"That's cool, man. Beta Kappa's a great house-best one on campus, don't let anyone tell you different." Rory was lying on his bed with his big hands behind his head. He was only wearing a pair of white BVD's, which did nothing to disguise the huge bulge. I tried to keep my eyes on his face. "You wanna get high, bro?" he asked. "I got some killer stuff from my guy last night."

I shrugged. "Sure." Why the hell not? Be nice to have a buzz when Blair gets here.

"Shut the door then."

I stepped inside and shut the door behind me, reaching for a towel to place under it. It was silly, but smoking pot inside the house was a $250 fine. Everyone assured me it was never enforced, but it was on the books because the university required it. "We have to have a strict no-drug policy," Jerry had said, rolling his eyes when I asked him about it. "Just like we're not allowed to let underage people drink."

The drug rules were disregarded completely by every house on fraternity row. Everyone referred to Sigma Chi, just across the mall for example, as Sigma High. Legend held that Sigma Alpha Epsilon parties were always full of high school-age girls, getting drunk and getting laid.

No, all you had to do, everyone assured me, was try to make sure the smell wasn't too obvious in the hallway and no one cared. Everyone smoked, so unless it was totally obvious, or a parent was in the house, no one turned anyone else in. All you needed to do was put a towel across the foot of the door to block the smoke, and if you really wanted to cover it up, light incense.

After I had finished putting the towel in its place, I straightened back up. Rory hadn't bothered to put on shorts or anything, and was holding what had to be the biggest bong I had ever seen. It stood on the floor at least three feet high between his legs, and had at least three chambers and scores of little plastic tubes running between them. He grinned at me. "You've never smoked out of the monster, have you?"

"No," I replied, my eyes wide.

"You are about to officially become initiated into the stoner fraternity. This ride is not for small-fry." He was loading pot into five bowls that sat in the front of the huge contraption. All five of the bowls were carved into a single piece of round metal. He winked at me. "Watch carefully, and learn ... and don't feel bad if you can't handle it at first. Even I had trouble the first time."

I sat down beside him on the ratty love seat as he flicked a lighter to flame and bent his head down over the mouth. He started inhaling as he held the lighter to one bowl, and the lowest chamber filled with smoke. He then deftly lifted the round piece of metal, and turned it so another bowl went into the tubing, and burned it, still inhaling. Smoke snaked from the first chamber through two pipes into another chamber. He then switched in another bowl, still inhaling, as the smoke moved from the second chamber into a third-and finally, as he switched the fourth bowl in, into the final chamber. He turned his head, exhaled, and then put his mouth back on top of the bong. He inhaled for longer than I thought humanly possible and raised his head, placing one hand over the opening. He smiled at me, opened his mouth, and blew out a gigantic cumulus cloud. "Gooooood stuff." He passed the contraption over to me, his hand still over the top. "When I take my hand off, just put your mouth down and inhale as deep and as long as you can. You got it?"

I nodded and did as ordered. As I inhaled, I could feel the smoke moving down my throat into my lungs. It was pungent, more pungent than what Blair usually had-or the other brothers, for that matter-and it tasted green somehow. I sat back and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before my lungs rebelled and the smoke poured out of me in a huge cloud. I kept coughing until Rory swatted me on the back and handed me a bottle of water.

"Dude, that was a swimmer's hit." He grinned at me, nodding. "Bro, I really mean it-that was fucking impressive. And Blair said you only started smoking this summer? Cool. You had to have been a swimmer at some point."

"No, I don't know how to swim, but thanks." I grinned back at him, my eyes watering. I took another swig of water. "Damn, that's some good stuff." My head was already starting to float away.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Water polo players, man, we get the good stuff all the time. One of the guys on the team is from Humboldt, another from Chico, man. That's where the best stuff comes from, unless you can get some Thai somewhere." He kept nodding. "So, you definitely gonna pledge, man?"

"Yeah. I kind of like it here."

"You're going to fit in just fine." Rory grinned over at me. He picked up a remote and flicked it at the stereo, and Pink Floyd's The Wall started playing. "Nothing better for a buzz than some Floyd."

"Cool." Everyone liked Pink Floyd at Beta Kappasometimes it seemed like something by them was playing somewhere in the house at every moment. I'd never really listened to it before, but I was becoming fond of Pink Floyd. The song playing was "Comfortably Numb," which was becoming my favorite. It described in music exactly the way I felt when I was stoned. "Can I ask you something? Do you mind? It's kind of personal."

"You're gonna be a brother, man, so sure. Ask me anything."

"Did you really-" I hesitated. "Did you really do porn?"

Rory threw his head back and laughed. "Man, oh man, did Blair tell you about that? I am going to kick his ass." He winked at me. "Just one weekend. I spent one weekend in Sacramento making some cash and it's going to haunt me for the rest of my life." He shook his head. "You know, this guy comes up to me after a water polo match, and gives me his card. Asks me if I want to make some easy cash. I just put it away, you know, didn't think nothing of it. Then last summer I was broke and needed to make some moneyand I found the card. So I went up there for a weekend, fucked some chicks on camera, and made some money. Is that some crazy shit or what?"

"I think it's kind of cool." I shrugged.

"You wanna see?" His eyes lit up. "Nobody around here's seen it besides me."

"Seriously?"

"Sure!" He winked at me. "Love to hear what you think of my performance."

"Um, I've never really seen a porn movie before," I replied, "So I really don't have a frame of reference."

"You've got to be shitting me! Where are you from, Kansas or something? Dude, porn is awesome! What do you beat off to?"

I didn't answer that, assuming he didn't expect an answer. I mean, I seriously doubted he cared what I beat off to-and it wasn't like I was going to tell him anyway. He grabbed another remote and turned the TV on, muted the sound so as not to compete with the Pink Floyd CD, and then clicked another button. Suddenly, the heavily madeup weeping woman from As the World Turns was replaced by a large-breasted woman in a string bikini and stiletto heels sitting by a swimming pool reading People magazine. A gate in the wooden fence opened, and there was Rory, looking about twenty years younger than the woman, wearing only a pair of baggy shorts. He walked over to where she was sitting, they apparently spoke a few words to each other, and then she unzipped his shorts and started sucking his cock. My eyes about popped out of my head.

If I thought it was huge when limp, well, it was gigantic when hard.

Almost inhuman.

"They keep calling me, wanting me to do more," Rory said as he sat back down on the bed. "I guess they like my big of dick. But you know, I don't need the money, and it would be just my luck to make the Olympic team and then have this come out, you know? Porn always seems to come back to bite you in the ass."