The Way to Love (Camren)

Chapter 7: In These Fantasies

VII.

Trigger Warning - Drug use & attempted rape

Austin signed into the massive book on the front desk and threw a wink at the receptionist he had yet to learn the name of. With a whistle, he pushed open the door leading to the back stairwell, and began to time himself as he jogged up to the third floor. As the boy caught sight of the swell of his calf muscles in the window to his left, he grinned to no one in particular, but purely out of pride.

"Hey man." Austin greeted his teammate Darren as he entered the familiar locker room and took a look at the practice that was going on in the gym below. It wasn't too crowded so early in the morning, which was good considering the men's basketball team had a game against Princeton in three days. He needed both the time and space to get himself, and his team ready.

"What's up." Darren nodded back as he stood from where he was standing. "Just so you know, Monteiro's wife went into labor this morning, so he won't be at the practice or the warm-up. You're going to lead it again."

Austin nodded, running his hand over his short hair repeatedly. "Whatever." He grumbled as he gestured for his teammate to follow him to his locker. "It's probably better that way anyways. We need to get some serious court time in if we want a chance at taking down NJ, and dude, we need this win... bad."

Darren sat down on the bench opposite Austin's locker. "I know." He agreed. "We're slipping because our guys are spending more time at the library than in the gym. I mean for fuck's sake, get your damn priorities straight. I don't want to lose this money we've finally got our hands on."

Austin swore under his breath.

"Speaking of library, I heard you flipped off a sophomore who asked for your work in a group project." Darren continued with a laugh. "And she was easy on the eyes."

"She was fucking annoying." Austin muttered. "Don't remind me."

"So you didn't end up helping?"

"What do you think?"

Austin grabbed his locker and began twisting the lock before pulling it off and tossing it to the bench below. As he opened the metal door, he jumped back as an avalanche of white came sliding from the confines, oozing over his shoes and onto the floor.

"What the fuck?" He shouted as the smell of old shaving foam hit his nose. "What the hell is this?"

"Whoa." Darren said as he tried his hardest to hold back a laugh. "Someone must have been pretty pissed at you to pull something like that off. What the hell did you do this time Mahone?" Some of the other locker room inhabitants were snickering to themselves as they walked by the sea of shaving cream that was now slowly coating the floor.

"Fuck off." Austin grunted as he advanced towards the messy locker to grab at what he could. His clothes and other belongings all sat at the bottom coated in a thick layer of cream, and every once and a while he was hit with the scent of curdled milk. He swore as he picked up the pair of shoes he had just bought a few days ago and threw them to the ground angrily before returning to the locker.

"Most of this is going to have to go out." He muttered as he grabbed the remains of his calendar posters and threw them at the garbage can that sat a ways away. When they didn't hit the bottom with a thud, he walked over and lifted the lid to see two CVS bags sitting in the receptacle. It was as if whoever did it had left all the evidence behind on purpose, and when he pulled open the bags and found the cluster of empty cans, he swore and slammed the lid back down. "I swear to god whoever did this is going to fucking pay."