Travis is at the very top of the food chain. He is the apex predator on the campus.
This is something Day understands and notices fast enough as he integrates himself into the university.
He sees it with how everyone flocks to him, wanting his approval, his attention … if he is even looking at you, you get to be someone.
You get to exist in his world, even if it's short-lived; another thing he notices in his research.
Day is calling whatever this is research because he has his pride, and he will be dead before he admits that he is watching the boy that has caught his attention; that he is interested.
Travis doesn't linger. Not in the conversations he is pulled into, not even in the moments that he comes to him and drops whatever he has deemed fit to feed him for the day. He seems to belong only to himself. Untouchable. Unattainable.
It's driving Day crazy.
Yes, Travis has taken it up himself to feed Day breakfast every day for the past week now, since that one time he said yes to the smoothie.
He shouldn't feel the way he feels whenever that sex on legs boy enters his class, not minding that he is disrupting the whole class, not caring that the professor is mid-sentence, not even apologizing or asking before he walks to Day and gives him his breakfast.
Eyes linger on his face for what feels like eternity, but is truly seconds before he is gone again.
At first, Day didn't understand what was happening.
Travis entered the class with all the poise and cockiness that made Day's pants tight as he sauntered to where he was, placed a small bag on his desk, winked, and left.
Not a word was exchanged, and since then, it has been happening all the time. Day has a morning class.
It's like he knows his entire schedule, like he knows Day doesn't take breakfast before three hours are done after he wakes up, and such.
Even after all these little things that feel monumental to him, they haven't talked. Travis hasn't lingered long enough to talk to him, and that just … makes him unsettled.
Day isn't one to deny what he finds attractive, even if it's in the confines of his mind.
He does, in fact, have a hard-on for powerful men.
Men who rule the world and look the part. Men who make things happen.
It could be because he has grown up as a prince, a pampered, beautiful boy who is meant to be worshipped and to be gazed upon by only those who are worthy.
It could be because the men who have been allowed his company have all been important, men of the high society, and courted by them too.
Day hates his life, yes, how it has been designed and who he is to be. But even with all that, as much as he hates to admit it, he does live for the attention.
The fact that he is gazed upon like he holds the stars in his eyes, how soft he is treated. How pampered he is, his beauty appreciated and even wanted.
He loves that all these people, men and women alike, all come to his home every year to ask for his parents' hand in marriage, for Day to be theirs because he is so beautiful. A prince, in the modern age, and in their world.
He doesn't hide the fact that he is vain, that his beauty and his status, even though he doesn't find any real power in them, put him in a position to get only the best. He gets to have all of it, even if it's temporary.
Yes, he knows he is being paraded to be sold like a cow, but the fact remains: he always gets the attention.
He is held and regarded as untouchable.
And yet, he is the one right now staring at Travis, giving his attention to someone else, while he nibbles on his fingernails.
He can't help the jealousy that trickles inside him as he watches a very lithe, very pretty blonde boy skip to Travis, all happy and bright, smiling up at Travis and touching his chest as he owns him.
He watches as Travis accepts his hug, and they start talking too, like they know each other.
Marcus had been bugging him to come and hang out with him, but really, Day knows he means watch him swim and flex-so typical of these boys. So when he found out that Travis is in the same sport too, he finally found time to come here and support his … boyfriend.
So it doesn't seem sketchy that he is seated at the girlfriend's section, not even embarrassed about it, because apparently, watching your boyfriends swim and get all cocky in the water, shitless and with wet swim trunks, is a thing.
But see, Day was never interested in Marcus like that and will never truly be if he is being honest with himself.
Yes, he has promised him. Yes, he is handsome and wealthy, too.
Sure, he would look good in the massive pool; he is sure he has a good package to ogle at, but Day's attention is on one particular person.
One person who hasn't even touched the water but obviously intends to, as soon as a certain blonde keeps his hands off him.
They do seem familiar. Like they know each other in a way that Day hasn't seen with others, or maybe he is reading too much into it. He is so deep in his mind, analyzing the body language, that when he finally lifts his eyes to look at Travis, their eyes meet.
He doesn't look away, not as quickly as he wants anyway, because he is pulled in, drowning in those brown eyes so dark they would appear to be red in the right light. He has been caught and Travis… Travis doesn't look cocky or even surprised.
He is holding Day's gaze intensely, and he licks his lips, a motion that causes Day to shiver, eyes following the action, his attention arrested to a millisecond.
"Babe."
He startles, moment shattered, and turns around when a we hand touches his shoulder. Marcus is looking at him, mildly surprised.
"Hey," Day forces out, looking back one more time to see Travis honed in on Marcus, features cold. "Where have you been?"
"Changing rooms," Marcus throws it there before glancing behind. "I didn't think you would come."
'Well," Day shrugs and stands up. "You said we needed to see each other more, didn't you?"
"I did."
Marcus looks uncomfortable, and Day frowns.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," he nods, and that's when Day sees it.
Marcus is shitless, of course, just like every boy on the swim team.
Which means all is seen … including the fresh hickeys littered all over his chest and neck. He can even see a particularly deep scratch starting from his shoulder, perhaps going back down his back, and suddenly, it's all too much.
Marcus has the face to grimace, like he isn't wearing the hickeys, like they don't seem too fresh, all blooming and red like he was being painted by-
"Marcus, you- oh! Hi Day. How come you are here today?"
A beautiful girl struts close to where they are, standing right next to Marcus, wearing a perfectly fitting body suit that looks so good on her, and looks at Day like he is the alien one in this whole dynamic.
Perhaps he is.
Suddenly, the fresh marks, the way Marcus kept glancing behind him, and looking uncomfortable at seeing Day here today make sense.
"I see you didn't expect me here today, or at all."
"Day-"
"No! I have had enough. I have seen enough hickeys on your body long enough, even before we started to have problems, to know that this isn't on me."
Humiliation is coursing through him like hot lava.
"What are you talking about-"
"Spare me. You have been going behind my back for who knows how long. Frankly, I don't care. "
No, he doesn't. Even if he feels like crying, and it's not because he likes Marcus particularly, his pride is being trampled on mercilessly.
Day makes the mistake of looking at Travis to see if he is still watching, for some sort of fucked up moral support, but what he sees leaves him feeling nauseated.
The blonde is now on his lap, and Travis is … Travis is holding him, laughing even and-
"Care enough to quit staring?"
Day whips his head around to a fuming Marcus.
"What?"
"Aren't you being pretentious to accuse me of things when you can't seem to take your eyes off him? Or do you think no one sees you when you look at him every single time? It's getting embarrassing, no?"