Group project from Hell (246 views)

Arthur’s Outfit and Boots

-x-

It was difficult enough that Keegan Tessler was in his anatomy class. The guy was loud, obnoxious, and constantly made derogatory comments from the back of the room. Normally Arthur tried to ignore them, but the poor teacher could only chide him so many times when she couldn’t hear half of what was said. This was college, and Arthur had to wonder why Keegan was even here. What dreams did he have that didn’t involve screwing every girl he saw? What ambition could he possibly be striving towards when he acted that way in his required classes?

Arthur was only in this class because it was a gen ed course he needed to pass for his degree in business. He didn’t really want to take a biology course, or a chemistry one, because he was bad at both of those. He figured knowing anatomy might be useful someday, so he decided to take that course. He strongly, strongly considered dropping the class when he saw Keegan was in it but decided not to. He wanted this class over with before he got into the business-intensive courses in his latter years.

Unfortunately, as with most classes, there were projects and presentations. Normally Arthur had no problem with presentations. That was where acting training helped him out. But this time he’d been assigned to work with Keegan. At least when he was forced to work with Chardonnay, she actually had a brain and dreams she was working for. Unlike Keegan.

The only reason he hadn’t demanded a switch was their third partner – a quiet girl who sat in the corner named Cat. He definitely wouldn’t request a group change and leave her to deal with Keegan alone. He did ask for Keegan to be switched out, but the teacher refused. And so, here he found himself pulling into Cat’s lot in his sister’s slightly battered and old car. He grabbed his phone and scanned the messages, but the last one was still the message Cat had sent. He wondered if Keegan was already there. God, he hoped not.

Arthur got out of his car and locked it, staring up at the apartment. God, he wanted his own apartment. Or a place to stay that wasn’t his sisters when Chad had a girl over. Arthur ascended the stairs and reached the door. He blinked at it, cleared his throat, and then knocked on the door, waiting for it to open.

Unfortunately when the door opened, it became very obvious that Cat had been alone with Keegan. Arthur wasn’t sure for how long, but she looked relieved to see him, which made him feel a little better about coming here. God, he wished he was just working with Cat. He would have been awkward getting through this presentation given the subject matter, but she seemed like she was taking this course seriously and despite their embarrassment they could get through it. But not with Keegan...

Speaking of that asshole, Arthur saw him emerge from the kitchen with a beer. Did the guy bring beer or had Cat given him some? Arthur assumed the former, and that made his opinion of him plummet even further. The comment Keegan made Arthur’s eyebrow twitch. Somehow he doubted that Keegan had done that. He didn’t seem like the type who’d care about anyone’s pleasure besides his own.

”I wish he’d never shown up,” Arthur muttered under his breath, only audible to Cat, as Keegan made himself comfortable and put his feet up on the coffee table. Seriously? And then Keegan crudely asked when they were going to look at vaginas and asked Cat if she would give a live demonstration. What the fuck? Arthur felt his embarrassment fading to irritation as his brow twitched again. He could feel Cat move closer to him and it wasn’t a secret she was uncomfortable. He said a polite thank you to Cat before he moved to the couch, took the seat beside Keegan so that Cat wouldn’t have to sit next to the guy, and raised his foot to gently kick Keegan’s feet off of the table. Once he’d done that, Arthur slammed his backpack on the table and pulled out his copy of the textbook and his laptop, booting the latter up. He kept the bag where Keegan’s feet had been so the guy couldn’t just put his feet back.

”Hey, Keegan. Do everyone a favor and don’t make shitty comments.” Arthur snapped, positive that Keegan actually hadn’t read up on the chapter they were studying at all. ”Are we going to divide the chapter up into sections and each focus on one?”

He turned more towards Cat as he spoke determined to give Keegan the smallest section so that their grade wouldn’t suffer.

Arthur rolled his eyes in response to Keegan but decided not to push the issue. As much as he wanted to bitch at and snap at Keegan, this project wouldn’t get done if he let his temper get the best of him. Still the thought was infuriating that he’d have to work together with this guy. Arthur flicked through the chapter, looking at each section and its header, deciding how to divide up the parts. There were two big parts – child birth/menstruation and sexuality – and then there were smaller parts. Like how waste removal worked and how disease and contamination worked. The two biggest parts would probably have to go to himself and Cat. Which meant Keegan could do one of the latter ones...

Arthur nodded in response to Cat and didn’t watch her as she left, though out of the corner of his eye he was aware Keegan was. God, Keegan pissed him off. Cat was trying to focus on schoolwork, to go and get her laptop from her room, and all this asshole was doing was objectifying her. She didn’t deserve to be made this uncomfortable and he was about to snap something angry at Keegan when the guy leaned over towards him and asked if he thought that Cat was hiding any sex toys.

Immediately Arthur’s face flushed at the idea that Cat had those, and the visual he got in his head at the notion wasn’t one he wanted. He shook his head and glared at Keegan. He wanted to snap something back but Cat was already on her way back.

”Mind your own fucking business,” Arthur snapped, turning away from Keegan to focus on the book in front of them. He stared at the sections, before he looked over to see Cat’s face. Looking at her face right after Keegan said such a perverse comment caused him to blush darker, his ears and neck tinting red. The contrast was strong against his dark hair and he tried to will it down.

”Yeah, okay, you can do that section,” he said to Cat. Honestly he would have rather had that section than sex. Growing up raised by his sister he knew all kinds of crap about periods and menstruation so the topic didn’t disgust him or creep him out. However, Cat seemed more comfortable with that section, so it was fine she took that. When Keegan spoke up wanting to do sex Arthur shook his head. ”Absolutely not. You’ll go on tangents about your sexual adventures and no one wants to hear that. I’ll do the section on sex. You can focus on pissing and STDs.”

He tried to ignore the blush rising on his face as he opened his textbook to the page on sex and the female orgasm and began to skim the pages. Damn. This was going to be one hell of a project.

Arthur ran his fingers through his hair at Keegan’s retort. That was the point of the assignment, he supposed, to learn these things. But Keegan didn’t know anything aobut female anatomy except penis went in vagina. He didn’t even know there were different holes or anything and Arthur just wished he and Cat could do this project alone. He exhaled.

He blinked over at Cat, looked at her hand on his textbook, and then let his eyes move back up to her face.

”Oh, we can work together, but I’ll be fine when we present. It’s just embarrassing to – “ Could Keegan not keep his mouth shut for five seconds? Arthur felt his flush darkening as Keegan made some retort. So what if he wasn’t experienced at sex? This assignment was about regurgitating the textbook, not about actually having performed the act before. He flushed and rubbed his face, though thankfully Cat spoke up against Keegan. It wasn’t something Arthur expected to happen but he appreciated it anyway, and was glad she could stand up to that piece of shit. He used that time to take a deep breath and straighten up. On his own laptop he opened PowerPoint and started by titling their presentation. He then glanced down at the sex section... and pulled out his notes on the chapter, which were a word document on his laptop. ”So... I assume we’ll go in order right? Introduction is first which we can probably do together. Then it goes to sex, then after sex is STIs, and then after that is your section.”

Arthur glanced over at Keegan, peeked at the website he was looking at, and frowned. ”Let us know when you actually know what the fuck you’re talking about. Until then, Cat, we should probably just get our sections done. You can share my textbook while he uses yours.”

he glanced at the mini-wine glasses that he was offered and shook his head. "Uh, thanks, but... I don't drink. Could I have some water instead?"

Arthur thanked Cat for the offer and grabbed a water for himself, also agreeing with Cat that they should verify whatever Keegan came up with before allowing him to submit it. Though the wine was tempting to try, Arthur knew how lightweight he was now and wasn’t willing to risk not being in the right frame of mind. Not when they were talking about sex, and not when Keegan was right there trying to make perverse comments and hit on Cat. Arthur didn’t understand where Keegan got off doing that. To Arthur, the guy wasn’t even attractive. So how did he have so much sexual experience? He didn’t get it.

He took a sip of the water and it helped him feel a little calmer. His cheeks were starting to tone down and after he cleared his throat, he started to dedicate himself to reading the passage as Keegan clacked away on the keyboard (Arthur hoped he was doing something intelligent). Arthur covered his mouth with one of his hands, resting his elbow on his knee. He was trying to focus on the words as fact rather than getting distracted by mental images, but it was somewhat difficult to distance himself from it. He knew he just needed to keep focusing and he’d be able to –

Arthur jumped when, at full volume, a sultry woman’s voice burst out of Cat’s laptop. He whipped his head around to glare over at Keegan who looked guilty as all hell, and the flush began to grow on Arthur’s face as he realized what Keegan had looked up. His brow twitched as Cat laid down the law for him, and told him to focus on the physical copy of the textbook, but that wasn’t enough for Arthur.

’Okay, listen up, dibshit,” Arthur spat at Keegan, turning his body to face the guy as he spoke, ”I’m not going to put up with your whore ass making this assignment into a joke. Yeah, it’s about sex. It’s about the vagina you chase. But if you’re not going to take this seriously Cat and I can do this project easily without you.”

Arthur rolled his eyes and snapped ”if he wants to know where the STIs are, he should check inside his pants,” before he pointed to the spot he was on. ”So, Cat, do you want to start with the introduction? I think we only need to make that one slide. We can combine the title slide and the introduction.”

Arthur agreed to what Cat said and when Keegan had to go to the bathroom, he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Of course the guy just wanted a way out of the project. Maybe he was going to the bathroom to get off. The thought was disgusting, but Arthur wouldn’t put it past him. If so he just felt bad for Cat – she’d no doubt have to clean up that mess because Keegan sure as hell wouldn’t. But if Keegan went to go jerk off, then he and Cat could actually make some headway on the project.

And they did. Cat managed to get through the introduction slide and was working on her next one while Arthur was compiling notes. It was kind of awkward to talk about female orgasms with Cat – he knew literally nothing about female orgasms – but she didn’t laugh at him for saying anything dirty and he appreciated that. Things were going fine. Without Keegan, they didn’t have to think of perverted innuendos. Arthur could distance himself from the work, and it was slowly getting less embarrassing...

But then there was a loud noise and Arthur turned to look at Keegan. The blond had burst out of Catalina’s room – when the fuck had he gotten in there – and was holding what looked like a dildo in his hands. Arthur’s jaw dropped as Cat paled beside him, and then at Keegan’s words, the flush intensified. He felt a mix of embarrassment and anger.

Arthur stood up off of the couch and stormed over to Keegan, took the vibrator out of his hands, and whacked Keegan upside the head with it. He didn’t care in that moment if that would bother Cat, or that he and Keegan had a 7 inch height difference between them.

”Seriously?! You’re a fucking asshole! I’ll report you to the fucking teacher for sexual harassment! So what if Cat uses sex toys?! WHO GIVES A SHIT! We have a project to do and if you don’t get your fucking shit in gear you can go find some alleyway to jerk off in!” As he spoke his cheeks flustered with anger, and he folded his arms across his chest, Cat’s vibrator now on the floor. He wasn’t aware if it’d been used recently but thinking about that – and the fact he’d just touched it – only made the flush worse. ”I can’t wait until you flunk your sorry ass out of Metric.”

Arthur hadn’t expected for Keegan to start repenting right away, but honestly, he was really pissed off that the guy didn’t even look slightly apologetic. Especially when Cat started to shake and ran between the two boys, grabbed the vibrator off the floor, and ran into her room, slamming the door behind her. Arthur was going to get Keegan’s sorry ass expelled over this incident if he could. No way that some guy could get away with harassing his fellow student at such a prestigious school. It was an enigma to Arthur how he even got in – much like how he felt about Chad having a secure space in the school.

And, like before, her intense reaction only succeeded in making Keegan laugh and call her cute. Seriously? Where did this guy get off? He pictured some asshole treating his sister like that in his head – riling her up to the point of tears, sexually harassing her just to get a reaction – and his arm shook. But what made it worse was when Keegan actually mentioned his sister, said he wanted to fuck her, and made obscene comments.

Arthur reached out and grabbed Keegan by the collar of his shirt and yanked him forward off the couch, not caring that the guy was holding beer and sitting down. He started to drag the guy towards the door of the apartment. He didn’t even bother to kick the door open – he just yanked Keegan around and slammed the guy into the door, loudly.

”Don’t you ever make a comment like that about my sister, you fucking dickhead, I’ll beat your skull into the ground. Cat told you to get out, so get out. You’re not part of this project anymore. We’ll do it without you and you can fail if she doesn’t get you expelled for sexual harassment first!” He snapped,

Keegan wasn’t commenting back to him and that pissed Arthur off. If the guy yanked him outside too, or punched him, Arthur wouldn’t have had a problem fighting back. Right now even if it was in his best interest to calm down, Keegan’s last comment really pissed Arthur off and when he left, Arthur raised his foot and literally kicked Keegan in the ass, hoping that the force sent him toppling over the railing.

”Fuck you!” He spat out after Keegan, and then he slammed the door shut, not caring that this wasn’t his own place. He was breathing heavily and his arms and shoulders were shaking in anger. How dare that asshole talk about his sister like that?! Like she was some piece of ass he wanted to tap. It was horrible and made him feel nauseous as he stared at the floor, the world starting to spin as the only thing that made logical sense to him was to follow Keegan. Arthur wanted to follow him outside and tackle him to the ground and beat his face in until it was nothing but a bloody mess. He hadn’t been this enraged in a long time, not since the last time he’d gotten in a fight in middle school when some snooty classmate of his called Susan a slut. Nothing could rile Arthur up quite like comments towards his sister could.

The only thing that prevented him from going out there and doing just that – pounding Keegan’s head in – was the soft and trembling voice of Cat. He hadn’t even noticed she’d come out of her room, and when he turned around he felt a sense of pity. She was crying. Crap. Keegan sure did a number on the both of them, didn’t he? Arthur exhaled and counted to five twice in his mind, trying to push Keegan from his mind. He grabbed the box of tissues on the coffee table and offered it to her.

”You don’t have to apologize. It’s his fault. Want me to get you some water? No rush on finishing the project. I don’t have anywhere to be.” He handed the box to her so that his shaking wouldn’t be obvious, and he craved a cigarette. If he couldn’t go outside and punch Keegan in his stupid, miserable face, he wanted to smoke. But he didn’t want to risk going outside and seeing the guy, or light up in Cat’s apartment. He didn’t know how she felt about cigarettes. ”He should have never done that to you. That’s... I mean... it’s... it’s none of anyone else’s business.”

Now that he was alone with Cat he felt better... though still angry. He was angry this whole situation had even happened and he just dared Keegan to come back so he could punch the guy. God, his hands twitched. He was aware of the pack of cigarettes in his back pocket, pressing against his ass, begging to be pulled out and lit.

When Cat asked if he minded going outside and explained she was scared to go alone, Arthur definitely knew he wouldn’t let her go outside alone with Keegan still in the vicinity. Hell, he knew he’d feel bad leaving the apartment when he had to, knowing Keegan had been here. He’d definitely tell her to lock the door, both doors, and to call him if she needed anything or heard anything.

”We can go outside if you want. I don’t mind. I don’t blame you for not wanting to be alone either.” Arthur said, and before he could ask if she minded if he smoked, Cat spoke up. He was... surprised she mentioned that and somewhat self-consciously he covered his mouth with his hand, wondering if his teeth were yellow – a thing he was constantly paranoid about happening. He followed her out onto her back bench, glancing up at the sky. It was dark out, but nice, and the wind was gentle. He couldn’t hear or see Keegan but he hoped the guy stayed away. When they were outside he took his cigarettes out of his back pocket and shrugged somewhat bashfully. ”Do you mind if I smoke out here?”

Arthur nodded his thanks and put a cigarette in his mouth, between his teeth. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his lighter, flicking the cheap thing a few times before it finally lit. He held it up to his cigarette until the paper ignited, and he extinguished the lighter, returning it to his pocket. He inhaled the nicotine and then exhaled a plume of smoke, the ashes at the tip of the cigarette shining bright. Arthur leaned on the table, noticing she was shifting through the textbook.

”Thanks. Do you use any ash trays? I don’t mind flicking them over the side if you don’t. And if you want a cigarette I can give you one,” he offered. He felt better now that he had a cigarette between his fingers and brought it back up to his lips, taking another long drag as he felt the smoke spiral in his lungs. At Cat’s question Arthur blinked, but then remembered the situation that happened and his expression soured. ”He… he said he wanted to fuck my sister, cruder than that if you can even imagine it. I’d rather not think about that piece of shit, though I am sorry about your door. I can fix it if I damaged it.”

He didn’t think he had, but then Keegan was larger than he was. Arthur had slammed all of the guy’s weight onto the door – it was possible it had chipped slightly. He didn’t know. He still hoped the guy had tripped over the railing and smashed his skull against the ground below. Or broke his dick in half. Somehow, Arthur was certain Keegan breaking his dick would be worse to the man than losing his life would be.

But then Cat mentioned that sex toy and Arthur felt his cheeks flush again. He took another drag of the cigarette and looked out at the California landscape behind Cat’s apartment. ”It’s fine. I don’t… I didn’t touch it for very long. Just… that’s your business and I don’t want to know anything about it. Keegan shouldn’t have ever gone through your shit you know? You can do whatever you want with that thing I don’t care if it was used or new or anything, really, it’s just your business.”

Oh, great. He could hear himself rambling and he had to take another drag to try and stop talking. He was avoiding eye contact, especially since they were focusing on a sexual chapter for their project.

”Yeah, the bottle should be fine.” Arthur said, as he reached out and pulled the bottle closer to him. He flicked the ashes and let them descend to the bottom of the bottle, making the still-burning embers of his cigarette stand out more. When Cat said she had never smoked but was curious, he felt his lips tighten. Of course it was her choice if she ever smoked, but he was definitely not going to give her her first cigarette. It reminded him of the first time he lit up when he was a child and he just... didn’t want to be the one to get anyone into the habit. Though it wasn’t like he couldn’t quit any time he wanted. ”That’s fine – just thank you for the bottle.”

He brought the cigarette back to his lips and stared out at the hills, thankful they weren’t starting on the project just yet. He didn’t want to start blushing any more than he currently was about the whole sex toy thing.

”Yeah, well, Keegan is just awful. I don’t think I’ll be able to go to class without socking him in the face, honestly. We need to talk to the teacher about it before he tries to twist you kicking him out in his favor.” Arthur said. They could probably email the professor – once they went back inside, where Arthur had left his laptop, they could do just that. ”I, uh... right. Sorry. I have a short fuse and he just gets under my skin in a way literally no one else does.”

The closest was Chad, but at least Chad was a decent human being. He fucked girls all the time but he didn’t make perverse comments about peoples’ sisters – in fact he usually ran away when faced with conflict – and he was so dumb it was like he just never learned anything. But Keegan was aware he was an asshole, but continued to rile people up anyway They were just different, even though Arthur disliked both of them. When Cat reached over and touched his arm, Arthur rose his brows and looked at her.

”Right... your sake, yeah, it’s fine, I’ll just... never remember that thing again,” He said, trying to ignore the thoughts that followed. Like how did it even work? It looked a little big to go up a woman right? Or maybe it wasn’t too big? Fuck, he didn’t know! He felt his cheeks beginning to flush and he tried to will it down as he cleared his throat. ”Yeah. I need a break, too. Do you need this class for your major or is it a gen ed like mine is?”

Arthur breathed out in amusement at Cat’s comment than she hadn’t ever screamed at someone quite like she’d done to Keegan. And honestly, he believed her on that. Cat didn’t seem like the type to scream for no reason or any reason, really, but he had to admit it was funny to see her burst out like that.

”That was impressive, though. But I can’t say the same thing. I have a really short fuse, not just when it comes to Keegan. When it comes to pretty much anyone, actually,” he grumbled against his cigarette, feeling his lips brush gently against the stick. In fact, he’d probably said worse to other people in his lifetime. But he had to be glad that Cat was easy to talk to and work with – he had a feeling that now that Keegan was out of the picture, they’d be able to get some progress done without having to deal with interruptions... or perverts brandishing sex toys.

He nodded along with her when she said that it was best the left the vibrator in the past. He definitely did not need any mental images of her using it, or trying to figure out in his head where she put it. Nope, that would be a good mystery and at least he could know now that the thing was unused.

When she mentioned why she was here Arthur rose his brows.

”They have forensics here? My sister would love to have taught that class, but apparently she’s not qualified enough to be a professor. Are you going to transfer to a better college for that in a few years?” He asked, figuring Metric didn’t have a very good forensics program if they were focused on arts. ”I’m a business student. I’m just getting all these gen eds out of the way. I can’t stand science.”

He didn’t see the appeal, much like he didn’t see the appeal in English literature. But, whatever. He was never good at either of those subjects anyway.