Elroy turned and glanced at the guy in the bowtie and said, “Dude, what the fuck is in that footlocker? Cinderblocks?”
The guy shrugged, glanced down at the brown industrial carpet and said, “Everything I own, including my collection of Time Magazines.”
“Time Magazines?”
“With print magazines becoming extinct I like to carry them around with me wherever I go. I only have a year’s worth in the footlocker. But I have every copy of Time Magazine that’s been printed since Joel Stein started working for them. I’m a huge fan of his. I’ve read all his columns hundreds of times.”
“Never heard of him,” Elroy said. He wasn’t very political and he’d never actually looked at a print magazine. He thought of magazines as something from previous generations. He crossed to where the guy stood near the door and extended his right hand. “I’m Elroy Donohue. I guess we’re going to be bunking together this semester.”
While Elroy looked him up and down, the guy shook Elroy’s hand and said, “I’m Kyle Sparrow.” He didn’t look up when he spoke. His voice had a wrecked, timid sound. It seemed as if he was afraid to look at Elroy standing there in nothing but a towel. Elroy had a feeling that if the towel fell off, the guy might even scream and run out of the room.
Elroy’s instincts kicked in fast. He could smell another gay guy miles away. A straight guy wouldn’t have been this apprehensive with another nude man. A straight guy wouldn’t have stared down at his shoes. He would have looked Elroy directly in the eye and wouldn’t have noticed the towel. This guy was gay, and probably a closet case at that. So when Elroy finished shaking Kyle’s hand, he turned abruptly in a way he knew would loosen the towel so it would fall to the floor. When it did fall, he walked over to his narrow twin bed naked, purposely taking exaggerated steps so his dick would flop around, and plopped down on his back.
Kyle glanced up at the ceiling and Elroy said, “Hope you don’t mind nudity, man. I hate to wear clothes unless I have to go out.” He laughed and reached down to adjust his private parts. He realized it was a good thing he’d just rubbed one out, otherwise he would have been fully erect showing off that way in front of a stranger. As it was, he was beginning to get semi-erect. “And feel free to let it all hang out, buddy. No problem.”
Without looking in Elroy’s direction, Kyle walked to his own bed and said, “I don’t mind. I’m easy to get along with. But I prefer to wear clothing, thank you. I never ‘let it all hang out.’”
Elroy sat up on his bed and said, “I’m from Portland, Maine. But I’ve been in boarding schools all my life. My dad was Elroy of Elroy and Alice. I’m Elroy Jr.”
When he said this, Kyle turned and flung him a surprised look. “Your dad is that Elroy, of Elroy and Alice chocolate ice cream?”
Elroy scratched his balls on purpose and smiled. He enjoyed talking about himself. “Yup, that was my dad. He’s dead now. Alice, my mom, was his second wife. She’s dead, too. They died in an auto accident a few years ago. They started the company to make a few extra bucks and it turned into a billion-dollar business. They were always shocked at how much people loved the idea of ice cream in more than one hundred fucking flavors of chocolate. I’ll be in control of everything soon, and it was stipulated in my dad’s will that I had to get a degree from Harvard, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” Elroy had never been one of those shrinking violets who kept his wealth a secret. He made sure people saw him driving his silver Porsche, he dropped hints that he rarely paid less than one thousand dollars for a shirt, and he left his Gucci luggage at the foot of his bed at all times.
Kyle sat down on his bed and adjusted his plaid bowtie. “I’m here on a scholarship,” he said. “My stepdad wanted me to go to the community college part time and work full time in the family construction business. I worked hard to get in here.” Elroy detected a hint of superiority in his tone, which didn’t surprise him. His type always frowned upon those who had been born into wealth. They wore their inherited poverty in their smug, lifeless expressions.
But Elroy couldn’t have cared less what anyone thought of his wealth. He had billions and that was all he cared about. This information about scholarships went right over Elroy’s head. He moved closer to the edge of his bed and spread his legs wider so Kyle couldn’t miss the way his dick was resting on the mattress. “Where are you from, man?” He imagined some low-end working class town like Bridgeport or Fall River, where industry had once thrived.
Kyle looked over Elroy’s shoulder at the wall behind him and said, “A small town in Vermont. I grew up there and this is the first time I’ve ever been anywhere else.”
Before Kyle had a chance to finish the sentence, Elroy stood up fast and went to his dresser. When a conversation bored him he changed the subject without thinking. He opened the bottom drawer, purposely turning so Kyle could check out his naked ass, and started pulling things out. He threw underwear over his shoulder and grabbed two jock straps. He threw one jock strap across the room at Kyle and put one of them on. He made sure he grabbed his dick and jerked it around a few times before he packed it into the jock.
The jock he threw across the room landed on Kyle’s head and he pulled it off fast. He held it away from his face with his index and middle fingers and asked, “What’s this for?”
Elroy pulled up his jock and snapped the waistband against his flesh. He adjusted his junk and smiled. “It’s for the jock ceremony. You can use one of mine if you don’t have one. Don’t worry. It’s clean.” He laughed. “I wouldn’t give you a used jock strap to wear, dude.”
“What’s the jock ceremony?”
“It’s tradition,” Elroy said. “It’s like pissing on the statue of John Harvard that tourists rub because they think it brings luck.” He spoke with an exaggerated upbeat tone, as if he were about to tell a story. “All the freshman dudes put on jock straps and run out in Harvard Yard to form a huge human pyramid. It’s a freaking rite of passage. I can’t believe you never heard of it, dude. Where the fuck have you been? Everyone knows about the jock strap pyramid.”
Though he didn’t seem convinced, Kyle cleared his throat and said, “Sure I’ve heard of it. I just don’t want to do it, thanks. I’ll stay in here and unpack while you go. I’m kind of shy about undressing in front of people.”