Lahat ng Kabanata ng SWEET DEBAUCHERY: AN M/M COLLEGE, CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

CALEB’S POV"Oh, Tony, is this your new boyfriend?" The words replay, devoid of her oblivious tone, just the simple question. And for a second, that fleeting warmth returns. It's a surprising, quiet thought, a small, selfish spark in the midst of this overwhelming chaos. Nice to think about. Yeah, it really is. There's a certain ease to being near Tony, a comfort in this chaotic orbit that I find surprisingly appealing. It's a ridiculous thought, given the circumstances, the actual boyfriend, the absent boyfriend. Yet, a tiny, almost imperceptible smile plays on my lips. It's a quiet rebellion against the tension, a fleeting moment of my own dry wit asserting itself. A silent, personal joke in a room where everything else feels like a trap.Elizabeth's oblivious laugh hangs in the air, a bright, jarring sound in the sudden, charged silence. Richard's eyebrow is still lifted, his gaze dissecting the moment, settling on Tony with that familiar, analytical intensity. He misses nothing.

TONY. At 1:30 AM, a silhouetted figure emerges from the hallway light and into my room. "Fucking finally," I whisper. He smiles warmly, “Sorry. I had to make sure everyone’s asleep.” He rushes over to the bed and pulls the cover off me. He makes a choked sound when he sees I’m naked. “I’ve been waiting.” I blush. “What if it’d been Ham or Caleb?” He kneels over me and I unconsciously wrap my legs around him. “Them?” “What if it’d been Caleb?” He presses. “Why would Caleb be in my room?” “I wouldn’t know, you both seem so close lately.” My gut tightens, a cold knot twisting deep in my insides. He's right. I can’t deny that these past few days, Caleb and I have grown closer than I’d have expected, a closeness I hadn't even fully acknowledged until now. I shift, pressing my hips subtly against his, hoping to draw his focus back to us, to this moment. It works. “I’ve missed you.” He sighs and pitches forward onto me, his entire weight settling with an

CALEB The drive back to the University of Delaware is a quiet one, thankfully. Four days have passed since that night at Brooke's cabin, where I’d been a creep. The memory of pressing my ear to Tony's door, of hearing Luke's rough voice and Tony's soft moans, still clings to me like a massive shroud. I can't shake the disgust, the feeling that I crossed a line I should not have. Every time Tony shifts in the passenger seat beside Vanya, or laughs at something she says from the back, I feel even worse. I keep my eyes on the passing highway, making sure I don't accidentally meet his gaze in the rearview mirror, terrified he'll see the ugliness in my head. Luke isn't with us. He left the cabin on his own, heading straight back, which is both a relief and a new source of unease. Part of me is glad for the reprieve, for not having to face him directly, but another part wonders if he knows, if he senses something off about me. The thought makes my skin crawl. Hours later, the lan

CALEBIt's been minutes. Or maybe an hour. Time stretches and distorts with Tyler in this room. An awkward, heavy silence settles between us, thicker than the cold. I can hear the clock ticking on the wall, measuring out every agonizing second of his unwanted presence. Every fiber of my being screams at me to ignore him, to immerse myself in the impenetrable prose of what I’m studying, but his presence is a gravitational pull, heavy and inescapable. He’s sprawled out on Luke’s bed with obnoxious ease, one foot tapping a relentless, uneven rhythm against the floor. Tap-tap-tap. My teeth is clenched so hard my jaw aches. Tension radiates off him, a low hum of impatience, and I know he's just waiting for me to crack, to react. I breathe slowly, in through my nose, out through my mouth, reminding myself that he's not worth the energy. But it's like trying to hold back a tsunami with a teaspoon.He starts humming, a tuneless, off-key drone that grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkb

CALEBEven as the cold scratches across my skin like rough burlap, but I don’t feel it. It’s the shame raging and pulsing beneath my skin, the turmoil inside me. I stumble up the steps to my dorm, body heavy and unresponsive. All I want is to cease to exist. A shiver rattles me from the inside out while I fumble with my keycard. The door clicks open. I push it.Inside. I close the door. Luke's on his bed. I pull my phone from my pocket, ready to toss it on my desk, when I stop dead.My aunt, Ellie, is sitting on my bed I hadn’t bothered to make. There’s a small paper bag in her hand.My blood runs to ice. My eyes fastens on her. I’m frantically searching the shadows of the room for Tim, but there's no one. Just Luke. And Ellie. Her bump. It's undeniable now. A permanent, living reminder of his betrayal. The sight of it hits me. Almost like a physical blow.Ellie sets the bag on the bed beside her. Her face is a road map of worried lines. A soft, fragile smile struggles to take form.