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slight a wind would take him away, and he wasn’t exactly cute, all severe hair and pale skin. There was something about the way his eyes bored into Giles, though, writing all kinds of checks and inviting Giles to cash them. Before Giles could engage, the twink’s mother turned around to face her son, and the guy shut down so fast Giles blinked.
    Ah. Not out to Mom and Dad. Find you later, Giles promised him with a wink.
    He’d just had his first college flirt, and nobody was going to jump him for it or call him fag. Nobody thought he was a man-whore or a saint—or anything. No one here knew who Giles was.
    A dark head moved in the crowd, and when Giles caught a glimpse of the face, he paused.
    God, but that looked like…
    Without meaning to, he followed the guy through the crush. When he caught another glimpse, his world tilted sideways.
    No. Way.
    Giles had to have imagined what he’d thought he’d seen, because there was no way… Not him . Not here . But when the crowd parted, he got a clear line of sight, and he swayed on his feet.
    Aaron Seavers.
    Mina forgotten, Giles fought his way through the crowd. He kept telling himself he had to be wrong, but he remembered that face. He remembered that face screwed up in ecstasy, in fact.
    Remembered it shuttering and turning away.
    How could Aaron be here? Why would Aaron be here?
    In his pocket, his phone buzzed, and Giles stopped his pursuit long enough to peek at the incoming text from Mina. Where r u?
    Giles thumbed a reply before resuming his chase across the foyer. He could still see Aaron’s dark head in the crush. He had no idea what he was going to do if he caught up with Aaron, but he had to follow. He felt off-kilter and slightly underwater.
    The dark head shifted. Aaron Seavers stared back at Giles.
    It was as if Oak Grove had tossed out some kind of grappling hook, and with that one glance from Aaron, the barbs found their way back in. There it was, the old, familiar gaze. The one that said, We’ve made out, and now I’m freaked. The glance that always, always came before the name-calling and terrorizing, the demonizing of Giles, the Great Tempter. The look that should have stayed behind in Oak Grove yet managed to follow him here.
    Giles could see his future unfolding—Aaron telling his friends about Giles, turning them on him, roping them into their taunts and games. A-Hell all over again.
    Mina was right after all, high school and college would be the same. No escape, no way out.
    No. No fucking way.
    Giles glared at Aaron, giving no quarter.
    This is my school. This is my escape, and you aren’t ruining it. Go back to your closet and hide, fucker, because I have no more patience for shame-and-blames.
    With everything he had in him, Giles telegraphed his fury and indignation—and weirdly, for half a second he thought Aaron seemed hurt. Then that pretty face shuttered back to the mask Giles had known so well in high school. Aaron turned away.
    Giles hunted for Mina, but he couldn’t push Aaron out of his thoughts. The guy was an infection in his mind, erasing Giles’s beautiful bubble of possibility and reminding him the world, by and large, sucked. When Mina found him, she frowned.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œNothing.” Giles forced a smile. “We’re at college. New leaf. New start. Nothing’s going to hold me back.” He nodded at Brian, who waved at them. “Let’s go get our seats.”
    Nothing’s going to hold me back, he repeated to himself as he settled into his seat, his gaze falling on Aaron a few rows over. Nothing and nobody. No matter what.

Chapter Five
    Aaron really hoped nobody said anything important in orientation because he didn’t hear a single word of it.
    It hurt so much to have Giles reject him. They’d only made out the once—and as Walter kept saying, this was a gamble. It did hurt, though, so much Aaron couldn’t