Synopsis

“On Todd Salazar’s first day of college, while his belongings were still in neatly labeled boxes on the dorm room floor, he had sex with his new roommate Darin.”

From the first line of the first page of Semesters, a loopy, original novel about gay life at a large New England state university during the early ‘90s, it's clear that the people populating this novel certainly are more interesting that those saintly, asexual members of the class of 10 percent portrayed in heterosexual college novels. Set against an era when gay marriage is a pipe dream and being “out” is still a precarious choice, the students of Semesters feel safe enough in their campus microcosm to be Here and Queer—so get used to it! They have sex, do drugs, have sex again, make all the wrong decisions, wage war against their conservative enemies, bum cigarettes, have more sex, all the while struggling with questions universal to young Americans. The writing is breezy and the drama generous. You'll encounter scandalous revelations, parties out of bounds, back stabbing, and an unforgettable, topsy-turvy final confrontation. Has it been mentioned that there is sex? Lots of it!

The protagonists are three gay men: BEN BRISTOL, the transfer student looking for sex or love, whichever comes first, TODD SALAZAR, the freshman who already has quite the track record but is looking for new conquests, and DARIN BURKETT, Todd’s whiny and underhanded first semester roommate, the self-appointed perpetual victim.

Ben Bristol is the heart of the novel. After two years of living closeted at home and attending a local community college to save money, Ben has high expectations for his junior year. But despite having a hot, straight British roommate who has a habit of walking around in his underwear, Ben’s only affections are from a fedora-wearing Trekker named EDGAR whom he met during orientation. Undeterred, Ben joins the University Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Alliance (UGLBA), writes a column for a newsletter, and falls hard for a guy who barely knows he exists—and that’s only in the first month of school. We follow the uninitiated Ben as he discovers the thrill of off-campus parties, drinks bad sangria and goes to the UGLBA-sponsored dances. Finally an active member of a gay community is Ben happy? And what if his quest for love ends with Ben in the arms of somebody he’d never expected?

Among Ben’s new college friends are: JULIA, a fellow member of the UGLBA whose claims of bisexuality are suspect; JEREMY and ARTURO, who are at a crisis point in their relationship, which Arturo relieves by hitting on other men in front of Jeremy, oblivious to Jeremy’s growing attraction to a sexy TA; TOBE, the self-appointed DJ who plays music nobody requests and refuses to wear weight-appropriate clothing; and TERRI, the beleaguered leader of the UGLBA who discovers her ex-girlfriend is in an abusive relationship and finds herself thrust into a brutal life or death situation.

Countering Ben’s cautious and naive romantic tendencies, Todd Salazar is all magnetic sexual appeal. Todd can’t help but oblige the men who line up the moment he steps on campus in September. In addition to sleeping with his roommate, Darin, Todd seduces super-senior RICHARD, who already has a boyfriend. No matter. After Richard, there’s KIRK, a golden boy from California, who has his own apartment. But Todd is carrying a dark secret about a taboo relationship he had over the summer. There’s a problem with secrets, though ... they have a funny way of being exposed at just the wrong times.

And then there’s Darin Burkett, a weaselly freshman from the suburbs of Boston not thrilled to be stuck in a provincial western Massachusetts state school. The relationship between roommates Darin and Todd, at first full of passion, quickly dissolves as Darin’s inconsiderate habits drive anal retentive Todd crazy; Darin doesn’t make his bed, breaks Todd’s lamp [gasp!], smokes in the dorm room, and has people in at all hours, notably MARIA, the cynical fellow UGLBA member who lives down the hall. Together, Darin and Maria bring their own half-baked brand of stoner politics to a campus that Darin feels is too complacent. Eventually Darin takes up with the mysterious revolutionary and begins a prank campaign against the Young Conservatives Club. Darin also manages to acquire a boyfriend, the sexy LARS, a former swim team member with a great tan line who doesn’t seem to know why he's dating Darin. Tensions between Darin and Todd explode into a nasty fist fight which ends the first semester with a bang and sets the tone for an even larger confrontation just before Spring Break, the ramifications of which send shock waves through the campus.

So take a study break, wring out your wet Speedo and grab a cup of coffee and peanut butter chocolate chip cookie at the Blue Book Café. Semesters demonstrates how much fun college can be when you’re not attending class.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Chapter Two: Summer of '91

Summer of ‘91
After the hookup with Todd, Darin Burkett walked aimlessly around campus, stopping to watch the cute incoming students unload their belongings.   Parents were lurking everywhere. Hopefully he’d avoid seeing Todd’s parents when they came back.  He didn't want to have to smile and put on an act again.  Once was enough.
Todd’s mother had an expensive hairstyle and walked around the room exclaiming, “Isn’t this nice?” though it was clear she didn’t think much of the place.  Todd’s father looked annoyed the entire time; he didn’t say much as he helped bring the boxes into the room.  He looked like an older version of Todd only with a bad mustache.  Todd’s folks had barely been gone fifteen minutes- off to check into their motel-when the boys hooked up.
A motel.  Was Todd going to be a momma’s boy who always needed her around? Darin’s mother and stepfather’s visit had lasted less than thirty minutes. They’d pulled up to the dorm and unloaded Darin’s few belongings.  His mother complained about the slow elevators and slipped Darin a twenty as she was leaving.  Truth be told, that was exactly how Darin had wanted the move to go. The money was an unexpected bonus.   He wasn’t planning on moving back home next summer so he’d take what he could from his mother now.   The sour look on her face as she dipped into her purse made it that much sweeter.  She could afford to part with her money, but she acted as though it was a huge deal.
Darin’s mother had also been more honest than Todd’s about the campus.  She took one look and then shook her head.  “This place is a dump.”   She was right.  The more Darin saw of the State University campus, the more he realized how ugly the school was.  Definitely not stately, with no ivy to be found. Unless it was poison.  That’s what you get for going to a place you don’t check out beforehand.  Some areas of the school resembled a low rent Harvard Yard.  Other regions had ugly modern buildings thrown down with no continuity.  The library was a twenty-story brick structure stuck in the middle of the campus, rumored to be sinking a quarter inch a year by the weight of the books.  Another architectural atrocity was the campus center, which resembled a waffle standing on its side. 
Thinking about waffles made Darin hungry.  He had the money but didn’t know where he could get food that night as the cafeterias wouldn’t open until morning.  Maybe he should have accepted the dinner invite, but no.  Todd was cute, but that wasn't enough reason to go to dinner with a person he barely knew and his parents while having to answer questions about himself all evening. 
Wanna hear a good one, folks? Your son blew me while you were out.
Darin knew that Todd had lied earlier: he could tell it hadn’t been the first time Todd had a cock in his mouth.  Not that the prior experience had made him a master.  There had been too many teeth to describe Todd as anything more than adequate. 
But in fairness, Todd hadn’t been the only one distorting the truth.   Darin’s ex William had been almost twenty years older than he: thirty-seven. They also hadn’t met at a youth group, but on the Back Bay MBTA platform where William had been cruising him one weeknight. They ended up fooling around in a nearby public bathroom stall. That wasn’t so sexy, but it had been fun.  After that, Darin started hooking up with William a few times a week.  Darin started making up more and more excuses as to why he was going out so often, and knew his mother believed none of them. What was she going to do, lock him up?  Darin liked to imagine the look on his mother’s face if she found out he was seeing a guy only seven years younger than she.
Not that William was such a horror.  He didn’t dress especially well and was ten pounds overweight but he had a decent job at a bank; the job allowed William to always pay for meals.  The paunch was canceled out by the fact that William was skilled in bed, and had a large dick.  For several weeks over the summer, things had proceeded well.  The two of them spent time in the South End, and then in William’s small third floor apartment on Tremont Street which he shared with an MIT grad student who was never there.
 The relationship ended one night at Club Café.  Darin, drunk and staggering, had left William on the dance floor and gone to the bathroom. When he came back to the bar, William was making out with another young guy in a banquette while a dance remix of “Right Here, Right Now” was playing over the speakers.  Darin ordered several more drinks, stuck William with the tab and never called him again.
His mother would smirk when she’d come upon Darin watching TV and ask why he’d stopped going out so much.  He’d give her the finger behind her back.
Fuck William.  That was over.  William was still in Boston, still wearing his boring clothes and still pushing forty. Most people on campus were Darin’s age. If he could get laid regularly - he’d gotten off to a good beginning - it would be worth it to be away from a big city, away from his family, and the boring, cramped suburbs even if it meant attending school in this backwoods area. 
Time to start anew.
Almost as soon as he completed his last thought, Darin was overcome with loneliness.  He revised his opinion of William for the second time in as many minutes.  Maybe it had been a mistake to let William go so easily.  If the loneliness persisted, he’d give William a call one day and see if anything could be done to salvage the relationship.  It would enable him to get off campus as often as possible.   
Classes began in two days, and Darin had no idea how to kill the time until then.  If Todd was willing, maybe they’d fool around again. 
It was something to do.
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