Sweet Little Birds (BxB Romance, Completed)

Chapter 5: Half a Dozen Donuts

He pulled the pamphlet out, before hiding the colorful bag under his bed. He didn't want anyone to walk in and see it. But the informational guide seemed like a good place to start making sense of everything. Perhaps it would give him answers.

Rainbows and happiness. Smiles and pride. Girls kissing girls and boys kissing boys.

Each page made Robin long to belong. To be a part. To be someone else. To be himself.

He'd never really thought of himself in this context before. He'd never put a label on himself. He was just Robin. Awkward and weird. Most comfortable around the girl he called his best friend and often tongue-tied in the presence of cute boys.

Perhaps the mere fact that he considered boys cute should've been a clue. But the attraction was so natural for Robin that he hadn't realized it was not something all guys felt.

Had Tyler flirted with Robin? How would he know? Should he flirt back? How would he even do that? What would it lead to if he did? Did he want whatever that was?

Those were only a fraction of the questions running through his head. Thoughts whirled at lightspeed and collided like the shopping carts on the show that still blared on the TV, creating a scattered sticky mess in their wake.

Round and round they went, the same thoughts time after time. And always the same answer to that first question. An answer that didn't make sense.

Because the answer he landed on was yes. Tyler had flirted with Robin.

The problem with that answer was all the other questions it led to. If the answer was no everything would have been so much easier.

But yet, Robin didn't want the answer to be no. And that made everything even more complicated. That's when he needed the pamphlet to guide him. Because he needed a roadmap for how to act on that answer.

A knock on the door interrupted Robin's tangled yarn of thoughts. He almost fell off the bed as the sound startled him. He threw the pamphlet on the floor in a fit of panic.

"Robin, are you in there?" Des' voice carried through the flimsy door.

"I'm here," he replied. "You can come in..."

Robin realized that he hadn't even locked the door when he entered after the tutoring session. He'd been in such a hurry to get out of the public eye with the rainbow bag in his hand.

Des strolled inside. A yellow sundress, with frills and lemon-shaped buttons, lit up the room. She looked like summer, sunshine, and tangy sweetness.

Why wasn't Robin in love with her? It was an enigma connected to his current internal turmoil. Considering how much they hung out as kids, it had almost been expected of him that he would be. But he wasn't, and he think he knew why now.

"Your mom called me," she said, an unamused expression on her face. Conversations with Liza Erie tended to cause that reaction. "She says you're not taking her calls."

Des walked toward the bed but her approach was halted as she spotted something on the floor. She picked up the pamphlet and handed it to Robin without a word.

Her gaze told Robin that she knew why it was there. But he wasn't ready to tell her. Because he wasn't sure exactly what to tell her. He needed to figure out the path on his own first.

"What did you tell her?" Robin asked, tucking the pamphlet discreetly under his thigh.

"That you were chosen for a special seminar for gifted students."Des plopped down next to Robin on the bed. "I figured you needed a break from Liza and that seemed like something she would approve of. So remember that when you do talk to her."