Chapter One
Colin wasn’t really into cancer. Well, nobody was, except perhaps those freaks who found the topic fascinating and prolonged the lecture with a never-ending flood of questions. He sank deeper into the uncomfortable seat and looked at the clock again.
He understood that this was an important subject for any future doctor, but while he’d learned to cram like a pro, and he would memorize all there was to know by the time the next exam rolled around, he’d much rather have been dealing with something more immediate. Injuries, burns, broken bones were much more up his street. More hands-on. Practical.
If he absolutely had to make medicine his career, perhaps he should have gone on to become an emergency responder.
Or perhaps not, since that job required even better people skills. And his parents wouldn’t have paid for it when he ”could be a doctor”. And very soon, once Colin completed his bachelor’s course, he would be off to medical school.
His future mental health was doomed.
When the class ended, he was so relieved he just sat there and enjoyed resting his brain instead of running for the door like usual.
“Hey, Colin! You coming for drinks with us? Thank God it’s Friday, am I right?” Megan approached him out of nowhere, and he flinched as if she were an alligator snapping at his feet. It wasn’t as if he didn’t like her, and it was nice of her to be so persistent in inviting him even though he always said ‘no’. Maybe she fancied him. Was that an option? Colin had never come out, but he wasn’t pretending to be straight either.
A group of Megan’s friends lingered in the aisle between the rows of seats, staring their way with so little discretion it remained unclear whether they were clueless or if it was their intention to make him notice.
He cleared his throat and took half a step back, scratching his neck. “I’d love to,” he lied. But before Megan’s smiling mouth could reveal the two rows of pristinely white teeth, he said what he always did. “But not this week. I have to revise, and then there’s some work I need to help my parents with at home.”
Megan threw back her long hair. “You sure that can’t wait a few hours?” She glanced toward her friends. “Mikey’s coming…”
Like that was supposed to entice Colin somehow—oh. She wasn’t hitting on him. She was trying to set him up.
But what she didn’t know was that he’d already hooked up with Mikey, and the guy was just like his name suggested—way too nice for Colin’s liking. Besides, he and Mikey were too alike physically. Both tall, with long limbs, and while Colin had nothing against his own shape, that wasn’t what he preferred in his men. If he had a choice, he’d always go for the square-jawed, broad-shouldered type with a mean mouth and even meaner hands. Unless he didn’t have much choice while in a rut. That’s how mistakes like Mikey happened in the world of online sex-dating.
He swept his wavy blond hair back, feeling like bacteria under the microscope. “I don’t understand. I barely know him.”
Megan flushed. “Oh. I thought you were friends.”
Had Mikey been running his mouth to his bestie? Unbearable. Why couldn’t people just mind their own business? Then again, how would he make connections if he didn't go out with his peers very often? He was almost done with his pre-med course and barely knew the people he lived and studied with. He’d considered joining a hiking group to make some friends, but that had been ages ago, and he’d never gone through with it because his father had said it was a worthless pursuit that would take up too much of his time.
Sometimes, Colin fantasized about taking two weeks off, finding another gay guy who liked to hike and traveling together with no strings attached. It would have been the most relaxing time since Colin’s childhood had ended with the death of his grandparents. For now though, between the exams and papers that needed handing in, the part-time jobs, and his parents’ stink eye, he couldn’t bring himself to push for such a long time off-grid.
He offered Megan a polite smile. “I mean, we talked a couple of times,” he told her, though the truth of the matter was that by talking he meant Mikey’s dick filling his ass and Mikey’s chattering while Colin cleaned himself and came up with an excuse to leave the guy’s dorm room.
Megan rolled her eyes. “Never mind, then. I’m sure you’ve got more important stuff to do. You know, it doesn’t hurt to let your hair down every once in a while.”
He took a deep breath, clenching his teeth to keep in what he really thought. If he ever got to the point where he had to become a teacher to young doctors, he would no longer mince his words. Well, at least not as much as he was now. Maybe then he could at last let his hair down, like Megan suggested.