College Men Pt. 1
Characters: Peter, Gabriel, Nathan, their parents (twinfic 'verse)
Rating: PG-13
Words: 3489
Summary: Peter and Gabriel start college. It's a big adjustment for Gabriel, in a lot of ways.
A/N: I won't pollute perdiccas's brilliance by saying that this is a sequel to her My Brother's Keeper, but it does assume a lot of plot elements that happened in that, such as that Peter and Gabriel stepped up their relationship the night they graduated from high school, that Peter went away for the entire summer---their first separation ever, that Gabriel was worried about what that meant for them, and that Peter was always the most loved, both by outside people and the family, etc.
Gabriel’s room was the car’s first stop after registering and picking up the keys at the housing office. Angela held the parking spot while Arthur and their three sons unloaded all the bags and boxes marked ‘Gabriel’ and lugged them to the double room he’d been assigned. It was small, but in one of the school’s oldest dorms. There were faux-Gothic touches and new furniture. It was perfect, everything anyone could have hoped for---anyone except Gabriel, that is.
“Sweet!” said Peter, whistling with approval as he hauled the last of the bags into the room. “I hope mine is half as good.”
“It’ll be better,” said Nathan, resting his hands on his knees and catching his breath from the three flights of stairs. “You’ve got a quad, Pete. There’ll be a common room and everything. More than just this one room.”
“And I can come visit?” Gabriel added hopefully. Peter grinned at him and gave him a little kick.
“Obviously. Like, every minute. And I’ll come visit you. We can have sleepovers, even.”
Gabriel felt a little thrill, knowing what Peter meant even if no one else did.
However, that said, Peter continued, “I hear people usually have dinner with their roommates on the first night, but come by tomorrow for lunch, ok?” Peter held his brother closely, too closely, like he always did. Gabriel ached, feeling certain that something was breaking right now, something that Peter was in denial about. But everyone was still around and Gabriel didn’t want to push the subject, so he just hugged his twin for as long as possible.
Arthur cleared his throat. “Time to get going. We’ve got to get you to your room, Peter. We don’t have all day. Well, good luck, son,” Arthur said, patting Gabriel distantly on the shoulder.
“What about Gabe’s stuff? He can’t set this up all by himself,” Nathan said with concern.
“I’m sure he can handle it. He’s a Princeton man now. It’s time to grow up,” Arthur said coldly. “Come on, Peter, your mother is waiting and she’s eager to get to your room.”
Peter grimaced at the blatant favoritism that he’d always hated being on the winning end of, and shot a sympathetic look Gabriel’s way. But Gabriel was more than used to it by now, and simply shrugged it off.
However, Nathan decided, “Hey, I’m going to stick around here for awhile. If you guys are already gone by the time I get to Peter’s room, I’ll just take the train back to the city.”
Arthur shrugged. “Whatever you want.” And he and Peter left.
“Hey, thanks for that,” Gabriel said.
Nathan gave him a noogie, like he always did when he didn’t want to ‘get mushy’, as he called it. “What else are big brothers for?”
And so, it was Nathan who helped Gabriel unpack. It was Nathan who rearranged the sparse desk furniture into something more workable, and it was Nathan who went with him to the university store to buy supplies and decorations, helping to pick out things that were ‘cool’ while still being ‘Gabriel.’ Much as he knew he should be grateful to Nathan for being there for him when everyone else had left, Gabriel still irrationally resented his older brother, because this was all his fault to begin with.
If Nathan hadn’t been so vocally outraged when he found out that Peter and Gabriel were thinking of rooming together as a matter of course, they’d all be together now. But Nathan had convinced Peter that college was all about making new friends, and that the twins should “leverage their dual assets” by making themselves the center of two groups. Peter had come around to the idea back in the spring, telling Gabriel that Nathan was right. They’d always be everything to each other anyway, so they might as well live freshman year to the fullest and then room together for the remaining three years. It made sense, but Gabriel had been looking forward to finally escaping their repressive family life and being with Peter---just them, without anyone watching, just like he thought they’d both always wanted.
So, it was with a grudging smile that he said farewell to Nathan later that day at the train station. He knew Nathan meant well. If Nathan hadn’t cared, Gabriel would have been left completely alone and traumatized.
Nathan gave his parting words of wisdom. “So, work just hard enough to get by, build up your alcohol tolerance, and have a great time. Also, mom and dad don’t know, but that box we didn’t unpack under your desk is full of vodka and gin and rum. Access to booze is key to popularity. When you run out, just let me know. There’s a whole lot of condoms in there, too. I want you to get lucky, but I don’t want you knocking anyone up. Is that understood?”
“Um, sure. Thank you.” Gabriel wasn’t really interested in hard alcohol, but he appreciated the gesture.
“Good. Oh, and here you go,” Nathan said as the train pulled into the station. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. It was full of hundred dollar bills.
“What’s this for?” Gabriel asked.
Nathan winked. “Just a little bit of the signing bonus I got when I started at the firm last month. Figured I’d slip it past mom and dad and give it to you guys. Peter got his yesterday. Girls like presents, Gabe. They like to be taken out to nice places and bought nice things. If you want to score, this’ll come in handy.”
Gabriel tried not to seem ungrateful, but he could hardly tell Nathan that he wasn’t interested in scoring with girls, in any way. All he wanted was Peter. Still, Nathan was being very kind, in his own skeevy way. “Thanks, Nathan. I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And if you ever want to really impress, you have the keys to my apartment. Just give me a ring and it’s all yours whenever you need it.”
“What about you?”
Nathan laughed. “I’m sure I’ll be able to find somewhere else to sleep on short notice.” And he winked disgustingly, his eyes drifting off to the side to ogle a girl who was also saying goodbye to her family. “Man, to be your age again… don’t forget to live the dream for me, Gabe, ok?” And with a bear hug, Nathan was gone and Gabriel was all alone again.
He trudged back to his room, wondering what Peter was doing right then. He wanted desperately to go visit, but he knew he should lay off and let Peter bond with his roommates like a normal person. It was just one night. They’d be together again the next day. In the meantime, Gabriel continued to futz around his room, leaving the door open like Nathan had suggested and hoping someone would stop by to talk to him. No one did.
At dinner time, so he went to his residential college’s dining hall, and sat down with a girl he vaguely recognized as having gone to the sister school of his boy’s school in New York. She looked at him in annoyance, and he knew that his presence was bringing down the coolness factor she was trying to build for herself. After a few bites of overcooked carrots and dry pasta, and a couple of inane conversations that consisted mostly of “where are you from?” and “what did you do over the summer?” he left. Gabriel wondered where his roommate was, and hoped that maybe he wasn’t meant to have one at all. He fell asleep that night fantasizing about having the space all to himself. He and Peter would have all the privacy they wanted, while still allowing them to make other friends. It was the best of both worlds.
At lunchtime the next day, Gabriel followed his map across campus to where Peter lived. He hated that it was as far away from his dorm as one could get. He walked down the long hallway until he found Peter’s door, and knocked.
“Yeah, it’s open!” a loud and obnoxious voice called.
Gabriel crept in, hesitantly. The common room was enormous, and full of furniture that the other guys must have brought. There was even a satellite dish perched precariously out the window. It was unmistakably going to be a party room. Peter and three huge jocks were sitting on the couch playing video games.
“Gabriel!” Peter cried, his face lighting up as he jumped out of his seat and over the controller cords to embrace his brother. “Hey, guys, this is my brother, Gabriel, who I was telling you about. Gabriel, these are my roommates Scott, Derek, and Brian.”
The three boys looked Gabriel up and down. “You don’t look alike,” Derek scoffed.
“Fraternal twins,” Gabriel mumbled, basking in the warmth of his brother’s arm wrapped around him again. He suddenly felt better.
“Wanna play?” Brian handed a control to Gabriel.
“Um, we were never allowed to play video games at home. I don’t really know how,” he admitted.
Gabriel was astonished to see Peter redden and mumble, “Shhh, what’d you have to say that for?” And then louder he added, “Well, we’re in college now. We can do whatever we want.”
“Yeah!” the rest of them heartily agreed.
They were playing some sort of four-person James Bond game on Nintendo 64---lots of shooting and blood. Peter sat the next round out in order to let his brother play. It didn’t take Gabriel long to figure out how things worked, and soon, he was calmly and coolly destroying all of their players without much effort, and in the most violent and score-accumulating ways possible.
Finally, when the game ended, Brian grumbled, “I thought you’d never played a video game before.”
Gabriel shrugged proudly. “Killer instincts, I guess.”
“Hustler,” Scott complained, and glared at him angrily. Gabriel thought he would have gained points with the roommates by gaining points in the game, but apparently not. The five of them went to lunch shortly afterwards, and much as Peter tried to include him in the conversation, it was clear that the three of them had little interest in Peter shy, awkward brother who seemed to lie about his prowess in video games.
However, they loved Peter. Everyone did, and always had. Peter always knew just the right thing to say, had just the right crooked smile to flash in order to put everyone at ease. Gabriel had always been more reserved, more sensitive. He was used to Peter being the popular one and didn’t mind; in fact, it always made him happy to see Peter surrounded by admirers, as he should be. Gabriel had always had a few of his own friends, but much as Peter always tried to show his brother off, Gabriel had come to enjoy his role as quiet observer. And so he did now, watching Peter charm these guys whom Gabriel would never have thought Peter would ever be friends with. Peter could charm anyone.
However, Gabriel felt even more out of place than usual once the conversation devolved into crude jokes about the girls who lived down their hallway and Gabriel felt a foot nudge his own. He looked up to find Peter winking at him lovingly, and smiled back at him. For a moment, it was as if no one else was around.
“So, how’s your roommate?” Peter asked.
“He hasn’t shown up yet. So I was thinking, if you want to come by…”
Peter’s eyes darted to the side to look nervously at his new friends. “Yeah, I’d like that,” he whispered back hotly. Then he cleared his throat and became ‘serious’ again. “We were going up to your part of campus tomorrow night anyway. There’s supposed to be a party in some sophomore’s room that is going to be epic. I’ll stop by before dinner, and then we can eat together before swinging over to the party?”
Gabriel was miffed that his hint hadn’t been directly addressed; he had little interest in the party, but he hoped that Peter’s agreement to spending some time alone with him in his room had been tacit and unspoken only because other people were around. “Yeah. Stop by whenever. I’ll be there.”
They all went to the 2pm orientation session for the day to learn about all about the different academic options open to them for the next four years. Gabriel wanted to listen, but had trouble hearing over the disrespectful racket Peter’s friends near him were making. Much to his dismay, Peter didn’t seem to mind.
Gabriel waited for Peter for most of the next day. It was almost 7:30 when he finally showed up. Gabriel jumped out of his chair by the window, where he had been reading the course guide to pass the time. He pulled down the blind and ran to shut the door behind Peter.
In an instant, his mouth was on his brother’s, kissing Peter softly, his chapped lips stealing the grease from Peter’s lubricated ones. Peter kissed back hesitantly at first, but then warming into it and letting his hands slide up and down his brother’s back.
“Finally,” Gabriel sighed, burying his nose in Peter’s neck and smelling that essential Peter smell that he’d missed in the past 48 hours, hell, all summer. After the enormity of what they’d done on graduation night, it had almost killed Gabriel to immediately go three months with nothing at all, no repetition to make it real.
“Here, sit,” Gabriel beckoned between kisses, and pulled Peter towards the bed. They sank into it, and Gabriel gently pushed his brother down onto the mattress, hovering possessively above him. For the first time since they’d gotten in the car to come to this country-club-like horror, Gabriel felt at home. This was where he belonged, wrapped in Peter’s arms, his tongue teasing between Peter’s lips. “Missed you. Missed this,” he whispered.
“You, too,” Peter responded, finally letting go and swinging his feet up onto the bed. Gabriel trapped Peter’s legs underneath his own and entwined them so that they really felt as one swirling writhing body. Stretched on the bed, they rubbed against one another frantically, kissing until they were breathless and all of Peter’s chapstick had disappeared. Gabriel’s glasses began to slide down his nose, so he took his hand out from underneath Peter’s body to take them off, but Peter stopped him.
“What?” he asked, playfully growling into his brother’s ear.
Peter’s kisses and touches slowed. “We don’t have time to get too into it. The guys are waiting for us in the dining hall, and it’ll be weird if we don’t come down soon.”
“Who cares?” Gabriel breezily asked, and tried to push Peter’s shoe off with his own bare foot, but Peter gently but firmly pushed him away and sat up.
“I do. I’m kind of hungry,” he said hollowly.
Gabriel finally took the hint and disentangled himself from Peter. Sitting up, he said, “I thought… I thought you were coming up here for me.”
Peter rubbed the back of his head and tried to rearrange the clothes that Gabriel had mussed. “I did. Of course. But we’ve got to eat. And the party is supposed to start at 8:30.”
“But I don’t want to go to the party. I want to be with you,” Gabriel whined. He knew he sounded spoiled and pathetic, but he’d seen so little of Peter since he’d gotten home from the summer, and it was already driving him crazy.
Peter pulled Gabriel close, but it didn’t feel like enough. “You will be with me. We’ll be there together.”
“Not like this,” Gabriel said, and ran a suggestive finger down his brother’s shirt. Peter watched the finger, but remained tense.
“No, not like this,” he said thoughtfully. “But it’ll still be fun. And we can continue this again soon. Real soon.” Finally, Gabriel was reassured by that smile---the smile Peter only used with him, when they were alone. Peter leaned over and kissed Gabriel again in a way that became hungrier and hungrier until Peter finally pulled away again suddenly, looking flustered. The two boys rearranged themselves and went downstairs and across the courtyard to the dining hall. They took trays and loaded them up with the day’s slop.
“Hey, Pete! Over here!” Scott called, spotting them across the room. Gabriel was terrified to see how many people were already sitting with them. Peter’s three roommates, plus a gaggle of swooning girls, and more huge jocks. The two brothers sat down, and Gabriel was surprised to realize that Peter already knew all fifteen or so people at the table, because he was able to introduce him, one by one, to all of them. The ones Gabriel didn’t know where Derek’s lacrosse team buddies, and the girls were a bunch of cross-country runners. Gabriel and Peter were the only non-athletes at the table, something he took comfort in until Brian leaned towards them.
“So Pete, are you going to try out for crew with us this week? You’d be good on the lightweight team.”
Gabriel waited for Peter to laugh and say he had better things to do that row back and forth all day long, but instead he replied, “Yeah, sounds cool. What time?”
“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked under his breath. “You hate sports.”
“No I don’t,” Peter retorted. “Anyway, it’s a good way to get to know people. You should do it, too.”
“No, thanks.”
Peter gripped Gabriel’s arm pleadingly, finally showing the kind of need for him that Gabriel had missed all summer. “Please? For me? Hey, and that way we can spend loads more time together. All through practice every day.”
“I’ll think about it,” Gabriel grudgingly replied. But he knew he would do it. For Peter.
After a long, loud, and painful dinner, they finally stumbled out of the dining hall and over to the sophomore party, which was being held in the dorm next to Gabriel’s. There were hardly any freshmen there, not that Gabriel knew many to begin with. He wondered how Peter and his friends already knew most of these people, but then it became clear that they were upperclassmen on the same sports teams. Beer flowed liberally, and soon the entire common room was a sloshy mess of sweaty bodies and hazy-eyed women whom Gabriel longed to tell to get away from the gross guys chatting them up. But they actually seemed to want the attention.
It wasn’t much fun. Gabriel remembered Nathan’s advice about building his tolerance, so he drank two beers, but he didn’t particularly enjoy the taste, and just started to feel sleepy and sluggish. Peter sometimes stood by him and sometimes wandered off to meet people, always polite, always warm. Gabriel spotted at least four girls eyeing Peter and tittering to their friends. He felt proud that his brother was so desirable, and even prouder to know that he was the one Peter wanted. He actually felt bad for them, knowing that caring as Peter seemed (and genuinely was), none of these chicks stood a chance.
Finally, however, Gabriel couldn’t take much more of the party. It had quickly devolved into a riotous mess, and when some guy finally started taking all his clothes off in a drunken display of machismo, Gabriel knew it was time to leave.
He walked over to Peter, who was talking animatedly with two pretty blondes, who, as Gabriel realized upon drawing closer, were identical.
“Hey, you! Meet Niki and Jessica. This is my brother, Gabriel. We’re twins, too!”
The two girls looked Gabriel up and down with displeased eyebrows. “Yeah, hi.” And then they turned back to smile at Peter.
Gabriel was too tired for this. “I think I’m going to go now.” The ‘are you coming, too?’ was implied.
“Really? But things are just getting started. I’m going to stick around for awhile longer.”
Gabriel was too disappointed and shocked to argue further. “I’m done. Come by later if you want.”
He went back to his room, tired and dehydrated and grumpy. He told himself to go to sleep, but the faint hope that Peter would knock on the door to come stay over kept him awake until the wee hours. They hadn’t been allowed to sleep together in the same bed since they were little---definitely way before they’d started this secret thing that existed between them. Why didn’t Peter want to take advantage of their new freedom? Instead, Gabriel thought to himself bitterly, he was more interested in the freedom to stay out all night and play video games and talk to bitchy-looking blondes. Before falling asleep, Gabriel had made a little resolution to no longer chase Peter around. If he wanted to hang out, Peter would have to call him.
On the Part 2...
Rating: PG-13
Words: 3489
Summary: Peter and Gabriel start college. It's a big adjustment for Gabriel, in a lot of ways.
A/N: I won't pollute perdiccas's brilliance by saying that this is a sequel to her My Brother's Keeper, but it does assume a lot of plot elements that happened in that, such as that Peter and Gabriel stepped up their relationship the night they graduated from high school, that Peter went away for the entire summer---their first separation ever, that Gabriel was worried about what that meant for them, and that Peter was always the most loved, both by outside people and the family, etc.
Gabriel’s room was the car’s first stop after registering and picking up the keys at the housing office. Angela held the parking spot while Arthur and their three sons unloaded all the bags and boxes marked ‘Gabriel’ and lugged them to the double room he’d been assigned. It was small, but in one of the school’s oldest dorms. There were faux-Gothic touches and new furniture. It was perfect, everything anyone could have hoped for---anyone except Gabriel, that is.
“Sweet!” said Peter, whistling with approval as he hauled the last of the bags into the room. “I hope mine is half as good.”
“It’ll be better,” said Nathan, resting his hands on his knees and catching his breath from the three flights of stairs. “You’ve got a quad, Pete. There’ll be a common room and everything. More than just this one room.”
“And I can come visit?” Gabriel added hopefully. Peter grinned at him and gave him a little kick.
“Obviously. Like, every minute. And I’ll come visit you. We can have sleepovers, even.”
Gabriel felt a little thrill, knowing what Peter meant even if no one else did.
However, that said, Peter continued, “I hear people usually have dinner with their roommates on the first night, but come by tomorrow for lunch, ok?” Peter held his brother closely, too closely, like he always did. Gabriel ached, feeling certain that something was breaking right now, something that Peter was in denial about. But everyone was still around and Gabriel didn’t want to push the subject, so he just hugged his twin for as long as possible.
Arthur cleared his throat. “Time to get going. We’ve got to get you to your room, Peter. We don’t have all day. Well, good luck, son,” Arthur said, patting Gabriel distantly on the shoulder.
“What about Gabe’s stuff? He can’t set this up all by himself,” Nathan said with concern.
“I’m sure he can handle it. He’s a Princeton man now. It’s time to grow up,” Arthur said coldly. “Come on, Peter, your mother is waiting and she’s eager to get to your room.”
Peter grimaced at the blatant favoritism that he’d always hated being on the winning end of, and shot a sympathetic look Gabriel’s way. But Gabriel was more than used to it by now, and simply shrugged it off.
However, Nathan decided, “Hey, I’m going to stick around here for awhile. If you guys are already gone by the time I get to Peter’s room, I’ll just take the train back to the city.”
Arthur shrugged. “Whatever you want.” And he and Peter left.
“Hey, thanks for that,” Gabriel said.
Nathan gave him a noogie, like he always did when he didn’t want to ‘get mushy’, as he called it. “What else are big brothers for?”
And so, it was Nathan who helped Gabriel unpack. It was Nathan who rearranged the sparse desk furniture into something more workable, and it was Nathan who went with him to the university store to buy supplies and decorations, helping to pick out things that were ‘cool’ while still being ‘Gabriel.’ Much as he knew he should be grateful to Nathan for being there for him when everyone else had left, Gabriel still irrationally resented his older brother, because this was all his fault to begin with.
If Nathan hadn’t been so vocally outraged when he found out that Peter and Gabriel were thinking of rooming together as a matter of course, they’d all be together now. But Nathan had convinced Peter that college was all about making new friends, and that the twins should “leverage their dual assets” by making themselves the center of two groups. Peter had come around to the idea back in the spring, telling Gabriel that Nathan was right. They’d always be everything to each other anyway, so they might as well live freshman year to the fullest and then room together for the remaining three years. It made sense, but Gabriel had been looking forward to finally escaping their repressive family life and being with Peter---just them, without anyone watching, just like he thought they’d both always wanted.
So, it was with a grudging smile that he said farewell to Nathan later that day at the train station. He knew Nathan meant well. If Nathan hadn’t cared, Gabriel would have been left completely alone and traumatized.
Nathan gave his parting words of wisdom. “So, work just hard enough to get by, build up your alcohol tolerance, and have a great time. Also, mom and dad don’t know, but that box we didn’t unpack under your desk is full of vodka and gin and rum. Access to booze is key to popularity. When you run out, just let me know. There’s a whole lot of condoms in there, too. I want you to get lucky, but I don’t want you knocking anyone up. Is that understood?”
“Um, sure. Thank you.” Gabriel wasn’t really interested in hard alcohol, but he appreciated the gesture.
“Good. Oh, and here you go,” Nathan said as the train pulled into the station. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. It was full of hundred dollar bills.
“What’s this for?” Gabriel asked.
Nathan winked. “Just a little bit of the signing bonus I got when I started at the firm last month. Figured I’d slip it past mom and dad and give it to you guys. Peter got his yesterday. Girls like presents, Gabe. They like to be taken out to nice places and bought nice things. If you want to score, this’ll come in handy.”
Gabriel tried not to seem ungrateful, but he could hardly tell Nathan that he wasn’t interested in scoring with girls, in any way. All he wanted was Peter. Still, Nathan was being very kind, in his own skeevy way. “Thanks, Nathan. I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”
“And if you ever want to really impress, you have the keys to my apartment. Just give me a ring and it’s all yours whenever you need it.”
“What about you?”
Nathan laughed. “I’m sure I’ll be able to find somewhere else to sleep on short notice.” And he winked disgustingly, his eyes drifting off to the side to ogle a girl who was also saying goodbye to her family. “Man, to be your age again… don’t forget to live the dream for me, Gabe, ok?” And with a bear hug, Nathan was gone and Gabriel was all alone again.
He trudged back to his room, wondering what Peter was doing right then. He wanted desperately to go visit, but he knew he should lay off and let Peter bond with his roommates like a normal person. It was just one night. They’d be together again the next day. In the meantime, Gabriel continued to futz around his room, leaving the door open like Nathan had suggested and hoping someone would stop by to talk to him. No one did.
At dinner time, so he went to his residential college’s dining hall, and sat down with a girl he vaguely recognized as having gone to the sister school of his boy’s school in New York. She looked at him in annoyance, and he knew that his presence was bringing down the coolness factor she was trying to build for herself. After a few bites of overcooked carrots and dry pasta, and a couple of inane conversations that consisted mostly of “where are you from?” and “what did you do over the summer?” he left. Gabriel wondered where his roommate was, and hoped that maybe he wasn’t meant to have one at all. He fell asleep that night fantasizing about having the space all to himself. He and Peter would have all the privacy they wanted, while still allowing them to make other friends. It was the best of both worlds.
At lunchtime the next day, Gabriel followed his map across campus to where Peter lived. He hated that it was as far away from his dorm as one could get. He walked down the long hallway until he found Peter’s door, and knocked.
“Yeah, it’s open!” a loud and obnoxious voice called.
Gabriel crept in, hesitantly. The common room was enormous, and full of furniture that the other guys must have brought. There was even a satellite dish perched precariously out the window. It was unmistakably going to be a party room. Peter and three huge jocks were sitting on the couch playing video games.
“Gabriel!” Peter cried, his face lighting up as he jumped out of his seat and over the controller cords to embrace his brother. “Hey, guys, this is my brother, Gabriel, who I was telling you about. Gabriel, these are my roommates Scott, Derek, and Brian.”
The three boys looked Gabriel up and down. “You don’t look alike,” Derek scoffed.
“Fraternal twins,” Gabriel mumbled, basking in the warmth of his brother’s arm wrapped around him again. He suddenly felt better.
“Wanna play?” Brian handed a control to Gabriel.
“Um, we were never allowed to play video games at home. I don’t really know how,” he admitted.
Gabriel was astonished to see Peter redden and mumble, “Shhh, what’d you have to say that for?” And then louder he added, “Well, we’re in college now. We can do whatever we want.”
“Yeah!” the rest of them heartily agreed.
They were playing some sort of four-person James Bond game on Nintendo 64---lots of shooting and blood. Peter sat the next round out in order to let his brother play. It didn’t take Gabriel long to figure out how things worked, and soon, he was calmly and coolly destroying all of their players without much effort, and in the most violent and score-accumulating ways possible.
Finally, when the game ended, Brian grumbled, “I thought you’d never played a video game before.”
Gabriel shrugged proudly. “Killer instincts, I guess.”
“Hustler,” Scott complained, and glared at him angrily. Gabriel thought he would have gained points with the roommates by gaining points in the game, but apparently not. The five of them went to lunch shortly afterwards, and much as Peter tried to include him in the conversation, it was clear that the three of them had little interest in Peter shy, awkward brother who seemed to lie about his prowess in video games.
However, they loved Peter. Everyone did, and always had. Peter always knew just the right thing to say, had just the right crooked smile to flash in order to put everyone at ease. Gabriel had always been more reserved, more sensitive. He was used to Peter being the popular one and didn’t mind; in fact, it always made him happy to see Peter surrounded by admirers, as he should be. Gabriel had always had a few of his own friends, but much as Peter always tried to show his brother off, Gabriel had come to enjoy his role as quiet observer. And so he did now, watching Peter charm these guys whom Gabriel would never have thought Peter would ever be friends with. Peter could charm anyone.
However, Gabriel felt even more out of place than usual once the conversation devolved into crude jokes about the girls who lived down their hallway and Gabriel felt a foot nudge his own. He looked up to find Peter winking at him lovingly, and smiled back at him. For a moment, it was as if no one else was around.
“So, how’s your roommate?” Peter asked.
“He hasn’t shown up yet. So I was thinking, if you want to come by…”
Peter’s eyes darted to the side to look nervously at his new friends. “Yeah, I’d like that,” he whispered back hotly. Then he cleared his throat and became ‘serious’ again. “We were going up to your part of campus tomorrow night anyway. There’s supposed to be a party in some sophomore’s room that is going to be epic. I’ll stop by before dinner, and then we can eat together before swinging over to the party?”
Gabriel was miffed that his hint hadn’t been directly addressed; he had little interest in the party, but he hoped that Peter’s agreement to spending some time alone with him in his room had been tacit and unspoken only because other people were around. “Yeah. Stop by whenever. I’ll be there.”
They all went to the 2pm orientation session for the day to learn about all about the different academic options open to them for the next four years. Gabriel wanted to listen, but had trouble hearing over the disrespectful racket Peter’s friends near him were making. Much to his dismay, Peter didn’t seem to mind.
Gabriel waited for Peter for most of the next day. It was almost 7:30 when he finally showed up. Gabriel jumped out of his chair by the window, where he had been reading the course guide to pass the time. He pulled down the blind and ran to shut the door behind Peter.
In an instant, his mouth was on his brother’s, kissing Peter softly, his chapped lips stealing the grease from Peter’s lubricated ones. Peter kissed back hesitantly at first, but then warming into it and letting his hands slide up and down his brother’s back.
“Finally,” Gabriel sighed, burying his nose in Peter’s neck and smelling that essential Peter smell that he’d missed in the past 48 hours, hell, all summer. After the enormity of what they’d done on graduation night, it had almost killed Gabriel to immediately go three months with nothing at all, no repetition to make it real.
“Here, sit,” Gabriel beckoned between kisses, and pulled Peter towards the bed. They sank into it, and Gabriel gently pushed his brother down onto the mattress, hovering possessively above him. For the first time since they’d gotten in the car to come to this country-club-like horror, Gabriel felt at home. This was where he belonged, wrapped in Peter’s arms, his tongue teasing between Peter’s lips. “Missed you. Missed this,” he whispered.
“You, too,” Peter responded, finally letting go and swinging his feet up onto the bed. Gabriel trapped Peter’s legs underneath his own and entwined them so that they really felt as one swirling writhing body. Stretched on the bed, they rubbed against one another frantically, kissing until they were breathless and all of Peter’s chapstick had disappeared. Gabriel’s glasses began to slide down his nose, so he took his hand out from underneath Peter’s body to take them off, but Peter stopped him.
“What?” he asked, playfully growling into his brother’s ear.
Peter’s kisses and touches slowed. “We don’t have time to get too into it. The guys are waiting for us in the dining hall, and it’ll be weird if we don’t come down soon.”
“Who cares?” Gabriel breezily asked, and tried to push Peter’s shoe off with his own bare foot, but Peter gently but firmly pushed him away and sat up.
“I do. I’m kind of hungry,” he said hollowly.
Gabriel finally took the hint and disentangled himself from Peter. Sitting up, he said, “I thought… I thought you were coming up here for me.”
Peter rubbed the back of his head and tried to rearrange the clothes that Gabriel had mussed. “I did. Of course. But we’ve got to eat. And the party is supposed to start at 8:30.”
“But I don’t want to go to the party. I want to be with you,” Gabriel whined. He knew he sounded spoiled and pathetic, but he’d seen so little of Peter since he’d gotten home from the summer, and it was already driving him crazy.
Peter pulled Gabriel close, but it didn’t feel like enough. “You will be with me. We’ll be there together.”
“Not like this,” Gabriel said, and ran a suggestive finger down his brother’s shirt. Peter watched the finger, but remained tense.
“No, not like this,” he said thoughtfully. “But it’ll still be fun. And we can continue this again soon. Real soon.” Finally, Gabriel was reassured by that smile---the smile Peter only used with him, when they were alone. Peter leaned over and kissed Gabriel again in a way that became hungrier and hungrier until Peter finally pulled away again suddenly, looking flustered. The two boys rearranged themselves and went downstairs and across the courtyard to the dining hall. They took trays and loaded them up with the day’s slop.
“Hey, Pete! Over here!” Scott called, spotting them across the room. Gabriel was terrified to see how many people were already sitting with them. Peter’s three roommates, plus a gaggle of swooning girls, and more huge jocks. The two brothers sat down, and Gabriel was surprised to realize that Peter already knew all fifteen or so people at the table, because he was able to introduce him, one by one, to all of them. The ones Gabriel didn’t know where Derek’s lacrosse team buddies, and the girls were a bunch of cross-country runners. Gabriel and Peter were the only non-athletes at the table, something he took comfort in until Brian leaned towards them.
“So Pete, are you going to try out for crew with us this week? You’d be good on the lightweight team.”
Gabriel waited for Peter to laugh and say he had better things to do that row back and forth all day long, but instead he replied, “Yeah, sounds cool. What time?”
“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked under his breath. “You hate sports.”
“No I don’t,” Peter retorted. “Anyway, it’s a good way to get to know people. You should do it, too.”
“No, thanks.”
Peter gripped Gabriel’s arm pleadingly, finally showing the kind of need for him that Gabriel had missed all summer. “Please? For me? Hey, and that way we can spend loads more time together. All through practice every day.”
“I’ll think about it,” Gabriel grudgingly replied. But he knew he would do it. For Peter.
After a long, loud, and painful dinner, they finally stumbled out of the dining hall and over to the sophomore party, which was being held in the dorm next to Gabriel’s. There were hardly any freshmen there, not that Gabriel knew many to begin with. He wondered how Peter and his friends already knew most of these people, but then it became clear that they were upperclassmen on the same sports teams. Beer flowed liberally, and soon the entire common room was a sloshy mess of sweaty bodies and hazy-eyed women whom Gabriel longed to tell to get away from the gross guys chatting them up. But they actually seemed to want the attention.
It wasn’t much fun. Gabriel remembered Nathan’s advice about building his tolerance, so he drank two beers, but he didn’t particularly enjoy the taste, and just started to feel sleepy and sluggish. Peter sometimes stood by him and sometimes wandered off to meet people, always polite, always warm. Gabriel spotted at least four girls eyeing Peter and tittering to their friends. He felt proud that his brother was so desirable, and even prouder to know that he was the one Peter wanted. He actually felt bad for them, knowing that caring as Peter seemed (and genuinely was), none of these chicks stood a chance.
Finally, however, Gabriel couldn’t take much more of the party. It had quickly devolved into a riotous mess, and when some guy finally started taking all his clothes off in a drunken display of machismo, Gabriel knew it was time to leave.
He walked over to Peter, who was talking animatedly with two pretty blondes, who, as Gabriel realized upon drawing closer, were identical.
“Hey, you! Meet Niki and Jessica. This is my brother, Gabriel. We’re twins, too!”
The two girls looked Gabriel up and down with displeased eyebrows. “Yeah, hi.” And then they turned back to smile at Peter.
Gabriel was too tired for this. “I think I’m going to go now.” The ‘are you coming, too?’ was implied.
“Really? But things are just getting started. I’m going to stick around for awhile longer.”
Gabriel was too disappointed and shocked to argue further. “I’m done. Come by later if you want.”
He went back to his room, tired and dehydrated and grumpy. He told himself to go to sleep, but the faint hope that Peter would knock on the door to come stay over kept him awake until the wee hours. They hadn’t been allowed to sleep together in the same bed since they were little---definitely way before they’d started this secret thing that existed between them. Why didn’t Peter want to take advantage of their new freedom? Instead, Gabriel thought to himself bitterly, he was more interested in the freedom to stay out all night and play video games and talk to bitchy-looking blondes. Before falling asleep, Gabriel had made a little resolution to no longer chase Peter around. If he wanted to hang out, Peter would have to call him.
On the Part 2...