Author’s Note: Well, school’s back in session so updates aren’t going to spin out every night. I’m hoping to get two chapters up a week, but there will be a minimum of one a week. Sorry guys and thanks for all of your reviews. You all rock!

Chapter Seven

Don’t Phunk With My Heart

Bailey eyed Matt suspiciously. The two had been riding in her Pontiac G6 for over an hour and Matt had been oddly giddy. He was playing non-stop love songs ranging from “Brown Eyes” by Destiny’s Child to “From This Moment On” by Shania Twain to “Taking Chances” by Celine Dion and even up to “Love Song” by Sara Bareillies and “Until the End of Time” by Justin Timberlake. It was scary, both that he was playing the music and that he knew all of the words to each song. By the time Matt had worked his way up to “Wait For You” Bailey yanked his iPod from her radio dock and shut off the music.

“What’s up with you?” Bailey asked, “You said you wanted to talk, but all you’re doing is playing love music. We both know love doesn’t exist.” She smiled and winked at him.

Matt shrugged, “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Matthew-“

“Okay,” Matt laughed, “don’t use the full name thing on me, it’s scary. I have news.”

“Of?” she listened expectantly.

“Guess who hit it off with Jordan during the break?” Matt’s smile spread ear-to-ear.

Bailey gasped, “Aww! Matty!”

He nodded, “Oh yes, we’ve talked every night since Thanksgiving. And we click so well, it’s kind of scary. Oh my God, Bailey, he’s so cute and sweet!”

Bailey looked at Matt, “I’m happy for you. I’m glad you finally came clean with him, I told you it’d be for the best.”

Matt paused and looked down at the car’s floorboard, “Um, not exactly.”

Bailey, who was looking at the road, stared at him, “But ya’ll talked on the phone, that means phone numbers were exchanged.”

Matt shook his head, “His number was exchanged, not mine.”

Bailey nodded. She glanced back to the road and held herself back from saying anything. She did not want to nag him, but when her better judgment spoke to her it was usually right. Bailey had an odd intuition, and that was telling her that Matt’s situation was not going to end well.

Instead of nagging, she smiled, “Well, do it all in your own time. Have you seen him yet?”

Matt cocked his eyes at her, “That is so not what you wanted to say. But good job censoring yourself.” He smiled, “And no, I’m not sure if I should Facebook stalk him, since he can’t do the same to me. Plus, he could be lying too.”

Bailey grinned, “He’d do the same thing! I say we find out.”

Matt thought for a moment. He then nodded, “Ok, let’s stalk.

-X-X-X-X-

They typed in his first name on the Facebook advanced search engine, along with his class year, major, and dorm that he lived in. What did they get? Nothing.

“What?” Jordan eyed the computer screen, “No way, try his AIM screen name.”

Amber sighed and typed in Matt’s screen name at Jordan’s command. Still nothing. Jordan, Amber, and their other roommate Megan were all in their kitchen. Megan was eating Phish Food straight out of the Ben & Jerry’s pint. She had been ranting for most of the day about her parents’ reaction to her arrest, and how horrible it was for her over the break.

After the fifth recollection, Amber and Jordan decided to be more concerned about finding “Trey.” Nothing they tried turned up results, at least not ones that Jordan believed was the real “Trey.” Amber had done this before with Jordan. They had been best friends since high school, and she had known Jordan’s sexuality since their junior year in high school. She was particularly protective over Jordan, mostly because he was a little too naïve for his own good.

“What if he gave you a fake name?” Amber asked.

“He didn’t,” Jordan replied, pacing in front of the island where Amber had her laptop stationed.

“It’s happened before,” Megan said through a mouthful of ice cream, “not like me getting arrested, even though my parents don’t act like it.”

Jordan shook his head, “No, he wouldn’t. Me and him, the talks, it’s different.”

“Different how?” Amber cocked her eyebrow at Jordan.

Jordan opened his mouth to speak, but was at a loss for words. He could not describe what happened between him and Matt; he just knew that something did. That something was powerful, not like anything Jordan had felt before.

“We bonded,” Jordan finally said.

“Bonded?” Amber sighed, “You don’t even know what he looks like, or who he is, or if he’s some crazy serial-rapist.”

“Is he crazy?” Megan asked, with her mouth still full of ice cream, “Did he want to be a florist when he was a kid, because that means crazy. He’s a psychology major, right? That means he’s a little cooky.”

Jordan eyed Megan and yanked the Ben & Jerry’s from her, “Quit eating that or you’ll be as fat as Amber’s mom.”

Amber threw the nearest thing in her reach, which was a fork, at Jordan. Megan yanked the ice cream from him and continued eating, “You reach over here again you’ll pull back a nub.” Megan winked and swallowed her mouthful of chocolaty deliciousness.

-X-X-X-X-

“GOT HIM!” Bailey exclaimed as she pointed to a picture of Jordan, “And he’s cuuuuuuuuttttttteeeee!”

Matt leaned over Bailey, “He looks like he’s still in high school.”

Jordan had shaggy highlighted hair in the picture they were looking at. He stood about even height with the other girls with him in the picture. He was thin, somewhere between an athletic and average build. He was wearing ripped and faded jeans, flip-flops, and a graphic tee shirt. He was dressed like that in most of his pictures.

“Aww, he so adorable!” Bailey leaned back on Matt, “He’s a Hollister boy, that’s kind of hot. You think he is, right?”

Matt nodded, “Yeah, I guess, wow, it’s crazy seeing him though. It’s weird.”

Bailey shrugged, “I guess. Well, now we officially know everything, I guess. Now you just need to meet!”

“No,” Matt replied, “not yet.”

Bailey closed out the picture and turned to face Matt, “Whenever you’re ready. It’ll be kind of like coming out, everything in time, right?’

“I came out to Laura,” Matt blurted out.

Bailey hit him, “You bastard”

Matt held his shoulder, “You crazy devil woman! Why are you hitting me!?”

“You’re trying to get a new Grace!” Bailey smiled at him.

Matt laughed, “No, I’m not!”

Bailey grinned, “Good, she’d best be Karen, or there’s gonna be a bitch fight, and I’m the queen B.”

Matt eyed her, “You should be smacked. Queen B? Seriously? Who says that?”

Bailey hit Matt again.

-X-X-X-X-

The following week passed by in a rush of studying and class assignments. Aside from a few trips to the gym with Trey, the occasional dinner with Abby, and work, Matt barely had room to breathe. But even with the stacked schedule, Matt found himself yearning to talk to Jordan more and more. He called him every night, always at 10, and they talked one another to sleep. Matt convinced Abby to sleep at her place because he would be in and out of the house at random hours, going from the SLC to study to the Dining Halls to eat.

Abby complied, but could feel something different in Matt. He was happier, if that was possible. But he also spent much less time talking to her. She could not quite decide what was causing the change, but she knew it was odd. Most students buckled down and showed no sign of life during the final three weeks of the semester, but Matt was overly bouncy.

She also noticed a serious drop in their sex life. Before the break they would hook up at least once a week, but Matt had barely kissed her in the week since they had been back from Thanksgiving.

Regardless, Matt was oblivious to the way he was changing.

“So he’s definitely not cheating?” Maria eyed Laura.

“There’s no other girl in his life,” Laura eyed Maria back, being sure to cleverly leave out the fact that there was a guy in Matt’s life, “I’ve told you this.”

Maria glanced outside of the window to Matt. He was laughing and talking on the phone, they could not hear what he was saying.

“Whoever he’s been talking to is NOT Abby.” Maria said.

“What?” Laura leaned back and shook her head, “No way, it’s definitely Abby.”

Maria scoffed, “She never makes him look like that.”

Laura shook her head. She was not technically lying to Maria, but she felt horrible keeping such a big truth away from her. “Well if you think he’s cheating then why don’t you ask him?”

Matt hung up the phone and began to walk through the front door.

“Maybe I will,” Maria fired back and then immediately smiled to Matt, “Hey sexy!”

Matt winked, “Hola, mamacita.”

Rico came over and slapped Laura’s butt, “Mamacita?”

Laura bit her lip and eyed Matt. Ever since she found out Rico was gay she hated him; he had been flirting with her for so long and she had bought into every second of it.

“Adios,” Laura walked off. Matt had tried to console her by claiming Rico could be bisexual, but that didn’t help.

“Mmm,” Maria grinned at Rico, “looks likes someone’s losing his game.” She walked by, bumping Rico’s hip-to-hip as she walked.

Rico shrugged and looked back, the two walked into the kitchen. Rico then subtly brushed Matt’s lower back and whispered, “Che pasa papi chulo?”

Matt eyed Rico. He blinked quickly and did a double take of the previous moment. Was Rico hitting on him? He eyed the hispanic, “I think I’ve got an order up.”

Rico winked as Matt awkwardly rushed off.

-X-X-X-X-

“AHH!” Abby quietly exclaimed as she ran her hands through her hair. She leaned over and placed her head on Matt’s shoulder. He rubbed her head.

“Aww, baby,” Matt looked at her, “frustrated?”

“Yes.” she sighed, “Classes really get in the way of college.”

Abby, Matt, Bailey, Britney, and Laura were all sitting at the same table in the SLC with their noses crammed in their books. They had been like that for over two hours.

“What are you studying?” Bailey asked as she leaned over the table towards Abby’s pile of papers.

“Spanish!” Abby exclaimed, “And I seriously need help.”

“Really?” Bailey asked, “I’m taking Spanish too.”

Abby shook her head, “This is the second intro course, and I can’t believe I’m struggling so much.”

Bailey looked at Matt, “Maria!”

Matt nodded, “Yeah, she could help you. Bailey’s already going to get some of her help for her Spanish class.”

Abby shrugged, “That would work, can I get her number?”

Matt nodded and got it out of his phone. Abby took it gratefully, and she and Bailey, despite their distaste for one another, began to set up a time that they both could meet with Maria.

-X-X-X-X-

It was about 3 AM when Matt pulled into his fraternity house’s parking lot. He was on the phone with Jordan, and had been for almost two hours. Although he knew he should get off of the phone and sleep, he never did.

His entire situation with Jordan had been throwing him for an odd loop ever since it began. He knew he should not feel the way he did, but he was growing emotionally close to Jordan. He was such a good guy, and so sweet. He was also a little goofy, earlier in the conversation he spent a good ten minutes trying to convince Matt to go to Publix and buy some Nutella because it was “so freaking awesome.”

Matt was listening to Beyonce in his car, and Jordan was jamming to Kelly Clarkson, a point in the conversation where they said they’d let their feminine side show. Both agreed that they were not much for the “flaming” gay culture. They enjoyed dancing, and liked some techno and trance music, but neither was outright feminine, though Matt confessed it slipped out when he was helping his friends shop. Jordan also revealed his and his roommate’s obsession with America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway.

After talking for a few more minutes, mostly about friends, Matt came to a funny conclusion.

“You’re definitely the bitch in this relationship,” he laughed.

“What?” Jordan asked, zoning in and out because of how tired he was, “I am not, you’re definitely the chick.”

“No,” Matt replied, leaning back in his seat, “I’m in a fraternity, listen to rap, and can grow facial hair…that makes you the girl.”

“Your mom’s a girl,” Jordan said, “and she likes my baby-face.”

“Obviously.”

“I want you to come over,” Jordan spat out plainly, and without pause from Matt’s previous statement. It was an interjection shoved into the conversation that was obviously thought about long before it was brought up.

Matt did not know how to respond. His first instinct was to say yes and rush over there as fast as possible, but he knew that was not possible. But there was problem, Matt was supposed to be a freshman, he was supposed to be younger, he was supposed to be Trey. His lies were his trap, and he was starting to understand what Bailey had warned him about before.

No matter what his better judgment was telling him, Matt had to say something.

“Meet me downtown at The Grill,” Matt said, “in about an hour?”

“What?” Jordan asked, he had asked Matt to meet up several times before and he had always turned him down, “Seriously? I don’t want you to think that you have to, I was just saying.”

“And so am I,” Matt stated, “I’ll be there around 4, and I’ll be in an orange polo.”

“Wow,” Jordan replied, “cool, okay, I’ll be there.”

-X-X-X-X-

Jordan hung up his phone. He jumped out of bed and looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was sloppy from lying down, he was in a wife beater and pajama pants. He was nervous, even though it was just a casual meeting. He was actually freaking out, so much that his first instinct was holler.

“HOLY SHIT!” he exclaimed, “AMBER! MEGAN!”

-X-X-X-X-

Author’s Note: Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be up in no more than a week!