13
Travis Takes a Break
C huck isn’t happy when I insist on going back to the dorm Sunday night. He puts up all these arguments explaining why my leaving him was bad. I feel like a huge asshole, but I leave. I can’t just start living with my Statistics professor.
To be honest, come Monday morning, I still feel like an asshole. It doesn’t help any that when I get to Statistics class that afternoon, Chuck looks like a kicked puppy. He still teaches class okay, though. I even understand the lecture. Well, a little. Maybe it’s osmosis from all the alien jizz. That’s as likely an explanation as any.
On the way out of class he says, “Mr. Pritzker, I’d like a word.”
I shake my head at him. “No can do, Dr. Foster. I can’t be late for Ethics. Email me.” Then I slip out of the room and try to ignore the piercing green stare I can feel all over me.
He doesn’t send me an email, but he does call me at five, after my last class is over. He launches right in on me.
“I refuse to conduct a courtship over email,” he says, not even bothering with a hello or anything.
“Oh my god, Chuck, you can’t just say things like that.”
“I don’t understand why not. I am courting you and I refuse to do so over an electronic message. What is there not to understand?”
I take a deep breath. “Chuck. You’re my professor. You can’t be dating me or whatever. You’ll get fired and I’ll get expelled.”
“How would the administration know?”
“People talk, Chuck. It’s what we do. We gossip and we’re petty little shits. If we’re seen together, someone’s gonna rat us out.”
“I refuse to exist without you,” Chuck declares. Drama queen. But I can’t help the warm feeling that spreads through my chest. No one’s ever told me they can’t exist without me. It’s extra as fuck, but not gonna lie, I kinda like it.
“We can be all official and shit after the end of the semester. Until then, we’re only student and professor, got it?”
“But I don’t care what happens to me if we’re caught.”
“Good for you, but I’d like to stay on the football team. That’s not gonna happen if I get expelled for banging my professor. The final is on Friday, Chuck. Pretty sure you can exist without me until then.”
“I demand kissing!”
“I’ll kiss the shit out of you once I pass the class, okay?”
“I hate this,” Chuck grumbles.
“I know, baby, but we gotta do it. Just trust me.”
“I am not your baby or larva,” he says huffily.
“Are you my Chuck, then?” I ask.
“Yes. I am your Chuck. You are my Travis. This is understood.”
“Yeah, it’s understood. It’s just a week, Chuck. You’ll live.”
“I don’t have to be happy about it.”
“No,” I acknowledge. “You don’t. If it helps any, I don’t like it either. I miss you and your tentacles.”
“It does help that you don’t like it. We can suffer together. That’s romantic. I know this from watching movies.”
A laugh forces its way out of my chest. “Yeah, Chuck, you bet. That’s definitely romance. When the semester is over, get ready for me to rock your world.”
“Rock my world how?”
“With my dick,” I say.
“I’m not sure how that will work,” Chuck says, “but I look forward to it.”
Me too, babe, I think. Me too.
“Joey saw you out with some hot older guy last weekend. He was with his girl at the Zoo Lights. He said the guy held your hand the whole time. You. Held hands with a dude.” Cody puts a hand on my forehead. “Do you have a fever? Are you a pod person?”
That last one makes me laugh as I knock his arm away. “It’s nothing.”
“Did you find a Daddy? You were supposed to be sucking Dr. Foster’s cock. Do you have a thing for old dudes now?”
It occurs to me I have no idea how old Dr. Foster is, but it can’t be more than mid-thirties. He doesn’t seem old when I’m with him.
I could deny everything, but let’s be real. Chuck and I are a thing. He’d probably hunt me down if I dumped him, but even the idea of dumping him makes me feel kinda sick inside. I want to be there as he learns to human. I want to find new and even kinkier ways to use his tentacles. And if this is the dawn of an alien invasion, Chuck is the alien I want claiming me. Nobody else gets him. He’s my alien pod person tentacle monster and everyone else can just step off.
“I have a thing for that old dude,” I say. “And he’s not my Daddy. Don’t be ignorant. Do I look like a twinky-ass sugar baby to you? I have a trust fund. What the fuck would I need a Daddy for?”
Cody stares at me. “Except for the trust fund part, I don’t understand any of that.”
“All you need to know is that his name is Chuck and he’s not going anywhere. And if you say he’s my Daddy I will end you.”
Cody backs away a step with his hands up. “Chill, dude. He’s not your Daddy. Got it.”
“But he is a body-snatching alien.”
“What?”
I grin at Codes and pat his cheek. “Don’t stress. You’ll figure it out. But once you go alien, you don’t go back.”
“You are so weird, dude,” Cody says.
“You have no idea.”
Somehow, we make it to the end of the week without Chuck giving us away, but that’s all due to me. Dude has zero chill, but for some reason I like it.
On Friday, I make him go home alone and tell him I’ll meet him at his apartment later. I want to pack a bag to last all of winter break. After I’m all geared up, I take an Uber to his place. I am not prepared, however, for what I see when I get there.