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Chapter 1: The small-group session
I was sick and tired of being assigned the stories about club and organization fundraisers and intramural sports. There were only so many ways a writer could make the inter-dorm touch football game sound the slightest bit interesting. You might be surprised to hear it, but the St. Bart Banner was and is a really prestigious daily newspaper even if it is edited and written by college students. The fact that St. Bart College has one of the most competitive journalism programs in the US ensures that the campus paper is cut throat and as competitive as any large town paper.
For months, I had been pitching a story about the strange happenings in St. Barts’ fraternities, but the editor and chief, Travis was a member of Lambda Lambda Kappa and he kept killing my story. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure that there was a story, but if rumors were to be believed there was something odd about the Greek Life on our campus.
For what had to have been the fifteenth time, I went to the reporters meeting with a request to do an in-depth article on the goings on of the fraternity world, but I was turned down. I fought hard and tried to convince the editorial board of how much national recognition a story that exposed fraternity row would bring us, but what ever I said Travis seemed to be one step ahead of me, always with an excuse or an answer as to why the story wouldn’t work. Instead I was given the choice of either interviewing the campus meteorology professor about the freak weather that the campus had experienced within the last month or to interview one of the campus nurses about how students could avoid the flu this season. I immediately tried to grab the weather story, as there was at least a mystery to how and why a school 1000s of miles from any desert suddenly has a dust storm, however before I could grab the editors notes my arch nemesis Sheldon grabbed the story notes and thereby put his claim on the story before me. Sheldon and I had fought over the best stories for the last semester, and it drives me crazy that he keeps getting the juiciest stories and I keep getting stuck with the intramural puff pieces. Pissed doesn’t begin to explain how angry I was at my assignment, the fucking flu and flu shots, I could just recycle last years story and the year before that’s. There was absolutely no need for me to do any actual investigative reporting. Little did I know that this assignment was going to lead me to the biggest story of what I can only imagine will be my entire life.
There was one small bright side of being assigned a story about the campus Health Center and that was Dr. Justin Crowell. Dr. Crowell was the campus Psychologist and while I wasn’t personally mental, I sure did consider faking a bout of issues when I first laid eyes on the gorgeous 32 year old. Dr. Crowell had helped one of my good friends come to grips with her parents divorce. Every time she came back from one of his half-hour sessions she would share how she couldn’t help but melt in his eyes. I used to always tell her that she was out of her mind that Dr. Crowell was clearly batting for my team. But Donna would just laugh me off and ask why every gay man thought all good-looking guys were secretly gay. I tried to explain my never incorrect gaydar but she wasn’t buying it.
Fine, I realize that being a 20-year-old college junior who gets paid $15 a news article doesn’t exactly make me a great catch for a well respected Psychologist but a guy can dream can’t he.
Since I was assigned to the health story, I figured I would try and figure out some excuse to visit with the good doctor.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the campus nurse wasn’t any more interested in me doing the flu story than I was. Nurse Jeffries could only be described as a conceded witch who thought that just because she had majorly large cans that she could be a complete bitch. What I had hoped would be a quick 5-minute interview ended up taking three hours. After being lectured by Nurse Jeffries for not having called ahead and made an appointment, she made me wait for nearly two hours before she called me back to her office. I tried to hurry through the interview, but she wouldn’t let me, she kept droning on about the reasons for having the flu shot. I tried to fake interest, but the only thing I could do was stair at the giant mole that was just below her nose. As she went on and on I heard her student assistants closing down the computers and locking the doors. I was pissed that I wasn’t going to even get the chance to see Dr. Crowell.
“This day sucked!” I thought to myself.
As we finished up, I promised Nurse Jeffries that I would include all 13 reasons for a flu shot, in the article. As I was trying to back out of her office gracefully, I slipped on a flyer that had fallen off her office door.
Nurse Jeffries didn’t even bother to get up from behind her desk to see if I was alright, she actually seemed annoyed as she told me to “watch where you are going or you will hurt yourself.”
Lying on the ground, I picked up the flyer planning to wad it up and throw it across the room, but as I grabbed it I noticed that Dr. Crowell’s name was across the bottom.
I read the flyer, but it didn’t really make sense to me. It seemed to be written for a very specific audience, I could only assume that group new what it was for. I rubbed my rear end as I stood. My backside was sore from the fall, and now my brain was puzzled at the meaning of the flyer.
“Are you a member of the victim club, or a perpetrator of someone in the victim club? If so we have small-group sessions, at 7pm on Thursdays in the Medical Center Conference room.”
Looking around the room for the clock, I noticed that it was two minutes till the meeting. Since Dr. Crowell was the contact listed on the flyer, I was fairly certain that he would be at the small-group session. I turned to ask Nurse Jeffries where the conference room was, and as I turned she stuck me in the arm with a needle.
“Damn that fucking hurt” I swore.
“Excuse you young man, watch your language,” she chastised.
“I literally just gave you a dozen or more reasons for why you want this flu shot.” She said as if she was doing me a favor.
I was just about to lecture her on how inappropriate it was to sneak up on someone and give them a shot they never asked for, when I noticed Dr. Crowell come out of his office and head into the bathroom. As I turned back to bitch at Nurse Jeffries she shut the door in my face.
Now I was pissed, she literally just slammed the door in my face. I started to bang on her office door, but she just ignored me, or maybe she had gone out her window. Come to think of it, there might have been an exit door in her office that lead outside, I couldn’t remember. I started to bang on the door again when I heard his sexy voice.
“Can I help you?” Dr. Crowell asked in his deep hot southern drawl.
Startled from Dr. Crowell sneaking up behind me, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Um, ah hi” I said like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Dr. Crowell seemed disinterested with me, and looked like he was going to turn away, until he saw the flyer in my hand.
“Victim or perpetrator” Dr. Crowell whispered closely in my ear.
As he got close enough to me, I noticed the muscles bulging underneath his polo shirt. I tried to trace the veins that were popping out of his massive arms, but his cotton shirt was blocking my view.
Dr. Crowell began to whisper a little louder this time, “victim or perpetrator.”
This time I noticed his deep blue eyes and nearly flawless skin. He truly was an amazing looking guy. Had he not gone into medicine he could have easily been an actor or model.
“Look, I know it is scary to admit what has happened to you or what you might have done to someone else, but that is what the small-group session is all about.”
“Oh um right,” I said now realizing he had mistakenly assumed that I was there for the small-group session instead of being there on newspaper business.
Had I been a decent human being, I probably would have explained myself, and my purpose for being there. Instead I contemplated actually going to the small-group session.
“Perpetrator” I heard myself say, having no real idea what I was saying. However, I knew that if I was going to be playing a role that I would rather not have to play the victim role. I was already the doormat at the newspaper; I didn’t want to have to play the victim here too.
“Very good,” Dr. Crowell shared. “It is good that you have decided to consider your future and the future of those that you have wronged.
Curious I thought, as Dr. Crowell moved me toward a door halfway down the hallway.
As we got closer, I thought I might be the only one coming to Dr. Crowell’s small-group session. Imagine my surprise when we opened the door and there were 24 people sitting quietly around the room, not a single one of them talking.
In the meeting, I notice guys of every build; some jacked with muscles, others skinny as a rail, and still others quite fat. There was no pattern to the height either. I couldn’t help but to wonder how this group came together, I was just about to ask when I realized it might blow my cover. I didn’t have to wonder long because Dr. Crowell began introductions of the 24 guys that were in the room.
I was sick and tired of being assigned the stories about club and organization fundraisers and intramural sports. There were only so many ways a writer could make the inter-dorm touch football game sound the slightest bit interesting. You might be surprised to hear it, but the St. Bart Banner was and is a really prestigious daily newspaper even if it is edited and written by college students. The fact that St. Bart College has one of the most competitive journalism programs in the US ensures that the campus paper is cut throat and as competitive as any large town paper.
For months, I had been pitching a story about the strange happenings in St. Barts’ fraternities, but the editor and chief, Travis was a member of Lambda Lambda Kappa and he kept killing my story. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure that there was a story, but if rumors were to be believed there was something odd about the Greek Life on our campus.
For what had to have been the fifteenth time, I went to the reporters meeting with a request to do an in-depth article on the goings on of the fraternity world, but I was turned down. I fought hard and tried to convince the editorial board of how much national recognition a story that exposed fraternity row would bring us, but what ever I said Travis seemed to be one step ahead of me, always with an excuse or an answer as to why the story wouldn’t work. Instead I was given the choice of either interviewing the campus meteorology professor about the freak weather that the campus had experienced within the last month or to interview one of the campus nurses about how students could avoid the flu this season. I immediately tried to grab the weather story, as there was at least a mystery to how and why a school 1000s of miles from any desert suddenly has a dust storm, however before I could grab the editors notes my arch nemesis Sheldon grabbed the story notes and thereby put his claim on the story before me. Sheldon and I had fought over the best stories for the last semester, and it drives me crazy that he keeps getting the juiciest stories and I keep getting stuck with the intramural puff pieces. Pissed doesn’t begin to explain how angry I was at my assignment, the fucking flu and flu shots, I could just recycle last years story and the year before that’s. There was absolutely no need for me to do any actual investigative reporting. Little did I know that this assignment was going to lead me to the biggest story of what I can only imagine will be my entire life.
There was one small bright side of being assigned a story about the campus Health Center and that was Dr. Justin Crowell. Dr. Crowell was the campus Psychologist and while I wasn’t personally mental, I sure did consider faking a bout of issues when I first laid eyes on the gorgeous 32 year old. Dr. Crowell had helped one of my good friends come to grips with her parents divorce. Every time she came back from one of his half-hour sessions she would share how she couldn’t help but melt in his eyes. I used to always tell her that she was out of her mind that Dr. Crowell was clearly batting for my team. But Donna would just laugh me off and ask why every gay man thought all good-looking guys were secretly gay. I tried to explain my never incorrect gaydar but she wasn’t buying it.
Fine, I realize that being a 20-year-old college junior who gets paid $15 a news article doesn’t exactly make me a great catch for a well respected Psychologist but a guy can dream can’t he.
Since I was assigned to the health story, I figured I would try and figure out some excuse to visit with the good doctor.
It didn’t take me long to realize that the campus nurse wasn’t any more interested in me doing the flu story than I was. Nurse Jeffries could only be described as a conceded witch who thought that just because she had majorly large cans that she could be a complete bitch. What I had hoped would be a quick 5-minute interview ended up taking three hours. After being lectured by Nurse Jeffries for not having called ahead and made an appointment, she made me wait for nearly two hours before she called me back to her office. I tried to hurry through the interview, but she wouldn’t let me, she kept droning on about the reasons for having the flu shot. I tried to fake interest, but the only thing I could do was stair at the giant mole that was just below her nose. As she went on and on I heard her student assistants closing down the computers and locking the doors. I was pissed that I wasn’t going to even get the chance to see Dr. Crowell.
“This day sucked!” I thought to myself.
As we finished up, I promised Nurse Jeffries that I would include all 13 reasons for a flu shot, in the article. As I was trying to back out of her office gracefully, I slipped on a flyer that had fallen off her office door.
Nurse Jeffries didn’t even bother to get up from behind her desk to see if I was alright, she actually seemed annoyed as she told me to “watch where you are going or you will hurt yourself.”
Lying on the ground, I picked up the flyer planning to wad it up and throw it across the room, but as I grabbed it I noticed that Dr. Crowell’s name was across the bottom.
I read the flyer, but it didn’t really make sense to me. It seemed to be written for a very specific audience, I could only assume that group new what it was for. I rubbed my rear end as I stood. My backside was sore from the fall, and now my brain was puzzled at the meaning of the flyer.
“Are you a member of the victim club, or a perpetrator of someone in the victim club? If so we have small-group sessions, at 7pm on Thursdays in the Medical Center Conference room.”
Looking around the room for the clock, I noticed that it was two minutes till the meeting. Since Dr. Crowell was the contact listed on the flyer, I was fairly certain that he would be at the small-group session. I turned to ask Nurse Jeffries where the conference room was, and as I turned she stuck me in the arm with a needle.
“Damn that fucking hurt” I swore.
“Excuse you young man, watch your language,” she chastised.
“I literally just gave you a dozen or more reasons for why you want this flu shot.” She said as if she was doing me a favor.
I was just about to lecture her on how inappropriate it was to sneak up on someone and give them a shot they never asked for, when I noticed Dr. Crowell come out of his office and head into the bathroom. As I turned back to bitch at Nurse Jeffries she shut the door in my face.
Now I was pissed, she literally just slammed the door in my face. I started to bang on her office door, but she just ignored me, or maybe she had gone out her window. Come to think of it, there might have been an exit door in her office that lead outside, I couldn’t remember. I started to bang on the door again when I heard his sexy voice.
“Can I help you?” Dr. Crowell asked in his deep hot southern drawl.
Startled from Dr. Crowell sneaking up behind me, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Um, ah hi” I said like a schoolgirl with a crush.
Dr. Crowell seemed disinterested with me, and looked like he was going to turn away, until he saw the flyer in my hand.
“Victim or perpetrator” Dr. Crowell whispered closely in my ear.
As he got close enough to me, I noticed the muscles bulging underneath his polo shirt. I tried to trace the veins that were popping out of his massive arms, but his cotton shirt was blocking my view.
Dr. Crowell began to whisper a little louder this time, “victim or perpetrator.”
This time I noticed his deep blue eyes and nearly flawless skin. He truly was an amazing looking guy. Had he not gone into medicine he could have easily been an actor or model.
“Look, I know it is scary to admit what has happened to you or what you might have done to someone else, but that is what the small-group session is all about.”
“Oh um right,” I said now realizing he had mistakenly assumed that I was there for the small-group session instead of being there on newspaper business.
Had I been a decent human being, I probably would have explained myself, and my purpose for being there. Instead I contemplated actually going to the small-group session.
“Perpetrator” I heard myself say, having no real idea what I was saying. However, I knew that if I was going to be playing a role that I would rather not have to play the victim role. I was already the doormat at the newspaper; I didn’t want to have to play the victim here too.
“Very good,” Dr. Crowell shared. “It is good that you have decided to consider your future and the future of those that you have wronged.
Curious I thought, as Dr. Crowell moved me toward a door halfway down the hallway.
As we got closer, I thought I might be the only one coming to Dr. Crowell’s small-group session. Imagine my surprise when we opened the door and there were 24 people sitting quietly around the room, not a single one of them talking.
In the meeting, I notice guys of every build; some jacked with muscles, others skinny as a rail, and still others quite fat. There was no pattern to the height either. I couldn’t help but to wonder how this group came together, I was just about to ask when I realized it might blow my cover. I didn’t have to wonder long because Dr. Crowell began introductions of the 24 guys that were in the room.