Chapter 14
14
TOBY
I have no idea how long I have been in this tiny room. If they thought it was going to calm me down, they were wrong on so many levels. I didn’t know I was claustrophobic, but yep. I’m pretty sure I just discovered a new fear.
Let’s just add it on to the fear of churches, my blood family, ants, and kangaroos. I don’t even know what prompted that last one, but I remember running screaming from the room when Lucky pulled out an old comedy from before our time called Kangaroo Jack . At least the rest of them kind of make sense.
“You got someone needing a ride home,” the fat preachy security guy says when he comes into the room to interrupt my complete and total freak out. “You need to let that sweet kid find a better place to live than with sinners like you.”
Did he just? No…
The school wouldn’t employ a religious zealot for a position like this when they are pushing so hard to be seen as LGBTQIA inclusive. Even I’m not that dumb, and the dean is supposed to be a genius.
Grabbing me by the arm, the guy drags me over to the drunk tank and tosses me roughly through the doorway. I probably would have hit the floor if the guy in there hadn’t caught me. My face has made friends with many a concrete floor over the years, but it rarely happens outside of pupspace anymore and never from being manhandled.
Turning my head to look at the doorway, I see the guard has a disappointed look on his face. The asshole seriously wanted me to get hurt!
“What the hell, Ralph?” the man attached to the bulging biceps holding me asks in outrage. “Is this how you treat students?”
Glancing at the face of my inadvertent rescuer, I recognize hot coffee shop guy. Why is he the one saving me? Based on the way the jagoff guard was talking, I was expecting to see Shiloh, not some guy I don’t even know the name of.
A whimper from the corner pulls my attention and I push away from the hottie to rush to my kitten. Of course he’s here. He would have come straight here when I didn’t show up after class. He doesn’t like it down here at all, but he would show up for me. It’s all my fault and I feel like shit for subjecting him to this place.
“I’m so sorry, kitten,” I mumble as I pet his head, letting his braids fall through my fingers. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I wasn’t thinking.”
The two men arguing in the background are just noise to me. The man in my arms is all that matters. He flinches at something said by the other men, and it’s like my switch is flipped again. Rage and a need to protect my Shiloh rises up within me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I growl out, holding Shy as tightly as he will let me. “Can’t you take that somewhere else?”
“ You need to shut the fuck up, delinquent,” the wannabe cop threatens me. “The police will be here shortly to take you in and then I’ll never have to see your sinful ass again. This school needs to keep you sick fucks away from the normal people.”