. “Stupid fuckin’ people.”

“I’m sorry about that. I have a bad habit of not looking

where I’m going,” Blake explained, laughing a little as the

smaller man shrugged like it actually wasn’t a big deal even

though he seemed to want to make it a dramatic affair.

“It’s cool, you didn’t even knock into me anyway. Some

asshole did. I’m Julian,” he said, holding out his hand, which

was tattooed to hell and back. Blake started at it for a

moment before he made his move.

It was strange, this kid. He’d never seen him before. He

had hazel-brown eyes, a heart-shaped face framed by black

and red hair cut in an interesting style along with black

pants splattered with what looked like fake blood and a shirt

that looked much the same.

Blake smiled and held out his hand, grasping firmly and

shaking it as he replied with a simple, “Blake.”

“Nice to meet you,” Julian said with a slight grin. Blake

had to wonder if he actually knew how to smile in the right

capacity or he just sneered or smirked or whatever he was

doing right now.

“Likewise,” he said with a small but genuine smile. It

went right over Julian’s head, most likely, but he didn’t

really care all that much. “So, were you going that way?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Julian said, cocking an eyebrow and

pulling out a piece of paper and looking at it closely. “Yes,

Aspen 121.”

“It’s right around the corner, on your left,” Blake said,

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nodding behind him and motioning vaguely behind him

and rocking back on his heels. “I guess I’ll see you around

then, huh?”

“Yeah, definitely. See ya!” Julian exclaimed, moving past

Blake and walking, or rather bouncing, down the hall

toward the room that he’d directed him to. Blake just

watched him go and had a bemused look on his face.

Now that guy is something else.

* * * *

Devon was late. Oh man, he was very late. He’d been late to

every single fucking class so far since he’d gotten to the

college, but that was because the damn campus was

confusing as hell. There were four buildings, but they were

at least a quarter of a mile away from each other. He was an

idiot who had scheduled his classes only half an hour apart.

He was panicking a little as he reached the biology class

that he and Blake were supposedly sharing. He had to

breathe for a second, so his chest didn’t cave in on him or he

didn’t try and cough his lungs up or something equally

unpleasant.

He burst in the door, and he met the eye of a bemused

older man with piercing blue eyes, reading out of a book.

The man raised his eyebrows at him and cocked his head.

“Sorry, the campus is confusing,” Devon panted, running

his hands through his hair as he stepped through the door.

“I understand, and I assume you are Devon Kittredge.

Come in and shut the door, take your seat next to Mr.

Weber, and let me continue,” Professor Hermanni said in a

heavy European accent.

“Okay,” Devon panted, moving into the room.

He crossed the room and waded through the other

students, apologizing as he got in their way, before settling

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down in his seat beside Blake, and he sighed heavily,

collapsing back into the chair and letting his head fall back.

“You’re breathing like you ran a marathon,” Blake said in

an amused but distracted tone, and Devon looked up just in

time to see him writing notes down on a loose piece of

paper.

“This campus is fuckin’ bullshit, man. Everything’s so far

apart and there’s no names on any of the buildings or

anything,” Devon said in a breathless voice, sitting up

straight and pulling out his book.

“Yeah, you kinda get used to it after a while,” Blake said

with a soft chuckle, putting down his pen and glancing up

as the professor started drawing a diagram on the

whiteboard.

Devon looked up and scoffed, rubbing his cheeks and

sighing, “Oh, come on, I learned about mitosis in high

school. Seriously?”

“Maybe he’ll go deeper into it this time,” Blake said with

a shrug that told him he didn’t even believe his own words.

“Besides, college-level biology is just a stepping-stone, a

refresher course just in case you wanna go into any of the

harder sciences.”

“Oh, well, don’t you sound so smart,” Devon teased,

nudging Blake’s elbow with his own, grinning at him. Blake

just laughed and shook his head.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” he replied, shooting him a sidelong

glance and shifting in his seat with a soft sigh. “This is gonna

be a boring class, I can tell already. I aced high school bio.”

“I didn’t, so this should be fun!” Devon said, sarcasm

tingeing his tone. He liked science, but the mumbo-jumbo

that came with it all bored the shit out of him. He didn’t like

the technical side of it all. He liked the hands-on approach.

He also liked Chemistry a little more than was healthy. He

didn’t want to think about the time he and Andy had blown

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up the Chem lab at their high school.

Blake shook his head and glanced up at him again,

curiosity lingering in his bright hazel eyes along with a

wicked intellect he hadn’t noticed before. “Do you ever take

anything seriously, Devon?” he asked, and his tone was

unreadable.

Devon shrugged, even though it was a very odd,

out-of-the-blue question. “When the situation calls for it,

sure, but not very often,” he said rather honestly.

“Hmm,” was all Blake said, brows furrowing a little as he

turned his attention back to the front of the room. His eyes

darkened even as he obviously took in every single word the

professor was saying. “Sometimes I think I take everything

too seriously.”

“Probably, but hey, to each their own I figure. I don’t