Not until I found out Sean’s plans, which I’d been too damn distracted by his everything else to have pinned down yet. But living without him? Yeah, no. Not after how spoiled I’d gotten this year. No way was I giving up having 24/7 access to him, not if I could help it. The summer was already gonna suck, and it was just hitting me with all Brian’s pestering about the upcoming change to our living arrangements just how quickly it was actually gonna be here. And then Sean was gonna be...
Fuck.
I assumed he was planning on going home? But not gonna lie, the idea of him putting himself back within arm’s reach of his mother made me want to hit something, and that was even before we addressed the issue of how I was supposed to go a full fucking summer without getting my own Sean-fix.
“We’ll meet you inside,” I said to Brian as we passed the long line snaking toward the club’s entrance and all headed around toward the alley in back. So much faster to just use that door—especially since the bouncer who manned it was a big enough football fan that he’d never questioned Brian’s or my right to be there without proper ID—than to fuck around with what the rest of the population had to deal with.
I ignored a dirty suggestion called out by a twink in line who I was pretty sure had ridden my cock before and waved Brian off when he tried to give me some more shit about needing some “alone time” with Sean, tugging Sean off to the side to get some things straight before we went inside.
Well, just one thing, really.
“You’re living with me again next year, right?” I asked, just needing to hear it so I could move on to figuring out how to deal with the summer.
Where the fuck was he from again, anyway? Pretty sure it was somewhere plane-ride distance away versus someplace I could pull off over the weekends in my Jeep. Which… fuck. But one thing at a time.
“Baby?” I prompted him since he still hadn’t answered.
Sean shook his head, his face going even whiter than it had in the car.
Wait, what? I was so damn used to his constant string of “yes, Tysons” andbreathless “okays” and all the music-to-my-ears “anything you say, Tysons” that I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to tell me.
Had he suddenly developed a nervous twitch?
Or like, a neck cramp or something?
“I’m talking about your sophomore year, sweetness,” I clarified. “You’ll be back on campus by the end of August, right? And then we’re gonna room together again.”
Yeah, that was better. Me asking wasn’t really how we operated. I just needed totellhim, so he knew we were on the same page.
But—
“I… I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes welling up with tears so fast it felt like a gut punch. He dashed at them before I could recover, ducking his head, and whispered, “I can’t, Tyson. I… I won’t be here next year.”
“What?” I snapped, gripping his chin maybe a little too hard as I jerked his head back up. My heart started to pound, and I told myself to loosen my hold. I couldn’t, though. “What the fuck, Sean? Of course you’ll be here.”
He tried to shake his head again buthellno, I kept my grip tight because that wasnotgonna fly.
“Who’s in charge?” I reminded him, feeling a little out of control myself all of a sudden. There were certain things I could always count on in life, like Coach starting me and waking up with morning wood andSean. He never pulled this crap.
Except this time, it looked like he was.
He bit his lip, going all teary on me again instead of giving me the answer I needed.
“Sean,” I said, crowding him back against the wall behind him and pinning him there and fuck no, my voice didn’t crack. I mean, maybe a little, but that was probably just the alley acoustics. I cleared my throat. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
He swallowed. “My parents w-w-want me to—”
“Fuckno,” I cut in sharply, seeing red the minute he dropped the P-word. I should have known it was something like that. But okay. All right. This was solvable. I took a breath, making myself calm down a little. “They don’t get a say, sweetheart.”
His eyes went wide.
“Are they paying for your school?” I asked, knowing the answer already because somehow over the course of the year I’d gotten pretty well-versed in all things Sean.
“Um… no?” he said tentatively. “I mean, they… they bought the furniture and stuff for our dorm, but my tuition is covered by all the scholarships.”
Fuck the furniture. I didn’t need a fucking million-inch flat screen, I neededhim.
“Covered for all four years, right?”
