Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“It’s okay, Ewan. Just drop it.” Dev was standing behind him now, and he put a hand on the tense muscles of Ewan’s shoulder.
Ewan looked around and realised that all eyes in the café were on the unfolding drama.
“Yeah, you should piss off like he says,” called a girl from a couple of tables over, glaring at Beardy Guy. “Take your homophobic bullshit elsewhere.” A few murmurs of assent and the arsehole flushed, taking on the look of a hunted animal.
“Whatever. It was just supposed to be a bit of a joke.”
“Well, nobody’s laughing, Matt.” Dev said sharply. “I see your idea of what’s funny hasn’t developed since last term.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Beardy Guy—Matt—was done. “Come on, guys, let’s hit the bar. We don’t want to hang out here anyway.” He glared at Ewan again. “Losers.”
Ewan remained standing with Dev beside him until the three had gone. Then he let out a long breath and turned to Dev. “What the fuck was that about? You know him?”
Dev sighed, his face tense and unhappy. “Long story.”
They sat down again, and Dev stirred his milkshake without speaking for little while. He glanced around at the other people in the café. They’d gone back to their own conversations now, and seemingly satisfied that nobody was listening, Dev looked at Ewan and said quietly, “I used to live on the same corridor as them in the halls of residence for my first two terms here.”
“Fuck, really?” Ewan winced in sympathy. “That can’t have been much fun.”
“It wasn’t. They took an instant dislike to me. I don’t know why. I mean, I didn’t do anything. They just knew I was different. At first it wasn’t too bad. The usual nerd jokes, taking the piss out of me for actually going to classes and doing some work instead of going out to the bar every night and being too hungover to make it into lectures.” He rolled his eyes. “And they used to talk about girls all the time—in the horrible, creepy way that some straight guys do. I made the mistake of calling them on it, and they were all ‘oh come on, everyone talks about girls like that. What are you, a fucking queer?’ So I told them that yes, I was gay, and that actually not all straight guys talk about girls like that, and that they were dickheads.”
“Bloody hell, Dev,” Ewan said in shocked admiration. “That was pretty brave.”
“Brave, or stupid.” Dev shrugged. “After that they were relentless. Harmless pranks at first, but annoying ones. Putting lube on my door handle, pouring salt into my milk in the communal kitchen, hiding my mail.”
“Why didn’t you report them to the warden?”
“I thought it would make them worse, and I hoped if I ignored them, they’d get bored and stop, eventually. But it just made them up their game.”
“What happened?” The remainder of Ewan’s danish pastry sat untouched on his plate, forgotten as he stared across the table at Dev.
“They broke into my room, found my stash of yaoi comics.” He paused, face pained, and added quietly, “And my dildo. I was out at lectures, and when I got back, I found they’d taped pages of the comic—really graphic ones—to the outside of my door, and they’d stuck the dildo on there too, poking out like a coat hook. When I got back, a whole crowd was looking and laughing, people I didn’t even know.”
Ewan’s stomach churned with a mixture of rage and nausea. “Fuck, Dev.” Now it was his turn to reach across and take Dev’s hand. He had to stop himself from squeezing so hard he would hurt him. The anger in his gut was hot lava. No wonder Dev had freaked out when Ewan had opened his parcel by mistake.
Dev looked up at him, his liquid brown eyes full of remembered pain and mortification. Ewan wanted to murder the bastards who’d hurt him.
“So.” Dev took a deep breath and puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled. “There you have it. That’s why I moved in next door to you. I couldn’t stay in halls after that. I did report it then, but as I couldn’t prove who’d broken into my room and… done what they did, there wasn’t a lot the university could do. They offered to help me move to a different corridor, but luckily for me I knew this bloke, Rupert, who told me about the room where I am now. He assured me it was an LGBT-friendly house, so it seemed ideal.” He gave Ewan a small hopeful smile. “And it’s been good there so far. Mac and Jez are a couple, and Dani’s really cool. Mike’s okay as well. I’m not so keen on Shawn, but he’s harmless enough. I feel safe there, and that’s the main thing.”
“And your neighbours are awesome,” Ewan said, trying to lighten the mood.