Side Effects

By C.C. Williams

Max Caulfield is secretly attracted to his best friend, Damien. One night Max's fantasy is presented to him on a silver platter and he eats it up with a spoon, only to be thrown for a loop when Damien confesses his love.

Cute and super intelligent, Damien Mackenzie is right down Max's alley and has been in love with him ever since they won the school math contest last year. He's thrilled when Max accepts his offer to hook up, then confused when Max rebuffs him afterward.

When their psychology research project takes an unexpected turn, Max is forced to confront his feelings about Damien. But the side effects have changed Damien's mind. Can Max find a cure and heal the rift in their relationship?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.C. Williams
• Release date: Jan 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301258987

C.C. Williams

After moving several times about the country and Europe, C.C. Williams currently resides in the Southwestern United States with his partner JT. When not critiquing cooking or dance show contestants, he is at work on several writing projects.A finalist in numerous writing contests, C.C. has had his work appear in such collections as Brief Encounters, Frat Boys, Best Gay Romance 2012 and 2013, Wild Boys, Steambath and the forthcoming Big Man on Campus, all from Cleis Press; as well as The Love That Never Dies: Erotic Encounters with the Undead from Renaissance eBooks-Sizzler Editions and Lust in Time: Erotic Romance Through the Ages from MLR Press, described by one reviewer as "the best anthology ever."He invites you to find out more at ccwilliamsonline.com or to join him on Facebook at facebook.com/c.c.williams.author, on Goodreads at goodreads.com/ccwilliams or on GLBT Bookshelf at bookworld.editme.com/ccwilliams

Book preview

Side Effects

C.C. Williams

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 C.C. Williams

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

www.ccwilliamsonline.com.

Cover design: C. Coder/CCWO

Smashwords Edition

Side Effects is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

I: Asymptomatic

II: Swelling and Tenderness

III: Aches and Pain

IV: Home Remedy

V: Medical Emergency

VI: Traditional Treatment

VII: Relapse

VIII: Alternative Medicine

IX: Rehabilitation

X: Recovered

About the Author

I: Asymptomatic

Hey, Max! Wait up!

I glanced around to see Damien, my lab partner from Psych 202, running pell-mell across the Quad. With his messenger bag bouncing off his hip and his old tweed jacket flapping behind him, he looked like a young absent-minded professor. My heart did that little flip-flop it always did around him.

What's up? I asked as Damien skidded to a halt, chest heaving, and finger-combed a lock of auburn curls out of his face. Flip-flop.

I got it!

Got what?

A portable FNIrS unit! He pronounced it 'fin-ers.' FNIrS stands for Functional Near Infra-red Spectroscopy. I told you my dad would come through! Mister Mackenzie worked for a large medical supplier in Chicago and, since the death of Damien's mother, apparently found it difficult to deny his only child anything—even very expensive medical testing equipment.

Damien! Our project is supposed to concern electro-convulsive therapy! What good is a FNIrS?

How else are we going to measure—quantitatively—any differences between pre- and post-procedure brain states?

My own brain state was about to explode. This was the down side of having the inarguably smartest guy in the class as your lab partner: everything had to turn into a Nobel-Prize-worthy experiment. What brain states? It's not like we're actually going to electroshock somebody!

Wee-ell, Damien managed to turn it into a three-syllable word, all the while looking everywhere but at me, I spoke with Doctor Wellstone over at the Riedmann Clinic, and he… um… agreed… that we might use some of his patients. If they consent, of course.

I was dumbfounded; but even more so, I was suspicious. How the hell did you get him to even listen to such a suggestion?

Damien continued his survey of the Quad. I may have mentioned your name, which is an awful lot like your father's name.

Who just happens to chair the state's mental health licensing board! My brain really was going to explode. My father will roast me alive!

Your father will never have to know. Damien's eyes finally met mine. They were hazel with green flecks and glowed with excitement. Maybe that was just the afternoon sunlight. All we need is three or four subjects for observation before and after their sessions. It will be completely anonymous for them—we won't even know their names. It's not like we're going to publish their medical histories.

Truthfully, it would make for a much better project than simply collating and rehashing journal results. I sighed. What did Professor Simmons say?

I haven't run it past the old goat. I figured you could do that.

Why me?

Well, I did all the hard work. Besides he likes you better than me.

That's only because I don't argue every point he tries to make during the lecture.

No, it's because you, Damien chuffed my shoulder with his fist as he grinned his silly lopsided grin, are just an apple-polishing little squib.

And you, I poked him in the chest as I picked up his verbal gauntlet, are an over-educated, under-socialized mental behemoth.

And so we went, back and forth, all the way to Professor Simmons' office. He really does like me better.

Arrggh, Damien groaned as he pushed at the pile of reference books. I'm tired—and hungry. You want to get something to eat?

Food would be good, I agreed. My eyes had glazed over probably an hour before—neuroscientific terms swam through my brain; Broca's area and the pre-frontal cortex waltzed around my mind with molecules of serotonin, dopamine or norepinephrine. What do you feel like—burgers, pizza?

Damien stretched and scratched at his belly, revealing a hint of treasure trail beneath his tee-shirt. I could go for a Reuben. How 'bout we go to Manley's?

Distracted by that teasing bit of flesh, I momentarily lost the thread of conversation. Wh—where?

Manley's—best Reuben sandwich in town—but they have other things too.

Manley's Grill was just off-campus, a popular hangout