Setting Fire to the Stars (mxm)

Chapter 27: Tobias

**Trigger Warning: This chapter contains past instances of extreme bullying, mentions of suicide, profanity, physical violence, and blood. If any of the above makes you uncomfortable, please skip.**

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Peter
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Pain exploded up my nose as the blow sent me sprawling. The ground quickly rose to meet me in a punishing embrace, the wind knocked from my lungs like a burst airbag on impact. A deep groan left me as I turned my head, bits of crusted stone grazing my cheek while my face screamed in agony with each heartbeat. Rolling my jaw, a bitter tang burst across my tongue and I spat out a gritty mix of dirt and blood.

Before I could make a move, a burly hand seized the front of my shirt and roughly yanked me to my feet.

"You fucking bastard," Tobias snarled inches from my face, his face screwing tight with rage. "You have a lot of nerve approaching her after everything you've done."

My jaw twitched as I grasped Tobias's thick forearm with my hands, a raspy cough leaving my throat under the intense pressure. "Wait a second, just hear me out."

"Why should I?"

"Because Lauren-"

The words had barely left my mouth before his knuckles collided with my cheek, stars filling my vision as I was knocked back with a dull thud. Agony radiated up my skull like I'd been whacked with a brick. Before my world could stop spinning, a beefy hand latched around my neck, lifting me to my feet.

"Don't you fucking say his name," Tobias spat, baring his teeth as he shook me like a ragdoll, a vein popping out of his tanned neck.

"Keh..." The grunt escaped me through gritted teeth, hot pain pulsing like someone had used my head for a bowling ball. My jaw ached while I clamped down on the relentless urge to shatter his nose.

"I know everything." Tobias's teeth gnashed together like a grindstone on a sharpened blade. "Didn't take much to find out that you and your dickless buddies were treating my brother like he was the shit on the soles of your shoes."

Renewed shame hit me like a bulldozer as the heavy weight of my sins came crashing down on me, the fact that they were all true made me want to crawl out of my own skin. Struggling to keep my voice steady, I lifted my arms in surrender.

"You're right. I have no excuse for what I did, but I'm not that guy anymore. I've changed and I just want Laure—" I paused at Tobias's grim expression. "—for him to know how sorry I am."

"Sorry?" Tobias's eyes widened in disbelief before his brows furrowed in a dark scowl. "You're sorry?!"

Without warning, the soldier dragged me backward, forcibly slamming my back up against the splintered wall. The collision with the wooden surface elicited a strained grunt from me, his forearm baring down on my throat with crushing pressure.

"Do you even have the any idea of what he went through daily, month after month, because of assholes like you?" he roared, his charcoal-grey eyes a searing abyss of malice. "Do you know what hell he had to endure even when you weren't around?!"

Mounting dread sunk into my stomach as though someone had suddenly dunked a bucket of ice water over my head. "What do you mean?"