Dropping Off the End of Time

By LQ Aredhel

Chapter One

Sunday – Thirteen days until the convention.

Ow, Jude thought as he slowly woke. All of his muscles were aching, but it was nothing compared to the skull-cracking pulse in his head. It suddenly occurred to him that he was in the hospital and panic forced him to sit up and open his eyes.

As raised himself to his elbows, an arm slid from his chest. Jude looked down to see a tanned and muscular blond guy draped over him.

Oh my god.

He wasn’t in the hospital, he noted as he took in the tiny room. Two beds, two dressers, two desks and one door. A dorm room. But it wasn’t a room that Jude had ever been in before. He looked back down to the blond guy. He didn’t look familiar…

Suddenly it hit him.

“Oh, God…” Jude moaned. He remembered now.

As carefully as possible, Jude moved the bare leg that was curled around his and crawled over the fortunately mostly covered body to stand in the middle of the dirty dorm room.

The pounding in his head was getting harder. Standing made him dizzy, and he remained still for a moment until the room stopped wobbling.

It was Marco, he recalled as he gathered as much of his clothes as he could find. Jeans, t-shirt…no socks or shoes…no keys? Jude cursed and searched under the rest of the clothes layering the floor. It was Marco’s fault that he was in this mess. Jude had been stressed out because of all the papers he had to write in the next couple of weeks, and finals was only one week away…so Marco invited Jude to his dorm for some “relaxation.”

Jude wasn’t an idiot; he knew that Marco was a pothead. But at that point, but he was willing to try anything to get his mind away from schoolwork and all the shit that was going on at his apartment. So he went to Marco’s place, had a few drinks, probably smoked something, he couldn’t really remember. It wasn’t something he would normally do, that’s for sure.

There ended up being about fifteen people crammed into Marco’s dorm, and one of them was the blond football player. The jock had a square chin and really wasn’t Jude’s type, but he did have pretty blue eyes. The jock kept winking at Jude and making obscene hand motions at him. It had annoyed that hell out of Jude. At first. But by the time he was on his third beer he was grinning back and blushing like an idiot.

The last thing Jude remembered was making out with the jock on Marco’s roommate’s bed. That thought alone made him want to puke; knowing what must have happened afterwards made him give up his search and bolt out of the room without his shoes or keys.

Holy fuck, Jude thought to himself as he wandered through the halls. This isn’t even Marco’s building. He must have been really out of it last night to have wandered off with the jock, whose name, by the way, he could not recall ever knowing. Okay, so no more drinking. Ever.

Exasperated, he finally found an exit and realized that he was on the opposite side of campus as Marco’s building. The thought made him shiver, which made him feel like an ice pick was driven through his skull. He winced and began half-jogging across campus, barefoot. Passing the clock-tower, he noted that it was only eight-thirty in the morning. The thought made him happy, because he knew that Marco would be asleep when he got there.

It was Sunday so there were no classes in session, but the few people Jude did pass paid no attention to him, thank God. They didn’t notice that he was bouncing across campus on the tips of his toes, trying to avoid sharp objects on the sidewalks. When he finally reached the door to Marco’s room, his headache felt ten times worse and his toes were killing him. He was definitely ready to wake up his asshole friend.

He pounded on the door, not caring about the sleeping students in the rooms around him. He was too pissed off. “Marco!” he called. He tried the door; it was unlocked. Inside, the room was just as sloppy as most of the dorm rooms he’d been in; clothes, papers, and books were everywhere. He stubbed his toe on a book as he made his way over to Marco’s bed and grabbed the iPod lying on a pile of clothes next to it. Jude turned it on, cranked the volume all the way up, placed one of the ear buds in Marco’s ear and pressed play. Marco screamed and jerked awake when The Blood Brothers blasted into his ear.

“What the hell!” Marco cried, throwing the iPod across the room and glaring up at Jude. Jude watched the expensive player hit the wall and land in another pile of clothes before returning the glare.

“Yeah, what the hell, Marco?” Jude asked much more calmly than Marco had. He could tell from his friend’s confused and bloodshot eyes that Marco really had no idea what was going on…and he was probably still high from last night.

But then Marco’s confused and angry expression turned to one of amusement. “So how was your night, Jude?”

Jude narrowed his eyes. “I woke up next to some guy I didn’t know. How was yours?”

“Please, I don’t want to know the details,” Marco said through a yawn, flopping back down on his bed. “Keep your dick-fetish to yourself.” Jude rolled his eyes. “But you don’t have to thank me,” Marco continued. “I could tell you needed to get laid, happy to help.”

Jude was fuming. “First of all, don’t worry about the details because I can’t remember anything! How could you let me leave with him? I didn’t even know him, and I was drunk off my ass!”

“Mellow out, Jude, Jesus,” Marco replied. “You’re an adult. A one-night-stand here and there isn’t going to kill you. Besides, I bet you feel a lot better now, don’t you?” He closed his eyes and pretended to go back to sleep.

“No, Marco,” Jude said through gritted teeth as he shoved his friend’s head into his pillow, ”I don’t feel better. I feel like shit!”

“Then maybe you should try going home with a girl next time,” Marco suggested. He made those stupid comments a lot, knowing that it would just piss Jude off. Or in this case, make Jude realize that he wasn’t going to get anywhere by arguing.

“Fine, whatever. Have you seen my keys?” That’s what he’d really come here for anyway. He could spend the rest of the semester finding ways to pay back Marco, but right now he needed to get home and take a long hot shower. And take thirty tablets of aspirin.

Marco pointed to his roommate’s empty bed as he rolled over to face the wall. Sure enough, under the rumpled comforter were Jude’s keys.

“And my shoes?” Jude asked, already feeling a little better.

“You left with them,” was Marco’s muffled reply. “Ronen probably has them.”

“Ronen?” Jude asked in a worried voice.

Marco turned back over to look at him. “The football player you went home with? Jesus, Jude, you’ve got to be careful, you could have been left in a ditch.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Jude scoffed before slamming the door behind him.

His apartment building wasn’t too far away, so hopping there on his toes wasn’t a big deal. The door to his apartment opened just as he was turning his key in the lock.

“Oh, hey Jude,” greeted the tall, muscular guy in the door.

“Hi, Tripp,” Jude replied, sighing.

“You look like shit, dude,” Tripp told him, still blocking the doorway. “What did you do last night?”

Jude blushed, which made him angry. “Can I just get into my apartment?” he finally asked, and Tripp moved out of the way to let him pass. Jude gathered some clothes and headed straight to the bathroom.

What had that been all about anyway? Tripp acted like he owned the place when he didn’t even live there; he was dating Jude’s roommate, Erin. Jude tried not to think about it, but he and Erin both had a crush on Tripp when they first met him. Obviously, Tripp swung one way and not the other, because he now spent a ridiculous amount of his free time cuddling with Erin on Jude’s couch. Well, it was Erin’s, too, but Jude felt that they should both have a say in what went on there.

So Jude was a little jealous. It was just tough watching them together, not only because he was more than slightly attracted to Tripp, but also because Jude didn’t have anyone to make out with. Not the shit-drunk, make out on the closest bed and sleep over before you know the guy’s name type of make out, either. God damn Marco. Jude guessed that he was just kind of lonely. It was a fact that he accepted and then pushed deep inside of him so that he could forget about it. Who needs the distraction of a boyfriend anyway? School was stressful enough as it was.

After taking a few aspirin and scrubbing himself in the shower, Jude was able to forget what had happened the night before. Of course, it was easier since he didn’t actually remember all of the details, but he was still sore in several places. He chose to ignore this fact as he dressed in clean clothes and wandered out into the living room.

Where Erin and Tripp were getting touchy feely on Jude’s couch.

The headache still hadn’t subsided, and now it was trying to push Jude’s eyes out of his head. He pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and slammed the door.

“Oh, hey Jude!” Erin said from the couch, a little out of breath. “Do you feel better now?”

Do I feel better now? “Yeah, I feel fine,” he replied, annoyed. He’d met Erin in a history class at the end of last year and they’d been living together for almost nine months. It was excruciating; they got along fine when they were just friends, but living with someone can make all of their smallest quirks into bloody, gaping defects.

“Okay, well Lacey called from the convention committee,” Erin explained as Jude glugged down the water. “She wants to know what times you’ll be available on Saturday.”

Jude almost choked. “This Saturday?”

“Yeah, we’re having a quick run through of all of the volunteer positions available.”

“But the con isn’t until a week from Saturday. Can’t they do this shit after finals?” Jude begged. He didn’t even really want to volunteer for the anime convention; Erin had guilt-tripped him into it after he forgot to help her with an English project for her midterm. She failed, and it wasn’t really his fault, was it?

“Language, Jude, come on!” Erin admonished. She uncurled herself from around Tripp and grabbed a piece of paper from the table. Jude noticed that Tripp was smirking at him. “Here’s Lacey’s number, just give her a call when you decide to stop being such an ass.”

Jude sighed and took the paper, shoving it into his pocket. He was not being an ass. Erin sat back on the couch and looked up at him expectantly.

“Do you want to watch a movie or something?” she asked.

He ignored the burning replies racing through his head and simply said, “No. I’m going to go find Connor.”

“Okay,” Erin replied, already staring at Tripp again.

Tripp kept his eyes on Jude and said, “We’re going to hang out here for a while, so take your time, ‘kay buddy?”

Ugh.

“Yeah, no problem.” I wouldn’t want to walk in on that anyway, he thought as he pulled on a pair of old shoes and shoved his keys into his pocket.

“Great. Have fun with Connor,” Tripp said as Jude closed the door. He stood in the hallway for a moment. What the hell did that mean?

Instead of thinking too hard about it, because his headache was only just beginning to fade, Jude decided that he hated Tripp (and perhaps Erin by association) and that he would just add him to the list of things about the last twenty-four hours that he wanted to forget. He concentrated on figuring out where Connor would be at this time of day. A glance at the clock tower told Jude that it was closer to ten a.m. now. Connor always was a morning person, and would probably be somewhere on campus by now. Jude decided to check the Recreational Center; DDR was a good bet when it came to Connor.

Connor had been Jude’s best friend since halfway through high school. Connor was a year younger than Jude, and they actually met by accident at a friend’s birthday party. Everyone was playing seven minutes in heaven, which seemed really immature to Jude. So he’d slipped off to roam the house in search of entertainment when he came to find a small, blond boy sitting on the stairs and staring out into space.

Jude had considered wandering in a different direction, but he figured that the upstairs probably had some interesting things in it, so he walked up to the boy.

“Hey, can I get through?” he asked. The boy looked up at him with bright green eyes and gave him a huge smile.

“Hi, I’m Connor!” the boy had proclaimed. “The parting was boring, so I was dancing in the hallway over there, but I kind of got tired so I was thinking about puppies.”

Jude opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was, “Wha?”

Connor laughed and quickly continued, “Okay, so I had some of the Mountain Dew in there, and I’m not really tired, I just didn’t want to ruin the party, you know? I have a hard time controlling what I say do when I have Mountain Dew, but it’s soooo tasty, so I thought that maybe one cup wouldn’t hurt until I felt that warm happy feeling that makes me want to jump off of things, and I figured it would be best if I go hide for a while so that I don’t make anyone angry.”

“Oh, right,” Jude said, mostly because he wasn’t sure what to say. He noticed the boy’s bare feet were tapping in a sporadic rhythm against the bottom stair. What a weird kid, he’d thought. “Well, I got bored. Mind if I sit with you?”

The two of them ended up sitting on the stairs for hours talking (it was mostly Jude listening to Connor talk) and laughing. Connor was very entertaining; he really couldn’t keep things from coming out of his mouth.

After about an hour, Connor blurted out, “You’re really cute,” and then slapped both his hands over his mouth. Jude just gaped at him, but he could feel himself blushing. He wasn’t exactly out of the closet at the time.

“I didn’t mean that,” Connor yelped. “I mean, not that you’re not cute, I mean you seem nice and all, but I’m not coming onto you or anything, why would I do that? It’s not like I want to kiss your or anything. OH MY GOD!” His hands went back over his mouth.

Jude couldn’t help but laugh at this, but his face felt even warmer, because he also couldn’t help looking at the blond boy’s lips after he’d said that. He couldn’t help thinking that he wouldn’t mind kissing either.

By then, Connor had backed along the step to sit rigidly against the wall behind him. He kind of looked like he was going to cry.

“It’s okay,” Jude said hastily. “Um, kissing, is…okay.” He’d only kissed girls before and he really didn’t know what to say or do.

The look in Connor’s eyes suddenly changed to one of pure glee, and he practically jumped onto Jude’s lap before connecting their lips. At first it was a shock for Jude, and then it became horribly uncomfortable as neither of them moved from their tense positions. Gathering his courage, Jude tilted his head slightly and pulled away to soften the contact. He opened his mouth and then moved it against Connor’s. He felt Connor shaking before he joined the softer kiss.

Thinking back on it now, it was a wonder that no one from the party wandered out to find one of them and caught them making out on the stairs. Instead, the two boys made out for a while, then went back to talking about anything but what they’d just done. But for some reason, making out didn’t make Jude feel awkward around Connor; in fact, he’d never felt more comfortable with anyone in his life. They talked until the party ended at around two a.m., when Jude gave Connor a ride home.

Jude started hanging out with Connor after school, and the pair soon became best friends. They never did anything like on the stairs again, but something about having done it and being okay with it was very comforting. Jude supposed that Connor was the first person he came out to.

Connor followed Jude to Northwestern when he graduated from high school and had no trouble fitting in. Despite his unusual antics, Connor was very popular because of his ridiculous good looks. In fact, as far as Jude knew, Connor had never been without a boyfriend since he came out at the beginning of his senior year in high school. Of course this also caused problems, because being gay in high school was not exactly safe. Connor had some problems, but that was all in the past. He was currently living with a guy named Alex, whom he’d gotten together with about a month earlier. Jude didn’t see Alex much, but he was constantly busy and all of his free time usually went to studying.

Okay, Jude had now been to three different restaurants and the DDR pads in the Rec. Center, and there was still no sign of Connor. Great. Now Jude was bored and lonely and without a place to go because Erin and Tripp were doing unspeakable things on his couch. At least his headache was gone.

Jude sat down in the grass next to the Rec. Center and sighed. He should be doing homework anyway. He had three papers to write by Thursday, plus a pile of other worksheets and tedious shit like that to do for this week. But all of his stuff was in his room. Next to the couch.

A gumball fell into Jude’s lap. He stared at it. It was red. Nuh? he thought. Another one fell, hitting him in the head, and then another until it was raining gumballs. It was raining gumballs. Jude’s mind didn’t seem to want to comprehend this, so he just stared blankly at the colorful tumbling balls until a high-pitched giggle pulled him out of his trance.

He looked up to see Connor hanging out of the window above him, pouring a bag of gumballs on his head, and giggling like a maniac.

All Jude could do was stare. The bag was soon empty and Connor’s head disappeared, leaving behind a fading trail of mad giggling.

Jude looked down at the pile of gumballs around him and started to laugh. He picked up a couple of pink gumball and popped them into his mouth. Not bad. Moments later Connor appeared, still grinning ear-to-ear, his face bright red.

“You’re insane,” Jude said slowly. It came out slurred because he was still trying to chew the candy into a gum, but the words generated the desired effect; Connor jumped up and down waving his arms, then threw himself down next to Jude and gathered several gumballs into his mouth.

“Da gir im my Mash cwash gay me de bag, cam you beweeve i?” Connor slurred out, spitting all over the place.

“You know she probably has a crush on you,” Jude replied, trying (and failing) to blow a bubble.

“Mm-Hm,” was Connor’s only reply. He seemed to be concentrating extra hard on not letting the gooey mess fall out of his mouth. He finally gave up and spit the disgusting pink wad into his hand and said, “Whatever it is, it doesn’t make a bag of gumballs any less awesome.” Then the wad went straight back into his mouth.

“Where’s Alex?” Jude asked after a while of strictly chewing time.

Connor frowned and replied, “Pwactish.”

“Ah.” Alex was on the basketball team, which amused Jude to no end. It was strange knowing that Connor was with a sporty guy. From what he could tell, though, Alex seemed like a really nice guy, despite his athletic tendencies.

Connor started to look a little sick before he ran over to a trash can and spit out his gum.

“Are you okay?” Jude asked when he returned.

“Yup,” Connor replied cheerily. “Why aren’t you off studying somewhere?”

That’s what I should be doing, thought Jude, but he said, “I guess I’m taking the day off. Entertain me.”

That put a smile on Connor’s face, and with all of the sugar in the gumballs he’d just chewed on, he dragged Jude into the Rec. Center to play several hundred rounds of DDR.