Let's Be Friends

So it begins

"Wow," Stephen's teacher had held Stephen a bit after class to talk about his project, "Your photography skills are simply incredible."

"Thank you sir." He replied with a smile. And turned to leave, he had already been held up a tad by this, and wanted to see Gray in the hallway to discuss when they wanted to meet and what he wanted when he asked Stephen to "go with him".

"But Stephen?" He asked as Stephen had made it to the door, "Who is the young man in your photo?"

Stephen smiled, "He's my friend!" he waved and left the room, allowing his anxious eyes to scan the crowd of students for his dear roommate. The teacher shot him an odd look before muttering something that was inaudible. Stephen didn't really care though.

He looked up and down the hallway, not too noticeably, searching for his friend. After a moment he heard Gray's name.

"Come have lunch with us Gray!!!" A tall auburn said. He was quite muscular, and stood next to Alex.

"Nope."

"Why not?" He whined.

"Ben I have class."

"Not for nearly another hour!" Ben replied. "And besides," he said shooting Gray a look, "I heard you left campus with someone before your class the other day!" The way he looked at Gray he didn't seem mad or sad, just somewhat jokingly hurt.

"Where'd you hear that from?" He asked with an eyeroll.

"Around." was Alex's answer.

Ben looked at Gray as if he wanted him to confirm that this was true. He didn't say anything but it was obvious he was dying to ask. Gray gave a small head nod in response, and Ben over exaggerated a gasp.

"So what dear friend will you go off campus with? I'd like to meet this friend of your's who is better than us." He dramatically stated.

"We're not exactly friends," the words stung Stephen, "He asked for a favor, and he paid for my coffee."

"Omg, you caffeine addict, you would hang out with someone who's not even your friend before you went and got lunch with us!"

"Mm-Hmm." He hummed sweetly, and repositioned the books he was holding in his arms. Ben quickly took the books from his arms and held them in one hand. His other he threw around Gray's should.

"Come hang out with us please... It's been so long since we all hung out together, and I know your schedule is tight, but I promise it'll be fun!" Ben said somewhat sadly.

"I won't get lunch with you today, as it is almost time for my class." Ben sighed, "But, I will see y'all at that party that you told me I had to go to."

Alex's face dropped, "Oh crap, we're supposed to be leaving you alone!"

"It's fine." He said and softly took the books from Ben's hands, "I'll see y'all later, and.." he paused, "We should definitely all hang out together again."

Then he walked down the hall. Leaving his friends smiling and walking off in the other direction, Man, what'd I'd do for friends like that, Stephen thought, somewhat glum he didn't get to talk to Gray.

...

...

The party was loud, and most everyone was drinking. This wasn't Stephen's cup of tea, he didn't drink, nor smoke, or fight. He tried to avoid those things like the plague. He looked for Gray, he hadn't seen the boy since earlier. And he wished to keep his end of the deal.

He pulled out his phone to text him, only to be met with the realization that he didn't have his number. He sighed and looked around. He saw Alex and Ben with a few other guys, but Gray wasn't with them. He continued his walk down the halls.

The party was thrown in the east dorms, drinking on campus wasn't allowed, but who was going to tell this huge and rowdy mass of college students they couldn't? 

Quite a few of the rooms were open for.. well.. couples and such. And the hall was occupied by most of the rest of the students. If you walked a bit farther you'd find the remainder in the large entry room, somewhat like a lobby, on couches. Some passed out and others just getting started. On the other side of the room, there was a tall and long table, usually covered in papers, like club applications and pamphlets, with a few cheap, iconic, school, plastic chairs. However instead of papers, the table was instead, where the punch bowls were along with tons of red plastic cups. 

Stephen glanced at the table, the drink in the bowl was indeed red, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that they weren't drinking punch.

Stephen had quite a few "friends", people he somewhat knew, or would talk to in order to pass time, most of the people he actually liked were his friends in his major. They weren't close, but they all got along pretty well. It was these people who invited him here with them. At first Stephen said he might show up. Then that changed to he was going with his friend... friend.

The word laid heavy on his heart, recalling Gray, Ben, and Alex's conversation from earlier, he felt somewhat sad. He thought Gray and him were friends, but the feeling seemed to be one sided. Suddenly a familiar voice jerked his from his thoughts.

"C'mon kitten, I'll be gentle~" A man said, and reached a hand out to touch Gray, who was sitting on the arm of one of the less occupied couches.

Gray quickly slapped his hand away, looking quite unhappy, "Excuse you!"

"Your awfully feisty love." The heavily, intoxicated, guy said. "Why don't you grab a drink with me? Then we can," his eyes looked Gray up and down, "Discuss further details" He attempted to put a hand on Gray's leg, though it was quickly hit away.

Gray glared at him. And Stephen felt conflicted, he didn't know what to do.

"Sorry if I'm not being clear enough," Gray said, in a incredibly sarcastic and cold way, "I'm not interested, and I came with somebody."

"And who's that dear?" He asked, Gray didn't respond or react, "Stop lying, It's getting on my nerves." He purred.

Stephen felt sick.

Suddenly, and idea came to mind, a bad idea, and without thinking he grabbed two red cups, and filled them with whatever red liquid was in the punch bowl. Then, he walked towards Gray and the stranger.

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Heyyy guyys, hope you liked this change~ Hope it didn't bother anyone or mess up the story at all~ I really like the idea though, because, Gray does commonly get harassed at school because of his looks (Ex. Colton, literally grabbed him inappropriately.) So I feel like at college it wouldn't be much different, except for the face that it would be in more of a sexual way, rather than just bullying.

Hope yall liked the story, tysm for reading, have a wonderful whenever, and see you in the next chapter.