Chasing Rusty Parker Ch. 07

"Rusty!" Dex boomed at him to get his attention.

Rusty grimaced to express his displeasure in a non-violent way. "You don't have to yell, you know."

"You said 'so' and left me hanging for two minutes without saying a word."

He had? All was possible. "Right. What I mean is, I don't need the practice. I'm naturally gifted. Even the coach said so."

"He only said it once, according to gospel. And he regretted it instantly. Why don't you go to practice, Rusty? What secret project are you on?"

"Why do you care?"

"Don't you at least need to train your voice or something? With that coach?" Dex had only a vague understanding of why Rusty needed a vocal coach. His first reaction had been something like 'Rusty already knows how to sing, the way I see it.' Rusty loved him all the more for being so pure and precious.

"Stop looking around, all suspicious like that. I didn't hide the vocal coach under the bed," he pointed out.

"You are hiding something." Dex crossed his arms and watched him with half-hooded eyes. "Come on, spit it out. I'll tell you if it's a good idea or not."

Rusty snorted, and, just like that, a sneeze came out. Dex watched him without hiding his amusement. Rusty managed to stop after the fourth sneeze or so.

"Some people might be talking about you. I bet it's the coach. And the entire team," Dex said.

With some difficulty, Rusty found a tissue and blew his nose loudly. "It's said 'bless you', T-Dex. Where are your manners?"

"The same place you're coming from," Dex replied promptly. "If you're not getting into that voice thing, at least go to practice. You're going to cry later when you lose your crown."

"I'm not going to cry," Rusty protested. He would, a little. A little sniffle. But yeah, Dex was right, as annoying as he was. The crown came with responsibilities, one of them being an athlete, because what chick didn't want to bag a king and a champion?

What were cat boys into? Or, at least, Slicky Coolplums? Hmm, Rusty needed a strategy in place until they met again.

"I'm already studying. Isn't that enough?" he complained and opened his arms wide, as if too much was being asked of him.

"I'm telling you all this for your own good. I'm not going to force you or anything." Dex put his hands up in surrender.

"Like you could force me," Rusty said with a shrug.

That was enough of a challenge. The next moment, Dex was all over him, catching him in a deadly headlock, holding him tightly and making it impossible to fight back. Rusty knew better than to be subdued like that, so after his initial surprise, he let himself go slack and Dex eased his hold. That was enough to turn the tables and have Dex in the same position he had been in earlier.

"Okay, okay, you win," Dex admitted, although Rusty had an inkling that he was being allowed that win.

Nonetheless, he let go of Dex. He didn't have time to fool around with friends, when he had to design a trap to catch a cat boy. "I'll go to practice," Rusty said. "Just so that you get off my sexy ass." He slapped his own bottom and brought two fingers to his mouth to blow on them.

Dex rolled his eyes. "One day, some dude might think you're serious."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rusty asked.

"He might think you want your cherry popped," Dex joked. "And he might catch you in a tight corner."

Rusty grinned. "You said tight."

"Derail the conversation all you want. It's going to happen to you. We're all going to have a laugh while you struggle to fend off some determined gay boy who thinks you're into it for real."

Rusty flexed his guns. "He'll have to be one hell of a dude. I'm not that easy to bend over. I just wiped the floor with you like seconds ago. He'll have to be bigger than you."

Dex didn't take it to heart but smirked instead. "It's not all about size, Rusty. His strongest asset might be his power of persuasion. That, coupled with your natural curiosity might turn you into a --"

Rusty put his hand up. "Don't say the word. Thanks for the warning. Bye, Dex. The door is over there. For the record, for the next half hour or so, you're not welcome. I'm going to jerk off to the nastiest porn on the planet."

"What's that?" Dex asked, always the curious.

"Pollination in plants," Rusty said right away.

Dex shivered and grimaced. "Nasty indeed. Okay, I go. It's mission accomplished, anyway. You'll go to practice."

"Yeah, because you can't bear the thought of not having the king as your close and dear friend. I'm doing it for you."

"Whatever floats your boat," Dex said with a shrug. "See ya, Rusty. Make sure to play safe around thirsty gay boys." He even dared to give him a wink on his way out.

Thirsty gay boys. Right, he had a project, beside the cat boy. So, he had Matty to turn into the coolest, most desirable gay bachelor at Sunny Hill, a cat boy to trap, textbooks to study, basketball to practice... No wonder he wasn't getting laid! He had no free time.

No problem. He was happy for now. The getting laid part came naturally to him, anyway.

***

"When are you going to stop me?" Matty eventually asked.

"Stop you?" Zoey grinned at him and then wrapped an arm around his. "But this is all so very entertaining."

"I think I've been talking about Rusty for at least half an hour straight, and you didn't say a word."

"I'm an avid listener when it comes to the adventures of," Zoey paused for effect and looked at him from underneath her eyelashes, "Slicky Coolplums."

She said the secret cat boy name in a whisper, but Matty still felt compelled to shush her. He looked around at the other students strolling through the quad. They seemed indifferent to whatever he and Zoey were sharing right now. If only they knew he had managed to catch the attention of no one other than their uncrowned king, they wouldn't be so indifferent. Matty shivered. He wasn't the kind to like attention; the fact that Rusty basked in it all the time amazed him. And, of course, made him think about the rule saying that opposites attract, and blah, blah, blah.

"That's a crazy good name, no matter what you think."

"You're just laughing at me and I know it," Matty warned her.

"No, no, it proves that you're bringing your best whenever you meet--"

"Don't say his name, someone might hear us."

Zoey nodded. "Xpress caught a whiff that a cat boy is prancing about. However, they haven't seemed to be able to put two and two together."

"What do you mean?"

"That Slicky Coolplums is our dear king's latest obsession," Zoey pointed out.

"I wouldn't go as far as to call it that." Matty would have liked very much to call it that.

"Really? Then how do you explain that he's not hooking up? He left that chick staring at the moon while he went chasing after you. And, according to everyone, he hasn't chased after anyone else lately. You got his attention, my friend."

"He might be busy with other things," Matty argued.

"Yeah, probably the homework you gave him last time. I must say, you're playing the champ like a champ."

"Who's the champ?" someone asked from their left, making both of them jump.

Matty felt all color draining from his face, as his eyes met the smiling face of no other than Ray Franklin, who was Jonathan Hamilton's roommate, and part of Rusty's closest circle, as far as he knew.

"We were talking about board games," Zoey chirped to save the day.

Ray nodded. "I was thinking that. Sorry I barged into your conversation and didn't even introduce myself."

"We know who you are," Zoey said quickly.

Ray smiled and offered his hand. "Even so, it's only polite."

Matty shook Ray's hand, hoping that the throbbing of his heart couldn't be felt down to his pinky. How much had Ray overheard? He seemed like a nice guy, but still, anything concerning Rusty counted as juicy gossip.

"I'm Matthew--"

"I also know who you are," Ray said and grinned while holding his hand. "You're really giving Rusty a run for his money, aren't you? I'm already in awe of your tutoring skills. Hey, do you and Zoey--"

"You also know who I am?" Zoey asked and pressed her hands to her chest.

Ray offered her his hand, too. "Yes. I'm sorry if I'm being too straightforward, but what do you say about a little tournament? You can pick the game. Hanna and I -- Hanna is--"

"Your girlfriend, yes," Zoey said quickly.

"We're both big into board games. And since I overheard you saying something about a champion, I thought that maybe you wouldn't mind a little bit of friendly sparring."

"We'd love that," Zoey exclaimed. She nudged Matty in the ribs. "Wouldn't we?"

"Yes, totally," Matty replied automatically.

"All right," Ray said and pulled out his phone. "Just to let you know, Hanna and I, we're pretty good."

"Bring the heat, pal," Zoey said enthusiastically.

Matty looked after Ray for a bit, as he said goodbye, and then turned toward Zoey. "I am so going to kill you, Zoey. Why on earth did we accept?"

"Because Ray is one of the 'in' people, Matty. Making friends with the 'in' people is very important."

"And very dangerous. He almost overheard us talking about Rusty, Slicky Coolplums, and whatnot."

"Chillax," Zoey said and grabbed his arm harder. "Let's speak in a different language from now on."

"What language?"

Zoey pondered for a moment, then gestured as if she wanted to lick her loose fist. "Meow?"

"One day, Zoey, one day," Matty promised.

TBC

Author's note:

I hope you like Matty's choice for a cat boy name, and I mean it! As well as everything else that happened after.

- that's what I live for, to make people laugh and blush at the same time!

- I assure you that the cat boy is going to raise all sorts of hell, all very entertaining (hopefully).

- I'm glad that my story leave you wanting more :)

- thank you!