Today (Mid-Morning)

In the car, Theo looped his finger beneath the paper wristband and tugged on it, watching how the edges cut into his skin. Abel slid into the driver's seat with a big exhale, then reached over his shoulder for his seatbelt while reminding Theo to fasten his. Someone was waiting for them to pull out, their blinker on to stake their claim to the spot because it had gotten crowded while they were wandering around petting the animals.

Once they were back on smooth highway, the asphalt stretching for miles in long, sweeping curves ahead of them, Abel relaxed into his seat and threw a glance Theo’s way.

“Are you excited to see your aunt?”

Theo abandoned fiddling with the paper wristband and shrugged. “I guess.”

“You weren’t close? When was the last time you saw her?”

“I don’t really remember.” Theo waved his hands on either side of his head. “Most of my childhood was a blur. My parents had me on a lot of medications. But I think maybe sometime in middle school? She didn’t get along with my dad.”

“You were on medications that young?” A little crease appeared between Abel’s brows as he checked over his shoulder before turning on his blinker to pass the car in front of them. “What kind of stuff? If you need to be taking something, we should try to get you back on it.”

“No, I’m not on anything anymore. I stopped taking that shit back in college.” Theo assured him. “I just…my parents made me see a lot of psychologists when I was younger, and they put me on all kinds of anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds and whatnot. Anti-psychotics 'cause I was a psychotic kid.”

Not much had changed there. He waited for Abel to tell him that he should probably get on that shit again. Because he was always talking about demons and having fits where he forgot where he was or who he was or what he had been doing moments before. Even Ken told him he was crazy twenty-four-seven. Despite saying he did not need his medications when Theo had first asked for money to go see a psychiatrist so he could get his prescription refilled the first time that his parent’s insurance had stopped working.

But Abel did not say anything along those lines. Instead, he said, “You were in college? I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, well…”

Five years ago

College was not really what Theo had expected. Not that he really knew what to expect, but he thought it would at least be freeing or something. He kept his grades up all through high school, did his best on all the entrance exams, and wrote all the stupid letters to the colleges his mom helped him pick out. All so he could come here, live in a dorm, stress over assignments, eat three times a day, and stay in his room 24/7.

His roommate was a ghost, which was maybe a blessing or maybe not. The friends he made in his classes last semester did not last over the winter break, probably because he never was active in the group chats or went out with them. It was a lot like high school, except even more lonely.

Which was why he ended up at a frat house on a Friday night. He’d seen the crazy college parties in movies – hand-painted Greek letters over the door, beer pong on the front lawn, people getting up on the tables and mooning the crowd. Not exactly his scene, but he was determined to make lasting friendships this semester and that meant accepting invitations to go out and hang out with people.

Although the people he had come with were nowhere to be found in the living room, where a bunch of girls were squealing while some people pulled the guy whose ass was hanging out down from the table. Theo went to take another drink from his beer and realized it was empty. About all he had been doing was drinking a beer and then getting a refill, just for something to do with his hands. Maybe he should go outside. Maybe Jamie and the girl he kept forgetting the name of had gone outside to watch the beer pong.

Just as he was about to head for the keg again, a hand slid along the small of his back and stopped him. “You need another drink?”

“Uh,” Theo blinked at the fresh, full cup that appeared in front of him, still frothing with bubbles. He took it and handed his empty cup to the guy. “Thanks?”

“Sure thing.” The boy tossed the empty cup toward the trash bag hanging open where it was tied to the stair banister. It landed right on target, and the boy punched his fist in the air. “Score!”

Theo looked up at the cut of his jaw—sharp and masculine. He had a strong neck and shoulders like a football player or somebody who took arm day very seriously. And he was much, much bigger than Theo, which made his face heat up. He took a sip of the cold beer.

“Haven’t seen you around,” the boy grinned down, showing off straight white teeth and twinkling eyes. His hand was still pressed to the small of Theo’s back. “You a freshman?”

“Yeah. Theo.” He smiled back shyly and took another couple of gulps from the beer.

“Cute. I’m Johnny.” His head tilted like he was considering something, then his eyes brightened. “You wanna play beer pong with me? I need a partner.”

Theo’s heart dropped to his heels, and he looked down at the floor. Of course, if he came to a frat party like this to make friends, he would need to partake in the activities going on instead of just standing by the wall and drinking beer after beer. Not that they were doing much for him. They must have gotten a keg of some pretty weak-ass shit because he didn’t usually drink, and he was hardly feeling a thing. He took another large swig of the beer.

“I’m not really good with…balls.” He smacked a hand over his mouth and giggled, eyes flying to Johnny’s to see his reaction. His eyebrows were lifted, but he just looked amused. Maybe Theo was a little drunk. “I mean, like…my hand-eye coordination is not the best, so sports…”

He flapped his hand around, hoping Johnny would get the message.

“Well,” Johnny sounded amused, lips curving into a smirk, “the point is kind of to be terrible at it anyway. The more terrible, the more fun.”

“Yeah, but I’m sooo terrible.” Theo gestured widely with his hands, splashing the beer over his wrist. This was impressive because it was only half-full, which meant he had basically dumped it out. He frowned at his hands and used the fingers not soaked in beer to rub his eyes. The floor suddenly felt less steady.

“Man, you are already smashed anyway,” Johnny laughed, “You alright?”

“Fine,” Theo tried to lean back against the wall, but he was not actually standing that close to it, so he ended up just doing a sudden trust fall with Johnny instead. He cursed and wrapped both arms around Theo to stop him from falling onto his ass. The beer tumbled to the floor.

“Woah,” Johnny chuckled as he got him upright, keeping two hands on his arms to steady him. The room spun over his shoulders, so Theo shut his eyes, but that made things worse, so he opened them again. Johnny was looking down rather than at his face, which made him curious to see what was going on, except when he looked down, he ended up doing it with his entire body and his head knocked into Johnny’s chest.

“Woah,” he breathed against the guy’s shirt. He smelled like aftershave and sweat, and Theo should probably not lean on him like this. In fact, he really should go home if he was going to be this much of a messy drunk.

“Maybe you need to lay down, cutie.” Johnny shifted him so that he was under one of his arms and began steering him toward the steps, which were only a couple of feet away and a single flight but seemed to Theo like a whole journey he did not want to embark on. Upstairs looked dark and shadowy, unlike the bright party around them.

“No, I…” he tried to dig his heels in. “I think I should just, um, go home.”

He sucked in a breath, feeling as though squeezing those words out that wrung his lungs of all the oxygen. He was so terribly dizzy. And not putting up a very good fight against this guy.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to let you go home like this,” Johnny tried to get him to lift his foot onto the first step. The lip hanging over the edge kept catching Theo’s toes because his depth perception had flown out the window. His brow furrowed in concentration, and while he was totally focused on lifting his foot, Johnny leaned in and breathed across his ear, “Let me take care of you.”

Theo shivered. All the nervous excitement he felt at having a hot guy touch him and call him cute and seem interested in him at a frat party of all places shifted into a heavy sense of dread. He tried to shove Johnny away.

“No, I really think…”

“Stop trying to run away.” Johnny wrangled him pretty easily, wrapping a hand around his wrist and lifting his arm as though he was going to duck under it and put Theo right over his shoulder to carry him upstairs.

What happened next occurred so quickly that the room spun and Theo could not recall exactly how it happened. But he ended up a couple of feet away from Johnny with a forearm across his chest, back flush against someone’s torso. The person’s other hand was on Johnny’s wrist, twisting his arm into an uncomfortable position that made his entire face scrunch up in pain.

“What the fuck, man?” Johnny snarled, yanking his hand away. “I thought I told you not to come inside the house. Deal out back.”

The shoulder behind Theo shrugged. “Had to take a dump.”

It was a deep voice, vibrating against Theo’s spine and sending a shiver down it. But unlike the shiver of fear that coursed through his body when Johnny’s words had been close to him, this one was pleasant. This man sounded confident and suave, and he had just saved Theo from being hauled up into the dark depths of the bedrooms upstairs like a sack of potatoes.

Johnny kept trying to protest, but the guy just walked away, taking Theo with him. Outside, the beer pong table sat abandoned, someone was throwing up over the curb, and a couple of people stood smoking and watching them. Theo looked up at the man, whose arm was still a comforting weight against his unsteady chest, tracing his eyes over his features. 

He was average-looking, to be honest, with some type of Asian heritage that gave him monolid eyes and a smooth complexion. He had gorgeous silky black hair that was swept into a bun at the back of his skull. When his gaze turned to meet Theo’s, it was sharp and black.

He realized he'd seen him earlier by the keg the last time he went to grab a beer. Had probably offered him a shy, awkward smile as they skirted around around each other and other stumbly drunk party-goers. Theo wondered if he had been watching him since then, given that he had noticed his plight. The flattering notion warmed his cheeks. 

“Thank you,” he breathed out.

“Sure thing, kid.” He smiled. His teeth were not perfectly straight like Johnny the football star’s had been. “You said you wanted to go home? I’ll take you. This party is dry as hell anyway.”

“Oh, that’s…” Theo could not make this guy do that. What a horrific inconvenience it would be. No way. “That’s okay.”

“Uh-huh. You’re going to walk home like this by yourself?” The guy let go of him and stepped away, leaving Theo bereft and swaying. “Because you sure as shit aren’t driving, and I don’t believe for a second you can walk without stumbling into a bush or the street.”

Theo actually was about to tumble over until the guy put a hand on his arm to steady him. He grumbled. “How do you know I was going to walk?”

“Let’s see,” the guy tapped his chin, “you are at a frat party on campus. You’re obviously a freshman. And freshmen are required to live in the dorms, which are within walking distance.”

“What gave it away?” Theo glared. “That I’m a freshman? Is it ‘cause I can’t hold my liquor? I’m not normally like this, you know.”

He wasn’t normally drinking at parties, period.

“Gullible.” The guy’s eyes flashed with something that Theo could not decipher. Then he patted Theo’s arm. “You look young, like a little baby.”

Theo squawked and tried to shove him away, but the guy just pulled him closer in a snuggly embrace and began walking him down the sidewalk. Thank goodness he was strong because Theo kept tripping over his own feet and the concrete below him, which seemed to undulate and shift even though he knew that was not possible.

The music from the party faded into the soft buzz of streetlights looming above them. They were on the safe-walk route of campus, with plenty of light keeping the dark night shadows at bay. Every so often, there was an emergency button on the side of the walkway. Theo rested his head on the guy’s shoulder and peered up at his jaw, letting him steer them.

“Thank you,” he said again, “I’m Theo, by the way. What’s your name?”

The guy smiled down at him. “I’m Ken.”