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fell. The fact that Scotty said nothing about more than one night told Adrian all he needed to know. He cleared his throat. “Okay. Well. It was nice to meet you, Scotty. I’ll, uh. I’ll see you around. I suppose.”
“Yeah. See you around.”
With nothing more to say, Adrian turned and made his way through the crowded room to the hallway leading to the front of the house, his half-empty cup still clutched in his hand. Every square foot of space seemed to be occupied by couples making out or groups of people discussing some subject or other. Adrian had to stop every couple of minutes to greet a person he’d met earlier or talk to someone he knew from one of his classes.
By the time he stumbled out the front door into the October night nearly twenty minutes later, he felt wrung out and tense as a bowstring. How did the popular people stand this constant pressure to be pleasant, polite and personable? It was exhausting. It didn’t help that someone had put on the latest rave music and turned it up so loud Adrian was hoarse from trying to talk over it. The only good part was, the adventure of getting out of the house had taken his mind off Greg long enough for his cock to deflate.
Draining the last of his drink, he tossed the red plastic cup into an overflowing trashcan and descended the steps onto the sidewalk. He started walking without much thought to his destination. He didn’t care where he went as long as there were no other people there. What the hell had he been thinking? He should’ve known he would manage to feel uncomfortable even surrounded by a bunch of physics majors and assorted other scientific types.
He knew why. After all, how many people could say they’d accidentally opened an interdimensional portal with their mind at age eleven, nearly causing the deaths of everyone they loved? The horror and guilt of it had shaped him more than any experience before or since.
He aimed a savage kick at a particularly large chestnut in his path. It made him angry sometimes to think he’d spent so much time and energy keeping everyone around him safe from his abilities that he no longer had any idea how to connect to other human beings. Still, he wasn’t sure he would change anything even if he could. He’d done what he had to in order to protect his family, himself and everyone around him from a very real threat. He didn’t regret it, despite the damage to his personal life. A little hard work and the right partner could overcome that.
Right?
Lost in thought, he almost passed right by the Forest Theatre before the raised voices from inside registered. He stopped. It was none of his business, but a thread of fear laced through the anger in one of the voices. There was no harm in hanging around for a moment just to make sure everything was all right.
Moving as quietly as he could, Adrian retraced his steps until he reached the top of the wide, shallow stone steps leading to the stone archway that marked the entrance into the open-air theater. The voices were much louder here, angry words echoing off the surrounding rock. The thin sliver of new moon overhead lent minimal illumination to the scene, but Adrian could just make out two male figures standing face-toface in the flagstone courtyard beyond the arch. One figure waved his arms in the air as he spoke, the sound of his frustration rising and falling in the night air.
Adrian frowned. The man’s voice sounded vaguely familiar. Using the trees as cover, Adrian sidled as close as he dared. Did he know this person?
The other man growled out something with a distinctly threatening tone. The familiar man turned and walked away, striding toward the steps. “Leave me alone,” he called over his shoulder. “If you ever contact me again, I’m taking out a restraining order.”
This time, Adrian knew exactly who it was, and his stomach dropped into his feet. He scrambled to hide behind a tree. Getting caught was the last thing he wanted. Before he could move, though,