Damaged Goods (MxM - BOOK FIVE)

Chapter Fifteen

He still went to his next class.

Why? He was paying even less attention than his earlier class.

Well, to be honest, he didn't know where else to go or what else to do.

His heart was thundering in his chest, and his eyes were stinging. He felt the need to scream and cry at the same time. He wanted to punch the guy in the chair next to him that was breathing too loud, and he wanted to tell the lecturer to shut the fuck up.

He shouldn't be here. But where else could he go?

No one even noticed him rise from his seat and move swiftly from the classroom, shoving his phone in his pocket and shouldering his backpack.

The corridor beyond was as occupied as it ever was. So Tyler kept his eyes down as he passed the men's room where he'd had that altercation with Dimitri.

There was no way the Personal Trainer would still be in there, Tyler thought to himself bitterly. Dimitri would be in his class, going about his day, maybe trying to headhunt his next hetero-convert.

Tyler's fists were so tight his nails were cutting into his skin. He moved quickly out of the building and across the pristinely manicured lawns headed for the line of bus stops, which seemed to be the primary mode of travel for most of the student body.

He still didn't really know where he was going; Tyler had to get away from here, and so didn't even think about it when he climbed aboard the first bus that pulled up nearby.

He took the steps onto it in a single athletic leap and waved his Opal Card negligently against the little scanner that made the bus drivers personality redundant. Shuffling along the textured aisle, he found a vacant seat around the middle of the bus, by the rear door.

These seats were more elevated than those at the front of the bus. So from here, Tyler had a pretty reasonable view of the city as it moved around the bus that was the only foundation keeping him earthbound right now.

What a fool he'd been. So full of hope that University would be a brighter chapter in his life. That moving into the Terrace House would be the beginning of a new future. An escape from past mistakes.

He'd just made new mistakes. Continued making old ones; both with the same people and with new people.

"Fuck." He cursed under his breath and got an affronted glare from a woman who sat nearby with a school-aged kid who was grinning at him while the kid's mother covered his ears.

He had a brief an irrational urge to tell her to stop judging him when her son should clearly be in school at this time of day but knew it would only get him more hate from the other passengers.

This just made him growl at himself. What right did he have to judge someone else? He should apologise and clear the air, but the woman must have taken his growl as a threat. She rose from where she was sitting, and the two moved towards the front of the bus, closer to the bus driver.

Tyler rolled his eyes, unable to check his agitation, and proceeded to glare back out the window. He wished he could just pretend the world didn't exist outside of this moving bus.

Not that things were much better in here, when he glanced back at the woman and her son.

The boy was still smirking at him with a look that said Tyler was his new game. While his mother wasn't looking; the kid proceeded to pull faces at Tyler, poking his tongue out, and making rude gestures with his hand.

Tyler knew it was stupid to let this kid goad him, so he looked away. He even adjusted the way he was seated to ensure that he wouldn't accidentally see the kid any longer.