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 Posted: Thu May 26, 2016 1:08 pm
Junior year
About a girl – Part 1
“Hey, guys! Cam said there was a lasagna in the fridge up for grabs?”
The voice, high-pitched and artificially cute, sent Cas’ eyes rolling into the back of his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, doing his best to work the angrily constipated look the sound had put onto his face into a neutral mask. When he opened his eyes again, Sam Loffe was looking at him with a barely-suppressed grin of amusement.
Without turning around to look at the owner of the voice, Cas waved his hand toward the kitchen. “You know where the damn fridge lives.” He didn’t have to see her simper to know she was doing it.
When her footsteps left the living room, Cas rounded on Loffe. “Does Rylan know she’s only sleeping with him because he can drive her places and pay for all her food?”
“Doubtful. She’s cute. He likes that,” Loffe said, leaning to peer through the living room door to make sure she was gone. “Doesn’t even know his name though. Who calls him Cam?”
“She found him on our roster,” Cas said with a scowl. “And made sure to ‘run into us’ at a party.”
“And you know this how?”
“I was there. I watched her flirt her way around the room,” Cas answered, struggling to keep the disdain off his face. Oh, how he hated this girl.
“Did she try to jump you?” Loffe asked, cocking his brow. Cas nodded. “And you didn’t fall for it because…”
“Have you seen her? She’s one of those pretty princesses who’s never done a thing for herself in her life. No thank you. And she acts perfect and cute, pretending she wants something serious when she’s sleeping with other people. I’ve heard. She’s wasting his time.” And that made Cas angry. Anyone who thought they could take advantage of one of his friends made him angry.
“You think we should tell him,” Loffe said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Tell me what?” Speak of the devil. Rylan poked his head in, giving the living room a once-over sweep with his gaze. “You guys seen Natalie?”
“She’s raiding the fridge,” Cas said darkly. “And it’s about her, actually.”
“You, uh… how’s that going?” Loffe chimed in. He leaned back on the couch and folded his hands behind his head.
“Great, actually. She’s been amazing. That reminds me, I’m going to drive separately to practice on Saturday, because we’re going down to Portland for the weekend afterward. To visit some of her friends from high school,” Rylan answered brightly.
“Wait, but Sunday we’re watching the Seahawks play. We got a ticket for her and everything, after she threw a fit…” Loffe cut in.
“Oh. Right, she said she wants to go, but there’s no way to reschedule this meetup. But we’re giving our tickets to her pledge husband and his girlfriend,” Rylan said, a little sheepishly, his hand rising to the back of his head to smooth down the hair there.
Cas gave Loffe a look hinting at the murderous rage building inside him that he’d have happily unleashed on Natalie if she was in the room.
“Cam,” Cas said sarcastically. “She’s using us – you, more specifically. Please tell me you realize this.”
“Hey, don’t give her s**t for that. She’s not used to calling people by their last names,” Rylan answered.
“Not used to- Ry, how the ******** would she even know your first name? Even you don’t use it. She looked you up. She planned this,” Cas snarled, exasperated.
“This is ridiculous. Why would you think that? To what end?” Rylan said, eyes wide, frowning deeply at the accusation.
“To have someone on the rowing team chauffeur her around and pay for all her s**t. Damn it, Ry, she can’t lose in this scenario. It means a lot to some people to hear she’s involved with a rower. She’s looking for free s**t and 15 seconds of fame,” Cas said, not trying now to keep his voice down. If he couldn’t beat some sense into his friend, maybe he could yell it into him. “She’s wasting your time.”
“You’re free to have your opinion,” Rylan said bluntly. “You’re also free to be wrong. I’ve seen no evidence to suggests she’s wasting my time-”
“She slept with me, okay?” Cas cut him off. “That’s how I know she’s a waste of your time.”
Rylan’s face went blank. He fixed his amber eyes, usually so warm and sunny, on Cas, who looked back with his gray eyes so sharp and bright they seemed colorless. They stared at each other for a long moment, before Rylan turned and walked soundlessly out of the living room.
“Why’d you say that?” Loffe said finally when Rylan was gone.
Cas let out a quiet sigh, glancing over at Loffe. “He wouldn’t believe it if I told him I heard it from people. He’ll just say it’s hearsay and give her the benefit of the doubt. This way, at least, he’ll be forced to confront her.”
“Well. He believed that,” Loffe said with a helpless shrug. “Is it worth making him hate you to get rid of her?”
Cas nodded, almost without hesitation. “If it helps him? Always.”
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Posted: Fri May 27, 2016 8:16 am
Junior year
About a girl – Part 2
On Friday night, most of the team went to a mixer with Tri Delt. Cas hung back, mostly because Rylan’s girl was a Tri Delt and the thought of going to any sort of function with the likes of her brought a scowl to his face. With the house empty, he dropped himself down on the couch, mulling over whether to turn on Call of Duty or look for decent programming on TV.
“Heard you’ve been sulking on your own lately.”
Cas turned in surprise to see Rylan leaning against the doorway to the living room with arms folded across his chest.
“Who’s feeding you lies?” He managed to say, fixing Rylan with a probing look as he pulled himself into a more upright position on the couch with cautious optimism. After telling Rylan he’d slept with Natalie the previous week, Cas hadn’t said much to him. The assumption was that Ry was still pissed. Which would have been fair in more ways than one. “You didn’t go to the mixer?”
Rylan shook his head. “No. We… things ended.”
“Oh. I’m sorry?” Cas offered, as gallantly as he could managed. He could see a smile begin to creep across Rylan’s face.
“That’s the only lie I’ve heard all week.”
“Right. I’m not sorry. She was, what do you call it? A raging b***h?”
Rylan laughed and uncrossed his arms, bringing them up and lacing his fingers together behind his head. “I think that is what you call it,” he agreed. A moment of quiet hung between them. “Why’d you do it?”
Cas raised his eyes to look at his friend. “Someone had to,” he said finally. “I’m sorry I lied, but you wouldn’t have believed it otherwise. You were so smitten with her.”
Rylan was nodding. Cas wasn’t wrong. “I confronted her about it. She… was so mad at the accusation that she ended up spilling everything else. Apparently she hates you too.”
“Thanking every god I know to hear that.”
Rylan laughed again, and when his smiled settled, it was sunny and bright. “You’re probably right about that too.”
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 9:31 am
Junior year
Missed punches
Saturdays were one of the few nights when the rowers didn’t have to be up early the next morning. With the fall season drawing to a close and no major regattas left on the books, the boys took this particular Saturday as a chance to spend some time around town, hitting up the bars and breweries that ringed the U-Dub campus.
At 2:30 in the morning, the residents of the Tortuga house collectively barreled through the perpetually unlocked back door, some of them more than a little drunk and others… well.
“Get him in there!” Rylan’s frustrated voice sounded as he shoved a resistant Cas into the house in front of him. He’d been pleasantly buzzed at the bar, but the last half hour had gone a long way in sobering him up almost completely.
“What the <********>, Cas,” he snapped as Chris Vallorin pulled the door shut behind all of them. “You’re lucky that bar was dark. If they’d recognized you. Do you understand how much trouble you could get in with Athletics for this?”
Cas shrugged the collar of his shirt out of Rylan’s grasp, giving him a dark look before wandering into the living room. He was massaging the back of his right hand, where his knuckles were sore from the punch he’d thrown in the bar before the rest of his crew had dragged him away.
“He was taunting,” he said shortly.
“No, he was inquiring about your mother because you were chatting up a storm with his date,” Rylan growled, following him, refusing to let him get away with it. “You do this all the time, Cas. When are you going to figure out that not everyone wants to pick a fight? The world isn’t out to get you, but you act like you’re out to get everyone else.”
Cas gave him a sharp, sidelong glance before dropping onto the couch and spreading out to claim all three seats. “Ry. You’re welcome to think evil doesn’t exist in this world. But I don’t think that, and when I don’t do anything, people get hurt. I get hurt. Excuse me for trying to protect myself, because other people sure as hell won’t.”
“Other- What do you think we just did, you stupid son of a b***h? We just pulled your a** out of trouble. Get that through your thick head.” Rylan scowled and hurled a balled-up coat at Cas’ face before turning out his heel and stalking out of the room.
“Your nice coat you didn’t want to leave at the bar?” Vallorin said, one eyebrow cocked knowingly as Cas unfolded the jacket.
“Yea,” Cas mumbled. He made no move to get up or to say anything else, but he did fall asleep with the jacket clutched in his arms.
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 2:23 pm
Junior year
Caught
“Do you have any idea why coach is so pissed?”
For once in his life, Cas was in the dark about something that had managed to stir up their coach’s displeasure. This was a new feeling for him. They’d all gotten so used to him getting in trouble that coach pulling Cas aside for a Monday morning lecture every week had become par for the course.
But today, a storm was brewing in that office that Cas had played no part in whipping up. He’d been good over the weekend, actually staying home to work on a final project for his Mech E design class.
He shook his head at Loffe’s question, earning himself a puzzled look.
Beside him, Rylan lifted his head from his hands. They had all assumed he was just tired, until he shot Loffe an imploring look and asked, “How mad?”
“Did you do this?” Loffe asked, voicing aloud everyone’s surprise. “He’s practically red with rage. Muttering about indecency. He almost threw something at me, then he realized I wasn’t in trouble.”
Rylan winced at the word indecency. “Yup. Yea, that was me,” he said. His teammates’ astounded faces asked the question on all of their minds, so he continued, “Lisa and I were this hipster outdoor movie screening. And we got distracted, as it were, and were so busy doing it we didn’t realize the movie was over and everyone had left until someone pounded on the window and walked away. And it was…” he gestured helplessly at the office. “Must’ve recognized the truck.”
The looks on the faces around him ranged from genuine surprise to utter delight, the latter being Cas’ expression – of course.
His usual smirk became an unstoppable grin as he clapped Rylan on the back with a cackle of laughter. “That’s my boy, learning how to get freaky outside the bedroom!” He slung an arm around Rylan’s shoulder and pulled him close, the other hand clasping Rylan’s jaw. “You had me worried for a while, but I’m glad you proved me wrong.”
“Except now it’s a disaster!” Rylan protested, waving his hand vaguely in the direction of the office, wearing an expression that suggested if this was the usual outcome of getting it on in weird places, then maybe it would be better to avoid it.
“Ry, relax, you’re fine,” Cas said reassuring as he reached up with one hand to gently pat the top of Rylan’s head. “I’ll go in there and tell him it was me. It was dark, he probably didn’t actually see who it was.”
“You can’t do that. He’ll never believe you.”
Cas gave Rylan a look. “Of course he will. This wouldn’t even be the worst thing I’ve been caught doing.” And before Rylan could form the words to ask what, exactly, had been worse, he held up a hand. “I’m going.”
So the rest of the crew watched in quiet anticipation as Cas let himself into the coaches’ office after a smart knock. Through the half-closed venetian blinds, they could see excessive amounts of gesturing followed by Cas shrugging and putting on that s**t-eating grin that simultaneously enraged and calmed their coach. Cas made a gesture that might have symbolized someone jerking someone else off, and then pretended to duck as the coach pretended to frisbee a binder at his head. He threw back his head in laughter, ran a hand down the back of his head, and then let himself out again.
“Sorry, coach!” he threw over his shoulder before shutting the door behind him.
The rowers crowded up to him curiously, and he shrugged. “We’re good. Although he did threaten to… well, basically, he said don’t do it again. Not in those words.”
Loffe let out a quiet laugh. “You and your trouble.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 8:52 am
Junior year
Problem solving – Part 1
Cas peeked into Rylan’s room on his way to the living room, arms laden with books for one of those rare moments in his life when he realized he had to study. Three years into this whole college thing, and he was still learning that learning at an institution was not the same as teaching himself, skating by on smarts, lucking out on standardized tests. There was work to be done.
But sometimes, it just wasn’t meant to be.
“Who died?” he asked, coming to a halt, letting the books tumble out of his arms and onto the floor beside the door.
Rylan was sitting with his head in his hands, staring blankly at the desktop screen that glowed white before him. “My sister just got her permit. She took my truck out, hit a tree,” he said, looking up glumly. “It’ll take weeks to fix, so I can’t drive it to Philly next weekend, which leaves me a little screwed for my internship this summer.”
Cas made his way over and ruffled Rylan’s hair before sinking into the beanbag in the corner of the room. “I’ll help. What are the issues?”
“The place I’m staying is in the suburbs. I don’t have the money to rent a car, but I also don’t know if I’ll be able to find someplace accessible by public transportation on short notice,” Rylan said with a groan, leaning back in his chair and resting his head on the back.
“Can you make do until your car gets fixed? Or is moving the only recourse?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t—Wait, don’t you have to study for your final?” Rylan asked, looking pointedly at the books piled outside his door.
“Don’t worry about that,” Cas said with a shrug, a little too quickly. “I know all of that stuff. It’s an easy final. We should figure this out first.”
Rylan, nodded and, with noticeable effort, sat himself upright again. “Alright. Let’s get to work.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2016 12:03 pm
Junior year
Problem solving – Part 2
“I thought you said it was an easy final!”
Cas’ head snapped up from where he’d been hunched over and old problem set, trying to figure out where he’d gone wrong, and he saw Rylan looming over him with an expression half horrified, half angry on his face.
“It was an easy final, just… not for me?” he said with an ill attempt at smiling. It came out more like a grimace.
“I knew you were going to study. Why didn’t you just go? You shouldn’t have spent the entire evening looking at apartments in Philly,” Rylan said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.
“You needed some help! Did you see your face? You were flipping out,” Cas said, dropping the paper onto his lap and shifting so he could stop craning his neck to look at his friend. “Anyway, it’ll be fine.”
“Denny said you failed it.”
Cas shrugged. “Not the first time. I’ll be fine, I can retake it over the summer.”
“You can’t afford that.”
Gray eyes flew to meet Rylan’s, shadowed by a frown. Cas was about to protest when he realized that wasn’t a lie. “I’ll make it work,” he said finally. “Even if it means cutting spending in the fall because I didn’t earn enough over the summer. Don’t worry about it. At least we figured out your apartment situation.”
Rylan shook his head with a sigh, shoving Cas’ head away. “You stupid son of a b***h.”
Cas picked up the problem set in his lap and shook it at Rylan. “According to this final, you’re not wrong.”
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