Freak (Troyler AU)

Chapter Twelve

*Tyler's POV*

The room was silent after Troye stormed off, the only sound the annoying dripping of the stupid tap he hadn't shut off fully. I didn't even know what to think, what to feel. I just continued standing their dumbstruck until a loud bell rang out, succeeding in breaking me from my stupor. I restlessly ran a hand through my hair, walking over to the mirrors. I looked horrible. So much for my whole 'getting up early to look better for Troye' plan. Maybe next I should try the 'stop being a fucking idiot and beating up people you don't even know' plan to impress him. A strangled whimper left my lips suddenly, and I scrunched my nose up. I could not cry right now, not at school. I think I liked the dazed state better, personally.

How stupid could I be? Of course Caspar would try to set something up like that! He was always in my business, trying to manipulate my reputation to exactly what he wanted his to be. I have no idea if he did it just to make me mad or because he was jealous and trying to live his 'dream' through me. Whatever it was, this was taking it too far. I mean, I'm sure people just assumed I was homophobic before, being the jock at WBHS kind of implied that much. This was different though. People genuinely thought I beat that kid up solely because he was gay. That was something I would never do, not even if it meant holding my reputation. The only reason I laid a hand on him was because he said something negative about my mother. Well, then again, he technically didn't even admit to that. I jumped to conclusion and acted like a dick, Troye had every right to be mad at me. Still, I really hoped he'd forgive me. I'd never forgive myself if I ruined any chances of a friendship between us by something like this, all because I couldn't be bothered to ask questions before throwing punches.

I had to make it up to him.

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If you asked me how I spent my next couple classes I probably wouldn't be able to tell you. I was shaping up to be a wonderful student so far this year, between skipping a class yesterday and not paying attention in any of them today. It was just review stuff though, I'd have absolutely no trouble catching up. The second the bell for lunch rang I'd jumped out of my seat, practically jogging to the cafeteria. I cut in line, naturally, not in the mood for wait around for food right now. Nobody argued with it, though of course they still shot me dirty glares. I didn't care. All I cared about was the huge greasy pizza slice screaming my name. 

A few of my friends were already at the table, which made me wonder considering I'd sped here as fast as possible. Did they cut the end of class just to get good seats or something? Meh, I wouldn't put it above them. They were pretty weird about stuff like that. I just took my designated seat, the one in the middle of the table. Personally I'd rather sit at the end so I didn't have people surrounding me on every single side, but I guess that just wasn't the custom in popular kid world. I eagerly flew into the pizza, starving for both some food and something to distract me from myself. 

My thoughts hadn't left the whole homophobe situation all day. I'd purposely been avoiding everyone between classes and during morning break, mostly because I wanted to avoid running into Caspar, talking about Caspar, or even associating with people that associated with Caspar. My initial anger at him had only grown since earlier and I really had no idea how I was going to react when I seen him next. I wanted to punch his face in and make him grovel for mercy, but at the same time I knew I'd never do that. Damn having a heart, it never seemed to get you very far. I just hoped I'd be able to say something, anything, to at least alert him what he'd done was not okay. 

But when he approached the table, flocked by his usual goons on either side, I couldn't swallow the lump in my throat. He didn't even address me, sitting down casually on the other side of Marcus and immediately striking up a conversation with one of his goons, the Harries twins. They weren't always the people he had follow him everywhere, that switched on a day-to-day basis. But it was very rare to find him alone in the halls, that was for sure. Oh well, I guess I'd talked to him about it some other time, why'd it have to be right now anyway?