tony

“what was it like going to caltech?”

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. plain and simple—this axiom applies to every part of my life at tech. classes, studies, friends, sanity, boys—everything.

my senior year, after returning from my sabbatical to london, i realized that i was, most definitely, in the home stretch. feeling like the big man on campus, i welcomed the incoming freshmen, and, for the ones who got picked into my student house, i welcomed them heartily. there were a few who i immediately connected with socially—some fresh blood, some new kids who were not 1. jaded 2. psychotic or 3. devoted to their studies—yet. you see, most of my senior friends fell into at least one of these categories.

one of the boys that i bonded with very quickly was tony. tony, although 3 years my junior, was immediately the object of my affection. no, not that way!

yes, that way…

immediate attraction, but also immediate friendship. in addition to sharing the 3 criteria above, we had very similar philosophies on life, he was very open-minded, very bright, very into my kinda music, and very anxious to have fun. over the course of my senior year [his freshman year], we spent some serious time together.

it was midway through the school year when the friday-night ritual started. every friday night, my supercool roommate and i would launch club 129… our dorm room would be transformed, weekly, into a decent chill-out room. plenty of watts of dance music, plenty of watts of disco light action, and enough alcohol flowing to kill a fraternity [at a lightweight state school, perhaps].

a wide variety of folks would stop by these friday night brouhahas at club 129, but my favorite people to chat with were always my freshman boys. we would share stories, laugh, i would jokingly [honest!] try to seduce them, we’d laugh some more. it was a wonderful symbiotic relationship.

tony, however, would sometimes use his ‘drunkeness’ as an excuse to sleep over. as time went on, tony [assuredly straight] started to sleep over regularly. as the evenings wore on, tony and i would end up snuggling on the couch while watching tv. or snuggling in the shed while watching movies. or snuggling in my bed.

i started to fall for the boy. but, at the same time there was this strong, very straight, very non-sexual friendship underlying my hormonal tension. we were on shaky ground, trying to define our relationship. the term that he was most comfortable with was special friend.

as time went on, and as we approached the end of the school year, i started to want more. by april/may, we were going out on dates, the sleepovers and cuddling were assumed and natural. but there was never more than a drunken kiss or a confusing wrestling match.

oh, did i mention that tony was cute as all hell?
Continue reading ‘straight boyfriend countdown: #2 tony’