Chapter Four – I Almost Touched A Pussycat Tail

“Tension. Knife. Knife. Tension.” Rusty gestured to compartmentalize, using both hands held at a straight angle.

Maddox looked at him over the table. One of the awesome perks of having Jonathan over most of the time was that they got to eat pretty good food. They had to share him with Ray, or otherwise, there would be a war on campus. Rusty could live with that. He took the knife he had used to butcher his piece of steak and gestured into the air like a duelist.

“What are you on about now?” Maddox eventually asked.

Jonathan gave him a pointed look. Unlike the rest of them, he held his eating utensils in what looked like an effortless elegant manner. However, he knew what Rusty meant by tension. He was clutching his fork and knife just a lil’ bit too tightly.

“Didn’t Jonathan tell you?” Rusty said innocently, ready to stir up some trouble.

“Tell me what?” Maddox asked and looked at his Jonathan, half smiling.

That guy was so damn smitten.

Jonathan groaned, patted his lips with a paper napkin and threw it on the table. “Don’t tell me you wanted me to tell on you, Rusty.”

“What? What did he do?” Maddox asked, his interest piqued.

“I don’t know exactly, and from where I stood, it looked like he was the one having things done to him,” Jonathan enunciated every word carefully. He sighed and turned toward Maddox. “Matthew is not allergic to orange juice. I just walked in on them, and Matthew was all over Rusty, naked from the waist up.” He returned to his food, like he had just delivered the weather report.

Maddox grinned. “Oh, shoot. What did you do, Rusty, to warrant such punishment? Wait, is Matthew gay? I thought he had a girlfriend. Not that I judge if he swings both ways.” He put his hand up in self-defense.

“That is not his girlfriend,” Rusty said with importance.

“Who is she?” Jonathan naturally asked.

Rusty smirked and glared through his eyelashes. “Zoey,” he said pointedly, “is just his best friend.”

“Aren’t you a bit too interested in your tutor? Since I know you, it’s not a good sign. Hell, how did you get Matthew to undress?” Maddox sounded more and more alarmed.

“Chill, amigo,” Rusty said in a baritone voice, “I’m not going to ditch studying and stuff. But I plan on bringing Matthew Han to his knees.” Satisfied to have voiced his decision out loud, he grabbed the ketchup bottle and made a little mountain on the small piece of steak still on his plate. Hmm, it looked like a turd now. He pushed the plate away.

“That didn’t sound dirty at all,” Maddox said in a terse voice. “What did the poor guy do to you?”

“Nah, nah, nah, you don’t understand me. It’s for his own good,” Rusty started. “You see, Matthew’s a total stuck up. He can’t even bend from the waist because of that big a stick he has up his ass. Oh, man, you should see him. He’s like all ice while stuffing all that shit in my brain. It sucks.”

“I have no idea what you mean, and Matthew is just doing his job. Just don’t chase him away,” Maddox warned.

“I don’t plan to,” Rusty said brightly. “You see, I’m going to help him get, you know, looser, so that he can finally land a date. That dude should kill it on the hookup scene, I’m telling you. Instead, he’s just busy sticking that stick further up his ass.”

“That’s a lot of innuendo, even coming from you,” Jonathan pointed out. “Maybe Matthew doesn’t want to hook up.”

“Whatever,” Rusty said waving his head to and fro at a fast pace and rolling his eyes. “The least he could do is get a girlfriend. I’ll help him.”

“Whether he wants one or not,” Maddox muttered under his breath.

Jonathan seemed to have some unanswered questions. Rusty turned dutifully and pointed the fork at him this time. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”

“Famous last words,” Maddox chimed in, uninvited.

“Silence in court,” Rusty called, still keeping the fork pointed at Jonathan. “Ask away, Johnny boy.”

“From where I stood,” Jonathan began slowly, measuring his words, “it looked like Matthew was actually the one doing, let’s say, the molesting.”

“Ha! The person who could molest me hasn’t been born yet. It was totally consensual,” Rusty replied calmly. Well, Matthew did spring it on him, but that didn’t mean that it hadn’t been all too pleasurable. Rusty felt the signs of an impending stiffy just thinking of it.

“Are you going gay for your tutor?” Maddox asked.

Rusty threw the fork on the plate and began waving his arms. “Dudes can kiss other dudes without going gay.”

Maddox made a face like he had just landed on Mars or something. “Were you two kissing? Babe, they were kissing?” he insisted, turning toward his fiancé.

Jonathan nodded.

“Huzza!” Rusty exclaimed. “Stop blowing things out of proportions. I was just testing his ability to kiss.”

“And?” Jonathan asked. “Where does he stand?”

“Better not let him handle any CPR, unless it’s a life or death situation,” Rusty delivered what he wanted to be his last line for the evening.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Maddox asked.

Ah, these children. They knew nothing. Rusty was already on his feet, but a demonstration was better than a thousand explanations. He picked his empty glass from the table and stuck his tongue in it as far as he could. He waved it around while Maddox and Jonathan both stared at him nonplussed.

“Yeah,” he said and put the glass back on the table. “He’s that kind of kisser. The tongue-feeder type.”

Jonathan snickered. Maddox was biting his lip not to laugh.

“What? It’s a real term,” Rusty protested.

Maddox grinned and threw him a sideways glance. “You like this dude, Rusty.”

Yeah. Maybe.

“I hate his guts,” Rusty declared and turned on his feet. “Keep this a secret from Dex and Kane or --”

“Keep what a secret from us?” The two bros from different moms walked in at that very moment.

“Rusty got fed some tongue by his tutor,” Maddox ratted him out promptly.

“Oh, shoot. We need to find another tutor?” Kane asked.

“No, Kane,” Maddox countered. “Hear my words. Rusty was the one on the receiving end.”

Kane’s face lit up like a fucking street lamp. “For real? Matthew should get a medal.”

“I vote yes,” Dex hurried to agree.

“Guys, guys,” Jonathan called for attention, “I think Matthew would be embarrassed if we mentioned that.”

Rusty snorted. “Like hell. You don’t know that demon.”

***