Page 1 of Bend Him, Break Him
Chapter One
Coltonraced across campus, weaving around every carefree student who hadn’t overslept for the third time this week. Pulling the straps of his book bag tight helped lessen the jostling smack against his back. He started to sweat through theUniversity of Clinton Lloyd Institute of Technology hoodie he’d tossed on, thinking the storm clouds meant cool weather. They did not. The trek and outfit left him so exhausted first thing in the morning that he couldn’t even laugh at the sea of CLIT merchandise he darted between on his way to class.
Oversleeping had already gotten him a letter grade deduction in his history course, and he couldn’t also afford his composition course knocking down his score this close to the end of the semester. As he reached the English building, he darted inside and apologized to every person he nearly knocked over on hisway to the auditorium. Taking a deep breath, Colton wiped the sweat from his brow and quietly made his way inside.
“You’re late,” Isaac hissed as Colton skirted around the grumpy goth guy and ducked low to walk the length of the auditorium.
Professor Howard didn’t scold people for tardiness—not that she needed to when she had a TA like Isaac standing at the door, ready to shame anyone and everyone—but she did make certain they regretted whatever decision led to them showing up late.
Every door leading into the auditorium was locked except for the front entrance, where Professor Howard positioned her podium and table while presenting lectures.
Colton not-so-stealthily made his way past her and to the opposite side of the auditorium where he sat. Not that they had assigned seats, but he and his teammates had always perched up in the middle edge, allowing them leg room by the steps, far away enough to avoid being asked questions and central enough to draw the attention of any curious classmates who wanted the eye candy of the varsity baseball team members.
“Looks like your boyfriend’s mad,” Leon whispered when Colton took his seat.
Colton’s attention immediately went to Isaac, who shot daggers at the jock and the other members chuckling at Colton’s late arrival. Leon leaned in, gesturing lewdly in Isaac’s direction with a jacking motion and drawing a larger laugh than Colton preferred.
He smiled at his teammates and pretended to find Leon’s jokes hilarious, even if he wanted to punch the big brute in the face.
If it were anyone else, Colton would’ve considered it a playful joke, but Leon had a tendency to make gay jabs on a regularbasis, pulling other team members in and reminding everyone of Colton’s queer status and recent outing last spring.
Leon was the epitome of keeping your friends close and enemies closer. Not that Colton wanted Leon around. But no matter what Colton did, he couldn’t shake Leon, who presented himself as a diehard friend but was always ready to stab Colton in the back so he could be the new starting pitcher. Leon practically flipped his schedule so he could stay close to Colton, which he tried not to complain about too much, given a lot of the team tried to group up so they could all work on classes together.
“Oh, I bet you can pull from your essay last year,” Leon said, nodding to the ongoing lecture and nudging Colton to remind him how he’d already failed this course.
It sucked being the only non-freshmen in the comp course. Well, that Colton knew of. Surely, he couldn’t have been the only person here who tanked a few classes last year. Still, he was the only baseball team member who wasn’t a freshman in this course, something Leon’s calculated jabs always found a way to bring up.
Leon had obsessed over Colton since he joined the team, doing everything in his power to outdo him. It didn’t help that Leon had a bigger and taller build, but it did help that Leon’s pitches lacked the same precision or flair, no matter how much harder he trained.
Ignoring Leon, Colton pretended to focus on the lecture and the upcoming final essay, but his eyes wandered over to Isaac, who continued glaring at him with a sour expression and a clamped jaw. Isaac was the only person who knew Colton before coming to college, and damn if he wasn’t the last person Colton wanted to see after high school.
Isaac’s style had shifted since high school, no longer the gothic-esque getup adding flair to his school uniforms. Instead, he’d dived headlong into a full-blown dark phase. The heavy eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow made the blue of his eyes pop from across the auditorium, but they also enhanced his angry expression. No longer bound by private school standards, Isaac had bleached his shaggy hair white, added faded purple streaks throughout, and now sported tons of piercings and tattoos.
Last Colton had counted, Isaac had nine piercings. Visible ones, anyway. The tongue piercing was Colton’s favorite and one he certainly wished Isaac had gotten in high school. Then, he had two piercings on each ear with studs in all except for the lower left, where he sported a dangling cross. His upper right ear had an industrial piercing that balanced out the left eyebrow ring, left nose piercing, and right lower lip piercing. It had this weird zigzag effect running across Isaac’s face that sometimes made Colton smirk.
He often found himself smirking when he thought about Isaac when he reminisced and ignored where everything went wrong.
Colton pulled out his laptop and signed into the classroom dashboard, doing his best to follow along with the lecture and adjoining slideshow. But try as he might, Colton could never pay attention very long during class lectures, especially when he wondered how many tattoos were under Isaac’s outfit.
Sure, he wore a button-up with long sleeves for classes, went with slacks instead of those baggy Tripp pants or ripped jeans, and he even added a small tie, but the look still screamed goth. The tie was usually his only outlandish thing. Today, Isaac had sported a white tie with blood splatter that popped so much brighter against his black ensemble.
Isaac only ever dressed up for his TA gig, which Colton assumed had to do with some personal style instead of Professor Howard’s mandates since some of the other TAs showed up however they wanted, including in pajamas.
Occasionally, Colton would see Isaac outside of classes, dragged to some party or campus event, and he usually dressed in a more traditional goth getup. Or at least what Colton assumed was traditional based on movies and such.
The two of them had completely different styles. Colton had gotten one piercing back in middle school, which someone said was on the gay ear, so he removed it and never wanted another one again. His wardrobe consisted of polos, expensive jeans, workout clothes, and a few tight outfits meant to show off his muscles when going out for an evening.
Colton kept his fashion very conservative, very in line with the rest of his teammates, because he was already different enough as the only openly queer member.
“Ooop,” Leon whispered. “Boyfriend alert.”
It didn’t take long for Leon to make a deep-throat gesture while adding gagging noises. Given the way Leon joked, Colton suspected he wasn’t the only pitcher with bi tendencies.
Leon coughed a bit as Isaac walked the length of the auditorium, making his way toward their ascending stairs.
Colton studied Isaac for a moment, noting no changes in the visible tattoos and figuring they were the real reason behind why Isaac dressed the way he did. Not that it hid them all. Flames from something on Isaac’s chest covered his lower neck, almost like he was on fire. He had a butterfly on his left hand, which seemed quite contradictory to Isaac’s demeanor or the other tattoos on his hand, from the silly stick figure smiley and frownyfaces on his thumbs to the boldly written “D E A D S O U L” etched across his knuckles.
“You guys should talk less and focus more,” Isaac whispered. “I’m sure giggling about whose bat is bigger is quite enthralling, but maybe y’all can pay the fuck attention.”
