A gay story: Chasing Rusty Parker – Ch. 01 Chasing Rusty
Parker is the sequel of Good Guys Don’t Date Bad Boys and follows Rusty’s adventures throughout senior year.
Summary:
Rusty Parker has one big-ass problem, unlike any other big-ass problems he has ever had in his life. No, it’s not the impending sense of doom that comes with senior year and the fact that he has no idea what to do after or that he’s running out of kink ideas. No, it’s a very peculiar issue.
Ever since Maddox Kingsley, his bestie and the most awesome guy alive — nine out of ten college kids would agree — got all mushy over Jonathan Hamilton, one perfect GPA score and amazing cook wrapped in the same sexy package, and the two became joined at the hip, Rusty has been experiencing certain… twingling feelings. It’s not about what they do in bed or whatever, ’cause he has already tried everything (except that! — at least not with a dude).
No, the reason why he dreams of sneaking between those two while they lie in bed and stare at each other with stars in their eyes is not… very clear. It’s not the sex stuff; no, Rusty’s sure. It’s just something worth chasing and that Rusty’s also sure about. Just that he has no idea what it is.
That is until he gets the most insufferable tutor in the world. And meets a cat boy. Yeah, finally.
Chapter One – It Must Be The Gay
Up. Down. Right. Left. Repeat. Rusty swung his head around, but the landscape didn’t change. Yup, it was the first day of the last year of his life, as he knew it. After that, it was all a blank, so you could say that it had to be a different life, one he had no idea what it was going to be like. So, senior year was like the last year of his life as Rusty Parker, the king of Sunny Hill.
“Would you stop that? You’re making me dizzy,” Dex complained.
To piss Dex off a little more, Rusty began swinging his head faster and then stopped abruptly. “Better?”
Dex shrugged and shook his head. Kane, as usual, rushed to his bestie’s help. “How about you go get us some sodas from the counter?”
“Am I your errand boy?” Rusty declaimed out loud, making heads turn. A few laughs here and there, and the usual. The interested looks from all the freshies and the others alike. So, business as usual.
He smirked and got to his feet.
And, after just a couple of steps, he promptly smacked into someone, who seemed to be not that well acquainted with his own feet because he landed on his ass. Rusty looked, slightly horrified, at how the guy’s glasses slid on the polished cafeteria floor like a curling weight.
Quick thinking was one of the main perks of the king of Sunny Hill. Without hesitating, Rusty threw himself on the glasses, protecting them with his body, and preventing any walkers from crushing them under their feet. Without changing his position, he turned his head toward the dude sprawled on the floor. He looked slightly dizzy and confused, but what truly registered with Rusty were a cute as a button upturned nose and a pair of the most hazel eyes in all hazel eyes history. He smiled. “Are you all right?”
The hazel eyes finally landed on him. “My glasses,” the guy stuttered.
“Safe,” Rusty replied. “They’re right here.”
More confusion rolled from the hazel eyes. “Um, could you please give them back?”
Rusty rolled to one side, gracefully uncovering his protected charge. Then, he slid them cautiously over the floor until he bumped the other’s hand with them. A sigh of relief left the guy’s lips, and Rusty found himself staring. Too caught up by the upturned nose and hazel eyes, he had missed that perfect Cupid’s bow arch.
The dude quickly put on his glasses, with the cautiousness and hurry characteristic to people whose proper navigation in the outside world depended greatly on such accessories. Then, the guy finally looked at him.
Rusty expected a ‘thank you’, but the hazel eyes just turned bigger, or maybe it was the glasses. Their owner pushed himself backwards on his ass, eventually bumped into someone, jumped to his feet and ran away.
“What the fuck?” Rusty asked himself out loud.
“Do you need a hand down there, or is the floor your most recent best friend?” Dex called for him.
Hadn’t anyone noticed that weird thing with the boy with glasses? Rusty turned toward Dex and Kane, but they seemed to be engrossed in something on their phones. Probably the class schedule for the semester. Nerds.
Disappointed that his valiant act had gone unnoticed – not by the freshman year and/or most girls around – Rusty dragged himself to his feet and sauntered toward the counter. He searched for the boy with his eyes, but he had already been swallowed by the crowd.
***
Matty put his palms over his ears and kept his head down while rushing toward the table in the corner where Zoey was already seated. He plopped himself down across from her and breathed heavily like he had just run a marathon.
“What’s with you?” she asked, scutinizing him with keen eyes.
Zoey was petite, but she packed a punch. Everyone who didn’t know them thought they were a cute couple. Probably they thought so the same way they thought of a pair of hamsters being cute. Just like him, Zoey wore glasses, and had what people called a harmless pretty face. In his case, the harmless comment was right on point. In hers, not so much.
Matty leaned over the table, causing his best friend to do the same. “Zoey, you won’t believe it!” Overly conscious of his voice being too loud, he dropped it to a whisper. “I crashed into Rusty Parker.”
Zoey didn’t look impressed. Her brown eyes inspected him, like he was a bit of a lunatic. “Matty, you’ve been crushing on,” she emphasized each word, “Rusty Parker since freshman year.”
Matty waved desperately. “Any louder and this will end up in Xpress. Ah, wait, maybe I shouldn’t bother shushing you. Xpress doesn’t even know I exist.” He deflated considerably. “Just like Rusty Parker has no idea I exist.”
Zoey pushed her glasses up on her nose. “Are you going to tell me what happened or should I hit you with the list first?”
Matty knew all about the list. After confessing, complaining, and wallowing in semi despair, Zoey had forced the list on him at the end of sophomore year. It served as a wakeup pill or whatever. “Hit me with the list first,” he admitted morosely and sank back into his chair, arms over his chest.
Zoey cleared her throat with importance and leafed through an imaginary document in front of her. “Rusty Parker is a shallow, good for nothing, popularity chaser,” she said in a sing-song voice and waited for Matty’s reaction.
Matty bit his bottom lip. “He’s not,” he protested right away. “I can tell that he’s not shallow,” he continued. “His popularity is due to the fact that he has natural charm. And I can see in his eyes that he’s very smart. Who would think of a butt slapping contest and manage to win it?”
Zoey grimaced and shifted in her chair. “Don’t remind me of that. I could only take like five with that paddle. And then I couldn’t sit for a week.”
Matty nodded in understanding. “That’s why I gave you that new pillow.”