Sweet Little Birds (BxB Romance, Completed)

Chapter 31: Caramel-Topped Latte

It felt weird to be in class without Tyler. He always sat next to Robin, fiddling with his pen, touching Robin's leg slightly inappropriately, and sometimes snoozing for a moment if the class couldn't hold his attention. Today, a feisty redhead sat in the blond boy's spot. And while Robin liked his loyal friend, she wasn't Tyler. She didn't make his heart thump like he'd just drank a mixture of sugar and caffeine every time she looked at him. Tyler was basically the human form of a caramel-topped latte, at least to Robin.

"Liza has gone completely mad." Des gasped loudly, making some head turns in the still-filling classroom. Robin had just told his friend--who had spent the night at Sarah's family's alpaca farm--everything that had gone down since they last saw each other.

Robin nodded. Although he wasn't sure his mother had gone mad. Perhaps she'd always been just as unstable. It just hadn't been apparent when he followed her rules.

"What are you going to do now?" Des asked. "You're not going back home, are you?"

Robin shook his head. "No," he just said, not quite knowing what to reply. Because he didn't have a solution yet. He opened his notebook to prepare for class.

"You know you can always stay with me," she assured him, putting a comforting hand atop his. "You can sleep on my floor."

"Pax would pee on me." Robin chuckled at the thought of waking up to a bunny doing its business on top of him. It was nice to laugh despite the clouds hanging over him.

Des burst out into laughter as well, once again turning heads from morning-groggy students. "He probably would," she agreed.

"I might take you up on that though anyway," Robin mumbled. "If I can't figure anything else out. I'll get a job and stay with you until I can get a place for myself."

Des patted Robin's shoulder. "We'll figure it out," she assured him, making him feel less alone in his struggles.

As the class started, Robin felt less focused than usual. There were too many other things whirling through his head that he couldn't take in theories by Jung and Freud. Eventually, he took a leaf out of Tyler's playbook and fell asleep with his head resting on the open notepad, smearing ink all over his forehead. After all, he had only caught a couple of hours of sleep before leaving Tyler's house at the crack of dawn.

"Mr. Erie, are you awake?" the voice of professor Royce reached him through dreams of soft blond curls.

"Wha!?" Robin replied eloquently, almost falling off his chair as he snapped awake. Des helped him steady himself. "I'm here."

The professor only deigned him with a stern look in return. "Anyway," he continued. "That's everything for today." Immediately, the students started to stir. Professor Royce cleared his throat, causing them all to quiet. "But before you all leave, I wanted to remind everyone that the selection for the Tully scholarship is next week. If anyone is interested, please come talk to me."

This piqued Robin's interest, even in his sleep-deprived state. A scholarship could solve his issues. He'd heard the professor talk about it before but hadn't paid much attention then.

"Now you're free to go," the professor announced, which was followed by immediate shuffling of chairs.

"Should we get going?" Des asked Robin. "I need to feed Pax but we can go by the cafeteria on the way and get some sandwiches."

Robin looked up toward the pulpit, where the professor still lingered. "You go ahead," he said. "Go feed the bunny and I can meet up with you later. I need to talk to the professor." He pulled on his backpack, pumping himself up for the coming conversation. Unfortunately, falling asleep in class had probably assured that the professor had an unfavorable opinion of him to start with.