Sweet Little Birds (BxB Romance, Completed)

Chapter 1: Sugar Rush

"I am," he muttered. "But I still don't understand why you made me sign up for this."

"It will look good on your resume that you've been tutoring a poor disabled kid," his mother countered. "And I'd much rather have you do this than all the other stuff I hear college kids get into. Partying, drinking... other vile stuff. There's so much... trouble out there."

Trouble. The unspoken code between them for boys like Tristan Conway, the captain of Robin's quiz bowl team in high school. With thick curly hair and dark doe eyes, he'd made Robin's insides feel like he was on a roller coaster—or at least how he imagined one would feel, as his mother had never allowed him to partake in such thrills—every time their eyes met. Which they did often because Robin soon got addicted to the hair-raising feeling of falling.  His mother must have noticed. Of course, she had. Liza Erie noticed everything. And she'd pulled him out of the quiz bowl team immediately.

Robin had kept away from trouble ever since. It was easier that way. It wasn't like he had any idea of how to act on his confusing emotions anyway, and he certainly couldn't see anyone returning his affections. Because who would want a skinny guy with lacking social skills dressed in clothes his mother bought him?

"But surely this poor crippled boy won't be trouble," his mother concluded. "Were you told anything about him?"

"Just that he was in some kind of accident last semester." It was what the counseling office had told Robin, anyway. "Which is why he missed a lot of classes and needs someone to help him catch up."

His mother sighed at the lack of intel. "Just tell me everything afterward, Robin."

"I will," he promised.

He probably wouldn't. Robin had long ago mastered the art of only telling his mother what she needed to know. "I need to go now, Mom. I'm at the counseling office. I'll talk to you later."

Before his mother could protest, Robin hung up on her. He needed to gather courage for what was to come.

He'd stopped right outside the door to the office. Walking through doors was always a scary prospect to Robin because you never knew what awaited on the other side or how you were expected to react.

A deep breath. Then he pushed the door inward.

"Are you my tutor?" Robin turned to locate the voice and found himself peering into green eyes.

Green like leaves in spring. Green like crisp apples. Green like freedom.

"I-I'm..." Robin stuttered, lost for words–a condition that wasn't uncommon for him. "I think I am..."

The words weren't very eloquent, but at least he got them out.

"Good." The boy with the green eyes smiled widely and blew a few blond ringlets away from his face before he lifted his right hand from his crutches—which Robin hadn't even noticed until then—and offered it to Robin. "I'm Tyler Caster. You can call me Ty."

"I'm..." What was his name again? Anxiousness and pretty green eyes had wiped the information from Robin's brain. He looked down to center himself. Tyler had given him a nickname, did he have a nickname too? "...Robby," Robin said, even though no one in his life had ever called him that. He took the outstretched hand in a brief greeting.

"I guess you're supposed to tutor me. Not that I need it..." Tyler sighed and looked down as he once again grabbed the crutch handle. "I can study perfectly well by myself. Well, at least just as well—or not well rather—as I could before this... whole situation."

A hand gestured vaguely toward his leg. That's when Robin discovered the reason for the crutches. The fabric of Tyler's jeans was tucked just under his left knee, secured with a safety pin to prevent the pants from dragging on the floor. The lower part of his leg was missing.