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Brendan felt positively giddy as he walked across campus. He had just about nailed getting this grant for work on his graduate thesis in physics, and he couldn't wait. This meant that tomorrow he'd not only pick up a check for six figures to cover his expenses during all the independent study, he'd also be flying off to tour eight different European countries to use any university library and lab he needed, and the check would be presented at a special campus assembly the next day! Of course, Dylan's reaction had been sort of surprising; Dylan had been Brendan's best friend since junior high, and they'd been inseparable all through high school and college up to this point in grad school. Dylan sometimes talked about getting this grant for himself as though his entire academic career would be at stake if he didn't get it, and his disappointment was more than obvious when Professor Morelli read the results in front of the class. In fact, he'd stormed out with barely a look at Brendan. Not that it mattered; Brendan had stopped talking to Dylan just under a year earlier; he'd gotten way too competitive, and though Brendan would always feel a warm spot in his heart for Dylan, he accepted that their friendship was over.

Brendan smiled as he turned up the path to his dorm room, absorbed only in whether or not to start making lists of things to pack or to call Mom and Dad first and give them the news. The door had barely closed behind him when he saw Jordan, Dylan's roommate, standing in the middle of the room pointing a edge towards the door. Jordan's nickname on campus and on the football and lacrosse teams in particular was "Moose," mostly for his resemblance to the character from the "Archie" comics. Instinctively, Brendan dropped his kXXXXsack and raised his hands above his head. "Uh...how's it going, Moose?" he asked timidly.

"Dylan don't like that you're getting the grant," he said, advancing on the trembling lad, coming up from behind him and holding the edge against Brendan's quivering throat. "Put your hands behind your back." Brendan obliged and found his wrists bound with cotton rope, with more rope circling his shoulders.

"Come on, Moose," Brendan said. "Don't be stupid, OK?"

"STUPID?!?!" Moose thundered all of a sudden. "You're callin' ME stupid, geek?" He pulled a roll of blue electrical tape from his back pocket and tore off a strip. "You know what's really stupid?"

"Wha...what's really stupid?" Brendan asked.

"You," Moose said, and plastered the strip across Brendan's trembling lips before pushing him onto the bed. "Think you're so fuckin' smart just 'cause you're good at...at...um....that science shit or whatever? Dylan's smarter than you," he continued. "If you don't show up to get that grant money tomorrow, it automatically goes to the next guy on the list. Guess who that is." He tied Brendan's ankles together, then checked all the knots and started for the door. "No way you're gettin' out of that."

Brendan struggled violently for a minute and felt the ropes loosen from around his shoulder, all the while trying to make an audible sound through his tape-gag. Moose just laughed and came back around to hogtie Brendan, then crossed to the mini-fridge and grabbed a Rolling Rock from inside, which he polished off in one gulp and then belched. "I gotta go get Dylan," he said, chucking his car keys into the air with an elaborate toss and catching them on one finger. "Don't go anywhere."

It took a few minutes, but Brendan managed to get to his bound feet and hop to the desk, where he tried valiantly to XXXX the cordless phone to the floor. Sure enough, the receiver toppled off the desk face up, and Brendan threw himself on the floor with a thud. He barely managed to dial first a "9", then a "1" and another "1" with his nose. When he heard the far-away sound of the emergency operator, Brendan was making an attempt to scream into the phone through the tape holding his mouth helplessly shut when he heard the door unlock. His eyes widened as he made out the tall figure of Dylan holding a XXXX on him with one hand, his other hand cupping what appeared to be an erection at the front of his Levis.

"Well, well, well," Dylan said with an evil grin. "Now you're going to see what it means to meet a mad scientist."

To Be Continued

Brendon played by Jacob

Photography by Caitiff