Page 38 of The Locker Room

feeling of reluctance that trammeled up his words. That would be the

natural progression of things, wouldn"t it? And it wasn"t as though he

didn"t want to. Chris had felt wonderful in his arms, skin to skin. But

he"d also been helpless, defenseless against the world in the height of his

passion, and Xander….

Xander didn"t have a lot of good experiences being helpless, did

he? He"d been helpless against hunger, helpless against beatings,

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helpless against neglect. He… oh God. He loved Chris. He didn"t want

to be helpless with him.

But Chris was looking a little worried now, and Xander wondered

if maybe it wouldn"t be better to be helpless in Chris"s arms than strong

out of them, so he smiled shyly and said, “Yeah. Like we"ll ever get a

chance like this again, right?”

Chris laughed, the sound resigned, and rolled his eyes as he shut

off his shower. “Graduation"s not that far off,” he said philosophically.

“You know, pretty soon we"ll be dorm mates, and every college movie

I"ve ever seen says that we get to hump like bunnies!”

That made Xander grin for real, because he and Chris had stayed

up late all summer, watching every movie about college they could get

their hands on, looking at each other from the corner of their eyes and

hoping with everything they had that it might be true.

“Do bunnies hump a lot?” Xander asked now, knowing that maybe

the one person in the world he could joke with was Chris. The two of

them moved to their lockers, grabbing towels from the barrier and

wrapping them around their waists. Xander"s erection, rampant and

painful when Chris had been in his arms, had since withered. It was

almost like they really were brothers in truth now, and Xander was

relieved. He had a place in his brain that would do that, and it was easier