(Picture at the top is Ashton Raines)  

Chapter 1    The Drop In

"I've got the last box," Tommy called over to Payton as he walked into their shared dorm room, "between all my books and your books, we're going to need a few more bookcases."

Payton looked over at his best friend with a grin, "This is so great! I'm glad we're finally here."

"I know, me too. It was worth waiting though, made more sense to defer a year and take the classes at home that we needed to get into the PT program, instead of starting CSU as a liberal arts major and then transferring in, it would have been a waste of the tuition for the crappy classes we'd have to take that have nothing to do with our major."

"I know, but you could have started without me Tommy, I'm glad I worked last year, now don't have to depend on my parents so much for money, the less I have to ask them for, the less strings they can try to attach." The two had spent their first year after High School graduation taking the two prerequisites they needed and working full time before moving to Chicago to start their official Freshman year in the school's Physical Therapy program.

"Without you? Nevahhh! We're a team Pay!" He gave Payton a warm smile before he started unpacking the last box. "Honestly, I would have hated it here alone. I need my Paypay around to make me do my homework," he said with a sly grin.

Payton threw a rolled up sock at his friend. "You're 19 now Tommy, you're going to have to buckle down, did you see the classes we have to take? It's not going to be easy and we have to maintain a C+ average to keep the scholarships and grants we got."

"I always have my inheritance if they get taken away."

"Yeah, but Tommy, why pay for school when you don't have to. Plus, that money's for living expenses and getting you started after graduation. Your parents wouldn't have wanted you to blow it on school if it wasn't necessary. Anyway, we both know you're smarter than I am, you just need to buckle down, do the work and you'll get A's, you know that."

Tommy let out a huff, "You're way smarter than me."

"Yeah, that's why I got into CSU by the skin of my teeth. Whatever, we're here and it's going to be a great year. Now come on, we're supposed to go to this freshman 'meet and greet' in the quad, let's go see who we're going to be spending the next four years with."

"Mkay, let me just change my clothes, and I need to brush my hair or put it in a hair tie or something." Payton rolled his eyes at his best friend. Tommy was a true fashionista and very particular about how his long, wavy brown hair looked. Payton's shorter red hair was pretty much wash and go and he never really worried too much about what he was wearing so he plopped down onto a bed to get comfortable, since it would be at least 30 minutes until his friend was ready.

"You're so gay," Payton muttered, much to the amusement of his friend.

"Yup. 100% pro dick," Tommy laughed, "and proud of it!"

Once Tommy was finally ready, his long hair brushed to perfection until it lay on his shoulder in soft glistening waves and he had on just the right shirt, the two friends walked across the large green to where several tables were set up and a small crowd was gathering. It was nice weather that day so the event was held in the courtyard in between the Health Studies building and one of the Science buildings. Tables with refreshments and several for eating at were set up, Tommy and Payton went to the registration table first where a perky young woman in her early twenties greeted them. "Are you freshmen?" she asked as they signed in and filled out their name tags as instructed.

"Yeah," Tommy replied with a smile.

"Great! I'm Veronica Verboom, I'm going into my senior year. We're supposed to greet you and bring you around to introduce you to the other students and the professors that are here. The boys looked around and saw a few others sitting at the registration table who looked a few years older and seemed to be taking turns greeting the freshmen or incoming transfers.

"I'm Tommy Adamson and this is my best friend and roommate Payton Johns." Payton, the shy one in new situations flashed a small smile making eye contact for just a second.

"Cool. We have some reusable CSU water bottles for you, grab one and come on." We each picked up a bottle and followed the girl. "We're very environmentally conscious here at CSU, so make sure you use those and not throw away bottles." Tommy rolled his eyes at Payton, who mouthed a "D'uh" in response before inspecting the bottle.

Veronica walked the boys around introducing them to professors, TA's, a few upper class students who were volunteering and then brought them over to a group of students who were sitting at tables eating food that was spread out on two buffet tables. "These are some of the other new students, grab some food and find a spot. Make sure you introduce yourselves around!" Payton looked at Tommy and it was his turn to roll his eyes at the bubbly girl's obvious suggestion, but she was already halfway back to the welcome table. Tommy smirked and patted him on the back, ever more patient with people than his slightly shorter pal.

"Hungry?" Tommy asked.

"I could eat." Payton replied.

The two wandered over to the table and grabbed plates. They helped themselves and then walked around looking for some free seats. Many were already full, since they were a good 40 minutes late thanks to Tommy's meticulous grooming, but they spotted a table off to the side where a tall, buff, hot looking guy with medium colored brown hair sat. Three overly excited girls were sitting around him gushing and vying for his attention while he looked both annoyed and uncomfortable.

"Let's go save that poor soul," Tommy suggested, always the empathetic one and Payton nodded as he followed his friend.

Ever the charmer, Tommy sat down, swinging his hair out of his face. "Ladies," he said with a broad smile, then looked at the young man with a conspiratorial grin and a nod. Once Tommy had introduced both he and Payton, he engaged the girls in a heated conversation about the latest episode of Orange is the New Black. Soon the girls had moved across the table to converge upon the tall boy with the long dark hair.

Payton moved away in annoyance. He looked over at the other boy, "Ashton, right?" After a brief nod he asked him what dorm he was in. Payton found Ashton to be a man of few words, but he didn't mind. He was just as happy to sit and look around and people watch himself, one of his favourite ways to pass the time when he was out in public. Payton did ask him where he was from and found out he grew up just outside of Chicago. Tommy really liked to go clubbing, and Payton didn't mind going once in a while so he asked him if he knew where the best places to go were.

"Do you have a car?" Ashton asked.

"Tommy has one."

"Good, there's a bus system, but it's not that great and all of the best clubs are a good 45 minutes away, you don't really want to take them late at night anyway." He looked over at Tommy, "your friend's quite the ladies man," he chuckled before looking away.

"Yeah, ha, girls always like him, let's just say he has quite the fanclub...or fangirl club."

"What do you mean?" Ashton asked looking back.

"They have a better chance of getting him to go clothes or shoe shopping than on a date, if you know what I mean?"

"Swings for the home team?" Ashton asked.

"Yeah," Payton replied with a laugh. "Hope you don't have a problem with that cause we both do."

"No, not at all, you could say we're 'like-minded' on that. Are you two...ah..together?"

"No, we've been best friends since grade school, Tommy's like a brother to me. We were both interested in Physical Therapy and liked the program here, so we figured why not be roommates, at least we're already used to each other."

"Nice."

"What are you studying?"

"Animal Sciences," he replied, "and Business. I don't know, maybe I'll open a Vet clinic or something after, I'm not sure yet."

Ashton remembered his friend Christopher's party that he had grudgingly agreed to attend, he also remembered that his Yamaha YZF-R1 was in the shop until Monday and he'd lent his beater of a car to a friend who was driving his girlfriend back to her college. "Hey, a buddy of mine is having a party on Friday night, if you guys want to come. It's over on the east side of the city at his loft, it won't be anyone else from here, but there'll be some cool people."

"Yeah, that would be gr..."

Before he could finish his sentence a large body was tumbling back towards him, with a loud yell, the guy landed on his lap, causing them both to fall backwards onto the ground.

"Omph," Payton grunted as the well-muscled frame landed on top of his chest, temporarily knocking the wind out of him. He had to be a good 5 inches taller than the redhead with all those muscles, probably outweighed him by a significant amount as well. He was on the lean side, but the muscle was hard as a rock.

"Oh my god! Are you okay? I can't believe I tripped over my fucking shoelaces!" He exclaimed, "sorry I dropped in on you like this," he added with a loud laugh. Payton looked up to see short brown hair and chiseled features accented by a 3 day growth which gave him a handsome, rugged look. The smile on his generous lips which reached right up to his green/grey twinkling eyes gave him a softer look than Payton would have expected.

"Umm," Payton wheezed, "maybe if you got off??"

"Oh, yeah! D'uh." The other man rolled off and once he was standing he reached a hand down to help Payton up. "I'm Lane by the way, Lane Wilder."

"Pay...Payton Johns," he replied catching his breath.

"Payton, are you okay?" Tommy asked rushing over. "What the hell, dude?" he shouted accusingly at Lane.

"Tommy, it was an accident," Payton said, "no harm, no foul." Tommy came over and inspected his friend. "Really, I'm fine."

"I'm really sorry, but, I was checking out the hot asses on those two over there and..." he pointed to a young man and woman with similar features talking heatedly. "I wouldn't mind bending either of them over a desk...or both, you know, I could alternate between the two." He made a few gestures, causing Tommy to scowl, Payton to look confused and Ashton to shake his head as he turned away hiding a small grin.

"Uh, Lane?" Payton asked, getting the young man's attention again. "This is my friend Tommy and that's Ashton," he said pointing across the table." The three girls had wandered off to find more accommodating prey, probably having figured out that Tommy was more interested in their fancy manicures than the size of their breast cups, Ashton was just not interested and Payton...well, red-headed guys were not always everyone's taste. Not that they would have gotten any further with the shy student anyway.

"Sexy hair," Lane said to Tommy running his fingers through the long waves, causing him to blush and lose any of the ire that his protective nature over Payton had caused. Lane then looked over at Ashton, "the dark, brooding type. Definitely a turn on...and you," he said turning to Payton, dusting off his front and fixing his shirt, "You're just too damn cute! You guys are hot, we should hang out." He announced before he sat down and started eating from Payton's plate.

"Dude!" Payton questioned, under his breath.

"Yeah?" Lane looked up and flashed him a toothy grin, flashing his dimples and amusement in his unique eyes. Eyes that were like Sirens drawing both men and women to the enigmatic person.

"Ah, nothing. It's all yours," Payton muttered, before righting his chair and sitting down next to the eccentric character.

"Sharing is caring," Lane laughed and popped another finger sandwich into his mouth. "Gotta love free food," he mumbled with a full mouth.

"What year are you Lane?" asked Tommy, thinking he looked a little older than their 19 years.

"I'm a Sophomore, just came over to check out the fresh meat," Lane smirked, " and free food, I had a meeting with my adviser, came out and was starved. Anyway, I'm 21, I took a bit of detour before I started though," he added, his eyes suddenly losing some of the amusement they held earlier.

"Yeah, we took a year off, we're both 19," Payton said nodding his head towards Tommy. "What about you Ashton?"

"20. After High School I spent a couple years helping my grandfather on his ranch. I'd probably still be there, but I got the ultimatum from my parents and my admission probably couldn't get deferred another year without me reapplying, so...here I am."

"A country boy!" Lane grinned. "I've never had a real country boy before." A rare blush crossed Ashton's face, while Lane laughed, "I meant met."

"Hey, do you guys want to go grab a beer or something?" Lane asked as he stuffed that last of the pasta salad from Payton's plate into his mouth. "There's this place not far from here a bunch of us hang out at."

"Uh, Lane, we're not 21 yet," Payton replied, a slight tone of embarrassment tinting his quiet voice.

"Eh, come on, you can get in at 19, the place is always crowded, you pay, I'll buy the beers."

At the end of the night, after divesting his three new friends of four beers, a grilled cheese sandwich and chili fries, Lane bade them goodnight and headed out the door with a very eager blonde haired, blue eyed boy he had just met on the dance floor.

"Wow, he's something," Tommy commented, his gaze returning to Ashton and Payton once Lane and his new acquaintance were out the door. Payton blushed and looked down at his feet while Ashton stood up, ready to leave after having his fill of crowds for the day, maybe even for the week.

"I'm going back to the dorms," he announced, hoping that his absentee roommate would continue his absence well into tomorrow.

"Do you want to stay here for a while longer or go back Payton?" Tommy asked his friend after they'd said goodbye to Ashton. Payton glanced over. He'd had his fill of "socializing" for the evening, but he knew his friend was probably wanting to mingle around and meet more people. Payton was the quiet, introspective one and Tommy was the vivacious people person. Somehow they met in the middle and their friendship had become a strong bond that they knew could withstand almost anything and would last until their last breath.

"We can stay," Payton replied.

"Pay, I know when you've reached your limit, it's okay, we can go back to the dorm. I really don't mind."

"I can go back alone if you want to stay and meet some more people."

"Payton. It's our first night in Chicago, we're spending it together. I don't care what we do." The taller boy stood up and tugged on Payton's shirt. "Come on, let's go look at all the stuff we picked up at the registrar's office this afternoon. Figure out what our schedules look like and what books we can pick up tomorrow before classes start on Tuesday."

"Are you sure? I really don't mind staying T."

"Payton, let's go," Tommy said firmly, but with a slight laugh, pulling his best friend along with him. "It's been a long day."