Page 16 of Pet Project

“Why are they sad?” I ask him as I sit across the table from him.

He shrugs and continues to color with his thumb inhis mouth. Glancing up at the clock above the door, I realize there’s only ten minutes until the next block of classes, and I’m not sure if Lucky has one that he’s supposed to be heading to.

“When is your next class, Lucky?”

He pops his thumb out of his mouth and pouts like I’m taking away his toys. I can’t hold back the chuckle at how it looks for a grown man to be so purely innocent. This boy is so fucking adorable that I can understand why some guys would want to have a boy like this.

The sound of the door opening has me looking up into the panicked blue eyes of Toby scanning the room. He heaves a visible sigh of relief at seeing Lucky in the corner, but tenses as soon as his gaze lands on me.

You’d think I would be used to it by now, but the rejection from this boy hurts like nothing I’ve ever felt before.

21

TOBY

For weeks, I’ve been avoiding the hot coffee shop guy, sending Lucky in for the necessary caffeine. And I need the caffeine to be able to concentrate in class. I can’t afford to repeat any classes if I want to graduate on time, and without taking out more loans. One of the conditions of my scholarship is maintaining at least a 3.0 average. I came dangerously close to fucking that up last semester with everything that was going on at the house with Eric.

It's not that I was distracted, but I wanted to help. I feel so useless all of the time. Even though I’m the one in culinary school, Scott does all the cooking and he’s so much better at it than I am… not that anyone in the house knows I’m taking classes in the evening. They all think I have a part time job to help pay for school. I haven’t told them yet that my dad has paid for everything for me.

Well, he at least gave me the money I needed to liveoff for a few years. I was dumb for spending what I did on my pup gear, but I wanted it, and it was so hard to say no to Eric. He even offered to buy it for me, but I didn’t know at the time that he was a bazillionaire. I couldn’t let him hurt himself financially for something as pointless as pup gear, so I bought it, thinking I could return in as soon as it was received… only to find out that pup gear is categorized as fetish items which are non-refundable — only able to be returned for a replacement due to defects.

I don’t regret being able to fully sink into pupspace at the DC, but the cost of the gear forced me to look into student loans, which I can’t even get. Mother has too much money, and Dad makes slightly too much for me to be able to qualify for any type of aid. This whole needing to be twenty three to be considered financially independent bullshit is really just another way that the government wants to keep the wealthy people ahead.

You are part of the wealthy, you dumbass pup!

Shaking my head to clear out the self recrimination, I have to actively stop myself from arguing withmyselfin my own brain. Comfortable isn’t wealthy. I mean, yeah, I never had to worry about food, and every year we went on vacation, but it’s not like we had a mansion or anything. I went to public school like everyone else…

Shiloh wasn’t comfortable.

Pushing off the wall I was leaning against, I trudge off to the coffee shop. Matt dropped me and Lucky off here, but took Shiloh over to the security office to take care of his restraining order situation. I didn’t reallynotice earlier, but Lucky was a bit too close to little space this morning since Spencer seems to have caught whatever bug he had a few weeks ago.

Glancing at my watch, I can see that I only have about fifteen minutes to get across campus to get to my administrative basics course. I might not need this particular course to graduate – it is one of five options for an admin course in my major – but I can’t financially afford another semester or even another course.

Racing inside the coffee shop, I don’t see Lucky. Did he need the bathroom? I let my eyes do a sweep of the room and they land on the back of my roommate as he’s hunched over a table, focused on something in front of him… Is he coloring?!

Fuck!

Daddy Spence is gonna kill me for leaving him alone to the point he entered little space in public without anyone around to guard him.

Movement at the table makes me finally notice the one person on this campus I do NOT want to be seeing at this point in time. Well, maybe not theonlyperson, but close enough. Hot coffee shop owner dude is so not on my bingo card for today.

“Toby, right?” he says as he stands up from where he was talking with Lucky. “Why don’t you join us? Unless you have to rush to class…”

Oh, sweet baby Jesus, I could listen to him talk all day every day.

Wait! Class!

Fuck!

“I need to get to class,” I mumble as I grab the to go cup with my name off the table and race for the door. “I’ll pick up Lucky after to get him to his classes. Don’t tell Daddy Spence, okay?”

Shit! I didn’t mean to say that last part as I trip over nothing going out the door. Doing some weird hop skip thing that my body does, I manage to not faceplant on the concrete and race off to my boring ass admin class.

Way to make a fool of yourself in front of the hot coffee shop owner dude, Tobias. Oh well, at least I can help push him toward Shiloh. He needs a handler who can do the soft touches, and based on how he was reacting to Lucky, this guy might be the real deal.

I just hope I can make it to graduation before I lose my best friend to love. Maybe Scottie will be willing to play with a pup sometimes once Shy has his person?

22

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