Like most summer days in South Florida, today was hot and humid. And even though the palm trees around the campus of Florida International University swayed their limbs to and fro in the ocean breeze, the 90 plus degree air currents provided little to no relief for the university’s residents and staff.
However, today, it really did not really matter. Most sidewalks and non-essential buildings within the multi-acre campus appeared to be barren. Only a skeleton crew was currently on duty.
Their task? To prepare for the monstrous population increase during first few weeks of the Fall semester.
All freshmen were always the first to arrive and did so since they were scheduled to show up a week earlier than the other students. This was done since the majority of them tended to act like a young fryer whose head had recently been cut off. Run here. Dash over there. Get this. Pick up that.
In watching them in action, it was easy to see no true organization existed and very little actually got accomplished.
Come the second week of August, all Sophomore, Juniors, and Seniors moved in. Then the following week, all graduate students.
Should one be foreign, with a few rare exceptions, it usually complicated things. Many American expressions could not be translated into other languages, and if they were, the result would have little or no meaning. And let’s not go into the countless number of English words that have different spellings, yet sound identical. IE. Red vs. read. Write vs. right. etc.
Among this year's Freshmen, about a tenth of them would come from abroad. And that number, this specific semester, would include students from Chile, S. A., and Denmark – thanks to connections via a few Alumni organizations and foreign diplomat connections.
For Jose and Chad Jr., roughly twenty years ago, two of their three parents (Chad Sr. and Maria) met on this very campus. Maria (just like Chad Sr. - the third member of the parental threesome) was born and raised in Arica, Chile.
Soon after Chad Sr. met Maria at the beginning of their Freshman year, he fell so deep in love with her that when she had no choice but to leave the university due to her father’s illness, he could not stand the idea of them being apart – so he followed her soon thereafter.
It was only fate that after traveling to Arica to search for Maria, he ran across Jose Sr. at one of the local bars.
Jose, at the time, had been Maria’s boyfriend ever since middle school. But due to a misunderstanding, they had recently broken up. In a strange turn of events, Maria’s arch-enemy, Carla, successfully convinced her that he had been unfaithful.
So, where did Chad go to drown his sorrows - where else? El Gato Feliz, an LGBT bar. That’s where he met Jose and the two of them hit it off from moment one.
Completely unknown to Maria at that time, Jose was bisexual.
***
So what about Maria’s friends, Mike and Eric?
These two met on day one of their Freshman year at Florida International University. And talk about a culture difference, Eric was born and raised a city slicker in California – the land of the free and daring, whereas Mike was born a country hick on a farm in Potomac, Illinois. And no, GM does not have a Pontiac manufacturing plant there.
***
Sitting on the side of Chad Jr.’s bed, at his friend’s home in Arica, Felipe contemplated how things had changed in the past couple of weeks. No longer was he the uncaring soul that could do pretty much whatever he wanted, when he wanted. And, no longer was he going to be able to dominate his companion. The days of treating Chad like a dog or love slave had passed – and it was all because he let the green-eyed monster called jealousy override his common sense.
I knew getting my cousin up in New York involved in a scare scheme could easily backfire, Felipe thought as he watched Chad Jr. continue to pound his computer’s keyboard. Why didn’t I realize how stupid the whole thing was? … Now everything’s ruined. … I cannot even step out the door without worrying about being nabbed by the police and being sent to New York on a Conspiracy to attempted murder charge- or something like that.
Stupid Alonso. The asshole was only supposed to scare Mike and Eric out of their plans to convince Chad to break up our relationship – not try to kill them.
Felipe looked down at his feet while displaying a subtle frown and began to study Chad’s bluish-gray carpet. It was short with no visible pattern.
Hearing a slight movement behind him, Chad stopped clicking the keyboard and turned in Felipe’s direction.
The person in front of him looked rather pathetic in comparison to all-in-control El Macho kid he used to be, and it caused a corner of Chad’s lip to slightly rise as he internally smiled at the view.
“What’s bugging you, man?” Chad asked as if he really cared what Felipe was feeling. In reality, he didn’t, but thought it might be courteous to ask.
Felipe looked up and met Chad dark brown eyes. It was hard to believe that only a few weeks ago they were full of love and admiration. Now, with the situation different, they showed only a minuscule amount of concern. The former intense passion was long gone.
“I was just wondering what’s going to happen next,” he said, before pausing. “You know I cannot stay locked up here forever.”
Chad Jr. laughed. After all, up-to-now wasn’t it umpteen months that Felipe had kept him bound up in the ropes of love – and instead of showing compassion, he used him like a slave?
“I know,” Chad eventually answered. “And I do have plans for you, well actually, for both of us. We’re going to be leaving the country soon. So until then, just be patient and let me work things out.”