Chapter Two



Jensen loved going back to school after the summer holidays, he just couldn't help it. Mike teased him about it every chance that he got, but Jensen knew that his friend felt the same way even if he wouldn't admit it. After a summer spent, for the most part, on his grandparent's ranch riding, running and swimming; it felt good to be back in his dorm room with a killer tan and a bagful of whiskey. For the second year in a row, he and Mike had vetoed against moving off campus. Even though having their own apartment would have rocked in one way, they were both too fond of their dorm room to leave it.

Besides, there wasn't that much of a difference from their suite to having an apartment somewhere else. They had separate bedrooms, albeit tiny ones, a living room, a kitchenette and a bathroom with a tub. ACU was famous for catering to their students needs, there were dorms sprinkled all over the sprawling campus and the comfort level depended on how much you were willing to fork out. Rosenbaum Hall, as their dorm was called, was the place to live on campus. It catered exclusively to rich kids, or people on a full ride with parents willing to pay the extra costs for living there.

It was smaller, nicer and way more exclusive than the other dorms. Every suite, or tiny apartment as it were, had its own bathroom and kitchenette. The common rooms on every floor were nicely decorated, had plasma screen TVs and satellite dishes. There were kitchens on all three floors as well, equipped with stuff that would make a chef cry in envy. Of course, it was all pretty much wasted on a bunch of horny, spoiled, rich kids, but Jensen liked it anyway.

He probably wouldn't have been living in Rosenbaum Hall if his best friend hadn't been named Rosenbaum. Mike's grandfather had been the one to fork up the money for the place so Mike living there was pretty much a given and Jensen went where Mike did. Jensen's family had enough money to put him through college and live a good, if not glamorous, life. Mike's family made Bill Gates look poor. Their friendship was an unlikely one, but Mike had been like a brother from the day they met.

Right now though, Mike was off playing buddy to some freshman and Jensen was left to fend for himself. Mike had tried his best to get Jensen to put himself in the buddy program as well, but he had opted out of it. He was all for being nice and friendly to the new kids, but he really didn't feel like having one of them trail his every step like a lost puppy. If Mike wanted to play the Good Samaritan, that was up to him. Jensen wanted no part of it. Besides, he knew that if Mike liked the guy, Jensen would have to put up with him anyway and one lost puppy was better than two.

There was a knock on the door and Jensen yelled for whoever it was to come in. Their room had something of an open door policy and the door was never locked, people coming and going pretty much as they pleased. He looked up as a huge shadow blocked the light from the door a grin creeping on to his face.

"Hey, man," he said. "Back already? I'm pretty sure Mike said you wouldn't be here until tomorrow."

Tom grinned. "Yeah, well I only said that to stop him from picking me up at the airport. Honestly, he shouldn't be allowed near a car."

Jensen laughed. "For such a big guy, you're a pussy."

Tom just smiled and plopped himself down on Jensen's bed. At 6'3 Tom was a big guy, but he moved with the grace of someone using his body to its full potential. He was the star of the university football team and rumour had it, he was getting picked up by the Angel City Demons as soon as he finished school. Since Tom refused to comment on it, they all assumed it was true.

He was an unlikely friend to the both of them, coming from a completely different background. His parents weren't rich, they owned a farm in Kansas and Tom wouldn't have been able to go to college had he not scored a full ride on a football scholarship. As an athlete, he took his body seriously, working out whenever he wasn't training with the team and he rarely drank, resenting the way it threw him off his game.

Mike and Jensen drank a lot, they fooled around a lot and they got through school on a lucky combination of brains and good memory. They were both able to party until four in the morning and then up to write an exam at eight. Good looks, superficial charm and more than your share of crazy (in Mike's case) made sure they got whatever they wanted and Tom wasn't like that at all.

He was hard working, devoted and an all round nice guy. While Mike and Jensen partied until three, he poured over his books. When they picked up girls, or boys, for an easy lay, sending them home the following morning with a quick kiss and a mumbled I'll call you, Tom slept a solid eight hours a night. When they dragged themselves out of bed around noon on a free day, Tom had already been up for six hours and had lunch while they ate breakfast.

It wasn't a likely friendship, but it was a good one. Tom melded with them almost seamlessly, despite the fact that Mike kept coming up with elaborate schemes to get into his pants. Mike had fallen hard for Tom the first time they'd met and the fact that he hadn't gotten anywhere in the past two years didn't deter him at all. Jensen found it quite amusing to watch them. He wasn't sure if it had anything to do with a lack of interest on Tom's part, it was more likely that Tom was afraid Mike would tire of him as fast as he did his other play things, but Jensen wasn't so sure about that.

"Did you have a good summer?" Tom asked when the silence between them stretched out.

"Sure," Jensen said. "I missed you guys though, even if Mike came around for a couple of weeks."

Tom grinned. "I missed you too, man. I don't think it's healthy to have this much fun in school."

"Probably not," Jensen admitted.

"So where's the crazy one?" Tom asked.

"He signed up for the buddy program and took off in search of his buddy. The poor guy won't know what hit him."

Tom laughed. "They let him sign up for that? Honestly… That's just wrong."

Jensen grinned in response; his own thoughts had been going in the same direction. The three of them were already like their own fraternity, wrecking havoc around the school on a regular basis. Did they really want them to start corrupting the freshmen right away? Because the rule was that what one of them did, the others supported.

"I'm sure he'll be nice," Jensen said.

"I never doubted it for a second," Tom responded. "The question is… how nice?"

They exchanged a look. "Too nice," they said at the same time before breaking down with laughter. The poor freshman wouldn't know what hit him.

Read Chapter Three of Twelve of Jeyhawk's Settling Into Now