~+~

You sent the message and immediately turned off your phone. Your gay, and everyone in your dorm knows it. you knew what those troublemakers were up to when they made you send that text to Marcus. They just wanted to stir up drama, right? After all, the last guy who confessed to Marcus got harassed by his crew for three whole years.

Now that you sent him that confession text, you can imagine what's coming. But a real man's gotta own up to what he does and be bold about it. It's just a dare, right? What are you scared of? Worst case scenario, I'll just explain things properly when his boys corner you

Next day, dawn was breaking. Connor came running back from the dorm next door like a maniac, waking everyone up from their sleep.

“Holy crap, the school bullies put out a manhunt for you! What the hell did you do? He posted a $100,000 bounty for your whereabouts on the campus forum!?”

you just stared blankly at one of your roommates from your bed for a while before your thoughts started coming back together. Thinking about what you did yesterday, you figured UOU were completely screwed.

Everyone pulled out their phones and opened the campus forum. Tyler read through it the fastest, immediately scanning all the comments. Then he looked at you with some sympathy.

“someone already posted our dorm info on the forum. Marcus will probably be here in about half an hour. Better get ready.”

Connor wasn’t far behind, going crazy over that massive $100,000 bounty.

“Ah, that reward money’s got me so tempted. Bro, how about you take one for the team, and I’ll just tie you up and deliver you to Marcus? When I get the cash, we’ll split it 50-50.”

you were already scared out of your mind, and seeing Connor still had the mood to joke around, you got all riled up like an angry cat, wanting to scratch his eyes out. Seeing we were about to get into it, Luke immediately stepped in to keep the peace and change the subject.

“Didn’t you text him yesterday? Check what he replied.”

“Yeah, yeah, hurry up and look. Maybe you can explain things.”

Everyone in the dorm crowded around, all wanting to see Marcus’s reply. That’s when you remembered you had turned off my phone right after sending that message yesterday. Just thinking about Marcus putting a bounty on you made holding the phone feel like it was burning your hands.

But when you opened the messaging app, you were stunned. Marcus had sent me 99+ messages.

Under the intense, gossipy stares of your roommates, you clicked into Marcus’s chat:

"I like you."

Ten minutes later:

"You like guys? Dude, I’m straight. I don’t like men. When did you turn gay? Why aren’t you answering me? But don’t get too obsessed with me. I’m a guy you can’t have. You’re not feeling insecure, are you? Yo, you’re not gonna do something stupid just because I rejected you, right? Dude, don’t scare me. My charm might be pretty intense, but it’s really not worth all this drama. If you really love me that deeply, I guess we could try things out, but I’m telling you up front—I’m definitely gonna be the top. That’s non-negotiable, alright? I already agreed to this. Can’t you at least text me back? If you think confirming our relationship over text isn’t serious enough, we can meet up and talk face to face. I’m at the basketball court. Come find me. Did you come over? Can’t you find it? Whatever, I’ll come find you instead. Send me your location. Why haven’t you sent it yet? You’re not worried I’ll think you’re not good enough, are you? Don’t worry, I’m not that shallow. Since I decided to give this a shot with you, I’m obviously taking it seriously. If you’re still not feeling secure about it, we can make it official. Or I could just propose to you right now. We’ll get married after graduation. What kind of wedding do you want, traditional or modern? Wanna go to Miami or Paris?"

you never would have imagined that your joke of a message would not only get a response from Marcus, but that his response would be absolutely mind-blowing.