Page 70 of Whiskey Neat

Indy leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Gabriel was a student teacher in my US History class. He was catnip to a guy like me—small, submissive, pretty.”

I nod, even though I’m not sure I want to hear more.

“He had these big hazel eyes that lured me in. I wish I had been able to think with the head on my shoulders instead of the one between my legs back then, because that twink was fucking unhinged.”

“Oh no, what happened?”

Indy pauses as Paul appears, dropping off drinks and taking our orders. I order a basket of fries and chicken strips, on the edge of my seat to hear the rest of this story now that I know it goes off the rails.

“We hooked up and it was pretty cool,” Indy says. “Gabriel was very eager to please me, and I even broke my one and done rule for him.”

“You liked him?”

“In bed, yeah. I didn’t know shit about him otherwise. He was dangerous too, seducing me in places that were all kinds of wrong. The library, the classroom, the common under a tree at night. I was drunk on him for a solid month.”

“And then?” Lowen prompts. The smile on his face is the one you get when you know the ending of a fucked-up movie or book.

“And then he showed up at our apartment one night absolutely losing his shit because he saw me talking to a guy on campus and thought I was flirting. I told him who I talked to and why was none of his business since we weren’t exclusive, and then he…” Indy makes a head exploding gesture. “It was like a bomb went off.”

“A complete meltdown,” Lowen adds.

“He was screaming at me and throwing shit. I wasn’t about to hit him or get rough, but I was close to losing my temper. The guys dragged him out and he spent an hour in the front yard screaming at me until some neighbors called the cops.”

I gasp. “Holy shit.”

“It gets worse,” Lowen says.

“No.”

Indy nods. “It does. He took off after the cops talked to him, but I got an email in the morning advising me that I was suddenly failing the history class.”

“He didn’t!”

“He did. He went and altered all my grades in the system and told the professor he suspected me of cheating.”

“Oh no.”

“He keyed my car. He showed up at a party I was at and told everyone I gave him herpes and I had a small dick.”

“Oh my god.”

“Fortunately, my reputation preceded me, so people knew I was psychotic about safe sex and testing, and my dick speaks for itself.”

“How did you handle it?”

“I sucked it up and scheduled a meeting with my professor. I showed him all my previous graded assignments since I printed out everything, and I explained to him what had happened. He was livid.”

“I bet.”

“Gabriel was suspended for tampering with grades and inappropriate conduct with a student. We got a nice brick through the window for that.”

“We had to hold Kit back,” Lowen says. “He was ready to beat his ass since Indy wouldn’t.”

“Wow. How did he go away?”

“After three months of harassing and stalking, I’d finally had enough and got in his face. Scared him so bad he pissed himself.”

“Did you beat him up?”

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